Mario Draghi has acquired such mythical status that it was little surprise when his report on “the future of European competitiveness” captured so much media and market attention.

Yet, although the report put together by the former European Central Bank president and Italian prime minister is comprehensive and ambitious, it is only a blueprint. For any of it to be implemented requires the kind of political will and policy coordination that only emerge in the EU at times of acute crisis.

Tim Jones and Pepijn Bergsen from Medley Advisors' European team discuss the report and what, if anything, will happen to it next.

On 10 September, incumbent US Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump will meet for their first (and maybe only) pre-election debate.

In this Medley Advisors podcast, Tim Jones asks Samer Mosis, Madelynn Einhorn, and Michael Redmond for their pre-debate takes on the election and its policy implications.

Before joining Energy Aspects as Head of Fundamentals in April, Samer Mosis worked in the White House on the National Security Council as Director for Energy Markets and, before that, as an economist in the Treasury Department.

Michael Redmond is Medley's US macro policy analyst and "Fed watcher", while data scientist Madelynn Einhorn designed and runs Medley's election model.

As global policymakers head for the annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, all eyes are on Federal Reserve officials and any signal that their easing cycle will begin in September.

In this podcast, Medley Advisors take advantage of the diverted spotlight to look at two authorities that beat the Fed to the turn: the European Central Bank and the Bank of England. Andrew Besuyen asks Tim Jones and Phil Tyson: What next for Europe's two big central banks?

Since January, the Brazilian real has lost 15% of its value against the dollar as left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (“Lula”) publicly resists public-spending cuts proposed by his own cabinet.

Now, in the wake of a 15-billion-reais spending freeze unveiled by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, we bring together Mario Lima, Medley Advisors’ Brazil analyst; Fernando Posadas, head of Latin America; and Ignacio Labaqui, regional analyst, to discuss what happens next.

Has Haddad tamed Lula? Will the currency and Brazilian assets recover? Will the central bank (Bacen) be forced to extend the pause in its easing cycle?

The Bank of Japan is unique among developed-market monetary authorities. Just as the European, Canadian, and Swiss central banks start their easing cycles – and the US Federal Reserve and Bank of England prepare to join in – the BOJ is tightening policy across the yield curve.

Yet, the market is sceptical – driving the yen down 20% against the dollar since late-2022. Understandably so, says Medley Advisors’ veteran BOJ-watcher Kenichi Nagura. “The BOJ cannot raise interest rates to 2%, 3% like the Fed or ECB; the Japanese economy is not strong enough to accept such high interest rates,” he says in this podcast. “In the beginning, the rate hikes will be slow but, once BOJ can get a sense of the reaction of the economy and the market and politics to the rate hike, then the BOJ can raise interest rates at a faster pace”.

The underlying problem is that “more than 30% of people are retired, … prefer zero-percent inflation or deflation, and their voting rate is very high” and the scale of Japan’s public debt. “If they can raise interest rates and the inflation rate gradually, then government interest payments will increase gradually … [and] … tax revenue will also increase gradually”.

The Japanese authorities cannot risk losing control of this process.

By dissolving the national assembly and daring his compatriots to elect a right-wing populist government, French President Emmanuel Macron has revived questions over fiscal stability in Europe that had been buried for more than a decade.

With the first round of the legislative election coming on Sunday, Medley Advisors' European analysts Tim Jones and Pepijn Bergsen discuss the market risks surrounding both likely outcomes.

On 12 June, soon after the Federal Open Market Committee released its statement, updated projections, and "dot plot", and Chair Jay Powell ended his press conference, Medley's Fed-watcher Michael Redmond discussed what it all meant with Nick Stadtmiller.

On Sunday 2 June, Mexicans will vote for a new president, a federal lower house and senate, eight state governors, deputies for 31 state congresses, and 1,580 municipal officials. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is term-limited but his chosen successor Claudia Sheinbaum holds a substantial lead over rival Xóchitl Gálvez.

To preview the results and their aftermath, Fernando Posadas, Medley Advisors' Mexico analyst, fields questions from colleagues together with Madelynn Einhorn (election modeller) and Ignacio Labaqui (regional specialist).