Pints & Policy Episode 1

​@GreatBritishThinkTank Damian Pudner hosts Michael Brown and Marcus Ashworth Damian Pudner is an economist specialising in monetary policy and central bank design, and Senior Research Fellow at the Great British Think Tank. He brings over 25 years in banking and financial markets — with a focus on global macro and fixed income — to his work as a central bank watcher, writer and visiting lecturer on monetary policy and financial stability. His markets career spans leading global investment banks and hedge funds, including Merrill Lynch, UBS and Nomura, and he is founder and CIO of boutique advisory firm Pudner Capital Management. His writing on monetary reform and nominal GDP targeting appears in outlets including CapX, The Telegraph, The Spectator, CityAM and the Institute of Economic Affairs, and he writes a regular Substack on monetary policy and central banking. He holds a first-class degree in Business Management & Economics and a Master's in Money, Banking and Central Banking. Michael Brown is a seasoned, award-winning market analyst, with a record of providing pertinent commentary, analysis, and forecasting across all major asset classes, principally through a global macro focus, over a decade in the financial services industry. He frequently appears in a wide range of UK and international media, discussing major risk events, key market trends, and broader macroeconomic themes. Michael holds an Executive MBA from Cranfield University. Marcus Ashworth is a financial markets writer, broadcaster and speaker with nearly four decades at the intersection of global markets and macroeconomics. He was a Bloomberg Opinion columnist from 2016 to 2026, leading EMEA financial markets coverage on a global remit — writing on central bank policy, sovereign debt, credit, FX and commodities, with work syndicated worldwide and appearing in the Washington Post, MoneyWeek and The Week. Before turning to writing, he spent decades on the trading floor and in senior markets roles: Chief Market Strategist and Head of Fixed Income at Execution Noble (later Espirito Santo and Haitong), where he was a Managing Director and Executive Committee member, and earlier roles across JP Morgan, SBC Warburg (now UBS), Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley and others, spanning London, Hong Kong and Tokyo. He read Economics at the University of Manchester. His expertise runs deepest on ECB, Federal Reserve and Bank of England policy, European sovereign debt and fixed income strategy. 0:00 First pints, first episode 0:49 Is UK debt actually sustainable? 2:40 Why servicing cost matters more than debt-to-GDP 3:39 Gilt markets, hedge funds and the highest yields in the developed world 5:17 Quantitative tightening: is the Bank making it worse? 8:31 Should the Bank of England keep its independence? 11:15 Inflation target: 2%, a band, or nominal GDP? 13:00 A blunt instrument and the accountability problem 15:00 The ONS, the OBR and too few markets people on the MPC 16:52 Tax, wealth flight and the squeezed middle 18:56 The Budget and the problem with long lead times 20:30 Where does the power actually sit? 21:46 Liz Truss, the mini-budget and the OBR pendulum 24:57 Andy Burnham: the left's Boris? 28:48 How do you sell a tax-raising budget? 29:48 Defence spending and Britain's real military strength 34:52 Defence bonds, low-coupon gilts and smarter debt 37:33 Welfare, tax thresholds and the student loan trap 40:03 University, trades and AI's hit to graduate jobs 43:00 Financial literacy and the data problem 45:39 Flat tax, frozen allowances and the minimum wage 47:31 The triple lock and the welfare bill 51:20 Politics, the SDP and the case against devolution 54:48 Non-doms, housing and the broken social contract 57:49 Less government, done better 1:00:16 Markets: the yen, China and the carry trade 1:05:07 Bessent, Warsh and how to move a market 1:06:43 Is inflation still a threat? 1:08:27 Predictions for the 28 October Budget 1:11:43 The flat-tax finish