Merryn Talks Money

Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek are joined by Hargreaves Lansdown’s Anna Macdonald to unpack the UK Budget, from fiscal drag and tax complexity to what it means for investors and small businesses. Plus, they ask whether the market's drastic reaction to a mild disappointment from Alphabet is a sign that AI exuberance is nearing an end. Clarifying note: In this episode Merryn said if the 40% tax threshold had gone up with inflation, it would closer to 100k than 50k. She meant if the threshold had gone in the same ratio as minimum wage. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No investor can know exactly what markets will do next. So instead of trying to predict the next winner, the goal is to build a portfolio that can hold up across a range of scenarios — one that reflects your appetite for risk, your financial goals and how long you have to invest. In the third and final episode of the series, Merryn Somerset Webb, John Stepek and Bloomberg experts break down the building blocks of a diversified portfolio and explore how different assets perform as economic conditions change. They explain how to combine those assets and where diversification can fall short. Because investing isn't about knowing what comes next. It's about building a portfolio resilient enough for an uncertain future. Like this podcast? Get The Portfolio Reset newsletter to make your money work harder in changing markets. bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/portfolio-reset See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Merryn Talks Money , Merryn Somerset Webb and Steve Hou, head of research at Silicon Data, delve into an emerging issue in the economics of artificial intelligence: token prices are falling while the cost of compute needed to produce them is rising. They discuss what this mismatch could mean for the valuations of companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, whether demand can justify the enormous sums being invested in AI infrastructure and what happens when everyone has armies of AI agents working on our behalf. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are we heading for another eurozone panic? This week, John Stepek and Bloomberg’s Sam Unsted discuss why political uncertainty in France is pushing up the country's borrowing costs, why the UK has (perhaps surprisingly) managed to avoid similar pressure, and where the first signs of strain are emerging in the AI boom. They also explore what slowing AI investment could mean for the investors, governments and industries banking on its growth. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Passive investing was designed to track the market, not shape it. But as Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek explore in the second episode of The Portfolio Reset , the enormous growth of passive investing has changed the market it was built to follow, just as some of the world’s most valuable companies are staying private for longer. Using SpaceX as an example, they examine the changing relationship between public and private markets and why no investment is truly passive — someone is always making a decision somewhere in the process. As passive flows grow powerful enough to move markets, Merryn and John explain why investors should make sure they’re making active decisions in pursuit of their own financial goals, rather than leaving those decisions in the hands of strangers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After years of being overshadowed by US megacaps and the artificial intelligence boom, could smaller companies finally be ready for a comeback? Merryn Somerset Webb speaks with Downing fund manager Simon Evan-Cook and Odyssean Capital’s Stuart Widdowson about why small caps remain unusually cheap, what could bring investors back — and whether small-cap value could become the ultimate anti-AI trade. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are we seeing signs of investors starting to lose their nerve over artificial intelligence? On this week's markets wrap, Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek discuss the cracks appearing in the AI boom, as well as why UK house prices could rebound faster than expected, and how changes to inheritance tax may help fuel demand. Plus, with the Budget approaching, they ask whether the best thing the government could do is simply leave well enough alone. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For today’s investor, making money in markets may seem straightforward: put your money into a passive fund that tracks US stocks. It’s been a winning strategy for so long that it feels like the obvious choice. Yet as Merryn Somerset Webb, John Stepek and their expert guests discuss over the course of this four-part series, past performance is no guarantee of future returns, with major implications for how investors build their portfolios. In the first episode, they examine how passive investing went from a niche strategy to the default for many people, channeling ever more capital into US stocks and the tech giants that dominate the market. Passive investing is still an investment decision, after all — one that leaves many investors with far more concentration risk than they realize. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adam Rozencwajg, portfolio manager at natural resources firm Goehring and Rozencwajg, joins Merryn Somerset Webb to explain why he thinks the commodity bull market may still be in its early stages. They discuss why gold could fall before reaching new highs, why US shale may have peaked and where he sees opportunities in oil and uranium. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are European bond markets signaling disaster? This week, John Stepek and Bloomberg's David Goodman explore how the rising gap between bond yields in France and Germany mirrors the eurozone debt crisis, why governments are struggling to deal with the return to more "normal" interest rates, and why Conservative proposals for inheritance tax might clog up the housing market even further. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Stepek, senior reporter and author of the Money Distilled newsletter, is joined by Anthony Emmerson, director at London-based mortgage broker Trinity Financial to discuss rising mortgage rates and borrowers facing a jump in repayments, they explain what homeowners can do to soften the blow — from locking in a new deal early to extending their mortgage term or considering a tracker. They also look at opportunities for first-time buyers, falling flat prices and what the government’s proposed Help to Buy scheme could mean for the housing market. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Merryn Somerset Webb speaks with Alex Edmans, author of The Madness of Markets: Why Smart Investors Make Crazy Decisions – And How to Exploit Them , about why even sophisticated investors struggle to overcome the psychological biases that shape their decisions. Markets are driven by humans, and humans are emotional. Edmans explains how understanding the influence of emotion, herd behavior and over-confidence can help investors make better decisions — and potentially achieve better returns. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fresh off the party conference, the Labour government is promising pension reform, a new approach to social care and yet another scheme to help first-time buyers. Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek ask whether the sums add up, what the bond market is making of it all — and why the latest Help to Buy plan could leave some buyers worse off. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek answer some of your questions. They explore the differences between holding physical gold and investing through an ETF, whether or not buying shares actually benefits the company you've invested in, and how best to adjust your retirement investment strategy as you draw closer to the big day. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Merryn Somerset Webb speaks with Blue Whale Growth Fund Chief Investment Officer Stephen Yiu about what could derail the artificial intelligence boom — and where investors might look if it does. They discuss whether today’s enthusiasm is masking an earnings bubble, how investors can diversify beyond AI and which emerging technologies and geopolitical risks could reshape the market next. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Merryn and John discuss worrying signals from the stock market, the physical constraints facing the AI boom, China’s growing appetite for gold and an unexpected consequence of the data-center buildout. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the UK's buy-to-let marks its 30th anniversary, we still find ourselves asking: is it worth it? This week, Merryn Somerset Webb and Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, discuss how it went from accessible investment strategy to heavily taxed and regulated. They explore multiple factors that changed the market and what it now takes to make buy-to-let worthwhile. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Merryn Somerset Webb speaks with Daniel Susskind, senior research associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford and a member of the UK government’s expert panel on AI and the future of work. AI is expected to transform the job market, potentially upending many of the traditional educational pathways that have long led students into established professions. As those routes begin to look increasingly uncertain, how should young people prepare for the world of work that awaits them? In his book, What Should My Children Do? , Susskind seeks to answer that question, offering a framework for how children — and adults — can best prepare for an evolving labor market with AI at its center. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s interest-rate week, with central banks around the world making key decisions. Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek discuss what rising rates mean for markets, government debt and your money — and why financial repression and currency devaluation could be coming back into focus. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Merryn Somerset Webb sits down with Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at AJ Bell, to discuss how gifting surplus income can help reduce your inheritance tax bill ahead of changes to the IHT treatment of pensions in April 2027. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.