Jens Grede, co-founder and chief executive of Kim Kardashian’s new underwear label Skims says he finds inspiration in the creation story behind Nike’s Air Jordans. The cross-generational line of basketball shoes started in the 80s remains a part of global culture, and Grede says he aims to do the same with the celebrity influencer and her new brand.  He joins this week’s In the City with host David Merritt and reporter Katie Linsell to discuss the brand’s identity and expansion plans. Next year, Skims will open stores in New York and Los Angeles. But it also has an aggressive, global expansion plan that starts in the UK. Grede says London is “the best way to market to the rest of the world: It’s the natural entry point for an American consumer brand before it expands into Europe or the Middle East.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Twelve years on, and four years after Jeffrey Epstein’s death in a Manhattan jail by suicide, the details of how former Barclays Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley and the convicted sex offender formed a mutually beneficial bond are only now becoming clear. This comes as Staley faces a lawsuit by JPMorgan and a British regulatory probe. The litigation has unearthed a trove of documents that reveal the extent of the relationship. Reporters Harry Wilson, Jonathan Browning and Ava Benny-Morrison reviewed thousands of pages of documents and emails, as well as conducted interviews with people with knowledge of the events, to construct a detailed timeline of the relationship. They join this week’s In the City to discuss the reporting process and their findings. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adam Posen isn’t ruling out the Bank of England pushing UK interest rates as high as 7%.The president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, Posen says the 6.25% rate investors have priced in for the end of 2023 is the level he’s been predicting for the past year. “The fact that the inflation is proving more persistent,” he says, just means “they’ll have to go higher.”Joining David Merritt and Francine Lacqua on this week’s In the City, Posen says that—both in terms of policy and communication—the Bank of England got it wrong repeatedly throughout 2022 and into 2023. He also gives his take on the UK mortgage market meltdown—which he says doesn’t warrant a bailout. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Britain’s National Health Service turns 75 years-old this week. But as reporter Suzi Ring and editor Andre Tartar explain in the latest episode of In the City, rather than being a cause for celebration, the NHS anniversary comes at a critical, maybe even dire moment for the service. Ring and Tartar unpack Bloomberg’s first-of-its-kind analysis of NHS data for eight indicators—including ambulance waiting times, cancer treatment times, overnight hospital bed availability and wait times for diagnostic tests. The study underscores how deep the problems run at the publicly-funded health service—and how difficult they may be to fix.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The biggest threat to Vladimir Putin’s grip on Russia in his almost quarter-century of rule has huge implications for the oil market. But dissecting the precise impact of last weekend’s mercenary mutiny is difficult, according to Bloomberg Opinion columnist Javier Blas. On this week’s In the City, Blas explains the bearish case and the bullish case. He also on his conversations with the central banking community in Sintra, Portugal at the ECB Forum. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The job of chief executive is more demanding than it’s ever been. So says Simon Freakley, CEO of international business advisory firm AlixPartners. While they still have to handle the core responsibilities—revenue growth, earnings growth and dividends to shareholders—he says there are more duties now than was the case just a few decades ago. “They need to have a voice about the values of the organization, the purpose of the organization and to comment on important issues of the day,” he says. Freakley joins this week’s In the City with David Merritt and Francine Lacqua to discuss the challenges facing top executives, including managing the ongoing, profound shifts around technology, environmental pressures and supply chains.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When HSBC bought the UK unit of Silicon Valley Bank over one frantic March weekend, the chief executive of the bank’s UK arm at the time, Erin Platts, was surprised. Having spent almost 20 years with SVB, she wasn’t expecting such a swift end for the lender. But afterwards, she found herself surprised by how positive the outcome was for her and her team. She joins this week’s In the City podcast to discuss her outlook for the City’s technology scene as it vies for AI startups. Also in the episode, Merritt speaks with London Mayor Sadiq Khan, and reporter Aisha Gani gives context to the London Week hype. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The AI revolution is fast unfolding all across Wall Street. Even as banks in recent months have laid off thousands of workers and instituted hiring freezes, they nevertheless continue to pour money into artificial intelligence. But what are these financial institutions hoping to get out of their investment? On this week’s episode of In the City, Olson is joined by Alexandra Mousavizadeh, co-founder and chief executive of consultancy Evident. Together, they break down the financial industry’s growing interest in the technology and its likely impact on productivity.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

London’s economy is in trouble. Just ask a taxi driver—or their boss. Liam Griffin is chief executive of Addison Lee, a London-based private hire cab and courier company. On this episode of In the City, he explains how his company’s performance is a reflection of the City’s economic health. Plus, reporter Helen Chandler-Wilde unpacks London's traffic problem. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With In the City hosts David Merritt and Francine Lacqua in Doha for the annual Qatar Economic Forum, this week’s podcast focuses on the growing influence of the Middle East—and whether it will come at the expense of Western financial hubs. Bloomberg reporter Dinesh Nair joins. He says the Middle East is currently the only region that can “call the shots on big transactions.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.