The Economics Show

Economic warfare: lessons from history, with Mark Harrison

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Warring countries have attacked each other’s economies for hundreds of years. But do the tools of economic warfare – sanctions, tariffs, blockades and embargoes – actually work? Soumaya speaks to Mark Harrison, emeritus professor of economics at Warwick university, and co-editor (with Stephen Broadberry) of Economic Warfare and Sanctions since 1688, about what centuries of economic conflict can teach us about Iran (and Russia) today.

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Further reading:

Which chokepoint wins in a game of geoeconomic Top Trumps?

Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music by Breen Turner and sound design by Sean McGarrity. The FT head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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The global economy is Iran’s hostage. Can it be released? With Edward Fishman

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Iran’s de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz has already rocked global oil markets and stock market indices, spooking everyone from politicians to central bankers. But if Iran wants to make matters worse, it can. Soumaya speaks to Edward Fishman, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of ‘Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare,’ to find out what this conflict means for the future of economic coercion. Soumaya and Edward also discuss how geographical chokepoints differ from economic ones (like rare earths, or the dollar system), and the unintended consequences of the war.

Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Further reading:

Which chokepoint wins in a game of geoeconomic Top Trumps?

How to survive an energy crunch

Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music by Breen Turner. Sound design by Sean McGarrity The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Lessons from China’s industrial dominance, with Kyle Chan

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

There’s a trope going around these days: western commentators travel to China, tour its factories and when they return home they say that when it comes to innovation, China has won the global race. But how true is that? Host Soumaya Keynes discusses the successes and shortcomings of China's evolving industrial policy with Kyle Chan, author of the High Capacity newsletter and a fellow in the John L Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution.

Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Further reading:

How China pulled off a great tech reversal

Which chokepoint wins in a game of geoeconomic Top Trumps?

China’s growth target is a global problem

Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval and Michela Tindera. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music by Breen Turner and sound design by Sam Giovinco. The FT head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Introducing Untold: Opus Dei

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Introducing Opus Dei, a new season of Untold from the Financial Times. Host Antonia Cundy uncovers the cultural and political influence of a controversial Catholic organisation in America. Opus Dei exists to help people get closer to God, but some members say they found other agendas – and unexpected harm – entangled in that spiritual mission. The first episode of Untold: Opus Dei launches March 25.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Is AI (finally) making us more productive? With John Burn-Murdoch and Sarah O’Connor

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Banks, consultancies and LinkedIn posts alike are trumpeting the transformative effects of AI, promising an imminent uptick in productivity. Some of these claims are no doubt exaggerated. But there are unmistakable signs that AI is boosting productivity. How is that showing up in economic data? And what does that information tell us about the future of the economy? Soumaya is joined by John Burn-Murdoch and Sarah O’Connor, authors of the FT’s ‘AI Shift’ newsletter, to discuss.

You can sign up to the AI shift newsletter here.

The AI productivity take-off is finally visible

Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Sound design by Sean McGarrity. Original music by Breen Turner. The FT head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Are investors getting the Iran conflict wrong? With Robin Brooks

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 14:32:09 GMT

Markets haven’t exactly been calm since the conflict in Iran started. But are they mispricing the risks of a bigger economic blow-up? And how does this conflict compare with what happened after Russia invaded Ukraine? Host Soumaya Keynes discusses these questions with Robin Brooks, author of the Shadow Price Macro substack and senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution.

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Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Could common debt make the EU stronger? With Carlos Cuerpo

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Some believe a deeper pool of common debt would allow the European Union to tackle some of its biggest problems, attracting more investment, reducing the cost of financing, and helping the EU achieve greater strategic autonomy. One such believer: Carlos Cuerpo, Spain’s economy, trade and business minister. In this episode, Soumaya asks him how a common EU safe asset would work, whether money (not politics) is the EU’s issue, and what the bloc could learn from Spain’s economic bounceback.

Europe is not thinking straight on competitiveness

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Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Trump’s tariffs are not dead yet, with Michael Froman

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 11:32:45 GMT

Shortly after the US Supreme Court ruled Donald Trump’s tariffs were illegal, he hit back. The president vowed to impose a 10% levy on US imports through different means. He raised those duties to 15% the following day. These tariffs – imposed under the Trade Act of 1974, rather than the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) – are only temporary. But Trump has a range of tariff tools at his disposal. How will he use them? Which of his trading partners will be worse off from these new policy changes? And will US companies that have already paid tariffs get their money back? To discuss all this and more, Soumaya is joined by former US trade representative, and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Michael Froman.

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Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Original music from Breen Turner, and sound design by Sean McGarrity

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What did ‘Nudge’ get wrong? With Nick Chater

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 05:00:00 GMT

When Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein released their book ‘Nudge’ in 2008, it caught the public imagination. ‘Nudge theory’ – the idea that people could be encouraged to make better choices through small, subtle interventions – was innovative, and exciting. A decade and a half later, a whole lot of nudging seems to have come to a whole lot of nothing. Why wasn’t ‘nudge theory’ more help in tackling climate change, or helping people enroll in pensions? And, even if it hasn’t saved the world, does behavioural science still have a role in policymaking? Former member of the UK’s Behavioural Insights Team and professor of behavioural science, Nick Chater, reflects on the legacy of nudges.

The uses — and the limits — of ‘nudge’ economics

What nudge theory got wrong

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Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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How China is fighting ‘involution’, with Yanmei Xie

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 05:00:00 GMT

China’s export powerhouse is feeding global demand for cheaper electronics, cars, clothing, and plenty more besides. But the supercharged competition driving that trend is causing problems within China itself, including deflation and thin or negative profit margins. China’s government has recognised the problem, but what is it actually doing in response – and how should the country’s trading partners react? Soumaya speaks to Yanmei Xie, senior associate fellow at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, to discuss.

Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon and Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. The FT head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

For China, ‘involution’ is a blessing as well as a curse

Why China is reluctant to make a much-needed shift

Fall in Chinese investment suggests Xi Jinping’s ‘anti-involution’ drive is biting

China battles price wars in fight against deflation

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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What an economist eats for lunch (in 2026), with Tyler Cowen

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 05:00:00 GMT

If you want to understand food – and eat better – economics is a good place to start. How do immigration patterns shape a country’s cuisine? How do labour laws make our working lunches worse? And why do strip malls serve such good grub? To find out, Soumaya Keynes talks to Tyler Cowen, economics professor at George Mason University and chair of the Mercatus Center think-tank. Cowen has written about food for more than two decades, including in his 2012 book An Economist Gets Lunch.

Read Soumaya’s columns here: https://www.ft.com/soumaya-keynes

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s global head of audio. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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How big a deal is the EU-India trade agreement? With Nicolas Köhler-Suzuki and Ajay Srivastava

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The EU-India trade deal was partly a geopolitical statement, directed towards Trump. But what’s actually in it? What were the toughest bits to agree, who gave up concessions, and what will the deal mean for the economies of India and the EU? Soumaya Keynes is back to chat to Nicolas Köhler-Suzuki, adviser for trade and economic security, Jacques Delors Institute, and Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative in Delhi, and a former trade negotiator.

Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Further reading:

EU and India seal trade pact to slash €4bn of tariffs on bloc’s exports

Indian exporters seek new markets after Donald Trump’s trade blitz

EU leaders push to implement Mercosur trade pact

Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon, Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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The economy in 2026: What risks lie ahead? With Gita Gopinath

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Are the headline growth figures really telling us the full story about the global economy? Gita Gopinath, a former deputy managing director at the IMF and a professor of economics at Harvard University, discusses this question with Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator. They talk about how AI investments are offsetting the economic drag from tariffs, the risk of another financial crisis and whether the dollar can remain the world’s dominant currency.

Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Further reading:

Trump is erasing the global economic order

So you tried to buy a country . . .

IMF warns global economic resilience at risk if AI falters

Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon, Alex Bell and Kirsty Loughlin. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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How the Fed fights back, with Don Kohn

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 13:42:17 GMT

It wasn’t the Trump administration’s first attack on the Federal Reserve – but it was perhaps the most shocking. The Department of Justice’s criminal investigation into Jay Powell – nominally over his testimony about the refurbishment of Fed buildings – has ramped up pressure on the Fed chair, whom Donald Trump has frequently criticised over the central bank’s interest rate stance. Will Trump succeed in imposing his will on the Fed, and how might the world’s most important financial institution fight back? Is there any hope that the next Fed chair will stand up to Trump? FT US economics editor Claire Jones speaks to the Fed's former vice-chair Don Kohn.

Further Reading

High-stakes Powell probe carries risks for US justice department

Central bank chiefs ‘stand in full solidarity’ with Jay Powell

Justice department’s probe into Jay Powell galvanises Fed leaders to repel Donald Trump’s attacks

Claire Jones is the FT’s US economics editor. You can find her articles here.

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen. Presented by Claire Jones. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. The executive producer was Manuela Saragosa. Original music from Breen Turner, and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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How bad is America’s affordability crisis? With Mechele Dickerson

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Affordability is set to be a key issue in US politics ahead of the country’s midterm elections. And though American politicians often express their support for the country’s middle class, life has become progressively more difficult for that group, Mechele Dickerson argues. The University of Texas law professor explains how sluggish wage growth, housing policy and the growth of personal debt have made it harder to secure the markers of middle class life.

Claire Jones is the FT’s US economics editor. You can find her articles here

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Claire Jones. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio. Original music from Breen Turner, and sound design by Sam Giovinco.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Behind The Money: How First Brands Group collapsed

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Some of the world’s biggest financial institutions are reeling after the collapse of a little-known car parts supplier: First Brands Group. The company filed for bankruptcy last month, and since then, FT reporters have shone a spotlight on billions of dollars of hidden debt and a secretive founder whose borrowing habits left creditors exposed. The FT’s corporate finance editor Robert Smith and banking editor Ortenca Aliaj walk through their investigation and explain how this event has raised questions about potential cracks in private credit.

This is a repeat of an episode published on Behind The Money, a sister podcast of The Economics Show, on October 29, 2025

For further reading:

The secretive First Brands founder, his $12bn debt and the future of private credit

First Brands Group: dude, where’s my cash?

First Brands bankruptcy: the losers — and winners

Follow Robert Smith on X (@BondHack), or on Bluesky (@bondhack.ft.com). Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.

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Martin Wolf speaks to Christine Lagarde: Europe’s ‘existential crisis’

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

The European Commission must urgently dismantle internal trade barriers that are stifling innovation, productivity and investment across the EU. So says Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, in a conversation with the FT’s chief economics commentator, Martin Wolf, as she calls for immediate structural reforms and explains why this is the moment to do it.

This interview was recorded on December 10 as part of the FT’s The Global Boardroom conference.

Subscribe and listen to this series of The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Read Martin’s column here

Sound design and original music by Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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The Wolf-Krugman Exchange: Power, plutocracy and political economy

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this final episode of their series for The Economics Show, FT chief economics commentator Martin Wolf and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman consider listeners’ questions and comments ranging from a critique of globalisation, increasing inequality and plutocracy, the global appetite for US federal debt, China’s economic future and much more.

Subscribe and listen to this series of The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Read Martin’s column here

Subscribe to Paul’s substack here

Find Paul’s cultural coda here.

Find Martin’s cultural coda here.

Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval and Josh Gabert-Doyon. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Tom Hannen is the video editor. Sound design and original music by Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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The Wolf-Krugman Exchange: America vs the world

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

The US last week released its new national security strategy – and it wasn’t good news for Europe. The document, which sets out US foreign policy priorities, blasted Europe for undermining “political liberty and sovereignty”, de-emphasised the threat from Russia, reframed America’s competition with China and put influence over the western hemisphere at the top of the US agenda. In this episode, FT chief economics commentator Martin Wolf and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman discuss what the impact of this new US strategy may be. How should Europe react to this sharp turn from its strongest historical ally? And is Trump handing China the world on a silver platter?

Email any questions for Martin and Paul to economics.show@ft.com

Subscribe and listen to this series of The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Read Martin’s column here

Subscribe to Paul’s Substack here

Find Paul’s cultural coda here.

Find Martin’s cultural coda here.

Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Tom Hannen is the video editor. Sound design by Breen Turner. Original music by Breen Turner.

The Wolf-Krugman Exchange: America vs the world video

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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The Wolf-Krugman Exchange: Maga man and Mamdani

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Donald Trump promised to bring industrial jobs back to America when he swept to victory in last year’s presidential election, powered by a 12-point lead among male voters, but can he really deliver? In the second of this four-part series, the FT’s chief economics commentator Martin Wolf and Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman discuss the economic plight of American men - why their problems are real, but Maga’s proposed solutions are not. Plus, they consider the policy platform of another populist, the newly elected mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, and whether his affordability agenda can translate into a nationwide policy for the Democrats.

Subscribe and listen to this series of The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Read Martin’s column here

Subscribe to Paul’s substack here

Find Paul’s cultural coda here

Find Martin’s cultural coda here

Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Sound design by Sam Giovinco and Breen Turner. Original music by Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Wolf-Krugman Exchange: Trump’s ‘vibecession’

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 08:17:13 GMT

As President Donald Trump approaches the one-year anniversary of his second term in office, the FT’s chief economics commentator Martin Wolf, and Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman sit down to discuss the US economy and the state of American democracy. Are American consumers finally feeling the effect of Trump’s tariffs? Is AI to blame for the frozen labour market? Or is the spectre of a weakening democracy and plutocracy to blame for slumping consumer sentiment? In the first of four weekly episodes, Wolf and Krugman unpick the US and world economy, with Krugman explaining why he’s less pessimistic now than he was earlier this year.

Subscribe and listen to this series of The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Read Martin’s column here.

Subscribe to Paul’s Substack here.

Find Paul’s cultural coda here.

Find Martin’s cultural coda here.

Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Coming soon: The Wolf-Krugman Exchange: One year of Trump

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 12:56:31 GMT

In this four-part series starting on Wednesday November 26, FT chief economics commentator Martin Wolf and Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman take stock after (almost) a year of Donald Trump’s second term and assess the impact of his presidency on the US and world economy and democracy everywhere.

Martin Wolf is the FT’s chief economics commentator. You can find his articles here: https://www.ft.com/martin-wolf

You can find Paul Krugman’s Substack newsletter here

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Martin Wolf. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner.

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Did globalisation kill neoliberalism? With Branko Milanović

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Thirty-five years ago, the global economy could be neatly divided into market economies, socialist economies and poorer non-aligned countries. Today, that picture is rather more complicated. Western-style neoliberalism – expected to become the dominant economic system after the end of the cold war – is in retreat; socialism is no more; China has emerged as a global superpower; and formerly-poor countries in the global south are rising rapidly – all while neoliberalism itself becomes, well… less liberal. If neoliberalism is on the way out, what will replace it? And what does the rise of Asia mean for western consumers who find their spending power dwindling? The FT’s European economics commentator, Martin Sandbu, speaks to Branko Milanović, senior scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at the City University of New York, and a visiting professor at the International Inequalities Institute at the LSE.

Coming soon from Tech Tonic: Defying death

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 17:39:02 GMT

Investors are spending billions of dollars on novel ways to extend human life through inventive treatments, therapies, and even manipulating our genes. And increasingly, it seems as though anti-ageing efforts have moved from the super rich to a mass market consumer industry. In this series, we’re covering the past, present and future of the longevity movement. We’ll be looking at where the fixation on longevity is coming from, and trying to understand the practical and ethical issues at the heart of this cutting-edge field of research.

From Silicon Valley fantasies, to Singaporean health spas, to Colombian genetic clinics and beyond, the FT’s Hannah Kuchler and Michael Peel ask whether breakthroughs in science and technology can really help us live longer, and even stop us aging altogether.

Free to read:

US ‘wellness’ industry scents opportunity to go mainstream

The quest to make young blood into a drug

This season of Tech Tonic was produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon. The senior producer is Edwin Lane. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Fact checking by Simon Greaves, Lucy Baldwin and Tara Cromie. Original music by Metaphor Music. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.

The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.

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The limits of monetary policy, with Agustín Carstens

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Money, it’s often said, is a form of trust and central banks are the custodians of that trust; it’s their job to guarantee that the money they issue maintains stable purchasing power. More recently, that’s been no easy task. Witness President Donald Trump’s attacks on the independence of the US Federal Reserve. The FT’s chief economics commentator, Martin Wolf, speaks to Agustín Carstens, former general manager of the Bank for International Settlements – the “central bank of central banks” – and one-time governor of the Bank of Mexico, to discuss what central banks can do to maintain trust in a fractured world and asks if they must modernise to maintain authority.

Martin Wolf is the FT’s chief economics commentator. You can read his columns here: https://www.ft.com/martin-wolf

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Martin Wolf. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music from Breen Turner, and sound design by Simon Panayi.

Register for a November 28 live webinar on what the UK Budget will mean for your money and put your questions to FT journalists Claer Barrett, Stuart Kirk, Tej Parikh and special guest, tax expert Dan Neidle. Get your free pass now at ft.com/budgetwebinar

The webinar will also be broadcast as a bonus edition on two FT podcasts: Claer's Money Clinic and the weekly UK politics show Political Fix, presented by George Parker while Lucy Fisher is on maternity leave.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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What economics gets wrong about human behaviour, with Richard Thaler

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Economists like to model people as rational creatures who make self-interested decisions. But humans don’t act that way. Why do investors, politicians and ordinary people act against their best interests – and how can they be nudged into making better decisions? To find out, FT economics commentator Chris Giles speaks to Richard Thaler, the founding father of behavioural economics. Thaler is a professor at the University of Chicago who won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on how humans make (often irrational) decisions.

On November 28, the FT will be holding a live webinar on what the UK Budget will mean for your money. Viewers will be able to put their questions to FT journalists Claer Barrett, Stuart Kirk, Tej Parikh and special guest, tax expert Dan Neidle. To sign up, get your free pass here.

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Chris Giles. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music by Breen Turner. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Our broadcast engineer is Andrew Georgiades.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Are Trump’s tariffs legal? With Jennifer Hillman

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 05:00:00 GMT

US President Donald Trump’s tariff programme has been a central pillar of his second term in office. But a case being heard by the US Supreme Court could throw this central tenet of his trade policy into disarray. Trump has argued that tariffs are a matter of national security for which the president is ultimately responsible; others say they’re an economic issue, and should be set by Congress, as set out in the US constitution. Which way will the Supreme Court vote – and what could that mean for Trump’s tariff regime? To find out, FT senior trade writer Alan Beattie speaks to Jennifer Hillman, a law professor at Georgetown University, former general counsel of the US trade representative, and one of the few people who predicted Trump’s tariffs were vulnerable to legal challenge.

Alan Beattie is the FT’s senior trade writer. You can find his articles here: https://www.ft.com/alan-beattie

Sign up to Alan’s Trade Secrets newsletter here: https://subs.ft.com/spa3_tradesecrets?segmentId=357afa03-959c-93ed-0842-58e2115025d4

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Alan Beattie. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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How to kickstart the UK economy. With Tim Leunig

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Many governments in western Europe are grappling with sluggish economic growth and the UK is no exception. From rising unemployment to weak public finances, the UK economy is in the doldrums and there’s pressure on chancellor Rachel Reeves to fix it. Tim Leunig, a former adviser to two chancellors and now a professor at the London School of Economics and chief economist at innovation think-tank Nesta, talks to the FT’s economics editor Sam Fleming about the policy steps he’d take to breathe new life into the UK economy.

Sam Fleming is the FT’s economics editor. You can read his articles here.

To subscribe to Sarah O'Connor and John Burn-Murdoch's new newsletter about AI and the labour market, go to ft.com/AIShift.

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Sam Fleming. Produced by Persis Love and Lulu Smyth. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. Our broadcast engineer is Andrew Georgiades.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Introducing Untold: Toxic Legacy

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Introducing Toxic Legacy, a new season of Untold from the Financial Times. Host Laura Hughes uncovers a lead poisoning epidemic across the UK. You might be living with lead and not know it: the toxin is often invisible to the human eye, but wreaks havoc on our bodies once we’re exposed. The first episode of Untold: Toxic Legacy launches October 22.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you get your podcasts.

For information on how to live safely with lead, please visit the LEAPP Alliance website.

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What’s up with the US economy? With Austan Goolsbee

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 13:07:15 GMT

Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and a voter on the Fed’s interest rate-setting committee, speaks to the FT’s economics commentator Chris Giles about the outlook for the US economy amid a boom in AI investment, sluggish hiring, President Donald Trump’s tariffs and continued attacks by the White House on central bank independence.

Chris Giles is the FT’s economics commentator. You can sign up to his newsletter here.

Chris’ FT interview with Austan Goolsbee is here: ‘Top Federal Reserve Official warns against a quick series of rate cuts’

Join top FT journalists Chris Giles, Katie Martin, Claire Jones and special guest Lael Brainard on October 23, 1200 GMT for an exclusive subscriber webinar, Markets on edge: central banks, bonds and the risks ahead. Register now and put your questions directly to our panel. Visit ft.com/edge

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen. This episode was produced by Lulu Smyth and Persis Love with original music from Breen Turner. Sound design and mix by Jean-Marc Eck. Andrew Giorgiadis is our broadcast engineer. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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The economics of birth control. With Martha Bailey

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

When it comes to women controlling their own economic destinies, perhaps nothing has had a more profound impact than the contraceptive pill. But the US may be on the cusp of change. Earlier this year, the Trump administration froze some federal funding for subsidised access to contraceptive services and more changes are on the horizon. That has made understanding the economic impact of contraception all the more pressing. In this week’s episode, the FT’s Sarah O’Connor speaks to Martha Bailey, economics professor and the director of the California Center for Population Research at UCLA.

Sarah O’Connor is employment columnist at the FT. You can read her articles here.

Join top FT journalists Chris Giles, Katie Martin, Claire Jones and special guest Lael Brainard on October 23 1200 GMT for an exclusive subscriber webinar, Markets on edge: central banks, bonds and the risks ahead. Register now and put your questions directly to our panel. Visit ft.com/edge

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Sarah O’Connor. Produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon and Lulu Smyth. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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How to get immigration right. With Adam Ozimek

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Many argue immigration is key to America’s economic success. So as President Trump clamps down on it, what might he be getting wrong and what does the optimal skilled immigration landscape look like for the US and elsewhere? John Burn-Murdoch, the FT’s chief data columnist, speaks to Dr Adam Ozimek, chief economist at the Economic Innovation Group, who co-authored a recent paper on high-skilled immigration, Exceptional By Design.

Find details of the EIG report here.

John’s article, co-authored by Stephen Bush: ‘The truth about immigration’. Plus his column on the dangers posed to liberal democracy by failing to address imperfections in immigration policy.

John Burn-Murdoch is the FT’s chief data columnist and writer. You can read his column Data Points here.

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen. This episode was produced by Lulu Smyth with original music from Breen Turner. Sound design and mix by Simon Panayi. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Andrew Giorgiadis is our broadcast engineer.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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China’s economy vs the world. With Michael Pettis

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

US President Donald Trump has railed against his country’s trade deficit with China. But as Chinese surpluses continue to flow into other countries, it’s worth asking how China got to where it is today, and whether Chinese growth can lift all boats. In this week’s episode, Martin Sandbu, the FT’s European economics commentator, speaks to Michael Pettis, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment. He’s the author of several books, including most recently co-author of Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace.

Listen to bands signed to the record label Maybe Mars, formerly owned by Michael Pettis, here, including Carsick Cars, Yang Fan, PK14 and White+

Find details of Michael Pettis’ book choice, Martin Daunton’s The Economic Government of the World, here

Martin Sandbu is the FT’s European economics commentator and writer of the Free Lunch newsletter. You can sign up for his newsletter here and read his articles here.

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

This episode was produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon with original music and sound design from Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Andrew Giorgiadis is our broadcast engineer.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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The ugly truth about Trump’s ‘beautiful tariffs’. With Martha Gimbel

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Customs duties on imported goods used to be a crucial part of US government funding – in fact, the customs service was among the first federal agencies set up after the constitution. Now, Trump is hoping that – among other things – tariffs could transform the US budget. But do the revenues they raise for government coffers help outweigh their negative economic impacts? Martha Gimbel, executive director of the Budget Lab at Yale and former adviser at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, speaks to Claire Jones, the FT’s US economics editor.

Claire Jones is US economics editor. You can read her articles here.

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Claire Jones. Produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Samantha Giovinco and Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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China and the limits of its ‘engineering state’. With Dan Wang

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

China has become a superpower because of its ability to build bridges, cars and electronics at an astonishing pace. But breakneck growth comes with problems. The country is grappling with overproduction and deflation, and policymakers in Beijing are attempting to jumpstart consumer demand. How can China keep building without jeopardising its economic future? Dan Wang, research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover History Lab and author of 'Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future' speaks to the FT’s financial reporter Aiden Reiter.

Aiden Reiter co-writes the Unhedged newsletter. You can read his articles here.

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Aiden Reiter. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval and Josh Gabert-Doyon. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Samantha Giovinco and Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Fed independence? Here’s why you should worry. With Peter Conti-Brown

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

President Donald Trump's attempt to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate-setting board, is not the first time in the Fed’s history that there has been an attempt to politicise central banking. But Peter Conti-Brown, associate professor of financial regulation at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, tells the FT’s Chris Giles why Trump’s intervention is different and why there are now reasons to fear for the survival of a key pillar of US and global economic stability.

Going to the FT Weekend festival at Kenwood House Gardens in London on Saturday September 6? FT Live has a 10% discount for all FT podcast listeners with promo code FTPodcasts. Find a registration link with discount here

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Chris Giles. Produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon and Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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After globalisation: What's next for a fractured world? With Neil Shearing

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

It’s a widely held assumption that US President Donald Trump has put globalisation into reverse. But Neil Shearing, group chief economist at Capital Economics and author of The Fractured Age: How the Return of Geopolitics Will Splinter the Global Economy, tells the FT’s world trade editor Peter Foster that Trump’s policies are a symptom and not the cause of the global trading system unravelling. They discuss how economic rivalry between the US and China is reshaping world trade – and where it might lead.

Peter Foster is the FT’s world trade editor. You can read his articles here

Book your FT Weekend Festival tickets here

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Peter Foster. Produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Samantha Giovinco and Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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How Asia is coping with Trump’s tariffs. With Mari Pangestu

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 04:00:00 GMT

President Donald Trump thinks that Asia's goods exports are automatically America's loss and as part of his ‘reciprocal’ tariff policy, he has imposed some of the highest import taxes on goods from south-east Asia. So what does this mean for the region? And are Trump's policies pushing those countries further into China's orbit? Alan Beattie, the FT’s senior trade writer, discusses these questions and more with Mari Pangestu, Indonesia's former trade minister and a former managing director at the World Bank.

Alan Beattie is the FT's senior trade writer. He writes the Trade Secrets newsletter every Monday.

Read Alan’s columns here

Book your FT Weekend Festival tickets here

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Alan Beattie. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval and Persis Love. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Why Russia’s wartime economy is starting to crack, with Elina Ribakova

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 04:00:00 GMT

When the EU and US hit Russia with fresh sanctions in 2022, many analysts expected the country’s economy to crack. Instead, Russia has shown strong GDP growth, powered in large part by a massive boost to war-related industries. Now, the effects of that boost appear to be fading. Have western sanctions finally started to bite? What would happen to Russia’s economy if the Ukraine war were to end? And how difficult might it be for the country’s economy to return to normal? To find out, the FT’s economics editor Sam Fleming speaks to Elina Ribakova. Elina is a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a non-resident fellow at Brussels think-tank Bruegel and vice-president for foreign policy at the Kyiv School of Economics.

Sam Fleming is the FT’s economics editor. You can find his articles here: https://www.ft.com/sam-fleming

Want more? Free links:

Russia moves to contain concern over banks’ bad loan exposure

Vladimir Putin’s war economy is cooling, but Russians still feel richer

Russia’s central bank speeds up rate cuts as war economy cools

There's no money to be made in Russia

The FT Weekend Festival returns for its 10th edition on Saturday, September 6 at Kenwood House Gardens in London. Get details and tickets here

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Sam Fleming. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio. Original music from Breen Turner, and sound design by Breen Turner & Sam Giovinco.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Introducing the Rachman Review: Is the US heading for a debt crisis?

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 04:00:00 GMT

This week on the Economics Show, we're bringing you an interview with Ray Dalio, from our foreign affairs podcast, the Rachman Review. It originally broadcast on July 3.

Gideon talks to Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund and author of a new book: How Countries Go Broke. They discuss the size of the US debt and what history tells us about identifying warning signs.

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Clip: CBS

Is Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ a political curse for Republicans?

Fears over US debt load and inflation ignite exodus from long-term bonds

Donald Trump’s big, beautiful act of self-harm

The fall in the dollar is not scary

Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.

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Can we still trust US economic data? With Erica Groshen

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 14:30:03 GMT

After the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a worse-than-expected US jobs report, President Trump fired the agency’s head, Erika McEntarfer, claiming her numbers were ‘wrong’ and manipulated. There’s no evidence this was the case but many agree gathering reliable data on the health of the economy is getting harder. The FT’s chief data reporter, John Burn-Murdoch, discusses why that’s happening and what to do about it with Erica Groshen, the former BLS commissioner.

Clip: NBC

Development funding is in crisis. What now? With Mark Suzman

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 04:00:00 GMT

The first two decades of the 21st century were a golden age for global development. International co-operation and funding drove remarkable progress in the developing world. Now, that progress threatens to stall as wealthy nations, including the US and UK, withdraw their support. A global meeting held in Spain last month ended with a new international agreement, the Seville Commitment, on funding development – but will it succeed where others have failed? What role do rich countries, and organisations such as the World Bank, have to play? And will anyone be willing to relieve developing nations of their onerous debt obligations? Financial Times associate editor Pilita Clark speaks to Gates Foundation chief executive Mark Suzman.

Want more? Free links:

Trump shadow hangs over global development talks

Development funds dash for donor cash at World Bank and IMF meetings

Pilita Clark is an associate editor and business columnist at the FT. You can read her columns here: https://www.ft.com/pilita-clark

Follow Pilita on Bluesky or X: @pilitaclark.bsky.social‬ or @pilitaclark

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Pilita Clark. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Has Argentina’s Milei proved his critics wrong? With Alejandro Werner

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT

In the early 20th century Argentina was one of the world’s richest countries. For most of the past 50 years, it has been an economic disaster. But after nine debt defaults, 23 IMF programmes and two years of triple-digit annual inflation, the country’s radical libertarian president, Javier Milei, has steadied the ship. How has Milei revitalised the economy? Can he persuade investors to trust Argentina again? And, most crucially, can his transformation last? The FT’s Latin America editor, Michael Stott, discusses with Alejandro Werner, former head of the IMF’s western hemisphere department, founding director of the Georgetown Americas Institute, and fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Economics

Clips: Sky Australia, Javier Milei via Storyful/ELPELUCAMILEI, Global News, Poder360

Want more? Free links:

Javier Milei’s risky bet on a potent peso

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch says she is Britain’s Javier Milei

Javier Milei lowers Argentina’s monthly inflation below 2% for first time since 2020

Michael Stott is the FT’s Latin America editor. You can find his articles here: https://www.ft.com/michael-stott

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Michael Stott. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can Europe afford to rearm itself? With Jeromin Zettelmeyer

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT

European countries have committed to higher defence spending to face down Russian aggression. But preparing for war isn’t cheap – and in many countries, budgets are already stretched. How will European members of Nato hit their defence targets, a hefty 5% of GDP? Will EU states look beyond their own national champions, and commit to greater co-operation on defence funding and purchases? And what kind of new institutions would be necessary to make that happen? To find out, Sam Fleming speaks to Jeromin Zettelmeyer. He is the director of the Brussels-based think tank, Bruegel, and has previously held senior roles at the IMF, the Peterson Institute, and in the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

Clips: BBC, Bloomberg Television, European Commission, French Armed Forces

Sam Fleming is the FT’s economics editor. You can find his articles here: https://www.ft.com/sam-fleming

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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What Trump’s tariffs deadline has (not) achieved, with Dmitry Grozoubinski

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 10:31:21 GMT

July 9 marked the end of President Trump’s 90-day pause on his so-called reciprocal tariffs. Now that deadline has passed … what has actually changed? The FT’s senior trade writer Alan Beattie discusses with former trade negotiator Dmitry Grozoubinski, author of ‘Why Politicians Lie About Trade’. Dmitry explains why Trump’s tariff threats are as ineffective as they are unusual, how countries are approaching his ‘vibes-based’ trade policy, and what Dmitry would advise if he was negotiating with the US now.

Want more?

Trump’s tariff shambles is a helpful warning to the world

Donald Trump threatens new tariffs on Canada

Alan Beattie is the FT's senior trade writer. He writes the Trade Secrets newsletter every Monday.

Read Alan’s columns here: https://www.ft.com/alan-beattie

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Wolf-Krugman Exchange: your questions answered

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT

In the sixth of this six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman tackle a selection of questions, and even some criticisms, sent in by their audience.

Listen to Paul Krugman’s cultural coda, Carole King’s It's too late, here

Listen to Martin Wolf’s cultural coda, Va Pensiero from Verdi’s Nabucco, here

Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Episodes are also available on the FT’s YouTube channel.

Read Martin’s FT column here

Subscribe to Paul’s substack here

The Wolf-Krugman Exchange was produced by Sandra Kanthal and Mischa Frankl-Duval, and the broadcast engineer was Andrew Georgiades. The sound engineer was Breen Turner. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Wolf-Krugman Exchange: The future of the postwar system

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT

In the fifth of this six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman discuss the way American politics is crashing against both the guardrails of a stable, democratic system and the rules and norms of the postwar economic order and how this could jeopardise the importance of the US on the world stage.

Paul Krugman’s Cultural Coda:

Stephen Sondheim: "We had a good thing going"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTbrbiM-slg&list=RDNTbrbiM-slg&start_radio=1

Martin Wolf’s Cultural Coda:

Jonas Kaufmann: Freiheit from Beethoven’s Fidelio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvfhmGsFMEo

Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Episodes are also available on the FT’s YouTube channel.

If you’d like to get in touch and ask Martin and Paul a question, please email economics.show@ft.com

Read Martin’s FT column here

Subscribe to Paul’s substack here

The Wolf-Krugman Exchange is produced by Sandra Kanthal. The broadcast engineer was Rod Fitzgerald. The sound engineer is Breen Turner. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Wolf-Krugman Exchange: AI hype vs reality

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT

In the fourth of this six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman ask if advances in artificial intelligence will reshape the working world as we know it. Or are we hearing an old familiar story that has been told many times before?

Paul Krugman’s Cultural Coda:

Loretta Lynn - "Coal Miner's Daughter": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9eHp7JJgq8&list=RDf9eHp7JJgq8&start_radio=1

Martin Wolf’s Cultural Coda:

Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, published in 1924.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Mountain

Read Martin Wolf's selection of the best economics summer reads for 2025 here

Read Martin’s FT column here

Subscribe to Paul’s substack here

If you’d like to get in touch and ask Martin and Paul a question, please email economics.show@ft.com

Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Episodes are also available on the FT’s YouTube channel.

The Wolf-Krugman Exchange is produced by Sandra Kanthal and Mischa Frankl-Duval, and the broadcast engineer is Andrew Georgiades. The sound engineer is Jean-Marc Eck. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Wolf-Krugman Exchange: The economy in an uncertain world

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT

In the third of this six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman discuss the dangers facing the world economy and wonder what outcomes are possible at summits such as the G7 in times of political and economic risk.

Paul Krugman’s Cultural Coda:

Peter Gabriel: “Games Without Frontiers”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xZmlUV8muY&list=RD3xZmlUV8muY&start_radio=1

Martin Wolf’s Cultural Coda:

"The Second Coming" - by William Butler Yeats, 1919

https://youtu.be/QI40j17EFbI

Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Episodes are also available on the FT’s YouTube channel.

If you’d like to get in touch and ask Martin and Paul a question, please email economics.show@ft.com

Read Martin’s FT column here

Subscribe to Paul’s substack here

The Wolf-Krugman Exchange was produced by Sandra Kanthal and Mischa Frankl-Duval, and the broadcast engineer was Andrew Georgiades. The sound engineer was Breen Turner. Our executive producer is Flo Phillips. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Wolf-Krugman Exchange: how the old economic order fell out of favour

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT

In the second of this six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman discuss the way economic trends have fractured societies on both sides of the Atlantic and the jeopardy that poses to liberal democracies in Europe and America.

Paul Krugman’s Cultural Coda: Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes

https://poets.org/poem/let-america-be-america-again

Martin Wolf’s Cultural Coda: The Tariff Song by Dan Shore

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eWtn6kWXAsQ&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Episodes are also available on the FT’s YouTube channel.

If you’d like to get in touch and ask Martin and Paul a question, please email economics.show@ft.com

Read Martin’s FT column here

Subscribe to Paul’s substack here

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Wolf-Krugman Exchange: the crisis of trust

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT

In part one of this six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman discuss how trust in the postwar world economic system is being lost and weigh the costs and consequences of that.

Paul Krugman’s Cultural Coda: Quarterflash, ”Harden My Heart”-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNFSED77-GM

Martin Wolf’s Cultural Coda:The Beatles, “For No One”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELlLIwhvknk

Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Episodes are also available on the FT’s YouTube channel.

If you’d like to get in touch and ask Martin and Paul a question, please email economics.show@ft.com

Read Martin’s FT column here

Subscribe to Paul’s substack here

The Wolf-Krugman Exchange was produced by Sandra Kanthal and Mischa Frankl-Duval, and the broadcast engineer was Richard Topping. The sound engineer was Breen Turner. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coming soon: The Wolf-Krugman Exchange

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 10:41:13 GMT

In a special six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman discuss the economic events reshaping the world in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s election.

Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Episodes will also be available on the FT’s YouTube channel.

If you’d like to get in touch and ask Martin and Paul a question, please email economics.show@ft.com

Read Martin’s FT column here

Subscribe to Paul’s substack here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How economics wins wars, with Duncan Weldon

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Churchill never said “we will fight them in the spreadsheets…”. But maybe he should have done. The second world war, like every other war in human history, was decided by how each side allocated its resources. In this episode, Duncan Weldon, author of the new book ‘Blood and Treasure, The Economics of Conflict from the Vikings to Ukraine’, explains how countries have historically thought about the economics of war – and how the Ukraine war is changing that. He and host Soumaya Keynes also discuss how conflict shaped economic institutions and the modern world.

Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Further reading:

Vladimir Putin’s war economy is cooling, but Russians still feel richer: https://www.ft.com/content/485aba41-1148-4f2c-b0ab-97aac5e50727

Russia’s war economy fuels rustbelt revival: https://www.ft.com/content/559ca59f-7fdc-4c47-8e87-edb562acdc7b

Defence spending is up – but on all the wrong things: https://www.ft.com/content/11a6b844-fe57-4e39-86ba-bb04e839bf2f

Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. The FT’s acting co-head of audio is Manuela Saragosa.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does China want from the US? With Jay Shambaugh

Mon, 26 May 2025 04:00:00 GMT

The tit-for-tat tariff escalations between the US and China are on pause, at least temporarily. But if the world’s two biggest economies don’t make progress by July, they could return with a vengeance. How can the two parties make progress? And what does China actually want from the US? Soumaya Keynes speaks to Jay Shambaugh to find out. Shambaugh was the US Treasury’s undersecretary for international affairs under Joe Biden. In other words, he was in charge of the US’s economic relationship with China. He and Soumaya discuss how the Trump administration could negotiate with China, and how interwoven trade policy and national security have become.

Clips: CNBC Television, PBS News

Further reading:

Will Trump’s tariff climbdown save the US from recession?

The markets are declaring tariff victory too soon

US-China trade war is pushing Asian nations to pick sides, ministers warn

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How should central banks respond to US tariffs?

Mon, 19 May 2025 18:09:44 GMT

US tariffs have sent financial markets into a frenzy in recent weeks, but how much should central bankers be taking trade into account when setting monetary policy? To find out, Soumaya Keynes sits down with Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member Swati Dhingra – one of the committee’s more dovish members. They discuss why the UK’s open economy makes it more vulnerable to trade shocks, what Dhingra saw in the data that her MPC colleagues didn’t, and why she didn’t vote for an (even) sharper rate cut earlier this month.

Further reading:

Two BoE policymakers warn against rushing to further cut interest rates

Bank of England vote split hits hopes for faster interest rate cuts

Brexit lessons for Trump’s trade war

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Bonus: Globalisation can be slowed, but not stopped

Thu, 15 May 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Donald Trump’s trade policies have put global markets through the mill in recent weeks. But his policies didn’t come from nowhere. Aspects of US protectionism preceded Trump’s second term – and countries across the world have been pushing for greater self-sufficiency for some time. Is this drive for greater self-sufficiency misguided? Is true self-sufficiency even possible? Or might the secret to economic security come from more co-operation, not less? The FT’s senior business writer Andrew Hill sits down with Ben Chu to discuss the findings from his new book: "Exile Economics: What Happens if Globalisation Fails." Chu is the policy and analysis correspondent at BBC Verify and was previously the economics editor of BBC Newsnight.

For further reading:

The old global economic order is dead

Britain’s trade deal with Trump may not be good news for the world

Tariffs are a bet on the free market rather than free trade

The business lessons to draw from Trump’s dealmaking

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Presented by Andrew Hill. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. The FT’s acting co-head of audio is Manuela Saragosa.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Bill Gates: how international development can survive the Trump presidency

Mon, 12 May 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Over the past 25 years, the Gates foundation has given away more than $100bn. Much of that money has gone to healthcare and education projects outside the US – and the organisation plans to give $200bn more to various programmes in the next twenty years. But as Elon Musk and Doge feed USAID, a key partner of the foundation, “into the wood chipper,” how can Bill Gates press ahead? The FT’s Africa editor, David Pilling, speaks to Gates about running an apolitical, philanthropic entity in a politically challenging time.

Bill Gates accuses Elon Musk of ‘killing’ children with USAID cuts

Elon Musk’s painful departure

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Presented by David Pilling. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. The FT’s acting co-head of audio is Manuela Saragosa.

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Martin Wolf talks to Kenneth Rogoff: Trump is accelerating the dollar’s decline

Mon, 05 May 2025 04:00:00 GMT

The US dollar has been in slow decline for around a decade – so says Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard professor, and former chief economist of the IMF. Donald Trump’s trade policies have raised a lot of questions about the future of the dollar – and how its decline could affect the rest of the world’s currencies. Rogoff joins Martin Wolf to discuss how the decline of the dollar could empower China, capital flight from the US, and why cryptocurrency is a bigger threat to dollar hegemony than most people realise.

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. You can find his column here: https://www.ft.com/martin-wolf

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Presented by Martin Wolf. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

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Should we be optimistic about the US economy? With Michael Strain

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Almost a month since ‘liberation day’, the potential impacts of President Donald Trump’s tariff regime are starting to sink in. US hard data isn’t yet showing much negative impact from changes to US trade policy – but economists are gloomy on US growth prospects. The IMF last week warned of an increased risk of US recession, and lopped nearly a full percentage point off its forecast for US growth this year. Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, joins FT economics editor Sam Fleming to discuss how Trump’s tariff agenda may play out, which forces could force the president to change tack, and what that might look like.

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Martin Wolf talks to David Autor: could AI be a bigger threat to US jobs than China?

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 04:00:00 GMT

When China joined the World Trade Organization at the start of this century, its surging exports rattled US manufacturing. Prices fell, jobs became less lucrative, and communities that relied on these jobs were hit hard. President Donald Trump seems determined to bring those jobs back to the US. Is that realistic or even desirable? The FT’s chief economics commentator Martin Wolf speaks to MIT economics professor David Autor about the "China shock" and the (potentially more significant) AI challenge that lies ahead.

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Martin Wolf talks to Mervyn King: why central banks got inflation wrong

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Former Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King has never shied away from expressing his opinion. Here, he sits down with his friend Martin Wolf — the FT’s chief economics commentator — to discuss some of the thorniest problems central banks now face: Will rate-setters manage to stay independent in the era of Trump 2.0? What should they do about cryptocurrencies? And how can they regain credibility after getting inflation so wrong?

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. You can find his column here

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Presented by Martin Wolf. Produced by Laurence Knight. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music by Breen Turner. Audio mix by Simon Panayi. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Are US tariffs just the beginning? With Abraham Newman

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 04:00:00 GMT

As Donald Trump declares a trade war on the rest of the world, it’s time to learn about a field of economic research known as “weaponised interdependence”. The bad news is that the US president’s weapon of choice – imposing tariffs on goods imports – is a fairly outdated tool of economic warfare. Globalisation and advances in financial and communications technology have created an arsenal of additional weapons, which may yet be fired off by the US or by other big players such as China and the EU. To find out more, the FT’s Alan Beattie speaks to the leading world expert on weaponised interdependence, Abraham Newman, professor of political science at Georgetown University, and co-author with Henry Farrell of 'Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy.' Newman warns that Europe, in particular, needs to completely change its gameplan in response to this new world of dominance relationships.

Presented by Alan Beattie. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval and Laurence Knight. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music by Breen Turner. Audio mix by Simon Panayi. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

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Can Germany escape its economic doldrums? With Ulrike Malmendier

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 12:16:18 GMT

For the past few years, Germany has begun to look like the ‘sick man of Europe’ again. Its economy has barely grown since 2019, while its famous manufacturing sector has shrivelled. But earlier this month, financial markets were buoyed by a vote in the German parliament to relax the constitutional limit on government borrowing, the so-called debt brake. It means that Germany’s likely new conservative-led coalition government will be free to borrow unlimited amounts to fund a defence sector build-up, and can also draw on a €500bn fund to spend on infrastructure over the next 10 years. But will more government spending be enough to address Germany’s structural economic problems? The FT’s Martin Sandbu speaks to economist Ulrike Malmendier of the University of California, Berkeley, who is a member of the German Council of Economics Experts, which evaluates the government’s economic policies.

Martin Sandbu writes a regular column for the Financial Times, which you can find here. It includes recent columns on Berlin’s about-turn on debt spending, and the economic choice facing Germany.

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Presented by Martin Sandbu. Produced by Laurence Knight. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Audio mix and original music by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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How big a fiscal hole is the British government in? With Paul Johnson

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 11:33:04 GMT

The UK’s Labour government had already inherited a tricky fiscal situation when it came to power last July. But since then, growth has stagnated, borrowing costs have risen, and now the government has committed to a big increase in defence spending. Where will the money come from? The FT’s Sam Fleming interviews Paul Johnson, the long-time director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an independent think-tank that has been adjudicating the UK’s public finances for more than half a century. As Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves prepares to deliver her Spring Statement on Wednesday, should she break her government’s pledge not to raise personal taxes?

Sam Fleming is the FT’s economics editor. You can find his latest features and columns here.

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Why do companies make terrible decisions? With Dan Davies

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Modern industrial economies were made possible by automation and mass production, but also by something similar going on inside the world of management. Where once all the decisions were made by an identifiable boss, now they are farmed out to rule books, bureaucracies and computer algorithms — and nobody is individually accountable for them. The FT’s Andrew Hill speaks to Dan Davies, economist and author of The Unaccountability Machine, who explains how the industrialisation of management decision-making was inevitable in our increasingly complex world but has had unforeseen consequences, such as “accountability sinks” and the rise of populist politicians. Nonetheless, there are solutions, including AI, the 1950s management theory of cybernetics and the return of the much-maligned middle manager.

Andrew Hill is senior business writer at the Financial Times and consulting editor at FT Live. You can find his latest features and columns here, and enjoy his Big Read on the woes of America’s industrial giants here.

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Presented by Andrew Hill. Produced by Edith Rousselot and Laurence Knight. The editor is Bryant Urstadt. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Audio mix and original music by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

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Martin Wolf talks to Keyu Jin: Has China’s economy run out of gas?

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 05:00:00 GMT

After decades of double-digit growth, China's economy has been expanding at less than half that since the pandemic. A property market crash, youth unemployment and now a trade war with the US are all adding to the country’s woes. So has the Chinese juggernaut finally run out of gas? Martin Wolf speaks to Keyu Jin, a Chinese economist who has lived and worked most of her life in the US and UK, and is currently a professor with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, as well as at Harvard. She says that China remains widely misunderstood in the west.

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. You can find his column here

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Martin Wolf. Produced by Laurence Knight. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Audio mix and original music by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Martin Wolf talks to Adair Turner: Can the world decarbonise fast enough?

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 16:34:13 GMT

The world economy is emitting carbon dioxide faster than ever before, meaning our planet is heating up faster than ever before. Martin Wolf speaks to someone who has spent much of the past two decades at the forefront of the climate debate. Lord Adair Turner chairs the Energy Transitions Commission, a think-tank focused on climate mitigation, and was previously the first chair of the UK government’s committee on climate change in 2008-12. While he fears that US President Donald Trump will act as a drag anchor on international progress in cutting emissions, he believes the EU and China can strike a deal to help the whole world transition to cheap renewable energy.

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. You can find his column here

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Martin Wolf. Produced by Laurence Knight. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Audio mix and original music by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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What future for aid and development? With Minouche Shafik

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 13:40:32 GMT

US President Donald Trump has frozen all foreign aid payments, while Elon Musk is putting America’s biggest development agency, USAID, “through the woodchipper”. Meanwhile, the UK government has just announced it will slash its aid budget from 0.5% to 0.3% of GDP. So are the days of generous programmes to promote health and education in the poorest nations now over? And should we fear that rising authoritarian powers, most notably China, are stepping into the breach with their own funds and parallel institutions? In an interview recorded just before the UK’s announcement, Alan Beattie speaks to economist Minouche Shafik, who is a veteran of the international development scene. She has worked at the World Bank, IMF, and the UK’s Department for International Development. And she is not optimistic.

Alan writes the Trade Secrets newsletter. You can sign up here. He is on Bluesky at @alanbeattie.bsky.social.

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Presented by Alan Beattie. Produced by Laurence Knight. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Audio mix and original music by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Martin Wolf talks to Richard Baldwin: What’s the future of global trade?

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 16:20:47 GMT

Donald Trump’s tariffs are a twentieth century tool that simply won’t work in the 21st century global trading system. That’s the view of today’s guest, Richard Baldwin, professor of international economics at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. Speaking to the FT’s Martin Wolf, Baldwin explains how the shift towards global manufacturing supply chains since the 1990s, and the more recent explosion in digital services exports, mean that the impact of across-the-board import taxes such as the ones proposed by the new US administration will be counterproductive and much more limited than in the past. Nonetheless, should we still worry about the harm that Trump’s policies may be doing to the global trading system, and how should other countries respond?

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. You can find his column here

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Why are birth rates falling? With Alice Evans

Fri, 21 Feb 2025 08:46:09 GMT

Birth rates are falling fast and not just in highly developed countries. And as populations age, it’s becoming harder to fund pensions or raise labour productivity. But falling fertility could also be harming social cohesion and impeding the innovation needed to solve problems such as climate change. Today on the show, John Burn-Murdoch talks to Alice Evans, a senior lecturer at King’s College, London, and the author of the newsletter, The Great Gender Divergence. Together, they try to figure out why fewer people are choosing to have children, or even coupling up in the first place, and what should be done about it.

John Burn-Murdoch writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Presented by John Burn-Murdoch. Produced by Edith Rousselot. The editor is Bryant Urstadt. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Audio mix and original music by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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The real Russian economy. With Sergei Guriev

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 15:28:27 GMT

The war in Ukraine is a humanitarian crisis. It is also an economic problem. Sanctions from the US and Europe are meant to make war too expensive for Russia to continue. President Vladimir Putin claims those sanctions have failed and his economy is strong. But what is propaganda and what is reality? Today on the show, host Martin Sandbu poses these questions to Sergei Guriev, dean of the London Business School, and an economic adviser to Russian opposition figures, as they try to figure out what is really going on in Russia’s economy.

Martin Sandbu is a columnist for the Financial Times, and writes the Free Lunch newsletter. You can find it here: https://www.ft.com/free-lunch.

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Is innovation slowing down? With Matt Clancy

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Productivity growth in the developed world has been on a downward trend since the 1960s. Meanwhile, gains in life expectancy have also slowed. And yet the number of dollars and researchers dedicated to R&D grows every year. In today’s episode, the FT’s Chief Data Reporter, John Burn-Murdoch, asks whether western culture has lost its previous focus on human progress and become too risk-averse, or whether the problem is simply that the low-hanging fruit of scientific research has already been plucked. He does so in conversation with innovation economist Matt Clancy, who is the author of the New Things Under the Sun blog, and a research fellow at Open Philanthropy, a non-profit foundation based in San Francisco that provides research grants.

John Burn-Murdoch writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Making sense of Trump's tariffs. With Dani Rodrik

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 19:16:49 GMT

Tariffs have historically been an important tool of industrial policy. They were used in the last century by east Asian nations to promote infant industries, and are being used today by the EU to help spur the energy transition. But do Donald Trump’s threats to impose a 25% across-the-board tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, or his actual 10% tax rise on all imports from China, have any kind of thought-out policy rationale behind them? And should other countries respond in kind?

To find out, the FT’s European economics commentator Martin Sandbu speaks to Dani Rodrik, professor of international political economy at Harvard. Rodrik is one of the world’s most acclaimed experts on industrial policy, and someone Martin first got to know as a PhD student in the 1990s.

Martin Sandbu writes a regular column for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Presented by Martin Sandbu. Produced by Laurence Knight and Edith Rousselot. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Audio mix and original music by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Can the WTO stay relevant? With Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In an interview recorded before President Trump hit China, Mexico and Canada with steep tariffs that disrupt the global trading system, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the director-general of the World Trade Organisation, speaks to the FT’s Senior Trade Writer, Alan Beattie, and defends her record and the WTO’s achievements. She outlines how she hopes to engage with the new US administration and how globalisation has been remarkably resilient despite shocks such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the rise of US protectionism in Trump's first term and under former president Joe Biden.

Alan writes the Trade Secrets newsletter. You can sign up here. He is on Bluesky at @alanbeattie.bsky.social.

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Presented by Alan Beattie. Produced by Laurence Knight. The editor is Bryant Urstadt. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Audio mix and original music by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Martin Wolf talks to Arvind Subramanian: India, the next economic superpower?

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 05:00:00 GMT

India is the world’s most populous nation, and since the 1990s it has maintained almost Chinese levels of rapid economic growth. Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to make India a high income country and, by implication, an economic superpower by 2047. But is that achievable? This week’s guest, Arvind Subramanian, is a former chief economic adviser to Modi’s government. He is sceptical that the necessary growth rate can be sustained. Instead, he tells Martin Wolf how he thinks the government has scared off the necessary business investment, and how a serious miscalculation by the country’s central bank may be about to plunge India into a currency crisis.

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. You can find his column here

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Update from Davos: Can industrial policy really work? With Beata Javorcik

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Sam Fleming is the FT’s Economics Editor, and this week he is reporting from the World Economic Forum at Davos, where much of the talk is about protectionism and industrial policy. Today on the show, Sam speaks to Beata Javorcik, the chief economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. They discuss the history of industrial policy -- and what it takes to get it right.

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Trump and the history of tariffs. With Doug Irwin

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 11:59:17 GMT

Doug Irwin is a professor at Dartmouth College and the author of several books on trade. Today on The Economics Show, he joins the FT’s Senior Trade Writer Alan Beattie to discuss the history of tariffs in the US, and what that history might tell us about the next round of tariffs.

Alan writes the Trade Secrets newsletter. You can sign up here. He is on Bluesky at @alanbeattie.bsky.social.

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Martin Wolf speaks to Andrew J Scott: Can societies age gracefully?

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 05:00:58 GMT

Increasingly elderly populations seen in countries such as Japan and Italy are set to become the norm everywhere in the coming decades. But will a more senior demographic make the cost of state pensions and healthcare unaffordable? And will it kill economic growth? Not necessarily so, according to today’s guest, Andrew J Scott, director of economics at the Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford. He believes that the rapidly growing cohort of over-65s is something to celebrate. But he also warns that we need to radically rethink many of the policies that delivered this widespread longevity in the first place.

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. You can find his column here

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Martin Wolf interviews Mariana Mazzucato: Can the state innovate?

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 05:00:41 GMT

In 1962, then US president John F Kennedy committed his nation to reaching the Moon before the decade was up. It was a huge undertaking, but one that ultimately succeeded, and also produced technologies such as camera phones and baby formula along the way. But have governments today lost the confidence and knowhow needed to undertake such ambitious challenges? That’s the contention of today’s guest, Mariana Mazzucato, professor in the economics of innovation and public value at University College London. She believes states need to rediscover mission-purpose and take the lead in solving problems such as climate change, pandemics or water scarcity.

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. You can find his column here

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Martin Wolf interviews Christine Lagarde: Whither Europe?

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 05:00:50 GMT

The Eurozone’s economic recovery from Covid-19 has been anaemic compared with America’s, despite achieving a soft landing from double-digit inflation. Indeed, Europe’s relative underperformance stretches back even longer, perhaps 30 years, in terms of productivity and GDP growth. Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, gives her assessment of the past few turbulent years of monetary policy and explains what she thinks Europe needs to do next if it is to close the gap with the US. She also gives her view on how the EU can negotiate its way out from between the rock of the incoming Trump administration and the hard place of another Chinese export glut.

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. You can find his column here

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Martin Wolf interviews Lant Pritchett: Is mass immigration inevitable?

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 05:00:44 GMT

Mass immigration is demographically essential but politically impossible – so argues Lant Pritchett, development economist and visiting professor at the London School of Economics. As populations age in the rich developed countries, immigrant workers will be needed to help with the burden of providing for the elderly. Removing the barriers might also be the quickest way to raise living standards for people in the developing world. But doing so would require swimming against a rising tide of anti-immigrant populism. Pritchett thinks he has a solution – allowing immigrants to come and work temporarily on strictly time-limited contracts. But does his idea stand up to scrutiny?

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. You can find his column here

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Martin Wolf interviews Larry Summers: Is Trump a threat to the US economy?

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 16:53:44 GMT

The US has just overcome one abrupt spike in inflation, which may have cost Kamala Harris her bid for the presidency. But now President-elect Donald Trump’s policy agenda threatens to cause another one. That’s according to Larry Summers, the former US Treasury Secretary and President Emeritus of Harvard University. He speaks to the FT’s Martin Wolf – who is standing in for Soumaya Keynes while she is on maternity leave – about the risks to economic stability posed by Trump’s proposed tax cuts, trade tariffs and mass expulsion of illegal immigrants, as well as his threats to the rule of law.

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. You can find his column here

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Is the Eurozone in trouble? With Philip Lane

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 05:00:52 GMT

It’s a treacherous time for the Eurozone. Inflation is falling, yes, but at the same time signs of real economic weakness are growing. And there are risks on the horizon, from rising debt to trade wars to real wars. It’s a perfect time to speak to our guest Philip Lane, chief economist of the ECB and a member of its executive board. And this week we have a co-host as well, Frankfurt bureau chief and ECB correspondent Olaf Storbeck.

For Philip Lane’s recent speech on monetary policy uncertainty, see here

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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What’s wrong with Britain’s economy? With Sam Bowman

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 05:00:11 GMT

The UK is lagging behind its peers in the Eurozone. Its per capita GDP trails that of France and Germany, and yet its housing and energy is scarcer and more expensive. A recent essay by Sam Bowman, co-authored with Ben Southwood and Samuel Hughes, argues that Britain has struggled over the past 15 years because it has “banned the investment in housing, transport and energy that it most vitally needs.” Sam Bowman is a founding editor of Works in Progress, has served as director of competition policy at the International Center for Law & Economics and as executive director of the Adam Smith Institute. Today on the show, we ask him if Britain’s failure to launch is really a failure to build.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Why is Britain’s government so inefficient? With Jeremy Hunt

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 04:59:07 GMT

Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are having heated conversations about whether or not governments can be made more efficient. The results include two new agencies, Elon Musk’s ad hoc Department of Government Efficiency, and Labour’s Office for Value for Money. But when it comes to improving public services, the challenges are neither new, nor easy to navigate. This week, we are asking how to make the government more efficient. And we’re asking the UK’s former chancellor of the exchequer, Jeremy Hunt.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Would Trump’s tariffs really be that bad? With Kimberly Clausing

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 05:00:52 GMT

Trump is returning to office with many of the same policies that characterised his last term. And for economists, none looms larger than the prospect of significant new tariffs. But are tariffs really as destructive as feared? After all, the Biden administration maintained most of them and the economy has remained strong. Today on the show, we put the question to Kimberly Clausing, a professor at UCLA, and formerly lead economist in the Biden administration's Office for Tax Policy.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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What does a second Trump presidency mean for immigration? With Michael Clemens

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 05:00:06 GMT

Michael Clemens of George Mason University is an expert on the economics of migration, and a scholar of its history. With the newly elected President Trump promising to deport millions of immigrants, we thought it was the perfect time to talk about what illegal immigrants mean to the present economy and, more pressingly, what an economy without them might look like.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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How to tax the top 1% with Natasha Sarin

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 05:00:15 GMT

In 2025, some major provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are going to expire. Meanwhile, spending is likely to rise. That means there is going to be a conversation about tax policy. Natasha Sarin was a counselor to Treasury secretary Janet Yellen at the US Treasury, and is now a professor at Yale and president of the Budget Lab, a research centre analysing US policy. And one thing she has been studying is the tax position of many of the ultra-wealthy. Much of their wealth is in stocks, which aren’t taxed until they’re sold. This week we are going to ask, what is the best way of taxing the top 1 per cent?

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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The economics of research and development. With Heidi Williams

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 05:00:52 GMT

Intuitively, research and development is a building block of a productive future. But exactly how important is it, and can we put a number on it? Heidi Williams is a professor of economics at Dartmouth College, and an expert on innovation policy. She is also a visiting fellow at the Congressional Budget Office. Today on the show, she joins Soumaya Keynes to discuss public and private funding for R&D, how the two sources interact, and what we can know about how much it’s all worth to the economic future of a country.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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What is Kamalanomics? With James Politi

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 15:36:55 GMT

With the US election in a matter of weeks, today Soumaya Keynes is joined by the FT’s Washington bureau chief, James Politi. They discuss the Kamala Harris platform – from industrial policy to tax reform to housing – and what it might all cost. They also talk about how Kamala Harris might differ from Joe Biden, and which staff members might stay and which might go.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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What’s wrong with effective altruism? With Martin Sandbu

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 04:00:49 GMT

The effective altruism movement has been on a wild ride over the past decade. EA started – in the popular consciousness, at least – as a forum for mindful questions about where best to put charitable dollars. Think bed nets and de-worming pills. But, since then, EA seems to have devolved into rationalisations for making tons of money, freak-outs about AI and the end of humanity. Today, on the show, Soumaya and guest Martin Sandbu, the FT economics editorial writer, discuss EA’s evolution, its future and whether it even makes any sense.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Why even a PhD isn’t enough to erase the effects of class, with Anna Stansbury

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 04:00:29 GMT

Race and gender have dominated headlines about economic outcomes in the past decades, but class … not so much. Class is often invisible, hard to describe and awkward to talk about. Anna Stansbury, an assistant professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, sought to shed light on class in the US in a recent paper, co-written with Kyra Rodriguez. They found that independently of race or gender, people’s family circumstances can hold them back. And that is even after they have done enough work to get a “Dr” in front of their name. Today on the show, Soumaya and Anna discuss the problem and how to fix it.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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How to cut government debt, with Robin Wigglesworth

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 04:00:21 GMT

Jamaica’s economy struggled for decades, and at one point it had amassed debts worth more than 140 per cent of GDP. Even the IMF wouldn’t return its calls. But somehow, in the 2010s, it managed to halve its government debt – over just seven years. Today on the show, we ask how they did it, and what lessons Jamaica can teach much larger economies.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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What would Trump do on trade? With Alan Beattie

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 13:46:19 GMT

This campaign, candidate Donald Trump is promising even more extreme versions of the policies that marked his first term. But what would higher, and more widespread, tariffs actually look like? And in what form would any retaliation come? Today on the show, Soumaya and the FT’s senior trade writer Alan Beattie discuss the candidate’s campaign promises on trade, and where they might lead.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Is this a winning US economy for the Democrats? With Jared Bernstein

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 17:21:24 GMT

Jared Bernstein is the chair of President Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers. Today on the show, Soumaya gets to put him in the hot seat. She grills him about everything from price caps to inflation to the recent jobs numbers. They even get into the mysterious problem of the vibes.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Do price controls really help with inflation? With Isabella Weber

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 04:00:59 GMT

When presidential candidate Kamala Harris proposed legislation to ban price gouging, we naturally thought to interview Isabella Weber, an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Weber’s paper on the subject lit up economic discussion in the wake of gas and food market disruptions caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Weber calls for governments to examine capping prices on certain staples, and amassing supplies to even out pricing. But is this prudent oversight of the markets, or a step down the road to central planning and scarcity?

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Rethinking the AI boom, with Daron Acemoğlu

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 04:00:25 GMT

Daron Acemoğlu is an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity. Today on the show, he and Soumaya discuss artificial intelligence and productivity growth, querying how and why AI will change the trajectory of the world economy, and how the workers and the middle class will be affected along the way. It’s a wide-ranging conversation about the past and the future of technology, and what it means for the world’s wellbeing.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Who is winning the chip wars? With Chris Miller

Mon, 26 Aug 2024 04:00:19 GMT

Computer chips power toys and control nuclear reactors. They are in phones, cars and planes, getting us to work and keeping us safe. And they are at the centre of a growing tech war between the US and China, with many other players. Governments around the world are throwing money at industry and erecting barriers to trade, trying desperately to onshore a multitrillion-dollar global industry. This week Soumaya discusses the geopolitics of chips with Chris Miller, associate professor at Tufts University and author of Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology.

To take part in the audience survey and be in with the chance to win a pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones, click here. Click here to find T&Cs for the prize draw.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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How much cash would it take to quit your job? With Pilita Clark and Mouhcine Guettabi

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 04:00:46 GMT

How much would it take for you to retire? The question is fun to think about, but also central to a serious conversation happening in economics about the cost and wisdom of a universal basic income. Today on the show, Soumaya is joined by FT editor and columnist Pilita Clark to discuss basic income, and an interview Soumaya did with Mouhcine Guettabi, who studied how Alaska’s payments to its citizens changed how much they worked and when.

To take part in the audience survey and be in with the chance to win a pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones, click here. Click here to find T&Cs for the prize draw.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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The case for holding rates, with Catherine Mann

Mon, 12 Aug 2024 04:00:19 GMT

Recent events, including a weak US jobs report, a pullback in Japan, and volatility in US markets have made life trickier for central bankers around the world. In the UK, moderating inflation led the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee to cut rates on August 1. The vote was 5-4, with member Catherine Mann voting to hold. Today on the show, Soumaya Keynes and Mann discuss the case for holding steady in a time of volatility and falling inflation.

To take part in the audience survey and be in with the chance to win a pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones, click here. Click here to find T&Cs for the prize draw.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Rethinking income inequality, with Chris Giles

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 04:00:18 GMT

A recently released research paper calls into question many of the assumptions about the rate at which income inequality has grown in the US over the past 75 years. Today on the show, Soumaya and the FT’s economics commentator, Chris Giles, discuss this bombshell report, and what it means for economists thinking about wealth and income in the US.

To take part in the audience survey and be in with the chance to win a pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones, click here. Click here to find T&Cs for the prize draw.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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What happens when manufacturing goes away? With Amy Goldstein

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 04:00:31 GMT

The GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, closed during the financial crisis in 2008, ending decades of production – and 3,000 steady, highly paid jobs. Journalist Amy Goldstein wrote about the town as the plant’s workers hurried to make new lives. Her book, ‘Janesville: An American Story’, won the Financial Times and McKinsey Book of the Year in 2017. This summer, Goldstein returned to town for the FT, and now joins Soumaya Keynes to talk about what Janesville lost and what it has gained in the years following the closing of the plant.

To take part in the audience survey and be in with the chance to win a pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones, click here. Click here to find T&Cs for the prize draw.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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What does the US get wrong about China? With Adam Posen

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 04:00:36 GMT

NOTE: This podcast was recorded before Joe Biden announced he was stepping down from the US presidential race

Both the Republicans and Democrats are talking tough on economic competition with China. But is this wise? Today on the show, Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, discusses why a hard line on China might not be the best line.

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Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Have we reached the limits of monetary policy? With Hyun Song Shin

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 04:00:17 GMT

Hyun Song Shin is the economic adviser and head of research at the Bank for International Settlements, the “bank for central banks,” based in Basel, Switzerland. Today on the show, they talk about the possibilities and final limits of monetary policy. It’s a wide-ranging discussion about the machinery of international finance, covering everything from how much credit central bankers should get for the recent fall in inflation, to what would happen if we returned to a low-rates world.

To take part in the audience survey and be in with the chance to win a pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones, click here. Click here to find T&Cs for the prize draw.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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What’s wrong with economics? With Angus Deaton

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 04:00:13 GMT

Sir Angus Deaton won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2015. So when he says he is rethinking many of his assumptions about the field, it matters. Today on the show, Soumaya discusses what we are getting wrong about everything from inequality to immigration to the role of globalisation in the reduction of poverty.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Does the economy still matter for elections? With John Burn-Murdoch

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 12:17:44 GMT

For years, pollsters described elections as referendums on the economy. But recently, voters have started to change how they talk about the economy, and how they vote. Today on the show, data reporter John Burn-Murdoch joins Soumaya to discuss shifts in how voters are thinking, and what that means for democracy.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Does pay transparency work? With Zoe Cullen and Pilita Clark

Mon, 24 Jun 2024 04:00:36 GMT

Our guest this week, Zoe Cullen, joins FT columnist Pilita Clark and Soumaya to discuss the benefits and hazards of revealing all about pay. Cullen is an assistant professor at Harvard Business School who has been studying the economics of pay transparency for years. She finds that pay transparency doesn’t necessarily mean more money for everyone . . . but it can! It all depends on what kind of pay transparency you choose.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Are we in for a hard landing? With Olivier Blanchard

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 04:00:40 GMT

Olivier Blanchard is the former chief economist of the IMF and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. He collaborated with former Fed chair Ben Bernanke to study the responses of 10 central banks to the recent bout of inflation, what we know about its causes, and whether finally getting it back to 2% will require a hard landing. In a wide-ranging chat with Soumaya, he also discusses areas where he has changed his mind, as well as the recent tilt towards the right in France.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here.

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Thinking about the global economy with Martin Wolf

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 04:00:52 GMT

Today on the show, the FT’s chief economics commentator joins host Soumaya Keynes to discuss why the US is racing ahead of Europe and whether the trend could reverse. They also discuss the outlook for interest rates, China’s future, AI and productivity. Plus, Martin shares his most controversial opinion.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Are we getting inflation right? With Neel Kashkari

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 04:00:56 GMT

Today on the show Soumaya Keynes talks about macroeconomic mistakes and the interest rate outlook with Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. FT economics commentator Chris Giles joins them to discuss what the Fed got right and wrong about inflation, and Neel’s journey from dove to hawk.

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Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here.

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The Economics of Parenting, with Emily Oster

Mon, 27 May 2024 04:00:59 GMT

Emily Oster is a professor of economics at Brown University, but she is probably best known as the author of the bestsellers 'Expecting Better' and 'Cribsheet', which crunch the research about the often gut-driven practice of parenting. Today on the show we talk about research, process and the many myths about raising children. Oster hosts the ParentData podcast and publishes the weekly ParentData newsletter.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here.

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Has the US finally borrowed too much? With Jason Furman

Mon, 20 May 2024 04:00:54 GMT

US government debt is high, and it's getting higher. The US debt-to-GDP ratio is more than 100 per cent of GDP. The Congressional Budget Office thinks the deficit is headed to 6 per cent of GDP, and a lot of that is just the debt interest. Those numbers sound pretty scary, and neither political party seems ready to do anything about it. Today on the show, we worry about it with Jason Furman, the former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration, and current professor of economics at Harvard.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here.

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Introducing: The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes

Tue, 14 May 2024 16:53:39 GMT

The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes is a new weekly podcast from the Financial Times packed full of smart, digestible analysis and incisive conversation. Soumaya Keynes digs deep into the hottest topics in economics along with a cast of FT colleagues and special guests. Come for the big ideas, stay for the nerdery.

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