Merryn Talks Money

Bloomberg

Merryn Talks Money with Bloomberg senior columnist Merryn Somerset Webb is your key to understanding how markets work – and how you can make them work for you. Every episode features a relaxed but in-depth conversation with a fund manager, a strategist, a Bloomberg expert or just someone Merryn finds particularly interesting in any given week. Listen in for the kind of insights and explanations everyone can use to help them make better saving and investing choices.

Play

Open in

48 episodes
a few times a week
Avg 27 min
English

Episodes 48

Newest Oldest Longest

All20 Unplayed20 In progress0 Played0

Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.

Wednesday · 23 min
The Portfolio Reset: Episode 2
Passive investing was designed to track the market, not shape it. But as Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek explore in the second episode of The Portfolio Reset, the enormous growth of passive investing has changed the market it was built to follow, just as some of the world’s most valuable companies are staying private for longer. Using SpaceX as an example, they examine the changing relationship between public and private markets and why no investment is truly passive — someone is always making a decision somewhere in the process. As passive flows grow powerful enough to move markets, Merryn and John explain why investors should make sure they’re making active decisions in pursuit of their own financial goals, rather than leaving those decisions in the hands of strangers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
Monday · 35 min
The Case for Buying Small Caps Now
After years of being overshadowed by US megacaps and the artificial intelligence boom, could smaller companies finally be ready for a comeback? Merryn Somerset Webb speaks with Downing fund manager Simon Evan-Cook and Odyssean Capital’s Stuart Widdowson about why small caps remain unusually cheap, what could bring investors back — and whether small-cap value could become the ultimate anti-AI trade. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
October 16 · 11 min
Markets Wrap: AI Jitters, Budget Expectations and UK Housing Rebound?
Are we seeing signs of investors starting to lose their nerve over artificial intelligence? On this week's markets wrap, Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek discuss the cracks appearing in the AI boom, as well as why UK house prices could rebound faster than expected, and how changes to inheritance tax may help fuel demand. Plus, with the Budget approaching, they ask whether the best thing the government could do is simply leave well enough alone. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
October 14 · 21 min
The Portfolio Reset: Episode 1
For today’s investor, making money in markets may seem straightforward: put your money into a passive fund that tracks US stocks. It’s been a winning strategy for so long that it feels like the obvious choice. Yet as Merryn Somerset Webb, John Stepek and their expert guests discuss over the course of this four-part series, past performance is no guarantee of future returns, with major implications for how investors build their portfolios. In the first episode, they examine how passive investing went from a niche strategy to the default for many people, channeling ever more capital into US stocks and the tech giants that dominate the market. Passive investing is still an investment decision, after all — one that leaves many investors with far more concentration risk than they realize. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
October 12 · 49 min
Why the Commodity Bull Market Is Just Beginning
Adam Rozencwajg, portfolio manager at natural resources firm Goehring and Rozencwajg, joins Merryn Somerset Webb to explain why he thinks the commodity bull market may still be in its early stages. They discuss why gold could fall before reaching new highs, why US shale may have peaked and where he sees opportunities in oil and uranium. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
October 9 · 26 min
Markets Wrap: Bond Market Turmoil, Inheritance Tax and AI risks
Are European bond markets signaling disaster? This week, John Stepek and Bloomberg's David Goodman explore how the rising gap between bond yields in France and Germany mirrors the eurozone debt crisis, why governments are struggling to deal with the return to more "normal" interest rates, and why Conservative proposals for inheritance tax might clog up the housing market even further. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
October 7 · 31 min
What to Do If Your Mortgage Rate Jumps
John Stepek, senior reporter and author of the Money Distilled newsletter, is joined by Anthony Emmerson, director at London-based mortgage broker Trinity Financial to discuss rising mortgage rates and borrowers facing a jump in repayments, they explain what homeowners can do to soften the blow — from locking in a new deal early to extending their mortgage term or considering a tracker. They also look at opportunities for first-time buyers, falling flat prices and what the government’s proposed Help to Buy scheme could mean for the housing market. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
October 5 · 38 min
How to Outsmart Your Investing Instincts
Merryn Somerset Webb speaks with Alex Edmans, author of The Madness of Markets: Why Smart Investors Make Crazy Decisions – And How to Exploit Them, about why even sophisticated investors struggle to overcome the psychological biases that shape their decisions. Markets are driven by humans, and humans are emotional. Edmans explains how understanding the influence of emotion, herd behavior and over-confidence can help investors make better decisions — and potentially achieve better returns. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
October 2 · 18 min
Markets Wrap: The Triple Lock, Bond Yields and Housing
Fresh off the party conference, the Labour government is promising pension reform, a new approach to social care and yet another scheme to help first-time buyers. Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek ask whether the sums add up, what the bond market is making of it all — and why the latest Help to Buy plan could leave some buyers worse off. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 30 · 11 min
Physical Gold, Stocks and Retirement: Your Questions Answered
Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek answer some of your questions. They explore the differences between holding physical gold and investing through an ETF, whether or not buying shares actually benefits the company you've invested in, and how best to adjust your retirement investment strategy as you draw closer to the big day. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 28 · 36 min
The Stocks That Could Survive an AI Bust
Merryn Somerset Webb speaks with Blue Whale Growth Fund Chief Investment Officer Stephen Yiu about what could derail the artificial intelligence boom — and where investors might look if it does. They discuss whether today’s enthusiasm is masking an earnings bubble, how investors can diversify beyond AI and which emerging technologies and geopolitical risks could reshape the market next. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 25 · 18 min
Is the Stock Market Sending a Warning?
Merryn and John discuss worrying signals from the stock market, the physical constraints facing the AI boom, China’s growing appetite for gold and an unexpected consequence of the data-center buildout. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 23 · 18 min
Is Buy-to-Let Still a Good Investment?
As the UK's buy-to-let marks its 30th anniversary, we still find ourselves asking: is it worth it? This week, Merryn Somerset Webb and Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, discuss how it went from accessible investment strategy to heavily taxed and regulated. They explore multiple factors that changed the market and what it now takes to make buy-to-let worthwhile. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 21 · 30 min
What Career Should You Choose in the AI Age?
Merryn Somerset Webb speaks with Daniel Susskind, senior research associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford and a member of the UK government’s expert panel on AI and the future of work. AI is expected to transform the job market, potentially upending many of the traditional educational pathways that have long led students into established professions. As those routes begin to look increasingly uncertain, how should young people prepare for the world of work that awaits them? In his book, What Should My Children Do?, Susskind seeks to answer that question, offering a framework for how children — and adults — can best prepare for an evolving labor market with AI at its center. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 18 · 11 min
Can Governments Afford These Interest Rates?
It’s interest-rate week, with central banks around the world making key decisions. Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek discuss what rising rates mean for markets, government debt and your money — and why financial repression and currency devaluation could be coming back into focus. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 16 · 19 min
How to Turn Income Into an Inheritance Tax Break
Merryn Somerset Webb sits down with Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at AJ Bell, to discuss how gifting surplus income can help reduce your inheritance tax bill ahead of changes to the IHT treatment of pensions in April 2027. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 14 · 35 min
Ed Conway on the Hidden Supply Chains That Run the World
Merryn Somerset Webb speaks with Ed Conway, economics and data editor at Sky News and author of Trade World, about the vast and often invisible supply chains behind the things we buy. They discuss whether decades of globalisation have made economies more resilient or dangerously dependent, China’s manufacturing advantage and whether the UK and Europe can rebuild their industrial base without giving up the cheap goods consumers have come to expect. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 11 · 27 min
Markets Wrap: Bessent's Big Bet, Bond Yields and the AI Bubble
Britain’s bond yields are the highest in the G7, as renewed inflation pressures collide with rising defense costs and a government reluctant to make politically painful spending choices. This week, John Stepek is joined by Bloomberg macro strategist Simon White to discuss whether markets will ultimately force Britain’s hand, what Scott Bessent’s interventions mean for US Treasuries and the yen, and whether the AI boom is getting closer to a correction. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 8 · 47 min
Live From Fringe: What Adam Smith Can Teach Us About Debt and Power
In this episode of Merryn Talks Money, host Merryn Somerset Webb is joined live at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe by Bloomberg Opinion columnist Adrian Wooldridge, former British ambassador Nick Hopton and Orbis Investment Management Chairman Alec Cutler to ask what Adam Smith can teach us about today's rapidly changing economic order. The panel considers rising government debt, the growing relationship between states and powerful companies, and whether the AI investment boom could follow the same pattern as previous market bubbles. They also discuss what it all means for investors, from the impact on gold and government bonds to the implications for energy stocks and, specifically for the UK, the future of the North Sea. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 4 · 52 min
Live From Fringe: What Adam Smith Would Say of Bond Market Turmoil
Host Merryn Somerset Webb is joined by Interactive Investor CEO Richard Wilson, Anna MacDonald, investment strategy director at Hargreaves Lansdown, and Russell Napier, financial historian and Keeper of the the Library of Mistakes for the second installment of panel discussions at Panmure House during the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The panel discussed the state of global bond markets, how policymakers seem incapable of thinking about second-order consequences and the fiscal constraints facing the UK government. Original Music Composed by Mint Sherbets See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript

Showing 1–20 of 48 episodes