Program and guest
Allison Nathan, host of Goldman Sachs’ Exchanges podcast, speaks with Goldman Sachs President and Chief Operating Officer John Waldron. Original English title: John Waldron on GDP Growth, AI, and the M&A Outlook. Subtitles cover 0:00–20:28; this article covers the entire conversation.
Key takeaways
- U.S. nominal growth is expected to exceed 6%. 2:49
- The preference for scale is real: large companies can access more capital and better returns, and are better able to invest in expensive computing capacity. 3:18
- Real growth is around 2.5% and could reach 3% if things go well; inflation will gradually decline. 4:16
- China is a tale of two cities: domestic demand is relatively weak, but innovation and exports are strong. 4:38
- Japan has suddenly found its moment, with both loan demand and the yield curve improving. 5:52
- Corporate M&A is growing 30% to 35% this year, making it a record year, and both the backlog and pipeline are strong. 6:36
Background and notes
This episode of Goldman Sachs’ Exchanges focuses on the economic outlook, the M&A cycle and regional divergence. Subtitles cover 0:00–20:28; this article covers the entire conversation. The views and timestamps are paraphrased from the original subtitles; each timestamp marks the start of the corresponding passage.