Covid-19 isn't just a deadly threat to human life; it's also a mental health catastrophe with economic consequences. Fear of illness, strict lockdowns, isolation from friends and family, rising unemployment and collapsing businesses weigh on the hearts and minds of people all across the globe. But poor mental health isn’t just a symptom of economic malaise: It can also be a cause. Bloomberg economics reporter William Horobin reports from Paris about what the psychological effects of the pandemic...
Jan 14, 2021•24 min•Season 4Ep. 15
An economy is its people. Alongside the almost 360,000 killed by the coronavirus in the U.S., there are millions more whose lives have been upended by the pandemic’s economic shock. Bloomberg senior reporter Shawn Donnan introduces one of those people as he investigates the widening inequalities across America, and host Stephanie Flanders talks with Bloomberg reporter Michael Sasso about what the results of this week’s Georgia Senate runoff could mean. Across the Atlantic, U.K. economy reporter ...
Jan 07, 2021•28 min•Season 4Ep. 14
The events of 2020 caught most people off guard. The global economy was upended, prompting unprecedented responses by governments and central banks while shaking up supply chains. It was also a year that made many of us rethink the way we live. On this podcast, host Stephanie Flanders leads a roundtable discussion about the year’s most memorable moments, and what 2021 may hold in store for us. She's joined by Bloomberg Editor at Large Francine Lacqua, Chief Economist Tom Orlik, former Beijing Bu...
Dec 31, 2020•38 min•Season 4Ep. 13
As a tumultuous year for the global economy comes to a close, host Stephanie Flanders speaks with someone on the front line of the policy response. Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane discusses the outlook for recovery now that vaccinations have begun, how central bankers view inflation and whether the pandemic is really the answer to the productivity puzzle. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dec 23, 2020•36 min•Season 4Ep. 12
Adding robots to factories, retail stores or mines was historically seen as a job killer by workers and the unions that support them. But this year, automation has allowed sectors of the economy to continue producing with fewer people, minimizing the coronavirus risk for workers. U.S. economy reporter Olivia Rockeman explains what that might mean in the long term and what needs to happen to help the displaced. Host Stephanie Flanders talks with Harvard Economics Chair Richard Freeman about how 2...
Dec 17, 2020•24 min•Season 4Ep. 11
Internet companies have long been the target of complaints that they don’t pay their fair share of taxes. The system wasn’t built for a digital global economy, but how do you now impose rules on multinational tech giants? Bloomberg Economy reporter William Horobin reports from Paris on the battle to find common ground among almost 140 countries and avoid a new transatlantic trade conflict. Host Stephanie Flanders talks with Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the center for tax policy at the Organiz...
Dec 10, 2020•30 min•Season 4Ep. 10
In Washington, personnel is policy. The people President-elect Joe Biden has picked to run economic policy can tell us a lot about what we might expect from the next administration. Bloomberg Businessweek Economics Editor Peter Coy introduces us to the key players and explains what Bidenomics could look like. Then host Stephanie Flanders speaks with Harvard University Professor Jason Furman, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama. He says the U.S. should st...
Dec 03, 2020•31 min•Season 4Ep. 9
The hard reality of the Covid-19 pandemic is that while those at greatest risk of dying are retirement age or older, the economic disaster and its consequences fall disproportionately on the shoulders of the young. How does it feel to be one of these people, knowing you're on the hook for years of lost economic opportunity while others dictate the terms of any recovery? Bloomberg London news apprentice Eileen Gbagbo, age 21, reports on how the virus is inflaming intergenerational tensions. Then ...
Nov 26, 2020•34 min•Season 4Ep. 8
This week’s episode of Stephanomics comes to you from the third annual Bloomberg New Economy Forum, where global leaders have gathered for a virtual discussion of how to solve the world’s biggest challenges, not least of which is the coronavirus pandemic. Stephanie Flanders brings together former Fed Chair Janet Yellen, ex-Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers to analyze the unprecedented eco...
Nov 19, 2020•35 min
For decades, Asia’s fast-growing economies have offered millions of young people the chance to do better than their parents. Thanks to Covid-19, that tradition may soon end as youth unemployment soars in a region home to most of the world’s young adults. So what happens when your economic opportunities dry up? Bloomberg’s Chief Asia Economics Correspondent Enda Curran reports from Hong Kong on the struggles and hopes of the “lockdown generation.” Then host Stephanie Flanders speaks with Bloomber...
Nov 12, 2020•29 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Who the U.S. president will be for the next four years is dominating the headlines right now, but what of the previous four? In the wake of the Nov. 3 election, host Stephanie Flanders discusses with some of the nation’s leading economists just how Donald Trump’s administration has changed America’s economy and how it interacts with the rest of the world. Flanders is joined by University of Chicago Professor Randall Kroszner, a former Fed Governor, and George Mason University Professor Tyler Cow...
Nov 05, 2020•31 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Alongside the financial destruction wrought by Covid-19 there comes new opportunities. European officials have seized on one in particular—mending battered economies in a way that also tackles global warming, or “building back greener.” But how to turn those words into action? Bloomberg renewables reporter Jess Shankleman reports from London on the policies that may bring that dream to fruition, and the sobering realities of trying to do so during a pandemic. Host Stephanie Flanders talks with e...
Oct 29, 2020•30 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Amid its terrible death toll and economic devastation, the coronavirus pandemic has prompted people, businesses and governments to rethink the way they live and operate. Now, as countries seek to take their first steps back toward normality, many are wondering what changes forced upon us by Covid-19 may be worth keeping when the crisis has passed. For Thailand’s national parks, the pandemic has meant a chance for nature to regenerate thanks to the absence of tourists. Senior Asia Economy Reporte...
Oct 22, 2020•33 min
The pandemic has raised the specter of mass unemployment across many developed economies. In Europe, governments stepped in to help pay millions of workers, hoping the crisis would quickly pass and businesses reopen. But with normality nowhere in sight and fresh waves of infection prompting new restrictions, the question now is which jobs should we try to save? On this week’s episode, Bloomberg economy reporter Jeannette Neumann reports from Cadiz, Spain, where old industries hold lessons for th...
Oct 15, 2020•29 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Covid-19 has upended economies across the globe. In the fourth season of Stephanomics, we’ll be taking a closer look at the fragile path to recovery and which nations are doing better than others. This first podcast of the new season is brought to you by the letter K, or more precisely the K-shaped recovery which sees parts of the U.S. economy bouncing back while others still suffer. We start in Cleveland, where Bloomberg senior reporter Shawn Donnan tells us about two houses that illustrate how...
Oct 08, 2020•35 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Andy Browne, editorial director for the Bloomberg New Economy, talks to Jonathan Hillman, author of the book The Emperor’s New Road: China and the Project of the Century. That project, of course, is the Belt and Road Initiative: the grand strategy of president Xi Jinping who has made it his foreign policy signature. But what is it exactly? An imperial effort, certainly. But according to Jonathan not a very organized one. And one that could repeat the mistakes of past empires. See omnystudio.com/...
Sep 28, 2020•17 min
One of the first global consumer companies to feel the impact of Covid-19 was the beer giant AB InBev, whose brands include Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois. AB InBev operates a brewery in Whuan China where the pandemic began and which was the worlds first city to go into lockdown. But as life returns to normal in Wuhan and cities all over the world, beer is flowing again in record quantities. In this interview, Andy Browne talks to AB InBevs CEO Carlos Brito about this turnaround in fortunes...
Sep 17, 2020•15 min
Before the pandemic, relations between the U.S. and China were already at rock bottom. Since then, they've gotten even worse, with both sides trading blame for the Covid-19 outbreak, spinning conspiracy theories and abandoning cooperation on all fronts. To discuss what this all means for the Covid economy, Andy Browne caught up with two Wall Street Journal reporters, Lingling Wei and Bob Davis, to talk about their new book, Superpower Showdown: How the Battle Between Trump and Xi Threatens a New...
Sep 10, 2020•15 min
In this bonus episode, Andy Browne, the editorial Director of the Bloomberg New Economy, talks to Brian Chesky, chief executive of Airbnb. A few months ago, the company laid off a quarter of its staff. But since then, the business has since staged a remarkable comeback — and now Airbnb is said to be planning an IPO. Andy and Brian discuss the future of travel, and what a new nomadic workforce might mean for the home rental business. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Sep 03, 2020•15 min
The novel coronavirus has reshaped the global economy, shifting the attitudes of governments, central bankers and consumers alike. It has changed how we work—if we work—and altered monetary and fiscal policy around the globe. As this tumultuous season of Stephanomics draws to a close, host Stephanie Flanders speaks with two leading economists about what they’ve learned from the crisis so far. Stephen King, senior economic adviser at HSBC, and Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for I...
Jul 23, 2020•26 min•Season 3Ep. 17
The killers of Berta Caceres had every reason to believe they’d get away with murder. More than 100 other environmental activists in Honduras had been killed in the previous five years, yet almost no one had been punished for the crimes. Bloomberg’s Blood River follows a four-year quest to find her killers – a twisting trail that leads into the country’s circles of power. Blood River premieres on July 27. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Jul 22, 2020•4 min
Great things can rise from the ashes of failed companies, so governments shouldn’t rescue firms that would otherwise go bust. That’s the thinking behind so-called creative destruction, but amid the unprecedented shock of the pandemic, does this economic theory apply, or is it too risky? On this week’s episode, Stephanie Flanders talks to Bloomberg Federal Reserve reporter Rich Miller and Eurozone economist Maeva Cousin about the contrasting economic policy approaches taken by the U.S. and Europe...
Jul 16, 2020•25 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Wuhan will forever be known as the place where Covid-19 and lockdowns began. But the Chinese city also might be the best place to learn how to restart the global economy. On this week’s episode, Stephanie Flanders talks to Sharon Chen, Bloomberg’s Beijing bureau chief, about the lessons we can learn from Wuhan’s efforts to get life—and business—back on track, and why it pays to be in the instant noodle business right now. Flanders also speaks with Bloomberg Economics’ Tom Orlik about his new boo...
Jul 09, 2020•27 min•Season 3Ep. 15
Covid-19’s fracturing of supply chains has left businesses and governments questioning the prudence of networks that crisscross the planet. Pandemic recovery plans talk of developing “strategic autonomy” in key sectors, and suggest that executives should bring production closer to home. But on the ground, companies say it’s not so easy. Host Stephanie Flanders hears from Frankfurt-based Bloomberg reporter Piotr Skolimowski and a German pharmaceutical executive about why it’s so hard for Europe t...
Jul 02, 2020•23 min•Season 3Ep. 14
Adam Neumann had a vision: to make his startup WeWork a wildly successful company that would change the world. He convinced thousands of other people -- customers, employees, investors -- that he could make that dream a reality. And for a while, he did. He was one of the most successful startup founders in the world. But then, in the span of just a few months, everything changed. Foundering is a new serialized podcast from the journalists at Bloomberg Technology. This season, we’ll tell you the ...
Jun 26, 2020•4 min
It’s no exaggeration to say the coronavirus has upended the global economy in ways few could have imagined. It's been called a wake-up call for capitalism and a foreshadowing of our exceedingly precarious future, one with more catastrophes waiting in the wings. What if anything can governments and central banks do about it? Host Stephanie Flanders digs into this question with two famous economists, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Nouriel Roubini, as part of the Bloomberg Invest Global virtual...
Jun 25, 2020•30 min•Season 3Ep. 13
As protests against racial discrimination and police killings continue across the U.S., another injustice is ripping through American cities: Black-owned businesses are shutting down at an alarming rate. Host Stephanie Flanders talks with Atlanta-based Bloomberg reporter Michael Sasso on why twice as many Black entrepreneurs are being forced to close their doors amid the pandemic as compared with white business owners. Flanders also speaks with Bloomberg Economics’ Tom Orlik about how long the f...
Jun 18, 2020•25 min
Protests all across America following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, have put yet another spotlight on the deep inequality between black and white America. That disparity was also laid bare in last week’s jobs data, when a surprise drop in overall unemployment masked the fact that black joblessness has climbed to its highest level in more than a decade. Host Stephanie Flanders talks with economy reporter Matthew Boesler about what these inequities mean for ...
Jun 11, 2020•28 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Europe is emerging after weeks of lockdowns that kept shops and businesses shuttered, and residents safe at home. On this week’s episode, Bloomberg economy reporter Jeannette Neumann steps out onto the streets of Madrid to speak with restaurateurs and hoteliers. In a post-coronavirus world where travel is limited, outdoor dining mandatory and police decide how many tables are allowed, reopening a business brings new challenges to stay afloat. Host Stephanie Flanders also talks with Bloomberg Eco...
Jun 04, 2020•24 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Covid-19 is the biggest threat to our physical and economic health in recent times, but on this week’s episode, Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs takes a 70,000 year perspective on the global crisis, what it will mean for international relations and even a potentially better future. Stephanie Flanders also speaks to Bloomberg Opinion editor Ferdinando Giugliano about the European Union’s proposed recovery fund. He thinks this time will be different for fiscally strait-laced Germany, bu...
May 28, 2020•27 min•Season 3Ep. 9
