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Money Talks from The Economist
Money Talks: Lessons from the great macro experiment
American economists are scratching their heads in confusion. The Fed’s aggressive rate hikes hasn’t produced the outcome many expected. Instead of recession and massive layoffs, the US economy now looks tantalisingly close to a fabled “soft landing” with the jobs market remaining resilient, and inflation tumbling. The unique set of circumstances of the post-pandemic US economy have perplexed almost everyone. The Fed's latest rate rise could now be the last for a while. What can this rate hike cycle teach us about interest rates and the US economy?
On this week’s podcast, hosts Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood, and Tom Lee-Devlin examine how interest rates and policy transmission have functioned in the post-covid US. The Economist’s US Economics Editor Simon Rabinovitch explains why economists across the board have had their expectations confounded. Founder of Macropolicy Perspectives Julia Coronado lays out the key lessons from this unusual rate hike cycle. And former Fed governor Frederic Mishkin tells us why he thinks recession is still a likelihood for the US economy.
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Out of commission: Will America’s realtors change their ways?
42:19|Agent commissions are a key part of how the US housing market operates. Realtors representing the seller and the buyer have typically taken a large cut of the sale price - usually 5% or 6%. Now the National Association of Realtors has lost a class action lawsuit brought by homesellers, claiming these high commissions are the result of anti-competitive practices. So will new rules, agreed in the settlement of this suit, bring down the cost of buying and selling a home?Hosts: Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird. Guests: Michael Ketchmark, personal injury attorney at Ketchmark and McCreight; and Rob Hahn, real estate strategist and author of the Notorious ROB Substack.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.Ballot box bets: What America's election means for investors
44:03|Donald Trump has promised to “make America affordable again” if he wins the US election in November. Kamala Harris, meanwhile, has said she would build an “opportunity economy”. But has either one of them convinced investors they are the better bet? We ask what markets make of each candidate and follow the money to find out how investors rate their chances of winning when voters go to the polls.Hosts: Alice Fulwood and Simon Rabinovitch. Guests: The Economist’s Owen Winter; Joe Saluzzi of Themis Trading; and Bhanu Baweja, chief strategist at UBS.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.Arrested development: why the world’s poorest are being left behind
45:31|The first 15 years of the 21st century were a time of extraordinary progress in international development. Since 2000, a billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty, while child mortality has halved. But most of that progress was achieved by 2015—and outcomes over the last nine years have been much more dismal. Now, it seems that the world’s poorest countries are no longer converging with the richer economies. So why has development stalled?Hosts: Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: The Economist’s Cerian Richmond Jones; Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation; Paul Collier, professor of economics and public policy at Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government. 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.Screen time: why the world can’t get enough of YouTube
36:51|Americans spend more time in front of their TVs watching YouTube than Netflix. And the videos they are watching on the platform are, increasingly, of the quality that you might expect from the streaming giant. But for the producers of that content, the business models could not be more different. So how did YouTube come to dominate the TV screen?Hosts: Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird. Guests: The Economist’s media editor Tom Wainwright; Abi Watson of Enders Analysis; and Jubilee Media’s founder Jason Y. Lee.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.Rolling up the welcome mat: why economists and voters clash over immigration
44:29|Across the rich world there’s been a backlash against immigration. Donald Trump's presidential campaign promises mass deportations of illegal immigrants from the US, while in Europe the hard-right anti-immigration AfD has made historic gains in Germany's state elections. But look past the political rhetoric and the empirical economic data points in favour of inward migration to developed countries. So why do economists love immigration, even though voters don’t?Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird. Guests: Michael Clemens of George Mason University and the Peterson Institute of International Economics; and Brian Turmail of the Associated General Contractors of America.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.Money Talks: Taylor's version (part two)
46:48|A dispute with her old record label could have derailed Taylor Swift's career—but instead, she used it to propel herself to superstardom. In the second of two special episodes, we get the inside story of the battle to acquire the rights to Swift’s first six albums. We then take an MBA class assessing their value and hear how the singer 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.Money Talks: Taylor's version (part one)
45:07|Taylor Swift is reportedly worth $1.3bn. In the music industry, amassing that kind of fortune requires more than talent alone. It requires a shrewd business sense and an ability to be ruthless. In the first of two special episodes, we explore how Taylor Swift built the biggest brand in music.Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird. Guests: Bob Reeves, a manager who was at one of Swift’s first gigs; Clay Myers, former Warner Music Group exec who helped facilitate one of Swift’s early hits; 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.Going south: China’s growing export market
38:36|For decades, “the world’s factory” has been churning out goods for export. But many of those products were made not by Chinese companies, but by American, European or Japanese ones looking to take advantage of China’s cheap labour. But as the country’s economy slows, domestic firms are increasingly looking abroad for growth and, as a trade war rages with the West, they have set their sights on the global south.Hosts: Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird. Guests: Lourdes Casanova of Cornell University and Ong Kian Ming, a Malaysian former deputy minister.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.Carry-trade wars: why the market rout may not be over yet
39:13|Three seemingly unrelated events conspired to trigger the worst day for Japan’s benchmark Topix index in more than 35 years, and caused stocks around the world to plunge. Markets have started to recover but there could be more chaos around the corner. Jumpy investors remain primed to sell at even the first hint of bad news, and the strength of the American economy is now in question.Hosts: Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: research analyst Travis Lundy and Dan Ivascyn, group chief investment officer at PIMCO.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.