“Making predictions about macroeconomics is a waste of time, but it has to be analysed”, said Espelosín, who pointed out that he was able to foresee the financial crisis due to his utter trust in macroeconomic variables. Espelosín encouraged the students to develop second-level thinking, which he said would enable them to do long-term planning without following current trends: “You have to think differently from others and do things that are above average”. He also discussed the emotional and psychological aspects of decision-making by a good manager.

Espelosín, who was nominated by Allfunds-Expansión as one of the top four investment fund managers in Spain, drew attention to the high levels of debt the world economy has been burdened with since the 2007 financial crisis. He referred to it as “the worst financial crisis in history”, from which we escaped due to the strength of some currencies. “From now on”, he said, “economic growth will never be the same”.

The fund manager pointed out that the challenges currently facing the world economy are an ageing population and digitalization. “Sixty per cent of jobs could be replaced by robots, so we are on the threshold of something new”, he predicted. “In the future, we might have to tax robots as a way of dealing with the ageing population.”