Bubble Trouble: Laying Out Inconvenient Truths About How Business and Financial Markets Really Work
Magnificent Noise x Richard Kramer x Will Page
Bubble Trouble features conversations between economist and author Will Page and independent analyst Richard Kramer that lay out some inconvenient truths about how financial markets really work. Like the “boy who cried wolf,” financial markets have a peculiar tendency to repeat past mistakes and get themselves into “bubble trouble.” They party hard, drink too much of the Kool Aid, and wake up with a pounding hangover...only to do the same thing the next day. With tech dominating daily headlines and teenage traders driving stocks to unprecedented valuations, you might be asking “What’s really going on?” “What am I missing?” Imagine having a set of tour guides to tell you the “story behind the story” of the world’s largest tech companies, and how they bend - or break - the rules of economics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Mentioned books
May 1, 2023 • 32min
History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes: With guest Kurt Andersen
Joining us this week is writer Kurt Andersen discussing his books Fantasyland and Evil Geniuses. (Repeat from March, 2022). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 24, 2023 • 37min
Designing for AI with Professor Chris Speed
We continue our exploration into the dinner party topic of converation on everyone’s lips: AI with the first of many very special guests on the topic, Professor Chris Speed. This week, we take a design lens to the problems (and the solutions) that AI presents us with. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 17, 2023 • 34min
Buy. Borrow. Die.
Today, we're treading deep in some chicken sh*t with Propublica investigative journalist Jesse Eisenger. (repeat from May, 2023) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 11, 2023 • 43min
ChatGPT Enters the Echo Chamber
This week, we dig into some of the hype around AI, with the announcement from financial markets data provider powerhouse Bloomberg’s BloombergGPT, a 50-billion parameter large language model, purpose-built from scratch for finance. Is this the needle mover AI has been waiting for? We’re bubbling on the use cases: sentiment analyst, news story summaries, bespoke research. What does this mean for our pen pals - the sycophants and stenographers in that echo chamber of Wall Street? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 4, 2023 • 31min
Just The Ticket
This week: concert tickets. Recently The Cure announced a series of shows in the US where the band wanted to keep prices low. But when fans bought low priced tickets, the end price was much higher than they expected. What gets paid for in the ticket and who gets paid for what? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 27, 2023 • 51min
Big Brother Bubbles with Sir Peter Bazalgette
This week we’re in conversation with a special guest, someone who The Independent argued that he may be “the most influential man in British television.” Sir Peter Bazalegette. The man who brought Big Brother to our screens during his tenure at Endemol, steered the Arts Council England through a period of austerity and was recently chairman of the board of ITV. No one is better placed to make sense of the creative industries and the bubbles they perennially produce. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 20, 2023 • 29min
SVB: Damned by Duration
In recent episodes we’ve been boasting ”if there’s a bubble that burst, we pricked it first” but events at SBV caught us off guard. This bubble burst before our eyes and now the one word on the market's lips is contagion. But we’ve been here before, AND we’ll be here again - banks are being bailed out for their incompetence and central banks are scrambling to respond . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 13, 2023 • 40min
Mobile Bubbles in Barcelona
This week we free-ride off Richard’s travels, meaning he mingled with over 100,000 Telco executives so we didn’t have to. When you gather the population of a small city into a conference venue for a whole week, there’s got to be some bubble trouble brewing amongst the telecom delegates. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 6, 2023 • 30min
Sucking on Subsidies
This week, sucking on subsidies. Government grants, fat contracts, tax credits, state aid, all the cash a company didn't generate on its own. Does it help? Or does it stoke up problems for a future date? (Repeat from October, 2021.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 27, 2023 • 38min
Inflation: The Hope Parade
This week,we’re going to be discussing - read arguing - if the price is right. We’re back to that topic of inflation, where Will has been a self-proclaimed dove over recent months. Well the doves need to fly off as the hawks are coming into land - the hope parade needs a serenade. Prices are up and, in Richard's view, they’re staying up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
