Markets Happy Hour Podcast - LIVE from Salt Lake City - March 6, 2025

In this second live series in as many weeks, we reflect on the recent volatility around tariff news, and with the benefit of two audience members focused on, respectively, emerging markets public equities and private equity and venture capital, we discuss how this uncertainty is being felt and acted upon.

Europe seems to be experiencing a renaissance of sorts this week - with an indication of the release of Germany's fiscal brake bringing an almost giddiness to sentiment there - with expenditure likely to be as much as 900 billion Euro. This may be one of the unintended consequences of the JD Vance challenge to Europe, and it may make a seismic shift in fiscal positioning.

The ECB just cut rates and seems to have got ahead of any fiscal stimulus by delivering its sixth interest rate cut - coupled with a sixth downgrade to economic growth projections. There was a sign that this may be it for a while - particularly if the fiscal pedal is now pressed, it might be possible to ease off the monetary pedal.

We talk too about whether there is a Trump put in markets - whether there is a level at which market pain might be too much to bear, and certainly thus far the pause on tariffs has not really given markets a chance to experience this.