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.
Soumaya Keynes is an economics columnist for the Financial Times. Prior to joining the FT she worked at The Economist for eight years as a staff writer, where as well as covering trade, the US economy and the UK economy she co-hosted the Money Talks podcast. She also co-founded the Trade Talks podcast.
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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...
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 hu...
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 fo...
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 ...
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 th...
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 her...
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, e...
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 ...
Economist Michael Pettis delves into China's exceptional economic growth model, characterized by high savings and investment, and the current challenges of "involution" and excess capacity, particularly in green tech. He explains how China's economic policies have profound repercussions globally, forcing deficit countries like the US to accommodate these imbalances through increased debt or shifts in manufacturing. The episode explores historical parallels, the viability of China's technological advancements, and the inevitable rise of trade conflicts.
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, ...
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' speak...
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 eco...
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 m...
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 th...
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 eco...
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. C...
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 Further Reading: U...
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 organis...
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...
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 J...
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 t...
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...
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=...
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 Cult...
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 Se...
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 Da...
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...
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 P...
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 discus...
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 wit...
