Lupin Rahman, PhD: What Sovereign Debt Reveals About the World, Can You Trust a Government to Pay You Back? Why the Risk-Free Rate Is Not Risk-Free — Inside the Mind of a Sovereign Debt Investor

About this episode

Lupin Rahman discusses the intricacies of sovereign debt and its implications for investors and economies.

Lupin Rahman, PhD, is a senior macroeconomist, sovereign debt specialist, and former head of sovereign credit and emerging markets portfolio manager at PIMCO, with over 25 years of experience across the IMF, World Bank, and global capital markets, and author of The Sovereign Debt Investor (Wiley Finance). Episode Sponsor: Fiscal AI is a modern data terminal that gives investors instant access to twenty years of financials, earnings transcripts, and extensive segment and KPI data—use my link for a two-week free trial plus 15% off: https://fiscal.ai/talkingbillions/ 3:00 — Lupin recalls growing up with her grandmother in Bangladesh, a powerful matriarch who managed rice markets, bargaining, inventory timing, and informal community insurance — an early blueprint for sovereign economics.5:00 — The mindset shift from IMF/World Bank policymaker to PIMCO investor: "Policy advice lives in a world of intent and markets essentially price outcomes."7:30 — Sovereign debt has survived thousands of years because it bridges the gap between government spending today and tax collection over time — productive use strengthens economies, unproductive use "starts borrowing from the…

People in this episode

Host: Bogumil Baranowski

Guest: Lupin Rahman

Topics covered

• sovereign debt
• government finance
• macroeconomics
• investment strategies
• credit analysis

Keywords

• sovereign debt
• government trust
• risk-free rate
• macroeconomics
• PIMCO
• IMF
• World Bank
• credit analysis

Sponsors

Fiscal AI

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: PIMCO, IMF, World Bank

Books & works: The Sovereign Debt Investor

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