Top Podcasts of the Week

Below is our “Top Podcast” episode with our curator, Colby Donovan!

Today we have a must-listen on investing in frontier markets, legendary short-seller Jim Chanos on why we are living in the golden age of fraud, and Jim Grant with a takedown of the Fed.

Investing

  • The Meb Faber Show: Episode #266 — The Best Idea Show — Kiyan Zandiyeh, Sturgeon Capital — We Have A Blank Canvas To Potentially Create What The Technology Ecosystem Of That Country Will Look Like Over The Next 5–10 Years. Zandiyeh is the Chief Investment Officer for Sturgeon Capital, a leading frontier markets investment boutique focused on technology-enabled businesses. In this episode, he does a deep dive on frontier market investing. He defines frontier markets, explains what areas interest him the most at the moment (Uzbekistan & Kazakhstan), and why he chose to focus on private firms utilizing technology in the ecommerce & enterprise SaaS space. He finishes with the appetite he’s seeing from investors in the space and what the effect of COVID has been. [November 18, 2020–52 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

  • Hidden Forces: The Long (and Short) of it: A Cynic’s Take on Markets & Investing | Jim Chanos. Chanos is the founder of Kynikos Associates and is one of the best known short sellers. He gives an overview of short-selling and how it fits within certain portfolios. He also talks about what it’s been like to be a short-seller during this bull market and while interest rates declined from 14% to 0%. They also discuss the current investing landscape and why he thinks this is the golden age for fraud due to the lack of prosecution and amount of excess in the system. The episode ends with what impact he thinks a Biden administration will have on financial fraud and his thoughts on Tesla, Uber, & Bitcoin. [November 19, 2020–56 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

Do you know the first company that the SEC went after for misuse of pro-forma accounting? Donald J. Trump Hotels & Resorts in 1999.

  • Thoughts on the Market: Special Episode: 2021 Global Outlook. This podcast is by Citi Bank and is a great, quick look ahead to 2021 and beyond. They explain why they expect more economic growth next year than the street forecasts, which leads them to expect more capex and private consumption, all leading to the U.S. economy getting back to pre-COVID levels by 2Q21. They also explain why they’re bullish on emerging markets, bearish on commodities in the next 3–6 months but bullish in the long-term, and why they expect rates to rise, with the 10-year around 1.5%. They also like financials, copper, and small caps. [November 20, 2020–15 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

  • The Sherman Show: S9 E5 James Grant, Founder — Grant’s Interest Rate Observer. Grant is the founder of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer and an astute observer of the history of monetary policy in the U.S. He talks about the race for all countries to debase their currencies, the history of the Fed and how they began overstepping their mandate soon after it was created, and criticizes them a lot for pushing back on the nomination of Judy Shelton (see the quote below). He also pushes back on the idea of a digital currency due to the government’s ability to possibly monitor every purchase we make. He finishes the episode with his expectations for inflation and gold going forward. [November 19, 2020–49 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

The Fed is quite proud of this diversity and inclusion office. Hey, how about a little intellectual inclusion? How about a little analytical diversity?

  • Capital Allocators: Shane Parrish — Learning to Learn at Farnam Street. Parrish is the founder of Farnam Street, host of the Knowledge Project Podcast, and author of Brain Food, a weekly email full of timeless insight for business and life (both are worth subscribing to!). He begins with his career path, from working for an intelligence agency to creating Farnam Street to improve his decision making and share his learnings with others. Then he explains the learning loop process, lessons on how to be a better reader, and some of the mental models that have helped him and others the most. He finishes with how 2020 has been with COVID and how he’s focused on connecting with others to build relationships from a distance. [November 16, 2020–1 hour, 3 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

High quality ideas often originate when you have high quality inputs.

We pick and choose what we think is most valuable, but we aren’t often right about what’s most valuable. The more we know, the more we can see. And the more we can see, the closer to reality we are.

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Good investing,Meb Fabertheideafarm.com