Money Talks from The Economist

Britain is in a 17-year funk. A series of crises—some global and some homemade—have battered the British economy since 2008. GDP growth has been cut in half in the years since the global financial crisis, and after inflation, wages have barely budged either. Now, long-term government bond yields have risen to their highest levels in a quarter of a century, casting doubt on the new government’s plans for spending. So, just how broken is Britain? Hosts: Mike Bird and Ethan Wu. Guests: The Economist’s Archie Hall; Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies; and Bank of England rate-setter Catherine Mann. Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

More than half a century ago, the Nobel-prizewinning economist Robert Merton came up with a formula for happiness. The Merton share is a rule of thumb for determining an individual’s ideal portfolio split between “risky” but lucrative assets and “safe” ones. His principles are almost universally accepted by academics as the “correct” approach to long-term investment. So why don’t more people follow his advice?Hosts: Ethan Wu and Mike Bird. Guests: The Economist’s Josh Roberts; Victor Haghani, founder of Elm Wealth; and John Cochrane, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Taylor Swift’s rise to the top of the music industry has not been without controversy. A dispute with her old record label could have derailed the singer’s career—but instead, she used it to propel herself to superstardom. In the second of two special episodes from August 2024, “Money Talks” host Alice Fulwood gets the inside story of the battle to acquire the rights to Swift’s first six albums. Then she finds out how the artist used the story of the dispute to remake the music industry to her advantage.Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird. Guests: Tim Ingham, the founder of Music Business Worldwide; Kristelia García of the Georgetown University Law Center; Michael Schill of the Darden School of Business; and Bill Werde, former editorial director of Billboard magazine, current director of the Bandier Program at Syracuse University and author of the “Full Rate No Cap” newsletter.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Earlier this month, Taylor Swift played the final show of her Eras tour. More than 10 million people attended one of 149 shows in the tour, which grossed more than $2bn. In this episode, first released in August 2024, “Money Talks” host Alice Fulwood travelled to Nashville, where Swift’s career began, to find out how she built the biggest brand in music. Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird. Guests: Tim Ingham, the founder of Music Business Worldwide; Kristelia García of the Georgetown University Law Center; Michael Schill of the Darden School of Business; and Bill Werde, former editorial director of Billboard magazine, current director of the Bandier Program at Syracuse University and author of the “Full Rate No Cap” newsletter.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

It’s the time of the year when the Money Talks hosts kick back with a glass of cheap sparkling wine and test their knowledge of the year’s business and economics stories in our annual festive quiz. But can you beat them?Hosts: Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Ethan Wu.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Argentina has become famous for its repeated defaults and rampant inflation. Successive governments have promised to get the country out of its economic mess, but have failed. Argentina’s current president Javier Milei is a self-described anarcho-capitalist, who came to power with a mandate to slash public spending and end the country's triple-digit inflation. After a year in the job, what impact have his drastic measures had?Hosts: Mike Bird, Ethan Wu, and Alice Fulwood. Guests: The Economist’s Kinley Salmon; Santiago Bulat, director of the Argentinian economic consultancy Invecq; and Brad Setser of the Council on Foreign Relations.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.