In this episode, Stephen Kaplan, associate professor at George Washington University, Alec Phillips, Goldman Sachs Research’s chief political economist, and David Beers, former head of sovereign credit ratings at S&P, who oversaw the rating agency’s U.S. credit rating downgrade in 2011, dig into the history and mechanics of the U.S. debt limit and explore whether the repeated brinkmanship around raising the debt limit could undermine the value of U.S. assets.

Debt ceiling discussions are the primary focus of markets this week but equity and bond markets are reacting in very different ways, explains Candice Tse, a managing director in Goldman Sachs Asset Management, on The Markets podcast.

Oil and commodity prices have fallen this year amid unprecedented declines in inventories. But this “great de-stocking” could also pave the way for strong gains if the economy avoids a recession given solid fundamentals and overall demand, explains Jeff Currie, global head of commodities in Goldman Sachs Research.

Breaking down this week’s economic data and events from the Euro area, Japan, China and the U.S., Luke Barrs, global head of client portfolio management in Fundamental Equity within Goldman Sachs Asset & Wealth Management, joins our latest episode of The Markets, a new weekly podcast from Goldman Sachs Exchanges.

In this episode, Goldman Sachs Research’s Christian Mueller-Glissmann, who heads asset allocation research within portfolio strategy, explains how recent market stresses are affecting portfolio diversification strategies.