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.
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.