In this podcast episode of Purpose-Driven Wealth, host Mo Bina engages in a conversation with Akhil Patel to highlight the significance of investors understanding market cycles. While markets experience fluctuations, it’s essential to comprehend why these cycles repeat and the impact of economic relationships between nations. Akhil simplifies the concept of economic cycles, discusses the common themes during downturns, and shares his insights on the relationship between the US, China, and Russia. This episode aims to help listeners make better decisions by better understanding economic problems.

Akhil became interested in economic cycles during his school years when he came across Henry George’s Progress and Poverty, which explained why economies go through periods of boom and bust. Later on, he witnessed the negative effects of not understanding economic cycles when his family’s business went through difficult periods during the major recessions in the early 1990s and during the global financial crisis after 2008. He became determined to develop a body of work that would help people – whether they were investors, business owners or those just interested in doing something with their savings to grow their wealth or manage their affairs through the course of these economic cycles. Akhil has professional experience in audit, central government and international banking and has worked on a range of issues from reviewing large infrastructure public-private partnerships (PPP) deals to helping establish the UK’s £3 billion International Climate Fund. He has two Master’s Degrees (in Finance and Public Policy) and a first degree in the Classics from Oxford. He also works as a Principal Policy Advisor to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).