Few people are better positioned to comment on current trends in media and politics than Alastair Campbell. After a long career in journalism and politics, serving as UK Prime Minister Tony Blairs Press Secretary and Downing Street Director of Communications and Strategy, Alastair now co-hosts The Rest Is Politics, the most popular politics podcast in the UK. This wide-ranging discussion opens a three-part series on Western politics, covering the changing nature of the media, what it takes for a leader to drive policy, the state of populism and the challenges for the Labour Party in the current political moment.

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As the podcast starts its fourth year, we take a look back this week: to its origins, how the content and message have changed over the years, what guests stood out as formative to building the audience and the lessons learned about macro and markets along the way. In a twist, the microphone gets turned around as well, with our host, Tim Graf, taking a turn as a guest. Ramu Thiagarajan, Head of Thought Leadership for State Street takes over this special birthday edition of Street Signals!

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This week we explore the evolving US-China relationship and the drivers of the stellar equity market performance in Asia this year, joined by Dwyfor Evans, Head of Macro Strategy for Asia at State Street Markets. The recent summit meeting of US President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping marked a thawing of relations but considerable questions remain around how the two countries will navigate geopolitical and trade tensions. These important discussions frame a regional market backdrop remarkable for its current strength, raising questions of sustainability of the concentrated returns year-to-date.

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As impressive the recent bounce in stocks has been, it is a Rally In Name Only. Large cap tech companies dominate returns, while almost everything else - whether at a country or a sector level - continues to struggle. With inflation spiking and interest rate markets starting to show signs of dislocation, it is worth asking if the concentration of returns carries with it the seeds of its own undoing. Marija Veitmane, Head of Equity Strategy at State Street Markets, joins us to discuss the sustainability of stock market strength and whether fixed income stress will have any lasting impact on returns.

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To kick off State Street’s series of global research events, we are joined by research partner Alberto Cavallo, co-founder of PriceStats and Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. In this wide-ranging discussion of inflationary dynamics, we assess the last ten years of recurring price shocks and how much inflationary regimes and the price sensitivities of retailers and consumers have changed. The current impact of another energy price shock and lingering effects of last year’s tariffs briefly feature as a sneak preview of Alberto’s eagerly anticipated current thinking. For a fuller presentation of those themes, please contact your State Street representative to register for one of our upcoming events in Asia, the Americas and Europe.

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Wednesday’s hopeful news of a possible end to hostilities in Iran and opening of the Strait of Hormuz comes just as the macro impact of events is starting to be felt and seen in economic data. A resolution does not change the realities of high near-term inflation and the varying policy responses to it. Geopolitical disruptions are still going to resonate for some time. This week, we speak to Noel Dixon, Senior Macro Strategist at State Street Markets, on all these topics, and to position in FX markets accordingly.

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Short-term market conditions remain subject to the headlines. Long-term questions of US equity market performance and whether investors require a rethink of their asset allocation preferences are the same and as valid today as they were before the eruption of Middle East hostilities. This week, Dan Gerard, senior multi-asset strategist for State Street Markets, talks to us about a new piece on the US stock market and whether concentration and valuation risks are as acute today as they were earlier in the year.

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In a decade full of seismic geopolitical events, the conflict in Iran had the potential to rank amongst the most impactful. Yet financial markets never priced it as more than a fleeting instance of volatility. And now, the most severe dislocations are almost fully closed with the onset of talks to deescalate tensions. Question marks remain over energy supplies and the macroeconomic impacts of higher equilibrium oil and gas prices. This week, Peter Vincent, head of FX trading for EMEA at State Street Markets, joins us to discuss the landscape for FX, rate and equity markets now that the dust has settled.

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