The Penta Podcast Channel

In this episode, Bryan DeAngelis introduces our new show: "What's At Stake: A Penta Podcast." The show will tackle the biggest issues shaping business and public policy, covering some of the same topics as HPS Insights. The first episode of "What's At Stake: A Penta Podcast" is out now!

Today, Alexander Jutkowitz, the Penta Board Chair, and Beth Comstock, Board Member at Penta, and the former Vice Chair of General Electric, join Penta President Matt McDonald on the inaugural episode of What's At Stake: A Penta Podcast. On the show, the group talks about the rising difficulty businesses, especially at the leadership level, are facing in solving the challenges presented by, and managing the risk of, an increasingly engaged group of stakeholders. Additionally, they discuss how  businesses that are thinking about engaging their stakeholders on a regular basis are the ones best prepared to navigate unexpected crises.Matt, Beth, and Alexander explain how this opportunity in the marketplace spurred the idea for Penta. As the world's first comprehensive stakeholder solutions firm, Penta provides data-driven solutions for stakeholder strategy and engagement. Penta will combine analytics and research with deep expertise to deliver actionable insights, "best practice" solutions, and drive measurable impact for our clients. Talking about the importance of both data and advising based on it, the group discusses how Penta will provide unparalleled impact with its intelligence and strategy offerings. Through sophisticated data collection and analysis, Penta Intelligence will deliver clear insights that help make sense of a complicated world. Penta strategy will help clients make sense of the events motivating stakeholders and driving public discourse. Together, these services will help our clients to define, inform, and strengthen decision-making and understanding between businesses and their stakeholders.Read Penta launch press release here. Read Penta's introductory blog post here. Follow Penta on Twitter here.Read more about Matt, Alexander, and Beth here.

On this week's episode of the Macrocast, Tony, John, and Brendan are joined by John Dick of Civic Science and Mark Sobel of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum. The group starts by discussing the increasing divergence between market economic fears and positive U.S. consumer sentiment. The quintet then talks about recent bond market volatility and central banks worldwide hiking rates before ending the episode by touching on historic dollar strength, and how global policymakers should respond. 

On this week's episode of the Macrocast, Jonathan Graffeo, managing director at HPS, joins Brendan and John of Markets Policy Partners. The group starts by debriefing the latest CPI reading and the impact it might have on the Fed's next interest rate decision. They also address the latest issues and developments impacting the global energy market, including the potential impact winter weather might have on the European energy market. John, Brendan, and Jonathan finish the show by talking about how current economic conditions in the U.S. might impact the midterm elections. 

Yesterday, Queen Elizabeth II passed and became the second longest-serving monarch in modern history. In this edition of the Macrocast, Tony, John, and Brendan talk about the political and economic changes that occurred during her 70-year reign. To wrap up the show, the trio dives into Chairman Powell's speech at the CATO institute, the Fed's whatever it takes approach to conquer inflation, and their prediction for next week's CPI data. 

In this edition of the Macrocast, HPS Partner Matt McDonald joins Tony, John, and Brendan to analyze the August jobs report. According to the most recent numbers, unemployment is up, but that's not bad news: As Matt explains, the increase in labor force participation and the addition of over 300,000 jobs bodes well for the economy. Plus the group goes beyond the "quiet quitting" headlines to discuss what the phenomenon really means for workers and their managers. Will workers stagnate without going the extra mile? Or are they simply taking more time for what matters most to them? One thing is for sure: Many workers are still spending more time at home, even as remote work recedes from its pandemic high. To close, the group discusses what workers might be doing with the extra time at home.Read this week's Five Minute Macro report from Markets Policy Partners here.Learn more about career opportunities at HPS, including associate and analyst roles, here.

In this edition of HPS Insights, HPS senior director Rebecca Buck interviews NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent and former MSNBC "Road Warrior" Ali Vitali about her new book, "Electable: Why America Hasn't Put a Woman in the White House . . . Yet." Drawing on her experiences covering the 2020 presidential campaign, Ali discusses the unique hurdles women face in running for the highest office in the land. Ali and Rebecca reflect on how more women running for the presidency has changed the national conversation on historically overlooked issues like child care and paid parental leave. What will it take to finally elect a woman to the presidency? And why hasn't it happened already? Listen to the show to find out.  Order find Ali Vitali's book here.Follow Ali on Twitter here.Read more about Ali here.

On today's Macrocast, HPS' Matt McDonald, John Fagan of Markets Policy Partners, and John Dick of Civic Science recap Fed Chair Jerome Powell's Jackson Hole speech. The group examines Chair Powell's speech from different angles, arguing that a 9 minute speech shows not only that the Fed didn't want to share any new information, but also signals a "grim determination to carry on" with recent policy decisions. Consumer economic sentiment was also a focus of the conversation, as John Dick provided highlights from Civic Science's latest data, discussing the changes to consumer sentiment over the past several weeks. John, John, and Matt also cover the Administration's recent student loan relief plan and the potential economic impacts of this historic move.  Watch Fed Powell's Jackson Hole speech. Read HPS' most recent GDP analysis and HPS and Civic Science's latest economic sentiment analysis.

On today's Macrocast, Tony, John, and Brendan discuss the divergent central bank strategies around the world and what that means for inflation and consumers. They also briefly preview the Jackson Hole Symposium next week. Later in the program, Hamilton Place Strategies' Maura McDonough and Meredith McCleary join the show to discuss quirky economic indicators, such as the Lipstick and Champagne Indexes.

In this week's episode of HPS Insights, Alberto Lopez Valenzuela, Founder and CEO of the reputation intelligence, analysis, and media monitoring company alva, joins HPS Partners Bryan DeAngelis and Matt McDonald for a conversation on alva's technology, the importance of business leaders having access to quality data, and reputation management more broadly. The group chats about how the markets and the current political landscape increasingly require companies to consider the factors that impact their reputations, including social media and the growing lack of trust in institutions.   Drawing from his background in intelligence, Alberto notes that there is a significant demand for quantification of intelligence for businesses. alva's stakeholder intelligence tools, currently five offerings that allow alva to understand, predict, and mediate reputational challenges, emerged from that thesis. alva's tools serve clients by monitoring and analyzing data from all media types to help them better understand and respond to reputational issues. Specifically, alva's approach can help the leadership of a business understand how their company is being portrayed by key stakeholders in order to determine if changes need to be made.The group also talks about how ESG issues have become key for business leaders as businesses and investors have increasingly embraced stakeholder capitalism. alva has developed new models to analyze ESG and is, among other things, looking into how much policymakers and other key stakeholders care about ESG issues. Alberto argues that whether or not ESG is a company's top priority, it should be transparent about its aims, its goals, and what it wants its impact to be.Learn more about Alberto and alva's work, and get a copy of Alberto's book here.