Capital & Conflict: Century bonds, life in the stars & why blue diamonds are the rage in Hong Kong

Century bonds, life in the stars, and why blue diamonds are all the rage in Hong Kong. Charlie Morris from the Fleet Street Letter joins the show this week to talk about why the British steel industry isn’t worth saving and why the City has it wrong on bonds. Nick O’Connor from Exponential Investor drops into talk about this week’s big stories from the frontiers of technology. And Alex Williams from MoneyWeek talks about the diamond market and whether it’s safe to buy mining stocks.

0:00his money money out of social technology I think suffering is generally under


0:09rain it because you suffer for a reason you don’t suffer for no reason that we


0:15were talking about the move towards a cashless society and how you know you


0:19have lots of reasons why is it appropriate for grown men to ride


0:23scooters I thought that gossip line in Germany with going with Bitcoin


0:30alibi saying winter is coming when I was the ice and welcome to this week’s


0:38capital in conflict show I’m Dan Denning your host for the show and it it’s gonna


0:45be a good one


0:45I’m recording this production after I’ve talked to all three guests on the show


0:50and in terms of variety I don’t think we’ve had a better show to be honest I


0:57had our old friend Nick o’connor back on the show opened up and talked about


1:02frontier tech of the project he’s been working on with Owen Morgan and as you


1:08know that project went live but rather than talking about it as a technology


1:12project we just talked about technology in technology businesses and how much


1:18you should pay for and what kind of cool stuff is going on so that was a pretty


1:22interesting conversation and it really there’s been some incredible things that


1:27have happened in for lack of a better word the technology space has been a lot


1:33of well the SpaceX thing went up and then landed on the barge which if you


1:38haven’t seen that I would recommend get on the internet go to YouTube Google


1:43SpaceX just see how I mean in a few years that stuff will be routine but


1:49right now it is incredibly exciting to watch watch that stuff then there are


1:55some other stories that will cover so I won’t steal his thunder but that was the


1:59first guest Charlie Morris from the Fleet Street letter came on Charlie’s in


2:03the office this week to work on the monthly issue of the Fleet Street letter


2:09he writes weekly updates that go out


2:12email but the monthly issue is a bit longer it’s a bit more formal and the


2:18way I’ve described it is that it’s probably charlie is most important and


2:23best investment idea for the month and it’s one where you want to take a bigger


2:29picture you want to take some perspective and you want to look at


2:34everything that’s going on in the world


2:36not all newsletters do that obviously some are just about stock tips summer


2:40specific to a sector like the resources sector or to technology like frontier


2:46tech but after please treat letter what we’ve consciously tried to do is


2:50recreate the spirit in which Patrick Maitland founded that newsletter in 1938


2:58and that is to sort of understand what’s going on in the world and to do that you


3:04have to look at macroeconomics and to do that you have to look at geo politics


3:09and above all to do that well for investors you have to have experience in


3:15many different investment cycles good ones bad ones bull markets bear markets


3:21and you have to know what to do and the more I hope that the more you hear from


3:26Charlie in the more that you read you’ll realize he’s just a gem is an absolute


3:31treasure of experience in identifying what’s going on and then and then


3:37picking the right tactical investments to benefit and if that’s not your thing


3:41sort of short-term tactical investments in a most of Charlie’s work is long term


3:47in on that particular issue I’ll say pay special attention to our conversation


3:51about bonds since he’s left a city Charlie has the freedom to be bearish on


3:58the conventional wisdom with regards to Barnes in an asset allocation strategy


4:03and now that sounds like a mouthful but what it means is that most professional


4:07wealth managers and fund managers will buy government bonds corporate bonds


4:11because their models dictated and because there’s a perception that


4:15government bonds provide you a risk-free rate of return and they will quote


4:18long-term performance statistics that show the performance of


4:23relative to equities but Charlie’s research has shown that their periods


4:27where you will not make money buying government bonds and therefore it is not


4:32at risk for your position and importantly right now he believes that


4:36this is one of those moments where you need to think about the conventional


4:43wisdom and modify your investment strategy so we talked a little bit about


4:48that and we talked about some other stuff is great to have him on and


4:52hopefully I’ll have him on more finely Alex Williams from moneyweek and from


4:58the global mining observer came on to talk about what he talked mostly about


5:04diamonds today which was interesting for me there’s not a lot that I know about


5:09diamonds and Alex you know he spends all of his time and I occasionally get


5:15emails from Alex it’s two or three in the morning where he will have just


5:19finished an email interview or a phone conversation with someone in the mining


5:23industry and he’ll be real aim to me what what he’s learned I don’t know that


5:29anyone else works harder at least anyone that I’m working with us he’s really


5:34well connected in the in the in the resources industry in the mining world


5:38people answer his emails answers phone calls are able to kind of break stories


5:43about what’s going on behind closed doors are perfectly above-board by the


5:48way it’s nothing insider about any of it it’s just Alex as well as guys that he


5:53has the the turpitude 22 just ask people questions when he has them in you know


5:59most of the time you’ll find that people will answer them if you ask nicely so he


6:03asks good questions as well which kind of tell you where we’re at in the


6:07commodity cycle on that issue again I won’t steal his thunder but I think he’s


6:12generally encouraged by the


6:14the momentum in in resource stocks but he remains a bit of a skeptic that we’ve


6:21seen a real liquidation in the bad news that some of the companies with lots of


6:27debt and cash flow problems haven’t dispose of assets they’re benefiting


6:32from a rebound in prices particularly in iron ore which we’ve seen also a little


6:38bit in oil but yeah alex gets into more detail about that but yea technology


6:44bonds asset allocation resources diamonds iron ore little bit of


6:49something for everybody today so I will leave it at that and get straight into


6:54the show if you have questions for me send them to Daniel at moneyweek dot com


6:59and other than that this is the capital and conflict podcast I’m dent in your


7:03host enjoy the show the capital in conflict forecast is brought to you by


7:08moneyweek research for more news

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