Invested: The OMFIF Podcast

Money Disrupted is a monthly roundtable series examining how economic fragmentation, geopolitics and technological change are reshaping the global monetary order.  Drawing on lessons from economic history, this episode examines two defining questions for the US and global outlook. First, can the new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh bring inflation sustainably under control at the 2% target level? Second, will the artificial intelligence boom continue with positive effects for the US and world economy without a destabilising correction? The discussion explores what previous inflationary episodes and technology-driven investment booms can tell us about today’s monetary policy challenges, market valuations and the prospects for AI to deliver lasting gains in productivity and economic growth. Join OMFIF for the September Federal Open Market Committee Watch on 18 September to examine the outcomes of the September FOMC meeting and the outlook for US monetary policy.

Norway's extraordinary wealth as one of the world's richest countries is a source of both pride and debate, with views divided over whether it is a blessing or a burden.  In the wake of King Harald's passing, attention turns to the state of the Norwegian economy and the management of its vast riches. Øystein Olsen, former governor of Norges Bank and member of OMFIF's advisory council, joins David Marsh, chairman of OMFIF, to discuss his new book, Our Rich Country (Vårt Rike Land), co-authored with Eivind Thomassen. The discussion covers Norway's sovereign fund, its oil wealth and the argument that this abundance has contributed to stalled productivity. Olsen also sets out the case made in Our Rich Country, which offers a counterargument to Martin Bech Holte's 2025 book The Country That Became Too Rich (Landet som ble for rikt).

Artificial intelligence has transformed the conversation around investing, but much of the focus has remained on equity markets. As AI adoption accelerates across the global economy, its implications for fixed income investors are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. In this episode, Manusha Samaraweera, fixed income investment director at Capital Group, joins Mariam Khan, economist at OMFIF, to discuss his paper, ‘Why bond investors can’t ignore the AI revolution’. They explore how AI-driven productivity gains could influence sovereign debt dynamics and inflation over the long term, why the US may be better positioned than other regions to capture the benefits of AI and how the technology is creating both opportunities and risks across credit markets. Read the Capital Group paper, ‘Why bond investors can’t ignore the AI revolution’.

Tokenised deposits are putting commercial banks back in the centre of the evolution of digital money. Lee McNabb, head of digital assets at NatWest Group, joins John Orchard, chairman of the Digital Monetary Institute at OMFIF, about the benefits and remaining challenges of bringing tokenised commercial bank money to wholesale and retail users. They discuss the ways central banks and policy-makers are working on this development, which will allow the existing financial architecture to combine the benefits of blockchain with the guardrails and infrastructure of the two-tier financial system. Read the latest edition of the Digital Monetary Institute Journal for more insights on tokenised deposits.

There is a growing water crisis on multiple fronts. In early 2026, United Nations scientists declared an era of global water bankruptcy as systems hit breaking point. The social and health implications of this are widely understood, but the economic and financial risks are too often missing from the conversation. A new report by WWF finds that, when climate and nature risks are considered separately, without fully integrating freshwater considerations, important systemic risks can be overlooked and gaps in risk management can build up. In this episode, Carolin Carella, research lead at the WWF Greening Financial Regulation Initiative, and Jessica Smith, head of nature at the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative, join Sarah Moloney, editorial director at OMFIF. They examine the key findings of the report and consider what financial institutions, supervisors and regulators can do to help ensure a financially resilient and water-secure future. Read the WWF report, ‘Navigating towards water resilience’, which highlights the materiality of water insecurity to price and financial stability and the possible steps for central banks and financial supervisors to address water-related risks in their work, and the UNEP FI Risk Centre's flagship report, ‘The landscape of sustainability risk integration’, which assessed the extent to which sustainability risks are being integrated by the global banking sector.