Sound Economies with Mel and Peter

Trump vows to raise public spending on defence but demands defence companies to temper dividend payouts in favour of reinvesting to raise production, and we explain why this is unhealthy. This episode, we also look at the escalating attack on... Read More →

Big shifts headline the new year. In our maiden episode for 2026, we look at cost of living pains in the US and Europe against a fast-growing middle class in Asia, the latter fueled by high economic growth. We explain... Read More →

The German government wants to attract private capital with a EUR 130 billion investment fund, but we disagree with this strategy. On our last episode for 2025, we take the latest US jobs report as another confirmation of the economy’s... Read More →

We are at the second to the last episode of this year. This time, we observe the US dollar was on a losing streak in 2025, and we expect this to persist into the new year amid heightened uncertainty in... Read More →

Financial markets will face greater volatility in 2026, and we think it will be more challenging for investors. We look at what’s ahead for US and Japan in this episode, as well as India’s record IPOs and China’s dominance in... Read More →

US consumers are getting even more squeezed, and we are not surprised. This is likely to trigger successive rate cuts from the Fed, which we discuss in this episode. We also look at Saudi Arabia targeting wealthy Asians as it... Read More →

Fears are high concerning an AI bubble, but will it really take the whole financial market down if or when it bursts? For this episode, we also explore tough economic and diplomatic woes faced by Japan, the increasing allure of... Read More →

China’s domestic retail market is proving to be fiercely unique that even global giants like Starbucks and Burger King are finding hard to navigate. To us, this shows that investors seeking to cash in on China’s growth story should invest... Read More →

Bill Gates changed his approach towards climate change interventions, and we are weighing in. We also explore two contrasting growth paths: India with two tax cuts this year, and Germany with more family businesses eyeing layoffs. Finally, we look at... Read More →

All eyes are on Trump’s weeklong expedition in Asia, but we find deals sealed excluding the US equally important like warmer China-India ties. This episode, we also look at the Fed’s expected rate cut, explain what’s keeping listing activity muted... Read More →