Money Talks from The Economist artwork

Money Talks from The Economist

478 episodes - English - Latest episode: 7 days ago - ★★★★ - 675 ratings

Take a seat at the table and learn about the biggest stories in financial markets, the economy and business. Each week our editors and correspondents explore how economics influences the world we live in and share their insights across a range of topics. From inflation and recession risk to all things crypto and even the commercial success of K-pop, we have you covered. Published every Thursday.


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Episodes

Money Talks: Should Amazon be afraid of Temu?

March 21, 2024 17:45 - 44 minutes - 101 MB

Amazon started with a plan to disrupt bookselling. It sold cheap books online, delivering them straight to customers’ homes. Three decades later it employs a million people in America and owns one hundred warehouses, each stocked with millions of products. More than a third of the US e-commerce market flows through it. Now, another company has spied an opportunity to disrupt Amazon: Temu. The Chinese e-commerce giant wants to undercut its US rival, delivering impossibly cheap stuff to Americ...

Money Talks: Why Amazon should be afraid of Temu

March 21, 2024 17:45 - 44 minutes - 101 MB

Amazon started with a plan to disrupt bookselling. It sold cheap books online, delivering them straight to customers’ homes. Three decades later it employs a million people in America and owns one hundred warehouses, each stocked with millions of products. More than a third of the US e-commerce market flows through it. Now, another company has spied an opportunity to disrupt Amazon: Temu. The Chinese e-commerce giant wants to undercut its US rival, delivering impossibly cheap stuff to Americ...

Money Talks: Is the West losing its sanctions war?

February 29, 2024 17:39 - 42 minutes - 97.7 MB

It's been two years since Russia brought war to Ukraine. America, Britain and the European Union may not have intervened by putting boots on the ground—but they have launched a massive financial counteroffensive. Vladimir Putin’s government, his cronies and the businesses profiting from the war are all subject to sanctions, yet the Russian economy has proved remarkably resilient. So, does financial warfare work? Hosts: Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: The Economist’s Cer...

Money Talks: Europe’s luxury crown

January 18, 2024 16:51 - 39 minutes - 89.6 MB

European firms dominate the global luxury landscape, accounting for two-thirds of sales and nine of the ten most valuable luxury brands. A strong emphasis on heritage and control of the supply chain have helped ensure success. But can Europe hold on to its crown? Hosts: Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird. Guests: Thomai Serdari, a professor of marketing at NYU Stern; and Ermenegildo Zegna, CEO and chairman of Zegna Group, an Italian luxury company. Sign up for a free trial of Econ...

Money Talks: There’s no business like it

December 21, 2023 16:30 - 47 minutes - 109 MB

We raise the curtain on the business of New York’s iconic theatre district. Broadway has been struggling with rising costs and falling sales since the pandemic, but its financial drama started much earlier. The economic plot just doesn’t make sense. Will the lights go out on the Great White Way? Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird. Guests: The Economist’s Stevie Hertz; actor Leanna Rae Conception; Megan O'Keefe, executive vice-president of production company No Guarantees; Br...

Money Talks: Play it again, Sam Altman

November 23, 2023 19:44 - 43 minutes - 99.3 MB

In five days OpenAI’s boss was fired by its board; hired by Microsoft, the startup’s biggest investor; and returned to his post at OpenAI. Yet things cannot be as they were: the shuffle will have consequences for the darling of the artificial-intelligence community and for the industry as a whole. Hosts: Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird. Guests: Benedict Evans, a technology analyst and former venture capitalist, and The Economist’s Arjun Ramani and Ludwig Siegele. Sign up for a ...

Money Talks: Touring America’s industrial revival

November 09, 2023 18:46 - 44 minutes - 103 MB

President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act promised $370bn for green infrastructure and industry. It has spurred a surge in massive construction efforts such as battery plants and electric-vehicle factories. Our correspondent goes on a road trip, visiting small towns with big new projects under way and gauging the success of Mr Biden’s economic policy so far. Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Henry Tricks Runtime: 44 min This is a free episode of Money Talks. To listen every wee...

Money Talks: The future of crypto, part two

October 26, 2023 18:35 - 43 minutes - 100 MB

Last week, we spoke to the author Michael Lewis, who was embedded with Sam Bankman-Fried, as FTX, the crypto-trading empire he built, came crashing down amid allegations of fraud, which Mr Bankman-Fried denies. Mr Lewis credits Changpeng Zhao - the boss of Binance, a rival exchange - with bringing Mr Bankman-Fried to prominence. But CZ, as he’s known, may also have played a role in his downfall. This week, we speak to him about what the future holds for crypto.  Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Mike B...

Money Talks: The price of cheaper medicines

September 21, 2023 16:50 - 44 minutes - 103 MB

One of the many aims of President Joe Biden’s signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, is to cut the cost of drugs prescribed by Medicare, a government health insurance programme for Americans 65 and over. But the policy could have some side-effects for patients far beyond the US. Hosts: Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird. Contributors: Shailesh Chitnis, The Economist’s global business correspondent; Tricia Neuman, from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health-care think-tank; and David ...

Money Talks: China’s property crisis

September 14, 2023 16:04 - 43 minutes - 99 MB

Thousands of building projects across China have been halted or dramatically slowed as a rolling crisis engulfs the country’s property sector. The government’s “three red lines” policy sought to limit the leverage of property developers, but has now forced scores of them into default and restructuring. Confidence in the market has evaporated. And in a country where people buy their homes in advance, long before they are built, that wave of worry has sent sales tumbling. On this week’s podca...

Money Talks: Why does everyone want to manage your wealth?

September 07, 2023 16:43 - 38 minutes - 88.6 MB

Wealth managers occupy a unique place in their clients’ lives. Not only do they advise on picking assets and tax-efficient investment strategies—they often find out about illicit affairs and which heirs might be a problem child. These services were once the preserve of those worth $10m or more but new technology means they are accessible to people with as little as $100,000 in the bank. And now banks are fighting to be the ones to advise the moderately wealthy.  On this week’s podcast, host...

Money Talks: Information used to want to be free

August 31, 2023 16:24 - 41 minutes - 94.3 MB

The mantra from the mid-2000s that “data is the new oil” is taking on a new sheen: tapping and refining it into personalised advertisements has become harder, thanks to increasing regulation and the self-serving policies of the tech behemoths. Meanwhile artificial intelligence is a data-guzzler, eschewing the pointedly personal in favour of the revealing aggregate. Both trends raise thorny questions about ownership of the precious underlying resource. On this week’s show, hosts Tom Lee-Devl...

Money Talks: Counting the cost of education

August 24, 2023 16:26 - 40 minutes - 93.8 MB

Is a college degree worth it? That question hangs over millions of would-be students, as they prepare to apply to university. It is one that many graduates might be mulling over as they have to start paying off their college debts once more. America’s pandemic-era moratorium on student debt payments comes to an end in September.  On this week’s podcast, hosts Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird examine whether college is still worth the time and the money. Constantine Yannelis from ...

Money Talks: Is America’s China policy working?

August 17, 2023 16:04 - 43 minutes - 100 MB

When is economic decoupling not economic decoupling? When it drives your allies to tighter commercial links with your adversary. That’s the situation the US finds itself in today, when it comes to its policies directed against China. Since the Trump administration put tariffs on Chinese imports in 2018, the US has been trying to extricate itself from commercial ties with the world's second-largest economy. President Biden has expanded the policy to keep China locked out of US supply chains i...

Money Talks: Click and collect a grocery victory

August 10, 2023 17:52 - 39 minutes - 90.3 MB

Grocery shopping is a giant prize–accounting for around $800bn of spending a year in America. But it is also a notoriously tough business, with price-sensitive customers keeping a tight lid on margins. Add in online delivery and it often becomes unprofitable. Convincing customers to buy more of their groceries online is the holy grail for a digital-native company like Amazon, which is a newcomer to the business. But Amazon’s “technology first” approach hasn’t been enough to win over the mark...

Money Talks: Lessons from the great macro experiment

August 03, 2023 18:06 - 45 minutes - 104 MB

American economists are scratching their heads in confusion. The Fed’s aggressive rate hikes hasn’t produced the outcome many expected. Instead of recession and massive layoffs, the US economy now looks tantalisingly close to a fabled “soft landing” with the jobs market remaining resilient, and inflation tumbling. The unique set of circumstances of the post-pandemic US economy have perplexed almost everyone. The Fed's latest rate rise could now be the last for a while. What can this rate hik...

Money Talks: Lights! Camera! Inaction…

July 27, 2023 16:30 - 39 minutes - 90.7 MB

The only action taking place in Hollywood is on the picket lines. Thousands of writers and actors have taken to the streets to protest the way that technology has affected their wages. At the top of their list of demands is a change to the way they are compensated when shows air on streaming services, like Netflix. But filmmakers' use of artificial intelligence is also in the spotlight as concerns mount about how companies might use actors’ likenesses.  On this week’s podcast, hosts Alice F...

Money Talks: How to build a sports business

July 20, 2023 17:47 - 46 minutes - 107 MB

Newspaper sports pages have - in recent years - often read more like business sections with reports of mergers, acquisitions and well-funded startups trying to steal market share. But those deals tend to be structured with the interests of team bosses and players in mind, rather than the fans. That got the “Money Talks” team wondering: where does the balance lie between commercial imperatives in sport and fan support?  On this week’s podcast, hosts Mike Bird and Alice Fulwood draft in The E...

Money Talks: The Jamie Dimon interview

July 13, 2023 17:06 - 40 minutes - 92.6 MB

Jamie Dimon runs America’s biggest and most successful bank: JP Morgan Chase. That makes him the boss of 300,000 people across more than 60 countries. He’s the only CEO of a major bank to have been in his role since before the financial crisis. But there is a question about what he does next—Mr Dimon’s enthusiasm to talk policy has led to speculation that his next act could be political. On this week’s podcast, Mr Dimon speaks to The Economist’s editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes about re...

Money Talks: Will green flying take off?

July 06, 2023 17:10 - 35 minutes - 81.4 MB

The aviation industry is responsible for more than 2% of annual carbon emissions. That figure is set to rise as more passengers take to the skies. But the sector has set itself an ambitious target: to hit net-zero emissions by 2050.  On this week’s podcast, hosts Tom Lee-Devlin and Alice Fulwood ask if airlines can really go green. Tom discovers the limits of battery-powered flight when a trip in one of the world’s first electric planes ends in an emergency landing. Andreea Moyes, from Air ...

Money Talks: What happens if inflation sticks?

June 29, 2023 14:36 - 40 minutes - 93.7 MB

Over the past two years, inflation has been full of surprises. Central bankers are now facing up to the very real possibility that bringing sticky inflation down to their 2% targets could bring deep economic pain. Some analysts are starting to ask whether they might be tempted to tolerate higher inflation instead.  On this week’s podcast, hosts Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird ask what would happen if ballooning price rises aren’t brought back down to target. The Economist’s Josh...

Money Talks: Averting the city death spiral

June 22, 2023 15:58 - 39 minutes - 91.1 MB

Cities across the world are in the midst of an identity crisis. With fewer workers commuting into offices and more shoppers heading online, what are they now for? It’s a question that commercial real estate investors are scrambling to find an answer to. On this week’s podcast, hosts Tom Lee-Devlin, Mike Bird and Alice Fulwood explore an office block that’s been repurposed to find out what the future holds for cities. Nick Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford who’s been researching ho...

Money Talks: The baby bust blues

June 15, 2023 16:45 - 39 minutes - 91 MB

In more than half of the world's countries, the number of babies being born has fallen below the replacement rate. For the next generation, that means living in a less-populous country than their parents—and that gives birth to some big problems. Not only will the bill for their ageing parents’ care be shared between fewer people, but there will be a smaller pool of potential entrepreneurs and innovators to create jobs and come up with big ideas for society.  On this week’s podcast, hosts M...

Money Talks: The trillion-dollar question

June 08, 2023 18:10 - 43 minutes - 98.9 MB

For over three decades, the people most excited about Nvidia’s chips have been gamers. They used its graphics cards to render games in super-high definition. But over the last 15 years Nvidia has slowly established itself as the go-to provider of chips and software to the booming artificial intelligence space. Now it is investors that are paying attention—Nvidia’s market cap has almost tripled this year, briefly soaring above $1trn in late May.  On this week’s podcast, hosts Alice Fulwood, ...

Money Talks: The great debt hangover

June 01, 2023 15:38 - 35 minutes - 81.5 MB

Decades of cheap money has left businesses in America and Europe addicted to debt. Some companies have been borrowing cash just to dole it out to shareholders. But with interest rates now reaching levels not seen in 15 years, those debt-drunk firms are waking up to the threat of a mighty hangover. On this week’s podcast, hosts Tom Lee-Devlin and Alice Fulwood ask if those firms can kick their debt habit. Goldman Sachs’ chief credit strategist, Lotfi Karoui, explains how companies became hoo...

Money Talks: Another way, another dollar?

May 25, 2023 18:16 - 42 minutes - 97.5 MB

From Alipay’s QR codes to PayPal, it’s never been easier to move money around. Central banks are even considering their own digital currencies. And all that cross-border cashlessness has some wondering about the dollar’s international dominance. On this week’s podcast, hosts Mike Bird and Tom Lee-Devlin examine the risks to the world’s reserve currency. The Economist’s Arjun Ramani explains how far digital payments have come; Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for financial services,...

Money Talks: Why house prices are so stubbornly high

May 18, 2023 15:39 - 40 minutes - 91.7 MB

Housing in America has never been this unaffordable. The pandemic set off skyrocketing prices; then the Fed began to rapidly increase interest rates, pushing up borrowing costs. Many predicted this might result in a crash. But after dropping 10% from all-time highs, home prices in America are picking up again. What is going on? On this week’s podcast, hosts Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird ask if anything can take the heat out of the American housing market. Skylar Olsen, chief e...

Money Talks: Is the car industry running out of gas?

May 11, 2023 17:02 - 40 minutes - 93.6 MB

Buying a car used to be about two things: style and performance. But as motorists trade in their petrol or diesel cars for electric vehicles, manufacturers are increasingly focusing on experience by adding features like karaoke machines and mood lighting. Those drivers also have a lot more choices. The ditching of internal combustion engines in favour of battery-power has allowed new car makers to enter the market. But rather than thinking like BMW or Ford, they are looking to firms like App...

Money Talks: A business podcast on the business of podcasts

May 04, 2023 15:53 - 31 minutes - 72.1 MB

Around a third of Americans now listen to at least one podcast a week. That fact has not escaped the attention of advertisers, who spent nearly $2bn on podcast ads last year. But with more than 4m podcasts for listeners to choose from, the industry is facing a reckoning.  On this week’s podcast, hosts Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird ask what the future holds for the business of podcasts. Michael Mignano, who used to manage Spotify’s podcasting arm, tells them that companies have realised they ...

Money Talks: Last dance for TikTok?

April 27, 2023 17:15 - 40 minutes - 92.8 MB

Time may be running short for TikTok. In the US, both Democrats and Republicans view the Chinese-owned app as a national security threat and would like to ban it. It’s practically the only policy issue that the two parties agree on. And yet the politicians in Washington DC have left it very late to act. TikTok has already reached 150 million users in the US, half the country’s population, and every day it adds more.   On this week’s podcast, hosts Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird...

Money Talks: Why oh why EY?

April 20, 2023 15:30 - 32 minutes - 74.1 MB

The professional services firm EY reportedly spent hundreds of millions of dollars preparing to split itself into separate audit and advisory companies. Then earlier this month it abruptly called the divorce off. EY is not unique. All of the "big four" accounting firms - including PwC, KPMG and Deloitte - combine the stodgy traditional business of audit with a fast-growing free-wheeling consultancy wing.  On this week’s podcast, hosts Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird ask whether ...

Money Talks: Succession Asia

April 13, 2023 17:03 - 36 minutes - 83.7 MB

Fans of the popular television show “Succession” have been gripped by the family battle to take control of the fictional patriarch Logan Roy’s sprawling media empire. But across Asia family businesses are worried about their own, very real, succession battles as a new generation of plutocrats look to take over from their fathers. On this week’s podcast, hosts Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Tom Lee-Devlin delve into the challenges facing some of Asia’s wealthiest families. Author, Joe Studwell...

Money Talks: Will video games eat Hollywood?

April 06, 2023 16:49 - 41 minutes - 93.9 MB

Video game makers used to look to Hollywood for their inspiration. But in recent years, the market for games has grown to nearly $200bn, five times more than people spend at the box office and more, even, than they spend on streaming services like Netflix or Disney+. And that has caught the attention of the movie industry, which is now looking to game makers for its ideas. On this week’s podcast, hosts Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird examine how gaming took over media. Bad Robot...

Money Talks: The A to Z of economics

March 30, 2023 17:04 - 37 minutes - 85.8 MB

Hosts Alice Fulwood, Mike Bird and Tom Lee Devlin take to the road this week with a single aim: bring economics to life. The mission takes them to some unexpected corners of the world and forces them to don some interesting attire.  Inspired by The Economist’s A-Z guide, Tom travels to one of the UK’s largest sandwich factories for a lesson in efficiency. Alice visit’s George Washington’s estate to understand how mercantilism made America the country it is today. And Mike learns how Singapo...

Money Talks: Discredit Suisse

March 23, 2023 20:34 - 46 minutes - 106 MB

Few would have predicted that the demise of Silicon Valley Bank, a niche Californian lender, would be followed by the failure of Credit Suisse. But on March 19 the banking crisis reached Zurich, where regulators brokered a fire sale that saw the ailing 167-year-old bank sold to rival UBS. On this week’s podcast, hosts Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird chart the spread of the crisis and examine its fallout. Richard Berner, a former advisor to the Treasury Secretary, explains: “Sili...

Money Talks: What went wrong at SVB?

March 16, 2023 20:52 - 44 minutes - 101 MB

Until last week, most people beyond California and the tech world probably hadn’t heard of Silicon Valley Bank, but its swift collapse made headlines across the globe.  On this week’s podcast, hosts Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird examine what brought the bank down and to what extent the panic has been contained–or might still be spreading. Peter Conti-Brown from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School says incompetence was behind the bank’s collapse. And former Treasury Sec...

Money Talks: The rise of the robots

March 09, 2023 19:49 - 36 minutes - 82.9 MB

Robots are getting better and cheaper—and that means they will play a much larger role in our lives. They are already reaching beyond the car plants and warehouses, where they have become commonplace, to turn their mechanised hands to making cocktails and cooking chicken. But what will that mean for the economy? On this week’s podcast, hosts Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird examine whether the rise of the machines is good for workers and hear from Korea, where there are more robo...

Money Talks: Not made in China

March 02, 2023 19:41 - 40 minutes - 92.4 MB

China was the source of $1trn-worth of electronic goods and components in 2021, roughly a third of the global total. And it’s not just consumer electronics that begin their life in China. The country is the source of everything from childrens’ toys to medical equipment—it dominates the global supply chain. But manufacturers are increasingly looking elsewhere to make their products as China’s rising wages and growing tensions with the US make its factories less attractive than its neighbours....

Money Talks: Could K-pop become a monopoly?

February 23, 2023 16:51 - 35 minutes - 81.8 MB

The rise of Korea’s musicians from local celebrities to international superstars is credited to Lee Soo-man, the godfather of K-pop. The industry he developed gave rise to groups like BTS, which has been the biggest-selling band in the world for two years running. Now, Lee has sold most of his stake in SM Entertainment, the company he founded, to one of its biggest rivals. On this week’s podcast, hosts Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Tom Lee-Devlin delve into the world of K-pop and examine how...

Money Talks: The king of quants

February 16, 2023 19:00 - 40 minutes - 93.5 MB

Quantitative investors are known for their cool, mathematical approach to investing. They build models which search for patterns across huge data sets to discern where they should invest. The frenzied “bubble in everything” wrongfooted many quants in 2020–but the stock markets return to Earth, which crippled many traditional funds, generated huge returns for the quants in 2022. Nowhere was this clearer than in the performance of AQR Capital Management, a quant fund run by Cliff Asness. Its l...

Money Talks: Adani’s short story

February 09, 2023 20:57 - 45 minutes - 104 MB

Just weeks ago, Gautam Adani was the third richest person in the world. But he was caught short when Hindenburg Research, a small American short-seller, issued a report that spooked investors, wiping $100bn from the value of Adani firms. On this week’s podcast, hosts Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Tom Lee-Devlin examine the allegations levelled at Adani’s firms, which the company has forcefully denied. The Economist’s Mumbai bureau chief, Tom Easton, talks them through Hindenburg’s report and...

Money Talks: Goldman Sags

February 02, 2023 19:58 - 38 minutes - 87.6 MB

Goldman once dominated Wall Street. In 2009, after the financial crisis, when most financial institutions were left reeling, Goldman had its best year ever. It appeared an apex-predator, one that could outsmart its rivals in even the toughest environments. But the last decade has been humbling for Goldman. On this week’s podcast, hosts Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird ask what is going wrong with Goldman Sachs. We hear how the bank grew from a basement office selling promissory n...

Money Talks: Can Disney rekindle the magic?

January 26, 2023 20:29 - 41 minutes - 94.8 MB

The Walt Disney Company turns 100 years old this week. But the silver screen success that helped it become the world’s biggest entertainment company will not be enough to keep it on top for another century. As households swap cable packages for streaming, and kids turn to gaming, rather than movies, Disney needs reanimating. On this week’s podcast, hosts Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird ask whether Disney has lost its touch. The Economist’s Tom Wainwright takes us on a tour of th...

Money Talks: How globalisation gave way

January 19, 2023 18:04 - 41 minutes - 56.6 MB

America has changed the way it views the rest of the world. Rather than pushing for a more globalised economy with fewer trade barriers, the US is now seeking a more protected system of international trade. President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act promises nearly $400bn to boost clean energy and reduce dependence on China for things like batteries for electric cars. The Chips Act, meanwhile, provides incentives worth $52bn to boost America’s semiconductor industry. On this week’s podcast, ...

Money Talks: The new power in the North Sea

January 12, 2023 19:36 - 35 minutes - 80.2 MB

For decades, the North Sea’s fierce gales have created a challenge for those extracting the oil and gas buried beneath its swells. But the region’s poor weather is also the key to its future: offshore wind. And the plans are surprisingly ambitious. On this week’s podcast, hosts Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird ask whether the North Sea can turn green. The Economist’s Matthieu Favas says wind farms in the North Sea could power Europe’s 200m homes. Jesper Frost Rasmussen, mayor of ...

Money Talks: The economics of thinness

January 05, 2023 19:52 - 34 minutes - 77.9 MB

Across the rich world there is a negative relationship between incomes and weight, as measured by body mass index. The richer people are, the thinner they tend to be. But separate the data by gender and a startling gap appears. Rich women are much thinner than poorer ones; but rich men and poor men are just as likely to be overweight or obese. On this week’s podcast, hosts Alice Fulwood and Thomas Lee-Devlin examine why it may be rational, in economic terms, for ambitious women to pursue th...

Money Talks: TikTok’s ticking time bomb—an episode from our archive

December 28, 2022 16:30 - 38 minutes - 87.2 MB

It’s the fastest growing app in the world, filled with dance trends, cats misbehaving, and questionable financial advice. Teenagers love it; Western politicians are less convinced. Could TikTok’s popularity be its downfall? In one of our favourite episodes of 2022, hosts Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Soumaya Keynes investigate just who is afraid of TikTok’s growing influence. First, our media editor Tom Wainwright unpacks the relationship between TikTok, its parent company ByteDance, and its...

Money Talks: Is Christmas becoming more efficient?

December 21, 2022 17:55 - 39 minutes - 90.4 MB

Economists are a gloomy lot, and no less so at Christmas. Whereas most people see gift-giving as a source of joy, economists fret about the potential for misallocated resources. One Scrooge-ish study found that, on average, $100 spent on gifts was worth the same as around $85 of cash spent directly by the recipient. But are there reasons to believe that over time, Christmas is becoming more efficient? On this week’s podcast, hosts Soumaya Keynes, Mike Bird and Alice Fulwood hear from the fa...

Money Talks: The changing ideology of Silicon Valley

December 14, 2022 18:36 - 40 minutes - 93.3 MB

Startup founders in Silicon Valley are often motivated by an almost religious idealism: young tech workers, looking to move fast and break things, want to use technology to make the world a better place. But 2022 has brought about a reckoning: the business models of once-star firms, such as Uber and Meta, are under threat; the allure of the dishevelled whizz-kid has been undermined by the downfall of Sam Bankman-Fried; and the expense of Palo Alto has pushed plucky startups out. The Bay Area...

Money Talks: China reopens

December 07, 2022 18:24 - 35 minutes - 82.4 MB

China’s draconian zero-covid policies have required repeated and lengthy lockdowns, enormous make-shift quarantine facilities, and endless testing for the population. They have also done real damage to its economy. After rare outbreaks of protest against the policy in several cities, the strict rules that have smothered normal life around the country are being relaxed, after almost three years in place. On this week’s podcast, hosts Mike Bird, Soumaya Keynes and Alice Fulwood ask what this ...