Our electric SUV sticks out like a sore thumb as…
Our electric SUV sticks out like a sore thumb as it meanders through the country roads of the Cotsworlds. Our picturesque view of the English countryside is occasionally interrupted by a tractor, to which we abruptly pull to the side, so that the agricultural tank may slip by. The farmer shows the palm of his hand to us, resting it at 12 o’clock on the steering wheel, to offer his thanks – but more importantly, he looks at our car, knowing we are from the city, and makes it unmistakably clear that we know he knows.
The feeling of alienation is exacerbated given that the CEO of our vehicle has made controversial cuts to the US government and questioned the integrity of democracy in several European countries. Thankfully, after a few beeps by the sensors, we carry on to our destination unscathed.
My family and I are headed to our long-time friend’s countryside residence for a weekend of tennis, chit-chatting, and feasting. My Uncle Boris and Graham have known me since I was a boy, when my exposure to gold was limited to Greek mythology, and now here I am, in my early twenties, rolling down their driveway on a lukewarm Spring afternoon. The place is so idyllic, I find myself thinking there’s a time difference here.
My father, my Uncle and I are very keen tennis players and we savour days like these to get out there on centre court. After dropping my bag off in the guest room, we wasted no time heading to Wimbledon 2.0 to do our best impressions of Federer, Nadal, and Alcaraz. My Uncle, 30 years my senior, now beats me with a variety of shots that throw me off guard. A deep baseline shot followed by a drop shot, a defensive slice against what I thought was a forehand “winner”, and a high stamina level that negates my youthful advantage, which all become too much for me. Here I am naively thinking this was, quite literally, going to be a walk in the park.
We get back to the house, I’ll explain how I lost later to my mum but for now, I rush to the shower to wash away the embarrassment first and the sweat second. I meet Graham in the kitchen, my hair still damp, and he offers me a tour of the garden.
He shows me the cherry blossom and the table tennis table. I cannot look at another court until at least the next morning.
“They’re beautiful.” I opine.
“Yes, yes. Have you found a job yet?” Graham enquires.
I was so caught up in the tennis I forgot to mention my role at Bullion House. Graham’s face lights up upon hearing I work for a gold company, given the surge in the gold price off the back of Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs, (which we had a good laugh about) and asked me how I am finding it. I told him I’m learning everyday but loving it. We are summoned back inside for dinner.
For dinner, we have my favourite childhood dish, egg fried rice along with a mouthwatering pork belly in a subtly sweet sauce. My Uncle Boris cooks the egg fried rice in such a way that even if you had the same ingredients and instructions, it still wouldn’t taste as good. We have a bottle of Condrieu, a sweet white wine that could almost be mistaken for juice, for the evening.
We talk about tennis, Trump’s “Liberation Day” and the subsequent stock market sell-off, as well as the broader implications of what this trade war means for the rest of the world. The “formula” that was used to determine the level of reciprocal tariffs does the rounds and is received with chuckles.
Given my role at Bullion House, I view almost all news through the lens of “what does this mean for gold”. I then pose a question for the table.
“Does this reinforce the idea that gold is a flight to safety asset?” I ask, given the rally in the gold price as a result of increased uncertainty from the tariffs.
“I think so.” Graham says as his bottom lip swallows the top lip with a slight nod of the head.
He notices my wine glass is perilously close to being empty and as he gets up to give me a top up, he spots George Magnus, former chief economist at UBS, on BBC news. Graham points, brimming with excitement, and exclaims “It’s George Magnus! He’s my idol, he’s practically right about everything!”. It’s funny because that is how I feel about Graham. A sort of wise and prophetic figure but quick-thinking. Never stuck in the mud. The best part is that he would never admit it.
As dinner draws to a close, he offers us a Japanese sake with gold leaf flakes swimming around inside. Ha! How fitting!
I make a terrible joke and say we should weigh the miniscule flakes in case there’s a troy ounce there. Graham very generously laughs making me feel a lot funnier than I really am. As everyone wobbles to bed, I find this an opportune moment to see if Graham would feature on the Bullion Brief to get his insights on investing and the markets. He kindly agrees.
Graham attended Harrow school, where some notable alumni are Winston Churchill, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Richard Curtis (Director of “Love Actually”), and went on to study at Oxford University. He had originally studied modern history, but then, realising it was not fulfilling his academic appetite, switched to the world of economics and had a course made just for him. The course was on the history of the US economy and its industrialisation. An extremely relevant topic now that Trump wishes to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US through “reciprocal” tariffs.
We spoke briefly about China, the US’s greatest economic foe, where Graham expressed concern over China’s domestic economy and their export-heavy economic model. Whilst impressed with the “Deepseek moment”, where Chinese firm Deepseek had produced a strong AI large language model at a fraction of the cost of ChatGPT, he emphasised the need for China to strengthen domestic demand yet highlighted China’s tendency to force importers to use their products but reject foreign goods. He agreed with me that Trump had catalysed the propensity for China to build deeper ties with other nations, as the US shows their fickleness in trade and as an ally. Trump still fails to put pressure on Putin, while continuing to threaten a pullback on armaments to Ukraine, which is only empowering the corrupt aggressor.
Graham’s first job out of university was as a researcher at Barclay’s bank, but then shortly went to work at The Economist. “Everyday was a learning course,” he says. “It was like being at university” where he describes Alastair Burnet, then editor-in-chief of The Economist, as the professor. “Meetings with Burnet were a fun, dynamic environment where ideas were free flowing and back then, The Economist took a firm stance on things. It was a publication of opinion. We would take a stand and argue fiercely”. One of the more notable publications of opinion during his time at The Economist was over the Concorde, a supersonic aircraft that had a cruising speed of 1350mph and could get you to New York from London in about three and a half hours. He argued that the Concorde was financially unsustainable due to its high fuel consumption and the need for specialist maintenance, which drove up operating costs, making its eventual retirement inevitable. “We were right about that”.
Now, Graham is semi-retired and manages his investments. When asked about his investment style, he says that “short term views deliver poor returns. If investors look for a quick return, they will eventually make a mistake”. I type away furiously at my laptop as if I’ve hit a gold mine. Reputation, strong financial fundamentals, and dividend cover, which measures a company’s ability to pay dividends to its shareholders, are just a few things Graham takes into consideration when choosing which companies to own.
For those who don’t know, Graham also supplies me with cartoons that go on the cover of some of our articles. He is also solely responsible for my obsession with spy books, as he has become my unofficial librarian, lending out fascinating reading material to me.
After spending 5-6 years at The Economist, Graham then worked for the Financial Times group and was asked to help set up a publication house in Hong Kong. He has never looked back since. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me.” With a Hong Kong ID card, something not even I possess, he spends most of his time there. “It’s like my second home. I have my routine there, I go on the same walk and go to the same cafe. I love it there.”
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