Good morning. Yesterday I asked why a private equity firm (Apollo, see below) would want to buy a movie studio (Paramount’s). Reader answers varied from “they want the back catalogue, it is leverageable” to “rich guys in suits want to stand next to Jennifer Lopez”. Either way, the FT reports that Shari Redstone, who controls the studio, doesn’t like the Apollo bid. Tough break for the rich guys in suits. Email me: robert.armstrong@ft.com.

Friday Interview: Torsten Slok

Torsten Slok is one of Wall Street’s most closely followed economists. After earning his PhD, he has worked for the IMF, the OECD, and Deutsche bank. He is currently a partner and chief economist at Apollo Global. He spoke with Unhedged last week.

Unhedged: We’ve been reminded in the last four or five years that economics is not a predictive science. Given that Wall Street is in the prediction business, what is the role of someone with economics training in markets?