In the UK, there are 70% fewer listed companies today than in 1996. Around the world, equity markets are getting progressively smaller as the number of publicly traded companies dwindles. So where have all the companies gone? In this week’s episode of Merryn Talks Money, Schroders’s Duncan Lamont and Douglas Abbott join host Merryn Somerset Webb to try and answer that question.

In the UK, there are 70% fewer listed companies today than in 1996. Around the world, equity markets are getting progressively smaller as the number of publicly traded companies dwindles. So where have all the companies gone? In this week’s episode of Merryn Talks Money, Schroders’s Duncan Lamont and Douglas Abbott join host Merryn Somerset Webb to try and answer that question.

Merryn Talks Money with Bloomberg senior columnist Merryn Somerset Webb is your key to understanding how markets work – and how you can make them work for you. Every episode features a relaxed but in-depth conversation with a fund manager, a strategist, a Bloomberg expert or just someone Merryn finds particularly interesting in any given week. Listen in for the kind of insights and explanations everyone can use to help them make better saving and investing choices.

Merryn Talks Money with Bloomberg senior columnist Merryn Somerset Webb is your key to understanding how markets work – and how you can make them work for you. Every episode features a relaxed but in-depth conversation with a fund manager, a strategist, a Bloomberg expert or just someone Merryn finds particularly interesting in any given week. Listen in for the kind of insights and explanations everyone can use to help them make better saving and investing choices.

Merryn Talks Money

Where Have All the Companies Gone?

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/d902b2d8-2456-4000-af3c-b0a0015f02b0/transcript

Are we heading for another eurozone panic? This week, John Stepek and Bloomberg’s Sam Unsted discuss why political uncertainty in France is pushing up the country's borrowing costs, why the UK
has (perhaps surprisingly) managed to avoid similar pressure, and where the first signs of strain are emerging in the AI boom. They also explore what slowing AI investment could mean for the
investors, governments and industries banking on its growth.

Are we heading for another eurozone panic? This week, John Stepek and Bloomberg&rsquo;s Sam Unsted discuss why political uncertainty in France is pushing up the country's borrowing costs, why the UK has (perhaps surprisingly) managed to avoid similar pressure, and where the first signs of strain are emerging in the AI boom. They also explore what slowing AI investment could mean for the investors, governments and industries banking on its growth.

French Bond Markets and AI Neoclouds Feel The Pressure

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/49a90f87-14b8-487e-aa37-b4eb011565d7/transcript

Passive investing was designed to track the market, not shape it. But as Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek explore in the second episode of The Portfolio Reset, the enormous growth of passive investing has changed the market it was built to follow, just as some of the world’s most valuable companies are staying private for longer.

Using SpaceX as an example, they examine the changing relationship between public and private markets and why no investment is truly passive — someone is always making a decision somewhere in the process. As passive flows grow powerful enough to move markets, Merryn and John explain why investors should make sure they’re making active decisions in pursuit of their own financial goals, rather than leaving those decisions in the hands of strangers. 

Passive investing was designed to track the market, not shape it. But as Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek explore in the second episode of <a href="bbg://news/stories/TMVPTHRKV2U0" data-web-url="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-14/us-stocks-won-the-last-decade-what-about-the-next-one" data-cke-saved-href="bbg://news/stories/TMVPTHRKV2U0">The Portfolio Reset</a>, the enormous growth of passive investing has changed the market it was built to follow,&nbsp;just as some of the world&rsquo;s most valuable companies are staying private for longer.
Using SpaceX as an example, they examine the changing relationship between public and private markets and why no investment is truly passive &mdash; someone is always making a decision somewhere in the process. As passive flows grow powerful enough to move markets, Merryn and John explain why investors should make sure they&rsquo;re making active decisions in pursuit of their own financial goals, rather than leaving those decisions in the hands of strangers.&nbsp;

The Portfolio Reset: Episode 2 

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/d74b1169-fd55-4d58-badd-b4e90158e681/transcript

After years of being overshadowed by US megacaps and the artificial intelligence boom, could smaller companies finally be ready for a comeback? Merryn Somerset Webb speaks with Downing fund manager Simon Evan-Cook and Odyssean Capital’s Stuart Widdowson about why small caps remain unusually cheap, what could bring investors back — and whether small-cap value could become the ultimate anti-AI trade.

After years of being overshadowed by US megacaps and the artificial intelligence boom, could smaller companies finally be ready for a comeback? Merryn Somerset Webb speaks with Downing fund manager Simon Evan-Cook and Odyssean Capital&rsquo;s Stuart Widdowson about why small caps remain unusually cheap, what could bring investors back &mdash; and whether small-cap value could become the ultimate anti-AI trade.

The Case for Buying Small Caps Now

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/378ba41b-aa2b-4e05-ac16-b4e7014ac418/transcript

Where Have All the Companies Gone?

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