The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost and Jim Mellon

**Wilfred Frost** (0:00)
I'm Wilfred Frost in London, and this is The Master Investor Podcast for anyone passionate about business and investing. We're pro-ambition, we'll celebrate success, and we'll give you an edge. Join us as we learn from some of the greatest names in business and investing.
Welcome to the very first teaser episode of The Master Investor Podcast. My name is Wilfred Frost. I'm a presenter at Sky News and CNBC, and have had a history in finance the markets before my journalistic career. I'm delighted to welcome you to this first episode, and even more delighted to welcome my partner in crime, and regular guest to be on the podcast, Jim Mellon. Jim, great to have you here.

**Jim Mellon** (0:49)
It's lovely to be here.

**Wilfred Frost** (0:51)
Tell our listeners a little bit about yourself.

**Jim Mellon** (0:53)
Okay. So I've been around for a long time in the markets, some good, some bad.
And I started my career as a fund manager. But latterly, I've been basically backing companies in a variety of industries, including biotech, food, quantum computing, you name it. And one of the companies that I own is the producer of Master Investor, which is an annual show that you kindly have been involved in in a very high level way. And it doesn't make any money. And I bought it out of bankruptcy. But I think it is a way of democratising investment in the United Kingdom and giving retail investors in particular access to information they otherwise wouldn't get hold of.

**Wilfred Frost** (1:37)
Well, Jim has undersold himself somewhat there. He is one of Britain's greatest investors. And it is a real treat for me personally, in our friendship, to be able to pick your brain on investing. And I hope it's going to be as much of a treat for our listeners in the weeks ahead to try and learn from the extraordinary experience you've built up. And as you said, you hold this annual event called Master Investor, aiming to get that information out to people. And essentially, what we're trying to do with this podcast is make it rather than a big in-person annual gathering, a weekly, easy to access podcast with Jim as our most regular guest, but also the great names around the world in investing and business from the likes of Jamie Dimon, Brian Moynihan and David Solomon in banking to great investors like Jeremy Grantham and Ray Dalio, and hopefully some leading politicians as well from Janet Yellen to Scott Besant. And I think, Jim, if there's one thing that I really want people here to gain from, it's getting an edge, not just in investing, but in life too. Because some of those people, if we're lucky enough to deliver them on the podcast, they have delivered extraordinary success in their own lives, but for their clients and shareholders too. And I think there's a lot that we can learn from them.

**Jim Mellon** (3:11)
Yeah. Well, you have a fantastic Rolodex. You also have a great way with people. And it's going to be a fantastic combination. I've had advanced sight of some of the names that you've lined up and they are really terrific. Everyone needs to subscribe to this podcast to listen to Wilf extracting life stories and experience and wisdom out of his early guests.

**Wilfred Frost** (3:34)
And on that note, clearly, Jim, you're going to be around whenever we kind of need you. If there's big market dislocation or if there's a news making interview, market moving interview that we do with a guest, Jim will be around to jump on and give us his insights and more regularly join the podcast when his views on the markets do change or not. Let's pivot to that in this teaser episode, Jim, and just get a quick snapshot of where you stand at the moment in terms of your views on the markets. A few months ago, we caught up and you were pretty bearish on the US. Since then, we've seen a sudden fall and bounce again. And we're kind of where we started with the S&P 500 year to date, essentially flat after a long multi-year bull run. What are your latest views on the US?

**Jim Mellon** (4:23)
Well, I think this is a great opportunity to sell because the US market is priced to perfection at a time when growth is diminishing and may even go negative. And it's not because the US lacks great companies and opportunities. It's because it's way overpriced relative to its economic prospects. So in a very short summary, as you know because we talked about this, the US debt situation is very bad. The US taxes its economy at about 30% and is spending 38%. And the Trump administration is trying to cut taxes at a time when it should be raising taxes. So the fiscal deficit is getting to be a very, very big problem.