About this episode
With less than 100 days until Americans hit the polls, how are markets reacting to the rapidly evolving headlines and how should investors navigate the most likely scenarios?
Join our experts—Head of Public Policy Jason Cole, Chief U.S. Economist Lara Rhame and Chiron Funds Chief Investment Officer Ryan Caldwell—as they examine the possible policy implications from both administrations and the potential opportunities they may present for investors and allocators.
Transcript excerpt
[00:00:05] Lara Rhame: Welcome back to FireSide, a podcast from FS Investments. I’m Lara Rhame, Chief U.S. Economist, and I could not be more excited to bring today’s guests back to discuss two prime issues impacting all of us at a rapid pace: The election and investing. I’m joined by Jason Cole, our Head of Public Policy, who has had a 25-year career on the Hill and has been sharing his insights with us as these election news rapidly evolves. Jason, welcome.
[00:00:37] Jason Cole: Thanks, Lara. Great to be here.
[00:00:38] Lara Rhame: The other star of our show is Ryan Caldwell, the CIO of the Chiron Funds. Ryan, welcome.
[00:00:46] Ryan Caldwell: How are you doing, Lara? How are you doing, Jason? Thank you.
[00:00:49] Jason Cole: Great, Ryan. Good to see you.
[00:00:50] Lara Rhame: Ryan, I love, I love podcasting with you because I don’t think anyone puts together the puzzle pieces of quantitative analysis, fundamentals, global asset allocation, policy together better than you do. And at the end of the day, Jason and I can opine on the economy and the elections as much as we want to.
But you really will tell us how to play this in markets. That’s really where the rubber meets the road. And I think that’s why I’m so excited to get our conversation going today. Jason and I recorded a podcast on the 2024 election. It was Market and Investing Impact, which has gotten over 250,000 impressions on Spotify.
And our podcasts, in general, are getting 1,500 downloads a month. So, it was really a no-brainer to bring Ryan into this conversation. It is really, I think, top of mind for everybody. There’s earnings news, there’s economic news, but this, I think, is the shadow of uncertainty that has its tentacles into everything, so that’s why I’m so excited for today.
Jason, let me start off with you because I know that you have been almost recording now with us every week as events evolve. Time-stamp today, July 26. You know, it’s been five days now that Biden has been off of the top of the Democratic ticket. Harris has been on and Obama has just come out and endorsed her. Nancy Pelosi’s endorsed her. Is that a done deal?
[00:02:35] Jason Cole: It’s a done deal. Okay. It’s a done deal. And the process at this point, my understanding is that the delegates, the 3,900 or so delegates are going to convene in a virtual session on or around August 7 to officially nominate Kamala Harris as the presidential nominee for the Democratic Party.
[00:02:57] Lara Rhame: Okay.
[00:02:57] Jason Cole: And that’s all taking place due to some state technicalities in a handful of states to try to get the nominee done before a date certain and will happen before the convention, which begins, I believe, on August 19.
