This week we take you back to one of the biggest bubble bursting in living memory, Enron, which went from Americas 7th largest company to bankrupt within a year at the turn of the millennium. How many booms, busts, frauds and financial irregularities have we witnessed since? Now, 100 episodes in, we get to sit down and LEARN from Andy Fastow, the former CFO of Enron. We’ve wanted this guest on the pod since, well, before the podcast began - buckle up for a conversation about what happened that f...
Nov 27, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 100
This week we’re going to tap into a topic that’s been ignored to date - the excitement that surrounds the big three cloud services of Microsoft (Azure), Google (GCP) and the market leader Amazon AWS. Are we getting ahead of our skies about what is another form of storage, or is this a truly game changing way that organisations can transform everything that they do? We’re joined by Liam Maxwell and this conversation travels from the clouds above Amazon HQ in Seattle (where it rains all the time) ...
Nov 20, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 99
This week we turn to the unavoidable Mr Musk and his beached fail whale, X, formerly known as Twitter. Did he take something mediocre and make it worse? Was it deliverate sabotage, or willful ignorance? Blunder or bluster, megaphone or mega-fall from grace? Wiht us we have veteran tech journalist Alex Kantrowitz to help solve for X. For more on Bubble Trouble, including transcripts of the show, visit us online at http://bubbletroublepodcast.com You can learn more about Richard at https://www.lin...
Nov 13, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 98
This week we look at that special "class" of investors who are busy raising their heads again to challenge management in a time of turmoil: the activist. Who are they, what gives them power and when they wield that power what’s the fall out. (Repeat) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 06, 2023•37 min
This week we look at one of the noisiest self promoters on the VC carnival barker circuit, a man who famously said software eats the world when he has stocked his portfolio with software companies, with some wild claims about techno optimism. With our skeptical hat on we look at what's behind this and unpack the fears and hopes for the revolution to come. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 30, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 97
This week we turn our attention back to private markets where Richard’s prior smoke signals may be bearing fruit. That is, we’re getting reports that private equity is playing pass the parcel: selling assets to themselves that they can’t exit and doing so at their own valuations. Marking your own homework? Delaying a bubble that’s sure to burst? Or is it simply remortgaging from one bank to another. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Oct 23, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 96
We know why you, our audience, listen to podcasts... to impress friends at dinner parties. Now waht about extending a 35 minute pod to a 15 hour audiobook? And that’s where we’re turning our attention to today, audiobooks have been in the news here in the UK (and Australia) with Spotify trying, a year after spending $135m buying a tiny company in Ohio, to get into that market. So listen up to a podcast about audiobooks and while you do, ask yourself what’s the difference in these two formats any...
Oct 16, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 95
This week, its just Will quizzing Richard with an ocean separating their microphones, as Will squeezes that thirty year veteran of the markets like a sponge to get us all up to speed on whether those bubbles are building everywhere in financial markets. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 09, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 94
Bubble Trouble has spent 90+ episodes in the studios exposing sycophants and stenographers. More recently, we went from the studio to the stage, with both of us top billing the Financial Times Weekend Festival at Kenwood House. Richard’s panel, aptly titled ‘The new goldrush: how to make money out of tech.' So this week we want to get back to the show title - ‘Bubbles’ and ask: Is the bubble back? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Oct 02, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 93
This week we turn to regulatory bubbles and the new buzz word: Gatekeepers! What are they, and what are they not and what gates do they actually keep? In forty five days, the European Commission drummed up an answer, while the US DoJ starts a court case about Google paying for search bar placements like Heinz beans play for shelf space in the grocery store. We’ve got 45 minutes with one of the best brains on the topic, Konstantina Bania, a Partner at the top firm Geradin Partners to understand a...
Sep 25, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 92
This week James Ashton joins us to talk about the complicated dance around the re-listing of ARM in the first tech IPO in some time. Few IPOs come this big, and few have had to revise down their target market price so quickly. All chips are on red, and we’re ready to spin the wheel and see where this UK tech darling lands on the US NASDAQ. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 18, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 91
You may have heard about the recent collaboration between Drake and The Weeknd that wasn't a real collaboration, but an AI-generated fake. This incident is a canary in the coalmine not just for the music industry, but any creator or rights holders across numberous industries. Joining us to discuss is Jessica Powell of AudioShake, an A.I. startup that builds sound separation software to help musicians make additional revenue for their work. (Repeat from May, 2023.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/...
Sep 11, 2023•54 min
This week, the second of two episodes with Dan McCrum of the Financial Times about his investigative reporting into the massive fraud at the German financial firm Wirecard. (Repeat from October, 2022.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 04, 2023•23 min
This week we have the first of two episodes with Dan McCrum of the Financial Times about his investigative reporting into the massive fraud at the German financial firm Wirecard. (Repeat from September, 2022.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 28, 2023•29 min
We continue our exploration into the dinner party topic of converation on everyone’s lips: AI with the first of many very special guests on the topic, Professor Chris Speed. This week, we take a design lens to the problems (and the solutions) that AI presents us with. (Repeat from April, 2023). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 21, 2023•37 min
We don't do shameless plugs here on Bubble Trouble, but we're making an exception for our esteem co-host Will Page on the publication of the paperback edition of Tarzan Economics, renamed Pivot: Eight Principles for Transforming your Business in a Time of Disruption. (Repeat from January, 2023). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 14, 2023•37 min
We’ve talked to some of the biggest names in AI, - Audioshake, Stability and Boomy but this week, we’re going to Mayk.it with Stefán Heinrich Henriquez - and his new start up Mayk.it. His plans appear to be making all the world a stage and musicians of us all. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 07, 2023•53 min•Season 1Ep. 90
When looking at today's issues of privacy, social media, and AI, we can draw a lot from the battles of the browsers over the past 30 years. To explore this, we welcome a close friend onto the show, the father of JavaScript and a Silicon Valley legend, Brendan Eich. Brendan left the CTO role of Mozilla firefox years ago and embarked on a journey to scale up a privacy-first browser and search business that would reward the sites you visit with a token reflecting your attention and value. Hosted on...
Jul 31, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 89
We’ve talked to some of the biggest names in AI, but today, we want to get behind the controversy over Boomy, with co-founder Alex Mitchell. To date, Boomy “artists” have created 16 million “original” AI-generated songs. That’s more music than the iTunes Music Store had at its peak. And most of the Boomy songs, apparently, are now on Spotify available to stream after a controversial takedown episode we’ll get into. Moreover this is AI in action, whether this is a dystopian future or the shape of...
Jul 24, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 88
This week we have a distinguished guest with an estimable track record at calling out the machinations and malfeasance behind the numbers: Stephen Clapham, the driving force of Behind the Balance Sheet, a podcast of the same name and education company. Stephen helps teach fund managers and others the tricks of financial chicanery and magical massaging of the numbers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 17, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 87
Today, we turn our attention to a massive credit bubble that burst and dumped toxic sewage in the form of shell companies and endless debt on public utilities. A scandal is unfolding at Thames Water - London’s waterworks that’s frankly been drowned in debt by the private equity owners. To twist this up a notch, we’re joined by the Northern Irish former punk singer Feargal Sharkey has turned his legendary energy to a cause that's deeply dear to his fly fishing heart - that of England’s beleaguere...
Jul 10, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 86
One of the giant bubbles of the last decades has clearly been, in many regions of the world, real estate. For this week's episode, we're looking forward, not backward with Dror Poleg, an economic historian and inspirational thinker who's figuring out how we work, where we work, and what work we might be doing in this post pandemic world. (Repeat from December, 2022) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 03, 2023•46 min
Our guest this week is Hugh Hendry, a man who found fortunes walking the tightropes as booms turned to busts. Founder and CIO of Eclectica Asset Management, London, a Global Macro Hedge Fund, from 2002 to 2017, where its “high water mark” events were the early and successful identification of the gold bull market in 2003 and the housing debacle in the US in 2008. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 26, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 85
This week we want give a hat tip to the Financial Times, reporting on how the "Bank of England to review use of economic forecasts." As so often happens with the FT, the comments were even better than the article, which like us have been despairing for years about central bank economic models constantly getting wrongfooted by the real world. Asleep at the wheel or making the best of an impossible job? A second helping of Bailey’s many shortcomings as head of the regulator (the FCA) or victim of ...
Jun 19, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 84
Economics wont get you a lot of spicy dates… but we delve into a fantastically accessible book that compliments this podcast like gin and tonic. This week we’re going to be in conversation with the authors of "Boom and Bust: A Global History of Financial Bubbles," an engaging tour of the last 300 years of bubbles. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 12, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 83
This week we catch up with the subject that is near and dear to our hearts: the business of podcasting. Will is fresh from two days at the industry's leading event in London where thousands of people got together to figure out can they actually make money from podcasting, an emerging new medium that is yet to find its footing as a commercial enterprise. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 05, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 82
In recent episodes we’ve been boasting ”if there’s a bubble that burst, we pricked it first” but events at SBV caught us off guard. This bubble burst before our eyes and now the one word on the market's lips is contagion. But we’ve been here before, AND we’ll be here again - banks are being bailed out for their incompetence and central banks are scrambling to respond . (Repeat from March, 2023) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
May 29, 2023•29 min
We’ve been training our respective brains on the dinner table topic de jour, artificial intelligence, for three episodes now and we’ve generated views about banking analyst notes, academia, mixtape culture. This week, we land one of the most important voices there is - a founder who built the first generative AI company on the block - jukedeck - to ByteDance and now finds himself in the front line of AI trench warfare: Ed Newton Rex - one of the few who can say ‘been there done that’ as we grapp...
May 22, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 81
This week, we want to lay out the current theatrics of the market - blink and you’ll have missed banks avoiding collapse and earnings beats and misses. So with eyes wide open, take your seats in the stalls so we get up and personal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 15, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 80
You may have heard about the recent collaboration between Drake and The Weeknd that wasn't a real collaboration, but an AI-generated fake. This incident is a canary in the coalmine not just for the music industry, but any creator or rights holders across numberous industries. Joining us to discuss is Jessica Powell of AudioShake, an A.I. startup that builds sound separation software to help musicians make additional revenue for their work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informat...
May 08, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 80
