Money Talks from The Economist

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.

Until 2018, sports betting was illegal in every state but Nevada. Now, some 40% of Americans say they wager on everything from which team will win the Super Bowl to which player will be crowned baseball’s rookie of the year. But how did sports betting take the US by storm?Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Mike Bird and Ethan Wu. Guests: The Economist’s data editor Dan Rosenheck; and Peter Jackson, boss of Flutter.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.

India’s financial system is going through a rapid transformation. With the spread of fintech, and financial products aimed at small investors, millions of ordinary Indians who never before had access to capital markets now own tiny stakes in publicly traded companies. It’s fuelled the country’s remarkable stock market rally over the last five years. But is India’s financial system resilient enough to sustain this change? And what happens if things go wrong?Hosts: Ethan Wu, Mike Bird and Alice Fulwood. Guests: The Economist’s Tom Easton; Saurabh Tripathi, Head of Financial Institutions at BCG in Mumbai; and Sundararaman Ramamurthy, CEO of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)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 decades, western companies looked to Asia for growth. They saw an opportunity to establish their brands with a rapidly-expanding middle class. But now, in many parts of Asia, the growth of that aspirational class is slowing. So, what happened to Asia’s middle classes?Hosts: Mike Bird and Alice Fulwood. Guests: The Economist’s Ethan Wu; Wolfgang Fengler, CEO of research firm World Data Lab; and Ibrahim “Ben” Suffian of the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research.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.

Countries around the world finally agreed on the need to transition away from fossil fuels at last year's COP summit. The latest climate conference is now underway in Baku, Azerbaijan. But how much is the immense transition to clean and green energy really going to cost? And who is going to pay for it?Hosts: Mike Bird and Alice Fulwood. Guests: The Economist’s Gavin Jackson; and Adair Turner, Chair of the Energy Transition Commission.For more on COP29, check out the latest episode of our “Babbage” podcast, in which our correspondent travels to South Africa for lessons on how to end coal.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.

Investors and central banks can’t get enough of gold. The precious metal’s price has climbed by 38% over the past year to over $2,700 per troy ounce—a record high. But gold pays no dividends, generates no yield and its value has very little to do with demand for jewellery, in which it is commonly used. So what’s behind the surging price of gold?Hosts: Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: Gregor Gregersen, founder of The Reserve, a gold vault in Singapore; Shaokai Fan of the World Gold Council; and economic historian Nicholas Mulder.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, Elon Musk unveiled a new autonomous taxi, designed by his car company Tesla. Musk promises that his Cybercab, a two-seater car without a steering wheel or pedals, will be on sale before 2027. But how realistic is this vision? With driverless technology still under development, how long will it be until autonomous vehicles become part of everyday life?Hosts: Tom Lee-Devlin, Mike Bird and Alice Fulwood. Guests: Simon Wright, industry editor at The Economist; Gavin Jackson, CEO of driverless software company OXA; Holly Watson Nall, an engineer at Oxa; and Kersten Heineke, head of the McKinsey Centre for Future Mobility.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.