FICC Focus

“If there’s kind of a squeamishness about forum shopping in the US, there’s a little...it’s just overseas, there’s none at all,” observed Harvard Law Professor Jared Ellias. “There’s a great deal of pride and interest in building...an insolvency system that is equal and in some ways more useful than what they have in the United States.” Ellias sat down with Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Negisa Balluku and Phil Brendel to discuss his new paper, “The Global Law of Debt,” co-authored with Narine Lalafaryan. Ellias traces how the historical entanglement of the New York and London debt markets has evolved into a highly competitive, globalized ecosystem where borrowers now forum-shop across borders to maximize flexibility and bypass traditional constraints like Chapter 11’s absolute-priority rule. The conversation dives into the export of aggressive liability management exercises (LMEs), the implementation of hybrid “Frankenstein” debt documents and how foreign-court systems relish taking market share from the US. The podcast concludes (1:05:40) with BI’s Noel Hebert joining Negisa and Phil to discuss the latest developments in First Brands Group, Optimum Communications, QVC Group and Trinseo.

Link to referenced paper: https://bankruptcyroundtable.law.harvard.edu/2026/03/24/the-global-law-of-debt/

JPMorgan Asset Management sees a resilient economy facing multiple supply shocks, with inflation still largely supply-led and the Federal Reserve likely to remain on hold for now. Priya Misra, fixed-income portfolio manager at the firm and a manager of the JPMorgan Core Plus Bond ETF (JCPB Equity), joins Ira Jersey, Bloomberg Intelligence chief US interest-rate strategist, on this Macro Matters edition of the FICC Focus podcast to explain how she defines the “plus” in core-plus investing, from macro duration and curve views to allocations across securitized credit, high yield and mortgage convexity management. She also discusses what Kevin Warsh’s arrival as Fed chair could mean for communication policy and the dot plot, arguing that investors still need enough Fed transparency to understand each official’s reaction function. The two examine where she sees value across fixed income, including high-quality spread product, duration in the five- to 10-year sector as a hedge and select structured-credit opportunities such as agency CMBS and non-agency mortgage exposure over parts of the agency RMBS market.

The Macro Matters podcast is part of BI’s FICC Focus series.

Credit continues to rally despite the lack of a US-Iran peace deal, and it has served as a safe haven relative to rates. In this Credit Crunch podcast, host Mahesh Bhimalingam, global head of credit strategy at Bloomberg Intelligence, and Souheir Asba, credit portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein, discuss how hyperscaler issuance and upcoming IPOs could affect the credit landscape through index and portfolio changes, and how investors should position for this wave of supply. They also compare credit performance with rates since the Iran war began, assess relative value across investment-grade, high-yield and rates markets and share sector outlooks and views on AT1s and corporate hybrids.

The Credit Crunch podcast is part of BI’s FICC Focus series. Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Emerging markets are becoming a strategic focus for creditors looking to extract the complexity premium embedded in local markets. Atanas Bostandjiev, chairman and founder of Gemcorp Capital Management, joins Damian Sassower, Bloomberg Intelligence’s chief EM fixed income strategist, to assess the opportunities available to institutional investors with perpetual capital. Bostandjiev and Sassower discuss the durability of alpha generation, the formation of behavioral biases and the ability to capitalize on structural inefficiencies across EM.

Supply shocks, inflation risks and AI are reshaping the investment landscape, a theme that Lazard’s Chief Investment Officer Eric Van Nostrand discusses with Ira Jersey on this Macro Matters edition of the FICC Focus podcast. Van Nostrand explains why macro matters more to markets now than it did for much of the past two decades, and why investors need to focus more on supply dynamics than traditional demand management. The two examine the inflationary consequences of the conflict in Iran, why Van Nostrand believes the market is underestimating the risk of persistently higher oil prices, and how those pressures complicate the outlook for the Federal Reserve under Chairman Kevin Warsh. 

They also discuss how fiscal and local policy affect long-term supply growth, why European equities look more attractive than they have in years, and where Lazard sees opportunities tied to the AI buildout, data-center infrastructure and emerging markets in a weaker-dollar world.

The Macro Matters podcast is part of BI’s FICC Focus series.