Podcast

In 2020, I stoked the fire of my passion for interviewing brilliant people by launching The Grant Williams Podcast. Alongside my own interviews, I added three additional streams, each with a fantastic co-host: The End Game (with Bill Fleckenstein), The Super Terrific Happy Hour (with Stephanie Pomboy), and The Narrative Game (with Dr. Ben Hunt).

The response has been overwhelming. In only 5 months, these interviews have been downloaded over 1 million times, placing this content squarely in the top 0.1% of podcasts offered in the vast marketplace.

Beginning February 3, 2021, access to new episodes of The Grant Williams Podcast will now be available through our COPPER membership tier ($10/month) and is included as a component of all premium tiers.

Recent Episodes

The Grant Williams Podcast: Matt Stoller

Joining me in this episode of The Grant Williams Podcast is Matt Stoller, former Congressional staffer and author of Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy and the excellent Substack BIG. Matt’s work on the threat posed by monopoly power is exceptional and, in this fascinating conversation we cover the challenges he’s faced […]

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The Grant Williams Podcast: Danielle DiMartino Booth

Joining me on this edition of The Grant Williams Podcast is returning guest, Danielle DiMartino Booth, CEO and Chief Strategist at QI Research, LLC in Dallas, TX. Danielle’s knowledge of the inner workings of the Federal Reserve has been invaluable both to her clients and the broader financial community in recent years and her analysis […]

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The Grant Williams Podcast: Raymond Baker

Author Raymond Baker joins me to discuss his new book, Invisible Trillions: How Financial Secrecy Is Imperiling Capitalism and Democracy and the Way to Renew Our Broken System.

Raymond is an American businessman, scholar, author, and authority on financial crime. He is the founder and president of Global Financial Integrity, a research and advocacy organization in Washington, DC working to curtail illicit financial flows.

After graduating Harvard Business School in 1960, Raymond’s career began in Nigeria where he was afforded a close-up look at how corruption can affect and impede both business and progress. After relocating back to the United States in the mid-1970s, Raymond continued doing business in Africa and Central and South America, gaining first-hand experience of how illicit capital flows were impacting the development of capitalism across the globe.

In 2005, Raymond’s first book, Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System explored illicit capital flows, including a full exploration of their context and root causes and their financial impact on the world economy and his latest work updates the story in shocking fashion.

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Shifts Happen – Episode Five

Episode Five of Shifts Happen brings into focus the recent ‘quickening’ around the de-dollarization narrative and the impossible-to-ignore elevation in comments from world leaders questioning the logic underpinning their forced adoption of the US dollar in many cross-border trades.

From the numerous bilateral trade agreements being struck that circumvent the dollar to the rising percentage of cross border trade being conducted by China in renminbi, Grant and Luke discuss the crucial difference between the dollar as a reserve currency and its role as a reserve asset – one of which is coming under significant threat, one of which remains rock solid.

The extraordinary level of dogmatism on both sides of the argument comes under the microscope and Luke turns to Lucille Ball for an analogy which provides the perfect illustration of the problem facing the US Treasury.

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The End Game Ep 43 – Steve Eisman

Bill and Grant return for a no-holds-barred conversation with the great Steve Eisman of The Eisman Group within Neuberger Berman. Steve is no stranger, thanks both to his exploits during the GFC and the stupendous portrayal OF those exploits by Steve Carell in the movie version of Michael Lewis’ wonderful book, The Big Short.

Steve explains the history of paradigm shifts and tells us why he feels we are at the point of another major change, not only in the investment landscape but also in broader society.

The recent meltdown in the mid-size banking sector comes under the microscope, as do Fed policy, lofty valuations, a likely return to a more familiar investment world, the tech reckoning and the purveyor of a certain set of ETFs focused on ‘exponential growth’ stocks.

Fun for all the family!

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The Grant Williams Podcast: Brendon Ballou

Author Brendan Ballou joins me to discuss his superb new book, Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America in the latest episode of The Grant Williams Podcast. After graduating Columbia and Stanford Law, Brendan served as a Federal prosecutor and Special Counsel for Private Equity in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, where his mandate was to investigate private equity’s influence on financial markets.

What he found shocked Brendan and moved him to write a book chronicling the outsize effect Private Equity has had in so much of American life over the last several decades.

From nursing homes to prison phone companies, Brendan details how private equity has reshaped American business by raising prices, reducing quality, cutting jobs, and shifting resources from productive to unproductive parts of the economy. Forced to take on huge debts and pay extractive fees, companies purchased by private equity firms are often left bankrupt, or shells of their former selves, with consequences to communities that long depended on them.

Not only that, but Brendan explains how, with the backing of lobbyists and various arms of government itself, PE firms have availed themselves of powerful tailwinds as they’ve swallowed up large parts of corporate America.

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This Week In Doom – #14: Saudi Pardners!

Grant and Doomberg reconvene to discuss the changing situation in the Middle East as Saudi Arabia’s East-facing charm offensive continues and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping looks to supplant Camp David and the White House Lawn with a new backdrop for peace agreements.

Dedollarization is also on the slate, as are environmental protests, the ridiculous disparity between domestic US natural gas prices, loopy energy policies and snooker. Yes, snooker.

What does it all mean? Where do we go from here? Tune in and find out

This content is only available for active subscribers. Subscribe

Listen Now »

The Narrative Game Ep. 9 – Dollars, Indictments & ChatGPT

In the ninth episode of The Narrative Game, Epsilon Theory’s Dr. Ben Hunt returns to discuss the narrative aspects of the sudden surge in mainstream commentary around the drive towards de-dollarization on the part of China, Russia, Iran et al. Suffice to say, all is not what it might seem.

Elsewhere, with the indictment of former President, Donald J. Trump filling the news cycle, Ben offers a few thoughts on the potential motives behind the headlines, who might stand to benefit and whether this particular strategy might pay off.

Finally, we discuss the revolution that is ChatGPT and how AI may disrupt the workplace and Ben clues us in on the upcoming Epsilon Connect event in Nashville, TN when he, Rusty Guinn and a host of speakers (including Yours Truly) will bring the narrative world to life in living, breathing colour.

This content is only available for active subscribers. Subscribe

Listen Now »

Super Terrific Happy Hour Ep. 17: Crisis? What Crisis?

Stephanie & Grant are back to take a look at the recent turmoil in the US banking sector as we bid farewell to Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank while First Republic remains on life support.

What do the decisions taken in late-March by regulators mean for the future of the America’s mid-size banks? Was their response a well-crafted rescue plan or a seat-of-the-pants decision? Have any of last week’s shenanigans altered the probability that the US slips into recession and, if so, what will that mean for bonds, equities and the dollar? What are all these people doing in my bedroom?

Come and join the fun as our intrepid duo try to figure out the answer to at least one of those questions.

This content is only available for active subscribers. Subscribe

Listen Now »

The End Game Ep 42 – Michael Kao

With the financial world in turmoil once again and The End Game seemingly under way, we welcome Michael Kao back to the podcast to share his thinking around what the recent events in the banking sector (and the response of regulators) portends for the future.

Michael explains how he views the Fed’s toolkit and what he feels they’re likely to do with the ever-decreasing options at their disposal, what this latest fiasco means for the rest of the global banking fraternity and the US dollar as well as the likely knock-on effects for China.

This is yet another fascinating step on our journey to uncover The End Game.

This content is only available for active subscribers. Subscribe

Listen Now »

Grant Williams Podcast: Mike Rothman

Returning to the podcast is Mike Rothman of Cornerstone Analytics, a 40 year veteran of the oil markets and a fearless observer of all things energy. In his last appearance, Mike’s no-holds-barred approach to his field of expertise was a big hit with listeners and this week, Mike returns to update his views on the […] This content is only available for active subscribers. Subscribe

Listen Now »

The Grant Williams Podcast: Matt Stoller

Joining me in this episode of The Grant Williams Podcast is Matt Stoller, former Congressional staffer and author of Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy and the excellent Substack BIG. Matt’s work on the threat posed by monopoly power is exceptional and, in this fascinating conversation we cover the challenges he’s faced […] This content is only available for active subscribers. Subscribe

Listen Now »

The Grant Williams Podcast: Danielle DiMartino Booth

Joining me on this edition of The Grant Williams Podcast is returning guest, Danielle DiMartino Booth, CEO and Chief Strategist at QI Research, LLC in Dallas, TX. Danielle’s knowledge of the inner workings of the Federal Reserve has been invaluable both to her clients and the broader financial community in recent years and her analysis […] This content is only available for active subscribers. Subscribe

Listen Now »

The Grant Williams Podcast: Raymond Baker

Author Raymond Baker joins me to discuss his new book, Invisible Trillions: How Financial Secrecy Is Imperiling Capitalism and Democracy and the Way to Renew Our Broken System.

Raymond is an American businessman, scholar, author, and authority on financial crime. He is the founder and president of Global Financial Integrity, a research and advocacy organization in Washington, DC working to curtail illicit financial flows.

After graduating Harvard Business School in 1960, Raymond’s career began in Nigeria where he was afforded a close-up look at how corruption can affect and impede both business and progress. After relocating back to the United States in the mid-1970s, Raymond continued doing business in Africa and Central and South America, gaining first-hand experience of how illicit capital flows were impacting the development of capitalism across the globe.

In 2005, Raymond’s first book, Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System explored illicit capital flows, including a full exploration of their context and root causes and their financial impact on the world economy and his latest work updates the story in shocking fashion.

Listen Now »

Shifts Happen – Episode Five

Episode Five of Shifts Happen brings into focus the recent ‘quickening’ around the de-dollarization narrative and the impossible-to-ignore elevation in comments from world leaders questioning the logic underpinning their forced adoption of the US dollar in many cross-border trades.

From the numerous bilateral trade agreements being struck that circumvent the dollar to the rising percentage of cross border trade being conducted by China in renminbi, Grant and Luke discuss the crucial difference between the dollar as a reserve currency and its role as a reserve asset – one of which is coming under significant threat, one of which remains rock solid.

The extraordinary level of dogmatism on both sides of the argument comes under the microscope and Luke turns to Lucille Ball for an analogy which provides the perfect illustration of the problem facing the US Treasury.

Listen Now »

The End Game Ep 43 – Steve Eisman

Bill and Grant return for a no-holds-barred conversation with the great Steve Eisman of The Eisman Group within Neuberger Berman. Steve is no stranger, thanks both to his exploits during the GFC and the stupendous portrayal OF those exploits by Steve Carell in the movie version of Michael Lewis’ wonderful book, The Big Short.

Steve explains the history of paradigm shifts and tells us why he feels we are at the point of another major change, not only in the investment landscape but also in broader society.

The recent meltdown in the mid-size banking sector comes under the microscope, as do Fed policy, lofty valuations, a likely return to a more familiar investment world, the tech reckoning and the purveyor of a certain set of ETFs focused on ‘exponential growth’ stocks.

Fun for all the family!

Listen Now »

The Grant Williams Podcast: Brendon Ballou

Author Brendan Ballou joins me to discuss his superb new book, Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America in the latest episode of The Grant Williams Podcast. After graduating Columbia and Stanford Law, Brendan served as a Federal prosecutor and Special Counsel for Private Equity in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, where his mandate was to investigate private equity’s influence on financial markets.

What he found shocked Brendan and moved him to write a book chronicling the outsize effect Private Equity has had in so much of American life over the last several decades.

From nursing homes to prison phone companies, Brendan details how private equity has reshaped American business by raising prices, reducing quality, cutting jobs, and shifting resources from productive to unproductive parts of the economy. Forced to take on huge debts and pay extractive fees, companies purchased by private equity firms are often left bankrupt, or shells of their former selves, with consequences to communities that long depended on them.

Not only that, but Brendan explains how, with the backing of lobbyists and various arms of government itself, PE firms have availed themselves of powerful tailwinds as they’ve swallowed up large parts of corporate America.

Listen Now »

This Week In Doom – #14: Saudi Pardners!

Grant and Doomberg reconvene to discuss the changing situation in the Middle East as Saudi Arabia’s East-facing charm offensive continues and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping looks to supplant Camp David and the White House Lawn with a new backdrop for peace agreements.

Dedollarization is also on the slate, as are environmental protests, the ridiculous disparity between domestic US natural gas prices, loopy energy policies and snooker. Yes, snooker.

What does it all mean? Where do we go from here? Tune in and find out

Listen Now »

The Narrative Game Ep. 9 – Dollars, Indictments & ChatGPT

In the ninth episode of The Narrative Game, Epsilon Theory’s Dr. Ben Hunt returns to discuss the narrative aspects of the sudden surge in mainstream commentary around the drive towards de-dollarization on the part of China, Russia, Iran et al. Suffice to say, all is not what it might seem.

Elsewhere, with the indictment of former President, Donald J. Trump filling the news cycle, Ben offers a few thoughts on the potential motives behind the headlines, who might stand to benefit and whether this particular strategy might pay off.

Finally, we discuss the revolution that is ChatGPT and how AI may disrupt the workplace and Ben clues us in on the upcoming Epsilon Connect event in Nashville, TN when he, Rusty Guinn and a host of speakers (including Yours Truly) will bring the narrative world to life in living, breathing colour.

Listen Now »

Super Terrific Happy Hour Ep. 17: Crisis? What Crisis?

Stephanie & Grant are back to take a look at the recent turmoil in the US banking sector as we bid farewell to Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank while First Republic remains on life support.

What do the decisions taken in late-March by regulators mean for the future of the America’s mid-size banks? Was their response a well-crafted rescue plan or a seat-of-the-pants decision? Have any of last week’s shenanigans altered the probability that the US slips into recession and, if so, what will that mean for bonds, equities and the dollar? What are all these people doing in my bedroom?

Come and join the fun as our intrepid duo try to figure out the answer to at least one of those questions.

Listen Now »

The End Game Ep 42 – Michael Kao

With the financial world in turmoil once again and The End Game seemingly under way, we welcome Michael Kao back to the podcast to share his thinking around what the recent events in the banking sector (and the response of regulators) portends for the future.

Michael explains how he views the Fed’s toolkit and what he feels they’re likely to do with the ever-decreasing options at their disposal, what this latest fiasco means for the rest of the global banking fraternity and the US dollar as well as the likely knock-on effects for China.

This is yet another fascinating step on our journey to uncover The End Game.

Listen Now »

The Grant Williams Podcast: Peter Atwater

My returning guest in this edition of The Grant Williams Podcast is my friend Peter Atwater, Founder of Financial Insyghts and Adjunct Professor at the College of William & Mary. Peter’s stellar work on the importance of mood and confidence has long been an important touchpoint for me when evaluating market conditions and likely paths ahead – never more so than this week. Given recent events, I wanted to try and add something to a conversation that has become noisier by the day. There are plenty of opinions and perspectives flying around (to which I’ll add my own in this

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