Money Talks from The Economist

Join The Economist’s Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Ethan Wu for award-winning reporting and discussion on the stories that move markets. They speak to top bosses, investors and analysts around the world for unmatched insight into global finance, business and economics. Published every Thursday.

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After months of bluster, he’s finally done it. At a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, Donald Trump overturned decades of American trade policy with a simple signature. The new wave of trade restrictions, if implemented in full, will raise tariffs to the highest level in more than a century. So how bad could it get?

Hosts: Mike Bird and Ethan Wu. Guests: The Economist’s Simon Rabinovitch; and Douglas Irwin, a p...

More than 1bn people around the world are obese. That means there should be extraordinary demand for drugs to cure or mitigate the condition. Novo Nordisk is now Europe’s most valuable company and Eli Lilly’s market value has more than doubled. Both make the “miracle” drugs that can help people shed up to a fifth of their body weight. But these drugs promise to do more than boost drug companies’ profit...

Amazon started with a plan to disrupt bookselling. It sold cheap books online, delivering them straight to customers’ homes. Three decades later it employs a million people in America and owns one hundred warehouses, each stocked with millions of products. More than a third of the US e-commerce market flows through it. Now, another company has spied an opportunity to disrupt Amazon: Temu. The Chinese e-commerce giant wants to...

It's been two years since Russia brought war to Ukraine. America, Britain and the European Union may not have intervened by putting boots on the ground—but they have launched a massive financial counteroffensive. Vladimir Putin’s government, his cronies and the businesses profiting from the war are all subject to sanctions, yet the Russian economy has proved remarkably resilient. So, does financial warfare work?

Hosts: M...

European firms dominate the global luxury landscape, accounting for two-thirds of sales and nine of the ten most valuable luxury brands. A strong emphasis on heritage and control of the supply chain have helped ensure success. But can Europe hold on to its crown?

Hosts: Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird. Guests: Thomai Serdari, a professor of marketing at NYU Stern; and Ermenegildo Zegna, CEO and chairman of Zegna Group, a...

We raise the curtain on the business of New York’s iconic theatre district. Broadway has been struggling with rising costs and falling sales since the pandemic, but its financial drama started much earlier. The economic plot just doesn’t make sense. Will the lights go out on the Great White Way?

Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird. Guests: The Economist’s Stevie Hertz; actor Leanna Rae Conception; Me...

In five days OpenAI’s boss was fired by its board; hired by Microsoft, the startup’s biggest investor; and returned to his post at OpenAI. Yet things cannot be as they were: the shuffle will have consequences for the darling of the artificial-intelligence community and for the industry as a whole.

Hosts: Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird. Guests: Benedict Evans, a technology analyst and former venture capitalis...

President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act promised $370bn for green infrastructure and industry. It has spurred a surge in massive construction efforts such as battery plants and electric-vehicle factories. Our correspondent goes on a road trip, visiting small towns with big new projects under way and gauging the success of Mr Biden’s economic policy so far.

Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Henry Tricks

Ru...

Last week, we spoke to the author Michael Lewis, who was embedded with Sam Bankman-Fried, as FTX, the crypto-trading empire he built, came crashing down amid allegations of fraud, which Mr Bankman-Fried denies. Mr Lewis credits Changpeng Zhao - the boss of Binance, a rival exchange - with bringing Mr Bankman-Fried to prominence. But CZ, as he’s known, may also have played a role in his downfall. This week, we speak to him abo...