Episode 12: How a Consultant Foresaw the 2015 Commodities Crash

On this episode, co-host Tracy Alloway is joined by Bloomberg Markets reporter Luke Kawa for a journey back in time. As the global elite mingle at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, we look back at a WEF gathering five years ago. Back then, the mood was buoyant -- markets had recovered from the 2008 financial crisis and the euro-zone debt crisis had yet to fully unfold. But Barrie Wilkinson, a partner at Oliver Wyman Ltd., wasn't feeling so jubilant. As bankers, regulators, and politicians congratulated themselves for a job well done, he was warning of a brewing crisis that would start with a crash in commodities prices in 2015. Now, parts of his 27-page report seem eerily prescient.