The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes is a new weekly podcast from the Financial Times packed full of smart, digestible analysis and incisive conversation. Soumaya Keynes digs deep into the hottest topics in economics along with a cast of FT colleagues and special guests. Come for the big ideas, stay for the nerdery.
Soumaya Keynes is an economics columnist for the Financial Times. Prior to joining the FT she worked at The Economist for eight years as a staff writer, where as well as covering trade, the US economy and the UK economy she co-hosted the Money Talks podcast. She also co-founded the Trade Talks podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes is a new weekly podcast from the Financial Times packed full of smart, digestible analysis and incisive conversation. Soumaya Keynes digs deep into the hottest topics in economics along with a cast of FT colleagues and special guests. Come for the big ideas, stay for the nerdery.
Soumaya Keynes is an economics columnist for the Financial Times. Prior to joining the FT she worked at The Economist for eight years as a staff writer, where as well as covering trade, the US economy and the UK economy she co-hosted the Money Talks podcast. She also co-founded the Trade Talks podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
President Donald Trump thinks that Asia's goods exports are automatically America's loss and as part of his ‘reciprocal’ tariff policy, he has imposed some of the highest import taxes on goods from south-east Asia. So what does this mean for the region? And are Trump's policies pushing those countries further into China's orbit? Alan Beattie, the FT’s senior trade writer, discusses these questions and more with Mari Pangestu, Indonesia's former trade minister and a former managing director at the World Bank.
Alan Beattie is the FT's senior trade writer. He writes the Trade Secrets newsletter every Monday.
Read Alan’s columns here
Sign up to the Trade Secrets newsletter here
Book your FT Weekend Festival tickets here
Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.
Presented by Alan Beattie. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval and Persis Love. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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When the EU and US hit Russia with fresh sanctions in 2022, many analysts expected the country’s economy to crack. Instead, Russia has shown strong GDP growth, powered in large part by a massive boost to war-related industries. Now, the effects of that boost appear to be fading. Have western sanctions finally started to bite? What would happen to Russia’s economy if the Ukraine war were to end? And how difficult might it be for the country’s economy to return to normal? To find out, the FT’s economics editor Sam Fleming speaks to Elina Ribakova. Elina is a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a non-resident fellow at Brussels think-tank Bruegel and vice-president for foreign policy at the Kyiv School of Economics.
Sam Fleming is the FT’s economics editor. You can find his articles here: https://www.ft.com/sam-fleming
Want more? Free links:
Russia moves to contain concern over banks’ bad loan exposure
Vladimir Putin’s war economy is cooling, but Russians still feel richer
Russia’s central bank speeds up rate cuts as war economy cools
There's no money to be made in Russia
The FT Weekend Festival returns for its 10th edition on Saturday, September 6 at Kenwood House Gardens in London. Get details and tickets here
Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.
Presented by Sam Fleming. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio. Original music from Breen Turner, and sound design by Breen Turner & Sam Giovinco.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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This week on the Economics Show, we're bringing you an interview with Ray Dalio, from our foreign affairs podcast, the Rachman Review. It originally broadcast on July 3.
Gideon talks to Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund and author of a new book: How Countries Go Broke. They discuss the size of the US debt and what history tells us about identifying warning signs.
Clip: CBS
Read more:
Is Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ a political curse for Republicans?
Fears over US debt load and inflation ignite exodus from long-term bonds
Donald Trump’s big, beautiful act of self-harm
The fall in the dollar is not scary
Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.
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After the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a worse-than-expected US jobs report, President Trump fired the agency’s head, Erika McEntarfer, claiming her numbers were ‘wrong’ and manipulated. There’s no evidence this was the case but many agree gathering reliable data on the health of the economy is getting harder. The FT’s chief data reporter, John Burn-Murdoch, discusses why that’s happening and what to do about it with Erica Groshen, the former BLS commissioner.
Clip: NBC
Further Reading:
US labour data agency was teetering even before Donald Trump fired its chief
Trump’s war on data will do lasting harm
Donald Trump’s attack on US labour statistics agency spooks investors
John Burn-Murdoch is the FT’s chief data reporter. You can find his articles here
Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.
Presented by John Burn-Murdoch. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music from Breen Turner, and sound design by Jean-Marc Eck.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The first two decades of the 21st century were a golden age for global development. International co-operation and funding drove remarkable progress in the developing world. Now, that progress threatens to stall as wealthy nations, including the US and UK, withdraw their support. A global meeting held in Spain last month ended with a new international agreement, the Seville Commitment, on funding development – but will it succeed where others have failed? What role do rich countries, and organisations such as the World Bank, have to play? And will anyone be willing to relieve developing nations of their onerous debt obligations? Financial Times associate editor Pilita Clark speaks to Gates Foundation chief executive Mark Suzman.
Want more? Free links:
Trump shadow hangs over global development talks
Development funds dash for donor cash at World Bank and IMF meetings
Pilita Clark is an associate editor and business columnist at the FT. You can read her columns here: https://www.ft.com/pilita-clark
Follow Pilita on Bluesky or X: @pilitaclark.bsky.social or @pilitaclark
Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.
Presented by Pilita Clark. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In the early 20th century Argentina was one of the world’s richest countries. For most of the past 50 years, it has been an economic disaster. But after nine debt defaults, 23 IMF programmes and two years of triple-digit annual inflation, the country’s radical libertarian president, Javier Milei, has steadied the ship. How has Milei revitalised the economy? Can he persuade investors to trust Argentina again? And, most crucially, can his transformation last? The FT’s Latin America editor, Michael Stott, discusses with Alejandro Werner, former head of the IMF’s western hemisphere department, founding director of the Georgetown Americas Institute, and fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Economics
Clips: Sky Australia, Javier Milei via Storyful/ELPELUCAMILEI, Global News, Poder360
Want more? Free links:
Javier Milei’s risky bet on a potent peso
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch says she is Britain’s Javier Milei
Javier Milei lowers Argentina’s monthly inflation below 2% for first time since 2020
Michael Stott is the FT’s Latin America editor. You can find his articles here: https://www.ft.com/michael-stott
Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.
Presented by Michael Stott. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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European countries have committed to higher defence spending to face down Russian aggression. But preparing for war isn’t cheap – and in many countries, budgets are already stretched. How will European members of Nato hit their defence targets, a hefty 5% of GDP? Will EU states look beyond their own national champions, and commit to greater co-operation on defence funding and purchases? And what kind of new institutions would be necessary to make that happen? To find out, Sam Fleming speaks to Jeromin Zettelmeyer. He is the director of the Brussels-based think tank, Bruegel, and has previously held senior roles at the IMF, the Peterson Institute, and in the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
Clips: BBC, Bloomberg Television, European Commission, French Armed Forces
Sam Fleming is the FT’s economics editor. You can find his articles here: https://www.ft.com/sam-fleming
Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.
Presented by Sam Fleming. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio. Original music from Breen Turner, and sound design by Breen Turner & Sam Giovinco.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 9 marked the end of President Trump’s 90-day pause on his so-called reciprocal tariffs. Now that deadline has passed … what has actually changed? The FT’s senior trade writer Alan Beattie discusses with former trade negotiator Dmitry Grozoubinski, author of ‘Why Politicians Lie About Trade’. Dmitry explains why Trump’s tariff threats are as ineffective as they are unusual, how countries are approaching his ‘vibes-based’ trade policy, and what Dmitry would advise if he was negotiating with the US now.
Want more?
Trump’s tariff shambles is a helpful warning to the world
Donald Trump threatens new tariffs on Canada
Alan Beattie is the FT's senior trade writer. He writes the Trade Secrets newsletter every Monday.
Read Alan’s columns here: https://www.ft.com/alan-beattie
Sign up to the Trade Secrets newsletter here.
Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.
Presented by Alan Beattie. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. Mix by Sam Giovinco.
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In the sixth of this six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman tackle a selection of questions, and even some criticisms, sent in by their audience.
Listen to Paul Krugman’s cultural coda, Carole King’s It's too late, here
Listen to Martin Wolf’s cultural coda, Va Pensiero from Verdi’s Nabucco, here
Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Episodes are also available on the FT’s YouTube channel.
Read Martin’s FT column here
Subscribe to Paul’s substack here
The Wolf-Krugman Exchange was produced by Sandra Kanthal and Mischa Frankl-Duval, and the broadcast engineer was Andrew Georgiades. The sound engineer was Breen Turner. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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In the fifth of this six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman discuss the way American politics is crashing against both the guardrails of a stable, democratic system and the rules and norms of the postwar economic order and how this could jeopardise the importance of the US on the world stage.
Paul Krugman’s Cultural Coda:
Stephen Sondheim: "We had a good thing going"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTbrbiM-slg&list=RDNTbrbiM-slg&start_radio=1
Martin Wolf’s Cultural Coda:
Jonas Kaufmann: Freiheit from Beethoven’s Fidelio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvfhmGsFMEo
Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Episodes are also available on the FT’s YouTube channel.
If you’d like to get in touch and ask Martin and Paul a question, please email economics.show@ft.com
Read Martin’s FT column here
Subscribe to Paul’s substack here
The Wolf-Krugman Exchange is produced by Sandra Kanthal. The broadcast engineer was Rod Fitzgerald. The sound engineer is Breen Turner. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In the fourth of this six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman ask if advances in artificial intelligence will reshape the working world as we know it. Or are we hearing an old familiar story that has been told many times before?
Paul Krugman’s Cultural Coda:
Loretta Lynn - "Coal Miner's Daughter": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9eHp7JJgq8&list=RDf9eHp7JJgq8&start_radio=1
Martin Wolf’s Cultural Coda:
Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, published in 1924.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Mountain
Read Martin Wolf's selection of the best economics summer reads for 2025 here
Read Martin’s FT column here
Subscribe to Paul’s substack here
If you’d like to get in touch and ask Martin and Paul a question, please email economics.show@ft.com
Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Episodes are also available on the FT’s YouTube channel.
The Wolf-Krugman Exchange is produced by Sandra Kanthal and Mischa Frankl-Duval, and the broadcast engineer is Andrew Georgiades. The sound engineer is Jean-Marc Eck. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In the third of this six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman discuss the dangers facing the world economy and wonder what outcomes are possible at summits such as the G7 in times of political and economic risk.
Paul Krugman’s Cultural Coda:
Peter Gabriel: “Games Without Frontiers”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xZmlUV8muY&list=RD3xZmlUV8muY&start_radio=1
Martin Wolf’s Cultural Coda:
"The Second Coming" - by William Butler Yeats, 1919
Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Episodes are also available on the FT’s YouTube channel.
If you’d like to get in touch and ask Martin and Paul a question, please email economics.show@ft.com
Read Martin’s FT column here
Subscribe to Paul’s substack here
The Wolf-Krugman Exchange was produced by Sandra Kanthal and Mischa Frankl-Duval, and the broadcast engineer was Andrew Georgiades. The sound engineer was Breen Turner. Our executive producer is Flo Phillips. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In the second of this six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman discuss the way economic trends have fractured societies on both sides of the Atlantic and the jeopardy that poses to liberal democracies in Europe and America.
Paul Krugman’s Cultural Coda: Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes
https://poets.org/poem/let-america-be-america-again
Martin Wolf’s Cultural Coda: The Tariff Song by Dan Shore
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eWtn6kWXAsQ&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Episodes are also available on the FT’s YouTube channel.
If you’d like to get in touch and ask Martin and Paul a question, please email economics.show@ft.com
Read Martin’s FT column here
Subscribe to Paul’s substack here
The Wolf-Krugman Exchange was produced by Sandra Kanthal and Mischa Frankl-Duval, and the broadcast engineer was Andrew Georgiades. The sound engineer was Breen Turner. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In part one of this six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman discuss how trust in the postwar world economic system is being lost and weigh the costs and consequences of that.
Paul Krugman’s Cultural Coda: Quarterflash, ”Harden My Heart”-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNFSED77-GM
Martin Wolf’s Cultural Coda:The Beatles, “For No One”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELlLIwhvknk
Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Episodes are also available on the FT’s YouTube channel.
If you’d like to get in touch and ask Martin and Paul a question, please email economics.show@ft.com
Read Martin’s FT column here
Subscribe to Paul’s substack here
The Wolf-Krugman Exchange was produced by Sandra Kanthal and Mischa Frankl-Duval, and the broadcast engineer was Richard Topping. The sound engineer was Breen Turner. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In a special six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman discuss the economic events reshaping the world in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s election.
Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Episodes will also be available on the FT’s YouTube channel.
If you’d like to get in touch and ask Martin and Paul a question, please email economics.show@ft.com
Read Martin’s FT column here
Subscribe to Paul’s substack here
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Churchill never said “we will fight them in the spreadsheets…”. But maybe he should have done. The second world war, like every other war in human history, was decided by how each side allocated its resources. In this episode, Duncan Weldon, author of the new book ‘Blood and Treasure, The Economics of Conflict from the Vikings to Ukraine’, explains how countries have historically thought about the economics of war – and how the Ukraine war is changing that. He and host Soumaya Keynes also discuss how conflict shaped economic institutions and the modern world.
Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.
Further reading:
Vladimir Putin’s war economy is cooling, but Russians still feel richer: https://www.ft.com/content/485aba41-1148-4f2c-b0ab-97aac5e50727
Russia’s war economy fuels rustbelt revival: https://www.ft.com/content/559ca59f-7fdc-4c47-8e87-edb562acdc7b
Defence spending is up – but on all the wrong things: https://www.ft.com/content/11a6b844-fe57-4e39-86ba-bb04e839bf2f
Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. The FT’s acting co-head of audio is Manuela Saragosa.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The tit-for-tat tariff escalations between the US and China are on pause, at least temporarily. But if the world’s two biggest economies don’t make progress by July, they could return with a vengeance. How can the two parties make progress? And what does China actually want from the US? Soumaya Keynes speaks to Jay Shambaugh to find out. Shambaugh was the US Treasury’s undersecretary for international affairs under Joe Biden. In other words, he was in charge of the US’s economic relationship with China. He and Soumaya discuss how the Trump administration could negotiate with China, and how interwoven trade policy and national security have become.
Further reading:
Will Trump’s tariff climbdown save the US from recession?
The markets are declaring tariff victory too soon
US-China trade war is pushing Asian nations to pick sides, ministers warn
Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.
Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. The FT’s acting co-head of audio is Manuela Saragosa.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
US tariffs have sent financial markets into a frenzy in recent weeks, but how much should central bankers be taking trade into account when setting monetary policy? To find out, Soumaya Keynes sits down with Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member Swati Dhingra – one of the committee’s more dovish members. They discuss why the UK’s open economy makes it more vulnerable to trade shocks, what Dhingra saw in the data that her MPC colleagues didn’t, and why she didn’t vote for an (even) sharper rate cut earlier this month.
Further reading:
Two BoE policymakers warn against rushing to further cut interest rates
Bank of England vote split hits hopes for faster interest rate cuts
Brexit lessons for Trump’s trade war
Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.
Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. The FT’s acting co-head of audio is Manuela Saragosa.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Donald Trump’s trade policies have put global markets through the mill in recent weeks. But his policies didn’t come from nowhere. Aspects of US protectionism preceded Trump’s second term – and countries across the world have been pushing for greater self-sufficiency for some time. Is this drive for greater self-sufficiency misguided? Is true self-sufficiency even possible? Or might the secret to economic security come from more co-operation, not less? The FT’s senior business writer Andrew Hill sits down with Ben Chu to discuss the findings from his new book: "Exile Economics: What Happens if Globalisation Fails." Chu is the policy and analysis correspondent at BBC Verify and was previously the economics editor of BBC Newsnight.
For further reading:
The old global economic order is dead
Britain’s trade deal with Trump may not be good news for the world
Tariffs are a bet on the free market rather than free trade
The business lessons to draw from Trump’s dealmaking
Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.
Presented by Andrew Hill. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. The FT’s acting co-head of audio is Manuela Saragosa.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Over the past 25 years, the Gates foundation has given away more than $100bn. Much of that money has gone to healthcare and education projects outside the US – and the organisation plans to give $200bn more to various programmes in the next twenty years. But as Elon Musk and Doge feed USAID, a key partner of the foundation, “into the wood chipper,” how can Bill Gates press ahead? The FT’s Africa editor, David Pilling, speaks to Gates about running an apolitical, philanthropic entity in a politically challenging time.
Read more:
Bill Gates is giving away $200bn. Can his plans survive in the Trump era?
Bill Gates accuses Elon Musk of ‘killing’ children with USAID cuts
Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.
Presented by David Pilling. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. The FT’s acting co-head of audio is Manuela Saragosa.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
