The Dawn of Chaos: Central Banks and the Dollar (w/ Hugh Hendry and Luke Gromen) – YouTube

The global economy had been running higher for over a decade, and the coronavirus has been a major speed bump. But what happens when central banks have replaced the airbag with a dagger? This is the very question that Hugh Hendry, founder and former CIO of Eclectica Asset Management, explores alongside Luke Gromen, president and founder of Forrest for the Trees. Hendry and Gromen explore the fate of the U.S. dollar through the lens of Charles Kindleberger’s theory about “monetary hegemony.” They analyze the various interest rates and current accounts of different countries and break down how these nations manage their exposure to commodity risk.

via www.youtube.com

You might want to start listening at 11:30 or so if you’re pressed for time. (Or 15.00 if you’re really in a hurry.) Hugh seems to be a Scotsman (? — I’m not great at UK accents) who made a sh*t-ton of money trading and so now believes he is a genius, while Luke may be something of a genius, but still has to wear a blazer to work. Hugh is hanging out on St. Bart’s for the duration where he is a property investor. Luke’s remark about the US going through the sort of currency crisis that lots of countries went through but deciding, oh heck no, we’re not going to put ourselves through the standard decorruption/IMF routine we routinely impose on other countries; we’ll just print our way out of it! — struck me rather hard. As true, that is.