Welcome to Macro Voices

Erik Townsend and Aaron Chan introduce the Accredited Investor Academy Series, Part I. We’re taking this week off from our regular show format, so instead of a featured interview guest, we’re airing the first of a four-part series about learning to be a sophisticated private investor.

Erik and Aaron discuss:

• Erik's personal journey from successful software entrepreneur to hedge fund manager
• What it means to be an accredited investor and the associated challenges that go along with the distinction
• Private banking and possible red flags
• Erik's personal experience with private bankers and "exclusive" investment deals
• The lessons learned from the implosion of this "exclusive" private banking deal that resulted in substantial loss of capital
• Erik's subsequent reinvention into a professional investor
• The challenges associated with transfering from software business culture to Wall Street
• Coming in Part II: The process of re-inventing oneself from Entrepreneur to sophisticated Private Investor
• Coming in Parts III and IV: Angel investing, Venture Capital, Private Equity LPs, & Hedge Funds

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A conversation on January 26, 2016 between Grant Williams and James Grant, author of Grant's Interest Rate Observer.

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Erik Townsend welcomes Grant Williams to MacroVoices. Erik and Grant discuss:

• Grant’s experience and insights from observing Brexit outside of the UK
• The next-steps and long-run view for the UK post-Brexit
• The potential of the EU making an example out of the UK to prevent other countries from leaving
• The current political void in British politics and who might step-up to fill this void
• The precarious state of the European banking system
• Deutsche Bank’s status as “Too Big to Fail”
• How Brexit will spread political contagion and stoke calls for referenda in other European countries
• The likelihood of the Fed having to ease with only 25 bps of room
• What the dollar and gold both moving higher portends for the state of the global economy
• The non-zero probability of war as a means of resolving unsurmountable debt burdens
• Possible war scenarios under Trump or Clinton
• Grant’s wonderfully-done “Crazy” presentation on RVTV

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Erik Townsend welcomes Steve Keen to MacroVoices. Erik and Professor Keen discuss:

• Brexit's economic consequences and possible political spillover into other European countries
• Ditching the ivory tower in favor of working with entrepreneurs
• The emergence of alternative currencies backed by labor and assets
• The possibility of an energy-backed currency
• The fundamental ingredient of trust in alternative currencies
• The risk of entrusting private enterprise with money creation
• Negative interest rates and fractional reserve banking
• Fading mainstream confidence in neoclassical central bankers
• Possible catalysts for the next financial crisis

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A conversation on May 23, 2016 between Grant Williams and Simon Mikhailovich, Co-Founder of Toqueville Bullion Reserve.

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Erik Townsend welcomes John Llewellyn to MacroVoices. Erik and John discuss:

• How the Brexit vote is simply a prelude to a highly uncertain process
• Polling accuracy and the distinct possibility of Britain exiting the EU
• The near-term economic impacts of Brexit on the British economy including lower foreign-direct investment and trade re-negotiations
• The broader global economic impact of a “leave” vote
• Brexit’s impact on the U.S. Dollar and the possibility of re-igniting a Asian debt crisis
• Potential monetary policy accommodation from the ECB
• The implications of Brexit on global oil prices
• Rise of European populism as a leading indicator of the U.S. political theatre

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Erik Townsend welcomes Dr. Ben Hunt to MacroVoices. Erik and Dr. Hunt discuss:

• The U.S. Dollar as a reflection of the strategic interactions between central banks
• China’s similarities to pre-WW1 Germany as an up-and-coming power
• Brexit’s potential impact on the global economy
• “Humpty Dumpty” events for the global economy including China devaluation and Euro-system fracturing
• Price-signal inversion and market dislocation from fundamentals
• The Fed’s slow realization of global interdependence
• Negative interest rate money-market funds in the United States
• How Swiss safe deposit boxes are at capacity and the war on cash
• Gold’s role as insurance against central bankers
• Kyle Bass’ China trade and whether you can trade Japan’s demographics
• The potential consequences of the U.S. Presidential elections and global trade
• Dr. Hunt’s background as a hedge fund manager and scholar
• The inception of his popular Epsilon Theory Blog and applying game-theory to policy-driven markets

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Hugh Hendry is interviewed by Raoul Pal for Real Vision Television on March 11th, 2016

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Erik Townsend welcomes Art Berman to MacroVoices. Erik and Art discuss:

• Their calls made on Episode 3 of MacroVoices in February
• Which fundamental factors have changed since then
• The damage done to the supply of capital available to shale drillers in spite of oil rising to $50
• Current US production levels and where they may be headed from here
• Prices moving up in the face of dangerously high inventory levels at Cushing, OK
• Using Comparitive Inventories to predict price movements
• The 'funny' accounting practiced by shale drilling companies and many analysts
• EIA price forecasts and whether or not they are accurate
• Geopolitically driven supply disruptions and whether or not they will last
• Middle Eastern oil production increases and alongside a shifting political picture
• The possibility of a future where the world can't afford petroleum, and much more...

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Erik Townsend welcomes Julian Brigden to MacroVoices. Erik and Julian discuss:

• The difference between the DXY and the trade weighted broad Dollar index
• The effect of emerging market fluctuations on the broad Dollar
• Dollar pause or Dollar reversal?
• The return of cyclical inflation in the US
• Chinese capital outflows and the effect on real estate markets
• How the Dollar story will affect precious metals
• Emerging market equites
• A lack of real cooperation between central banks
• Global sovereign debt markets and what they are signaling about inflation
• How a perfect storm of Dollar strength and a return of inflation will take away the central bank "put"
• ...and bunches upon bunches more...

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