A 33-minute listen. 

The latest interviewee in our investment podcast series is Chris Ralph, chief global strategist at St James’s Place, who talks to us about coronavirus loans, value investing and ESG. 

Surveying the sorry state of the global economy in the current lockdown, Chris talks about the role fiscal stimulus will have in the recovery, with tax rises and spending constraints likely to be a feature of governments to come.

He adds: “Some will remember the 3.5% War Loan, which was a huge government loan taken out at the time of World War II to fund war expenditure.

“There’s already been talk of huge coronavirus loans and I can imagine they may come into actuality”.

A nail in the value coffin?

From an investment standpoint, Chris stresses he still very much believes in the role of active management, particularly those investors with a value tilt who have underperformed for a long period.

“Some people are saying that given that Warren Buffett has capitulated on airlines and has sold his stake in Goldman Sachs it’s the final nail in the coffin for the value investor, but I don’t see it that way,” he explains.

“I still think there are good opportunities for good quality managers to find stocks that are really unloved by the market that will bounce back as the economy bounces back”.

A greater emergency

A big topic of discussion pre the crisis, ESG investing continues to be of huge interest for St James’s Place and others. This is despite the momentum behind issues such as climate emergency being displaced by conversations around coronavirus.

“If one thinks about the implications of the pandemic, then its easy to see the link though to the crisis that may be created by a warming planet and the greater extension of the way that companies have to be held accountable by their shareholders,” he says.

“We in the wealth management industry have to hold our funds to account better”.