Stephen King is Senior Economic Adviser at the international bank HSBC, which allowed a wide- ranging conversation covering many areas of importance to the world economy.

He gave his thoughts on the short-term outlook for three different groups of countries, depending on their vaccination status, as well as how the coming decade of the 2020s might compare and contrast with that of the ‘Roaring’ 1920s. He explained the dangers facing governments which might rely on massive government spending or higher rates of inflation to solve many of the problems facing the world economy. Instead he made various suggestions for how policy makers might improve the worryingly low levels of productivity growth in many countries. Governments, businesses and households have incurred historically high levels of debt; potential solutions such as financial repression or ‘modern monetary theory’ were explored.

The discussion switched to international economics; Stephen analysed the outlook for EU-UK relations post Brexit, moving onto the various issues facing policy makers in China at this stage of the economic recovery. He considered how the Chinese government might deal with long-standing problems in areas such as debt, demographics, the environment or US-China relations.

Lastly, Stephen gave his views on work life balance in the context of working for a major financial services company.

Stephen King started his career at HM Treasury, and then James Capel stockbrokers, but has worked for many years at HSBC bank, where he is currently their Senior Economic Adviser. He has written several books, notably ‘When the Money Runs Out: The End of Western Affluence’.