Money Talks from The Economist

President Trump's sweeping tariffs took effect last week, imposing seemingly arbitrary levies on goods arriving to America from much of the world. They range from 10% on UK-made products to 50% on shipments from Brazil. But one region has been hit particularly hard: South-East Asia. A growing share of US imports are made in the region, which has benefitted from a push by manufacturers to diversify their supply chains away from China. But do Trump’s tariffs, and his ill-defined crackdown on “transshipment”, threaten the factory model that has propelled the region’s growth?Hosts: Ethan Wu, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird. Guests: Louise Loo of Oxford Economics; former White House supply-chain expert Peter Harrell; and Malaysia’s deputy trade minister Liew Chin Tong.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.

For years, Wall Street has been stuffed with crypto sceptics, who couldn't see the point in digital assets. But now, even the most straight-laced parts of traditional finance are starting to see new use cases. Last month, President Trump signed into law the GENIUS Act, which signals a new era for one type of cryptocurrency in particular: stablecoins. It’s easy to see how these tokens backed by other assets, usually the dollar, could make transactions simpler. But it’s also easy to see how they could pose a threat to the stability of the financial system as we know it.Hosts: Mike Bird, Ethan Wu and Alice Fulwood. Guests: Sandy Kaul, head of innovation at Franklin Templeton; and Johann Kerbrat of Robinhood.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.

Dario Amodei is an unusual figure to lead one of the world’s most valuable AI firms. Unlike most CEOs, he spends more time talking about geopolitical tensions or the huge job losses his industry is likely to be responsible for than Anthropic's commercial strategy. Safety is central to the company’s mission—and it sells. Revenues appear to be on track to near $10bn this year. That’s ten times more than last year. So how should we think about the seemingly unstoppable rise of Anthropic?Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Mike Bird and Ethan Wu. Guests: The Economist’s Henry Tricks; Dario Amodei and Anthropic’s in-house philosopher Amanda Askell.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.

Around 90% of the world’s leading chips are made by TSMC, and most of them in Taiwan. Without those chips, the most critical advancements in AI—or even in the latest iPhone—would not have been possible. So how did one company become so dominant? And should the world be so dependent on chips made in a country on a geopolitical faultline between China and America?Hosts: Ethan Wu and Mike Bird. Guests: The Economist’s Shailesh Chitnis; Chris Miller, author of “Chip War”; Asianometry founder Jon Yu; and Wendell Huang, CFO of TSMC.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.

When Russia invaded its neighbour in 2022, Ukraine’s lack of industrial capacity put it at a distinct disadvantage. Typically, the country with the most factories was expected to win the war—and Russia had a lot of factories. But, as manufacturing has become more specialised and the tools of war have become more complex, the relationship between peacetime industrial capacity and battlefield success could be breaking down. This has huge implications for future wars.Hosts: Ethan Wu and Mike Bird. Guests: The Economist’s Cerian Richmond Jones, who has been reporting from Ukraine.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.

Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists are getting jealous. But the target of that jealousy is not other investors—at least not other investors in the Valley. They’re jealous of the investors in ordinary public markets who, of late, have seen all the upside to the firms founded with their money. Nvidia became the world’s first $4trn company on Wednesday and CoreWeave, a cloud-computing provider, has seen its market value rise by over 300% since it listed in March. VCs are now trying to hold on to their investments for longer, hoping to breed the first $1trn unicorn. But will it work?Hosts: Mike Bird and Ethan Wu. Guests: Nathan Benaich, founder of Air Street Capital; and The Economist’s Henry Tricks.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.

In 1975, Jack Bogle set up Vanguard with a single guiding principle: drive down fees for ordinary investors with funds that buy all of the stocks in an index, like the S&P 500. It made him unpopular with active investors who charged high fees and often underperformed the market. But among Vanguard investors, some of whom style themselves as “Bogleheads”, it earned him a cult-like status. Salim Ramji, the first outsider to lead Vanguard, is now at the helm, leading a charge into new higher-fee products. Will it work? This week, we pay him a visit.Hosts: Mike Bird and Ethan Wu. Guest: Salim Ramji, CEO of Vanguard.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.

Mark Zuckerberg recently shook the advertising world with Meta’s plans to allow businesses to use AI to generate targeted advertisements on Facebook and Instagram. Importantly, no ad agency would be involved in the process. So is the writing on the wall for the traditional advertising industry? Will the next viral video campaign or earworm jingle be the brainchild of a computer, rather than the fabled advertising creatives celebrated in the TV show Mad Men? And if so, what lessons are there for other creative industries?Hosts: Ethan Wu and Mike Bird. Guests: Sir Martin Sorrell, founder of WPP and S4Capital; Brian Wieser, CEO of Madison and Wall; and The Economist’s media editor Tom Wainwright.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.

Vietnam’s economy may be booming—but To Lam, its new leader, isn’t happy. Over the past 15 years, the country has achieved 6% average annual growth, powered by new factories—which have sprung up from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City—to make goods destined for export, largely to America. But many of those factories are foreign-owned and don’t work much with Vietnamese firms. In addition Vietnam now risks being caught between a feuding Washington and Beijing. So what can Mr Lam do to revolutionise Vietnam’s economy?Hosts: Ethan Wu and Mike Bird. Guests: David Dapice, emeritus professor of economics at Tufts University; and Nguyễn Khắc Giang, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.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.