Markets Happy Hour November 20, 2025 - Featuring Thoughts from The Loft Guru Pete Drewienkiewicz

In today's Markets Happy Hour Podcast we feature the legendary Pete Drewienkiewicz of Thoughts from The Loft (TFTL) fame (of Gallagher Benefit Company, formerly Redington in the UK) and a robust discussion ensues. Starting with "Food Glorious Food" and its driver of inflation, we examine whether inflation will rest at the higher 3.6% level in the UK and what trajectory is likely in the US. We move then to the different apparent interest rate plateaus across the US, the UK and Europe, and ask whether the UK should be "resting" at a higher level than the US, given the clear strains on its economic growth. We turn then to discussing what this means for holding cash today. Equity markets again take centre stage, and we reflect on the recent Nvidia earnings release and then turn to a fascinating piece of analysis that Pete has drawn upon in TFTL the strong earnings growth across all markets, not just the US. While US margins still trump those in other countries, other valuation metrics don't necessarily point to stark US exceptionalism. This underscores the challenge of true diversification today. Finally we touch on the recent excellent analysis of Total Portfolio Approach by Toby Nangle in the Financial Times, and ask whether it is all it is cracked up to be. We do note, however, that some asset class "walls" have started to become porous as new asset classes evolve and investors allocate between them. You can write to Pete directly to get on his weekly distribution list for his excellent newsletter.