A Dictionary of Finance

When we speak of the virtual world and storing things in ‘the cloud’, we seldom stop to realize that our digital climate impact is not virtual at all

Many people see digitalisation as this magical pixie dust that Tinker Bell sprinkles on old industries to make them all environmentally friendly. Stop printing newspapers and get your news online and suddenly your environmental footprint is down to zero, right?

Wrong.

In thi...

In schools and in the workplace disability training makes for better inclusion—and lets everyone draw on the strengths of people who overcame difficulties most of us never faced

Is disability a state of mind? According to Bebe Vio, the young Italian Paralympic champion, you don’t need arms and legs to reach your goals. However, disability and diversity can come in many different forms—they can even be invisible. How can you help...

In this episode of Monster Under the Bed, we bust the idea that the EU is something to scare people with, and the myth that it costs us too much

In the last few years, the EU budget has become a major topic of public discourse – whether in the media, or in our neighbourhood cafes. Something that once felt so remote has gone mainstream.

A lot of that is due to Brexit, and a lot of the conversations have had to do with specifically...

In this episode of Monster Under the Bed, we bust the ‘you are what you know’ education myth and discover that, in fact, you are the things you know how to do

In the grim Victorian building where I went to school, we learned everything by rote. It worked out okay for me. But the focus at the school my kids attend doesn’t seem to be on cramming knowledge into their heads, and sometimes I wonder if that’s bad for them.

So I decided...

Here’s why you should be even more scared of cybercrime and the rising cost of cybercrime prevention

You probably think that if you have the latest software on your computer and a strong IT department at work, you’re more or less safe from cyberattacks. Boy, are you wrong.

This myth is costing businesses a lot of money and causing people a lot of harm in lost data and privacy. You definitely should not rely only on softw...

Forget the dystopian images of overcrowded, polluting cities. When urban life is well-planned and well-managed it’s better for the environment than country living.

We all know the dystopian image of city life—smog, roads jammed with traffic, high prices and noise. Listen to this installment of our myth-busting show to find out:

·        Where did cities come from? What were the instinct...

‘Monster Under the Bed’ is a new season of podcasts by the European Investment Bank that tackles myths and prejudices we all have about anything from health care to cybercrime, and from urban planning to education.

In this episode we talk about how advances in medicine and squeezed budgets are forcing countries to rethink health care.

For most of us, hospitals conjure up some very specific images: nurses and doctors running aroun...

Find out how macroeconomics works with an overview of Adam Smith and the invisible hand, the Keynesian approach and the Chicago school. Macro (big) is the opposite of micro (small). So macroeconomics is the opposite of microfinance, right? Sorry, things are never that simple in banking. Listen to our episode on microfinance to see what that’s all about. And listen to this episode so you’ll know how macroeconomics works. In fact, yo...

If you want to know how mergers and acquisitions work, you’d best ask a lawyer. Because there are legions of them involved in any M&A deal (as mergers and acquisitions are known).

We hear from two lawyers with extensive experience in M&A, as well as other aspects of corporate law and equity financing, about exactly how mergers and acquisitions work.

Alexandra Slack, senior legal counsel at the European Investment Fund, and he...

Let’s face it, people don’t like bankers. But that’s because they don’t know about social finance. On this week’s episode of ‘A Dictionary of Finance’ we hear about social finance, which tackles social issues such as migration or the integration of prisoners into society. Listen, because it will make you feel warm and fuzzy. The episode also shows you how to get financing for your business through programmes backed by the European ...

It took us 50-plus episodes of ‘A Dictionary of Finance’ podcast to realize we haven’t covered some of the very basics: terminology surrounding loans, our bread and butter.

So, Matt morphed into a sock-tycoon trying to get a loan from the European Investment Bank, with Allar acting as his not-so-knowledgeable lawyer. Explaining the loan terms are Garbiela Barufi, EIB loan officer for corporates in Iberia, and Martin Arnold, head...

Circular economy is an economic system which contrasts with the linear economy. In the linear economy, companies extract natural resources, make something out of them, pass the product on to consumers for use, only for the product eventually to be discarded. In the circular economy, producers and consumers avoid waste and extracting new natural resources. Instead, they reuse/repair products.

Circular economy takes the “line” in...