May 6, 2025· 29 min

Brad Setser on the Big Surge in the Taiwanese Dollar

Orality
Model
70%
Oral-dominant (speeches, podcasts, storytelling)

Speaker Breakdown

HostJoe Weisenthal(1,021 words)
M:93%
HostTracy Alloway(1,247 words)
M:94%
GuestBrad Setser(2,611 words)
M:27%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic40%
literally, completely, definitely
Engagement54%
you, our, your
Memory Aids100%
listen, now, like
Repetition100%
dollar (38x), central (37x), bank (33x)
Parallelism81%
And I'm Tracy Alloway...., But I remember in 2019, the fi..., And I guess the reason this ep...
Sound Patterns29%
16 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"
Formulaic Phrases7%
you know what, i mean

Literate Indicators

Hedging12%
probably, could, may
Passive Voice2%
was revealed, was undervalued, be impacted
Abstract Nouns21%
investment, recommendation, entity
Subordination7%
because, since, until
Sentence Length44%
Avg: 16.0 words/sentence
Word Complexity49%
investment, analyze, anticipate
Academic Markers0%
Impersonal Style46%
297 personal pronouns found
Descriptive Style91%
literally, completely, probably

Description

There are several markets that have really settled down since the tumult of early April. But strange, unusual things are still popping up, particularly in the currency space. Over the last few days, we've seen a huge surge in the Taiwan dollar. This is important, in part, because Taiwanese life insurance companies are major buyers of US dollar assets, such as corporate bonds. Suddenly, they're looking at a major hit to the value of these holdings, with losses that are only partially hedged. So why the sudden move, and what does it mean? On this episode, we speak with Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. We first talked to Brad about exactly this topic back in 2019, when the story was more of an intellectual curiosity rather than a market-moving development. We discuss the implications, and what it means in the context of the Trump administration's trade strategy. More: Why Taiwanese Life Insurers Are The Great ‘Whodunit' Of The Financial World Taiwan’s Markets Jolted as Currency Surges Most Since 1980s Only Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox — now delivered every weekday — plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.