It was never about economics. But 52% or the 72% turnout voted for the UK to leave the European Union last June and now it’s official. Prime Minister Theresa May has written and delivered a letter that gives the country just two years to renegotiate tens of thousands of laws that took 40 odd years to draw up. It’s about taking control, she said, without expanding what that might mean. In the absence of any credible positive analysis from the 'Leave' fraternity, please allow Simon Lambert, Rebecc...
Mar 31, 2017•51 min
One thousand years ago, life expectancy was about 30 years. In 30 years’ time, someone will be born who could live to 1,000. This causes a problem for the pensions industry and governments. It’s tough enough finding an income for a few months without working, never mind 935 years. This is the kind of problem experts have been grappling with lately and some of the results are emerging. On the table are joys such as working until you’re 105 years old, abolishing the State pension or coming up with...
Mar 24, 2017•51 min
What a mess we’re in. Without too much effort this week, we spotted 10 messes. It was made pretty easy with the fallout from Chancellor Philip Hammond’s first go at a Budget making news all week. His attack on small business was up there with some of the made-up-as-you-go-along nonsense from his predecessor. Hammond learned well from George Osborne. Mess 1 The Budget. Last week we wondered if the whole thing was a joke? It was. The main thrust, a rise in National Insurance contributions for peop...
Mar 17, 2017•53 min
It felt like there was something fishy going on during the Budget speech this week. Chancellor Philip Hammond peppered the few official announcements he made with low-rent panto gags and political jibes. Were these a distraction technique? With the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear that trying to be funny was silly Philly’s way of glossing over one of the more ‘spectacularly dumb’ decisions in modern politics. Big banks brought the economy to its knees in the late noughties, why now go after the ...
Mar 10, 2017•54 min
A speech this week from President Donald Trump sent the US stock market soaring to a record high. And where the US goes, the rest of the world follows. The FTSE 100 is also impressing investors. Trump stood at the podium, behaved like an adult and explained a little more about some of his less crazy policies, including the fiscal ones. Cash held offshore could start washing back into America and wind up in the pockets of shareholders, who clearly want a piece of that pie. There’s more to it than...
Mar 03, 2017•1 hr
There are a lot of laughs this week as Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost take a sideways look at some of the week’s potty money stories. Banks are in the spotlight because it’s reporting season and there was a mix of good news, shock news and fraud news from Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and the rest. But the pathetic attempts by RBS to lure customers to its headline 0.05% interest-paying cash Isa get taken to pieces by the This is Money team. Also on the show… A trendy new bank backed by the ...
Feb 24, 2017•53 min
It’s the Holy Trinity of money-geddon (to mess up a couple of Biblical metaphors). But this could be big. We’re less well off than in 2008, prices are going up and wages aren’t. This adds up to trouble. The British economy is based on us all spending money on services but it’s increasingly money we haven't got. Join Georgie Frost, Rachel Rickard Straus and Simon Lambert for a cheery look at what lies ahead now that the impact of austerity, inflation and the devalued pound is becoming clear. Also...
Feb 17, 2017•49 min
The property market is broken. Years of cheap money have allowed lenders to lend more and more to people earning less and less and we’re at crisis point. The politics of trying to boost the housing market to win votes has left us on the brink of potential disaster. Rents are likely to soar too, removing even that alternative to having a roof over our heads, and while all the economic focus rests on London there’s little incentive to move to Stoke-on-Trent. It was with this mess in mind that we’d...
Feb 10, 2017•54 min
We haven’t left the world’s biggest trading block yet so measuring the success of Brexit is tricky. It hasn’t happened. There’s still no plan. But what we do know is this. The inequality gap between rich and poor in Britain is growing. More than 14million have not been able to save a penny in the last 12 months. And HALF of earners of £25,000 or less haven’t put cash aside for the rainy days ahead. But why would you save when the interest rates available are lower than inflation? It means saving...
Feb 03, 2017•53 min
We tried hard this week not to talk too much about Britain's exit from the European economic bedrock as it jumps headfirst into bed with Donald Trump’s protectionist America. Instead, and in related news, Georgie Frost, Adrian Lowery and Simon Lambert take a look at the exodus of banks from the UK. Not just those planning on moving to continental Europe post-Brexit, but the latest wave of branch closures announced by HSBC and Yorkshire Bank. But do we really need them? Simon, This is Money’s edi...
Jan 27, 2017•53 min
This week will go down in history for a couple of major events. A new US president being sworn in is always big news but that happens every four years. OK, Donald Trump might shake things up a bit if he's able to get his way. Most noteworthy in Britain was the revelation that 'Brexit’ means the total withdrawal from the EU, customs union and single market as a way of controlling immigration. Prime Minister Theresa May laid out her 'plan' for the future of Britain outside the world's largest trad...
Jan 20, 2017•49 min
Investors have been cheered by a stunning start to 2017 for the FTSE 100, which racked up a record-breaking run of closing highs. But does that mean we should be confident or worried? The FTSE 100 is made up of international companies with foreign earnings, booming on the back of the devalued pound. On this week’s This is Money podcast, Simon Lambert and Rachel Rickard Straus join Georgie Frost in the Share Radio studios to explore why shares have soared and discuss whether this is a good, indif...
Jan 13, 2017•50 min
The glass is half full and we’re on the hunt for a silver lining as we look forward to what's in store for our finances in 2017. We also cast a quick glance back at the most entertaining money stories of 2016, which were about... well, money. We go behind the scenes with the man we hold responsible for the phenomenon that was stories about new fivers worth a more than £5 and coins worth a small fortune, consumer affairs editor Lee Boyce. Readers loved his stories about coins and notes last year,...
Jan 06, 2017•53 min
The phenomenal successes of British athletes at the Rio Olympics were quickly forgotten in 2016 as a confusing, unpredictable mix of politics and economics took over. The peculiarities began before Brazil, however, when Leicester City won the Premiership title at odds of 5,000 to 1. Then the British public were granted a vote on the country’s role in the European Union, which few appeared to understand. Markets crashed and recovered, the pound tanked and people got rather angry – but mostly abou...
Dec 23, 2016•52 min
It might be the only time in history that four five-course supermarket Christmas dinners are taste-tested on live radio over a discussion about the state of the economy. There’s really not much more one can say. Other than will it be Lidl, Waitrose, Tesco or ‘the wildcard’ that proves more popular this year in the turkey, cheese, Prosecco, sprouts and cranberry sauce league? The result, as a clickbaiter might say, may surprise you. The journey might amuse you. Inflation hit 1.2% and the US Feder...
Dec 16, 2016•52 min
It’s amazing isn’t it? We’re a service economy with a heavy reliance on financial services but when it comes to customer services and financial services, we’re useless. Our email inbox is permanently full of complaints about companies that refuse to help their customers – as is our old-fashioned post bag. For the ninth year running the Wooden Spoon awards are upon us, where we highlight the most complained about companies and organisations of the year and ask readers, listeners and viewers to vo...
Dec 09, 2016•50 min
An energy firm collapsed this week, but even if you were one of GB Energy's customers you might not have even realised.If you've ever wondered where all those strangely named energy firms have come from, listen to this week's This is Money Podcast to find out.Simon Lambert and Lee Boyce, of This is Money, join Georgie Frost in the Share Radio studios to discuss why our energy firms are feeling stressed.They also look at why our banks are being stress tested, with the majority state-owned RBS set...
Dec 02, 2016•51 min
The new Chancellor delivered his first Autumn Statement this week with the aim of distancing himself from his predecessor - but what will it mean for you? Philip Hammond grabbed the headlines with a ban on fees for tenants, a 2.2% savings bond, a minor splurge on infrastructure and an awful lot of debt. Will tenants bear the brunt of landlords hiking rents after being hit by crafty letting agents? Is a three-year bond paying 2.2% the answer to the savings crisis? What’s the key to productivity o...
Nov 25, 2016•51 min
After the Brexit vote rolled in, a tax giveaway and spending splurge was considered a nailed on certainty.Five months down the line, Britain's economy has surprised many with its resilience and it's not so clear cut.So what will Philip Hammond do in the Autumn Statement. Will the public get infrastructure bonds to invest in, will stamp duty see a cut to get people moving, and will anyone ever commit to properly fixing Britain's roads.Next Wednesday's Autumn Statement holds the key and Simon Lamb...
Nov 18, 2016•50 min
The Simpsons predicted it but did you? Donald Trump will be the next president of the US after his election win this week - something many thought was impossible.But just how much of a part did economic dissatisfaction among those who feel left behind by a wealthy elite play in this? Did that wealthy elite spend too long ignoring ordinary hard-working families concerns and telling them they knew what was best? Why didn't the other side realise and do something that would have stopped the White H...
Nov 11, 2016•47 min
The Bank of England updated us on post-Brexit vote Britain this week and managed to admit it was wrong while telling us it was right. Simon Lambert, Adrian Lowery and Georgie Frost rake through the inflation report and outlook for interest rates and the economy on the This is Money podcast with Share Radio.They also look at what that High Court victory means for Brexit, business and our money.While this rumbles on, savers are being stung by terrible rates and inflation rising. So what should you...
Nov 04, 2016•49 min
Cleared for take-off? Heathrow is given the green light for a third runway, but what does it mean for the economy, residents, house prices and the future of air travel from Britain? Some under 30s ARE saving enough for retirement while we explain why turning back the clocks this weekend makes our roads more dangerous. Has buy-to-let gone cold? Or should landlords look north to student towns such as Leeds for better yields? Buy-to-let and LS6 postcode expert Simon Lambert runs the rule. And PPI. ...
Oct 28, 2016•1 hr 4 min
Enough already! Can’t everything just be simpler? ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’, said Leonardo da Vinci, whose basic thinking gave us art and helicopters to chat about and wonder over for centuries. It hardly goes without saying that top of the week’s meddles is from Ryanair, the low-cost airline MOST famous for concocting increasingly bizarre, arbitrary ways of charging people more. Now it’s levying a fee for checking yourself in at home on your computer and printing the boarding ...
Oct 21, 2016•49 min
The country appeared to take leave of its senses this week. As the pound continues to take a steady route south through the Channel tunnel down to the capital of Armageddon, the effects are being felt by businesses across Britain. And bit-by-bit consumers are starting to notice. They’re not happy. News of the famous savoury black paste, Marmite, being taken off the shelves at Tesco spread across the internet like a yeast infection. People became hysterical - and not in a funny way. You don’t mes...
Oct 14, 2016•50 min
It’s the best money show on the radio. Of that we are in no doubt. What is in doubt, though, is what’s behind our ‘economic recovery’ and the small matter of the future of Britain. Georgie and Simon are joined by ace This is Money investment and business reporter Ellie Lawrie to pore over the week’s strange events. To the soundtrack of the Prime Minister’s pro-Brexit speech at the Conservative Party conference, the FTSE 100 was hitting near record highs. Behind the headlines, the story was somew...
Oct 07, 2016•50 min
Here’s our latest joyous look at the week’s events. Join Georgie Frost, Simon Lambert and Lee Boyce for money mirth with a few nervous laughs on top. We’re possibly staring global financial Armageddon in the face again as Germany’s biggest bank owes more money in fines than it’s worth while it sits on TRILLIONS of pounds of complex debt that no one appears to understand. UK banks were bailed out to the tune of around £500bn after the 2008 crisis, paid for by cutting Government spending and disab...
Sep 30, 2016•52 min
It’s a really fun show this week and a fantastic antidote to the Bake Off and Brangelina hysteria. For the initiated, two well-known Hollywood actors announced their divorce this week and the makers of televised cake-making competition revealed they were moving it to Channel 4 from the BBC. And we don’t care. Not that making cakes doesn’t get a look in. It does but with the usual financial twist. How to save money baking is one of the more popular stories of the week. Have you any idea just how ...
Sep 23, 2016•50 min
Now that cash machines hardly ever distribute five pound notes, the Bank of England decided it was time to issue a new, modern plastic one - to great fanfare. But the question on everyone's lips is why was it Winston Churchill and not Keith Richards on the note. This is just one of the conundrums in this week's round-up of the best of the week's money news. Also on the show... Banks under investigation for using interest rate cuts to punish customers Pensions are just too confusing aren't they? ...
Sep 16, 2016•51 min
This week the team from This is Money join Share Radio’s Georgie Frost for an entertaining look back at the week’s big stories from the disgusting tricks hidden in cancer insurance small print to the birth of a new money superhero, Scam Man. Also on the show: Why banks are refusing to grant overdrafts to youngsters. Are they overeducated and misunderstood or just living in the wrong part of town? Did baby boomers really steal all the money and run away? Did Governor of the Bank of England Mark C...
Sep 09, 2016•53 min
We take a look back at some of the recent major financial events that have affected us all. It's been a bumpy ride and it's time to take stock. The team from This is Money with Georgie Frost of Share Radio explain the fallout of the EU referendum, the collapsing pound and interest rates, Santander 123, complicated Bank of England decisions, inheritance tax and loads more. As ever, they explain what it all means and what it means for the pounds, the euros and dollars in our pockets. Follow us on ...
Sep 02, 2016•57 min
