Greg Wells, Chief Operating Officer of TIGER 21, a peer membership organisation for high-net-worth wealth individuals, joins Kopi Time. He provides an overview of this collective (minimum member wealth of USD100mn), in which members learn from one-another the risks and opportunities worldwide. An internally transparent and yet confidential organisational structure brings together 1200+ wealth creators for networking and learning. We then explore the genesis of TIGER 21 and its area of operation....
Mar 15, 2023•47 min•Ep. 96
Shaokai Fan returns to Kopi Time to talk about gold’s recent journey through inflation spike, war in Ukraine, weaponization of the USD, monetary policy tightening, and soaring interest rates. We talk about supply conditions, ongoing reforms to add greater transparency and sustainability, and the structure of the gold market. Shaokai then sheds light on the evolving nature of gold demand, both cyclical, as China and India come out of the pandemic, and structural, as individuals and financial inst...
Mar 01, 2023•33 min•Ep. 95
Dr. Krishna Srinivasan, Director of the Asia and Pacific Department, International Monetary Fund, breaks down the prospects for the region. We begin by talking about the coverage of the department, which is 37 countries, making up of half the world’s population. We then dive into the 2023 balance of risks, which the IMF sees still tilted to the downside, but with a welcome decline in adverse risks. On the upside, Krishna expresses optimism about post-pandemic re-opening helping demand, while hea...
Feb 15, 2023•54 min•Ep. 94
Bert Hofman, Director of the East Asian Institute at National University of Singapore and former World Bank Country Director for China (2014-19), provides a sweeping overview of China’s outlook and key risks ahead. We begin with several nuances to the evolution of China’s zero-Covid policy and economic policies in the near term. Bert then offers insights into the property sector, and fiscal-structural policies that are likely to be deployed to deal its debt overhang. In his professional role, Be...
Feb 01, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 93
Welcome to 2023, dear Kopi Time followers! We kick off the new year with a chat on markets with seasoned trader and strategist, Archana Parekh, head of Asia Equities, ex-Japan, Balyasny Asset Management. We begin the discussion on the inevitability of market selloff in 2022, dragged by rates increases and lofty valuations. Archana does not think the highly correlated selloff across asset classes reflected much more than the fact that during the run-up in recent years, all asset classes had ralli...
Jan 18, 2023•44 min•Ep. 92
Caution: You may need a strong cup of Kopi after listening to our year-ending podcast with Dr. Nouriel Roubini, an economist and market analyst, who famously called the severity of the sub-prime crisis back in 2008 and has been warning about the fragility of the crypto ecosystem in recent years. But it is essential listening, as a recent review of his book, MegaThreats, points out: “Roubini’s warnings may be alarmingly scary, but they are also disturbingly plausible” (John Thornhill, Financial T...
Dec 20, 2022•44 min•Ep. 91
Dr. Torbjörn Becker, Director of the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics, joins Kopi Time to discuss the economic dimensions of the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict. We begin by going over Ukraine’s economic size and structure, followed by the depth of the economic and societal damage inflicted by this conflict. We then talk about the massive short- and medium-term funding needs for Ukraine’s sustainability and rebuilding. Dr. Becker’s institute has been exploring the various dimensions o...
Nov 30, 2022•37 min•Ep. 90
This podcast was recorded in early November, on the sidelines of the Singapore Fintech Festival 2022. It was fitting in the spirit of the event to have Stuart Haber join Kopi Time. Dr Haber, along with Scott Stornetta, co-invented the blockchain technique in 1990, which was later adopted by Satoshi Nakamoto as the basic mechanism for data integrity in Bitcoin. We begin the conversation travelling back over three decades, to understand the problem and motivation that drove Haber and Stornetta tow...
Nov 16, 2022•31 min•Ep. 89
Dr. Lynn Loo, Professor in Engineering at Princeton University and head of Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) in Singapore, joins Kopi Time to talk about international shipping’s transition to a low-/zero-carbon future. Shipping accounts for 90% of global trade and is the sixth largest carbon emitter as a sector, hence the stakes are high. Dr Loo talks about the targets in place at the international level, as well as the current and frontier technologies that can take us toward ze...
Nov 01, 2022•54 min•Ep. 88
This 10-minute commentary summarises my key impressions from the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC. Held amid the background of rising interest rates, currency market volatility, developing country debt distress, great power rivalry, war in Ukraine, and risk of financial instability, the mood was largely grim during the meetings. Silver linings include relative resiliency of large emerging market economies, strong push for infrastructure investment, and an energ...
Oct 17, 2022•10 min•Ep. 87
David Marsh, Chairperson of Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) joins Kopi Time to go over the UK’s recent bout with extraordinary currency and rates volatility. Mincing no words, David provides a strong critique of the policy choices and communications that have pushed the UK economy on weak footing, leaving it vulnerable to financial stability risks. We talk about past cases of devaluation (especially the 1992 Sterling crisis that David has written about extensively) and...
Oct 12, 2022•46 min•Ep. 86
Ila Patnaik, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group, joins Kopi Time to discuss a number of pertinent aspects of India’s economy. We talk about the current macro situation in the face of rising interest rates and tensions in the currency market. We then move on to India’s somewhat restrained policy response during the pandemic, and the expedited embrace of digital payments and service delivery. Ila is a realist on the frictional cost of economic formalisation, recognising that there will be losers....
Sep 28, 2022•52 min•Ep. 85
Thewokesalaryman handle on Instagram has over 357k followers; on Telegram, it has nearly 37k subscribers. It is a highly popular social media platform on financial literacy, using original, witty cartoons to impart critical life lessons on career building, savings, investment, and just living worthy lives. He Ruiming and Goh Wei Choon, the creators, join Kopi Time to share their motivation, content generating process, the feedback loop between posting and follower response, their financial model...
Sep 14, 2022•59 min•Ep. 84
Munib Madni, CEO of Singapore-based Panarchy Partners, returns to Kopi Time to talk about the fast growing world of climate investing. We go over the realities of climate change hitting home, numerous changes in the regulatory environment globally, and the deepening zeitgeist around investments in the context of climate mitigation. We then get into the thorny issue of how to deal with climate sceptics, including the dialogue around just transition. Munib then looks at various market failures, is...
Aug 31, 2022•58 min•Ep. 83
Carin Smaller, Executive Director of the Shamba Centre for Food & Climate, joins Kopi Time to talk about global food security. As per the United Nations, after three decades of steady decline, the number of people who suffer from hunger began to increase again in 2015. Current estimates show that nearly 690 million people are hungry, or 8.9 percent of the world population. Compounding this trend is the high frequency incidences of natural disasters, pandemics, and wars that are pushing milli...
Aug 17, 2022•47 min•Ep. 82
Robert Dekle, Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California, joins Kopi Time. Robert’s speciality is Japan, so we start there, going over his views on the yen’s rapid depreciation this year and the sustainability of yield curve control going forward. Robert thinks that there may still be some time left for BoJ to stay with its ultra-easy monetary policy stance, but the clock is ticking. For the longer-term, aging creates formidable headwind with respect to Japan’s domestic econ...
Aug 03, 2022•44 min•Ep. 81
Serey Chea, Assistant Governor at the National Bank of Cambodia, joins to Kopi Time to provide an incisive view on central banking geared toward financial development and inclusion. She talks about the government’s role during the pandemic to support the population through a series of financial measures, including the tricky job of keeping ATMs going even as banknote sourcing faced global mobility restrictions. We then delve into Bakong, a blockchain-based peer to peer payment system for financi...
Jul 06, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 80
Ms. Grace Fu, Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, joins Kopi Time to go over the nation’s challenges and response regarding sustainability and climate. She lays out, in sobering detail, the issues associated with recalibrating the entire economy for green transition, with heightened focus on energy and food security. While cognizant of the steep hill to climb toward a mid-century net zero goal, Minister Fu is constructive about the work being done with public-private coo...
Jun 23, 2022•50 min•Ep. 79
Substantial trade linkage notwithstanding, Asean’s near-term outlook is not particularly vulnerable to the ongoing slowdown in China . Asia faces many macro risks, but a slowing China in not at the top of the list. Global inflation threat is a non-China factor Chinese tourists have been largely non-existent since 2020, hence there is no additional downside. Asean’s trade with China is a global demand beta that can withstand a domestic demand slowdown. US interest rates, global capital flows, and...
May 30, 2022•7 min•Ep. 78
Barry Eichengreen, professor at University of California at Berkeley, a foremost expert on economics and international finance, joins Kopi Time. We begin with the war in Ukraine, where he is calling for rebuilding to begin even before the conflict is over, led by a consortium that supersedes multilateral institutions like the IMF/World Bank. We also delve into the demonstration effect of the sanctions imposed on Russia on other potential antagonists. In relation to that, the reach and scope of t...
May 20, 2022•34 min•Ep. 77
CL Lien, avid mountaineer and ultra-marathon runner, and Singapore General Manager of Gojek, an e-services platform, joins Kopi Time to discuss managing the business through a wide range of challenges and disruptions. We talk about the driver-partner model and the various dimensions around that. Lien sheds light on how Gojek managed through the pandemic and how the business is shaping up presently, especially in light of rising fuel prices and interest rates. We touch on the imperative to find g...
May 04, 2022•44 min•Ep. 76
Our guest to mark Kopi Time’s 75th episode is Tan Su Shan, Group Head of Institutional Banking at DBS. In a wide ranging chat, we talk about how her business is dealing with the various challenges associated with the conflict in Ukraine and the pandemic. Su Shan walks us through the approaches to managing credit risk and emergency measures deployed in these contexts. We then delve into the role of data and digitalisation in transforming banking and finance, especially in helping clients keep pac...
Apr 20, 2022•45 min•Ep. 75
Sol Magaz, Partner, Life Sciences and Healthcare in EY, joins Kopi Time to discuss her area of expertise. We begin by discussing how the sector reacted and adjusted to the pandemic, both in the West and here in Asia. Sol explains the disruptions and innovations through the use of advanced data analytics and practices that allowed for vaccines and therapeutics to be developed in record time. We focus on the digital legacy of this crisis, whether it is through tele-diagnostics or tele-therapeutics...
Apr 06, 2022•42 min•Ep. 74
Manik Bhandari, CEO and Founder of Vulcan AI, an Artificial Intelligence company that focuses on building safety and productivity solutions, joins Kopi Time. He begins by providing an overview of the tech start-up scene in Singapore, describing how the public sector, through various initiatives, nudges entrepreneurs to develop profitable solutions that are good for the society. Manik’s firm’s focus is on deploying the power of big data and artificial intelligence in agriculture, transportation, ...
Mar 23, 2022•50 min•Ep. 73
Vandana Hari, Founder & CEO of Vanda Insights, a Singapore-based provider of global oil markets macro-analysis, returns to Kopi Time to shed light on the extraordinary volatility in the energy markets. She covers it all, from the current supply/demand dynamic to Russia’s role in the energy markets, from alternative source of supply to the various logistical and geopolitical constraints at play, the near term outlook, which is grim, and the legacy of this crisis. Critical insights. See omnyst...
Mar 09, 2022•45 min•Ep. 72
Jonah Blank, senior visiting research fellow with the National University of Singapore, and formerly South and Southeast Asia Policy Director for Joe Biden in the US Senate, joins Kopi Time for a deep dive on contemporary geopolitics. We devote the first half of the podcast on Ukraine, spanning Putin’s motivation, risk of regional spillover, impact of sanctions, and possible end-game scenarios. Jonah makes astute observations on the complexities and historical context at play, while acknowledgin...
Feb 25, 2022•51 min•Ep. 71
Razeen Sally, Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, joins Kopi Time to discuss trends in regional and global trade. We begin with the latest on RCEP and CP-TPP, with emphasis on the key gainers, the gaps in the agreements, role of China and the US, and the potential impact on the region. Prof Sally points out that CP-TPP is a true 21st century deal, covering critical topics such as data, intellectual property, and services, but i...
Feb 23, 2022•52 min•Ep. 70
Mark Sobel, US chairman at Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) and former US Treasury deputy assistant secretary for international monetary and financial policy, returns to Kopi Time for a deep dive into global macro and international finance. We begin by going over the US, from the present state of the economy to Fed policy, risk of inflation and aggressive policy, and the outlook for further fiscal effort. Mark has a broadly glass half-full perspective on these matters. ...
Feb 09, 2022•50 min•Ep. 69
This episode takes its cue from a couple of riveting conversations I’ve had with Saurabh Jain , founder of Connexio, a provider of human capital services to organisations across Asia, focusing on the startup ecosystem. From each of those conversations, I have come away from the feeling that something really interesting is going on in one particular area of Saurabh’s focus - India. The country’s scale, entrepreneurial tradition and problem solving culture, and the current global juncture of where...
Jan 26, 2022•40 min•Ep. 68
We called our 2021 outlook A Bifurcated World, and the year lived up to that thesis. The global recovery has been extraordinarily uneven, from vaccine distribution to the impact of the sharp rally in asset markets, both of which have favoured the wealthy, not to mention fiscal and monetary support, which again have been the most supportive in nations with the most wherewithal. A globally coordinated approach to distribute medical equipment and vaccines on the one hand, financial support on the o...
Dec 16, 2021•13 min•Ep. 67
