Merryn Talks Money

Hosts Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek are both back from their holidays and this week unpack the surge in global bond yields and how governments might respond. They also look at a study which suggested that Small Language Models (SLM) could make today’s vast AI data-centre buildout unnecessary, posing a substantial risk to hyperscalers and investors.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.07885

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Joining Merryn Somerset Webb for this week's episode is Duncan Lamont, Head of Strategic Research at Schroders. Lamont explains how investors can protect their portfolios against stagflation, and how to avoid being too exposed to the AI trade. He also explains why all-time highs might not actually be a sell signal for investors - and how AI-driven job losses might affect US stocks.

https://www.schroders.com/en-us/us/institutional/insights/adapting-asset-allocation-to-the-risk-of-stagflation/
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At a Bloomberg.com subscriber event earlier this year, Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek spoke with Paula Steele, director at John Lamb Hill Oldridge, about how to pass on an inheritance efficiently — minimise tax, manage the succession process, and avoid unintended effects on beneficiaries’ motivation.

This is a re-run of that conversation which first aired March 17th, 2026.
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What is "capital-cycle" investing and why does it matter for your portfolio? Luke Bridgeman, Senior Partner and Portfolio Manager at Hosking Partners joins Merryn Somerset Webb for a discussion on why supply, not demand, is the key to finding the best investment opportunities. The pair also discuss investing in Japan, energy markets, and why the shipping industry
might be easier to break into than you think.
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It's been a tumultuous few weeks for markets, and yet nothing much has changed. Join Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek as they discuss why an AI hedge fund implosion and US intervention in the Japanese yen appear to have merely strengthened market optimism. Meanwhile, the FTSE 250 has hit a new record high, even as the underlying need for practical policy help to save the UK market from extinction becomes ever more urgent.
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