Business Daily

How to predict the future and beat the wisdom of the crowds. Manuela Saragosa speaks to Warren Hatch, chief executive of Good Judgement, a consultancy that specialises in superforecasters - individuals with a knack for predicting future events - and the techniques they use to make their guesses. We also hear from Andreas Katsouris from PredictIt, a political betting platform that harnesses the wisdom of the crowds in making predictions about politics.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Photo: a crystal ball, Credit: Getty Images)

Tech start-up Clearview scraped billions of people's public photos off social media, and then sold their facial recognition service to police forces, private security firms and banks around the world.

Were the company's actions an invasion of privacy? Were they even illegal? Is their technology as reliable as they claim? Or could it have resulted in multiple false arrests of misidentified suspects?

Manuela Saragosa explores the thorny questions raised by the latest data privacy scandal. She speaks to Buzzfeed technology reporter Caroline Haskins, private investigator and former NYPD detective Mark Pucci, and Georgetown University privacy and technology researcher Clare Garvie.

Producer: Edwin Lane

(Picture: Polygon facial recognition mesh on woman's face; Credit: Erikona/Getty Images)

Central banks are rushing to provide liquidity as many fear that the disruption from the coronavirus outbreak could push the world into technical recession.

We hear from a host of eminent economists trying to navigate the uncertainty: Sarah Bloom Raskin, deputy secretary to the Treasury under US President Barack Obama; former ECB chief economist Peter Praet; and Cornell University professor of trade policy Eswar Prasad.

Plus Ed Butler looks at one of the industries feeling the most pain - airlines. Peter Morris of the aviation consultancy Ascend by Cirium says that while the long-term growth outlook remains strong, some carriers may struggle to survive the plethora of flight cancellations over the next few months.

And what does it mean for China, the epicentre of the outbreak? China consultant Diana Choyleva of Enodo Economics says it could prove a heavy blow, coming at a time of trade tensions and a general slowdown in exports.

Producer: Stephen Ryan

(Picture: A Kuwaiti trader wearing a protective mask at the Kuwait stock exchange during the coronavirus pandemic; Credit: Yasser al-Zayyat/AFP via Getty Images)

Research suggests that they underperform robot traders, and most can't even beat the market, so are the days of the celebrity investors and stock market tipsters numbered?

Ed Butler speaks to David Aferiat, whose computer-based trading system Holly has been picking the best performing stock picking algorithms since 2016. He claims that Holly consistently outperforms the market. So why rely on humans to make these decisions?

Among those weighing the case for man versus machine are an old hand of the City of London, Justin Urquhart Stewart of Seven Investment Management; financial journalist Robin Powell; Ken Merkley of the Kelley School of Business in Indiana; and the veteran fund manager and robo-sceptic Paul Mumford.

Producer: Joshua Thorpe

(Picture: CNBC's Jim Cramer on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange; Credit: Steven Ferdman/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

A new report brings together fresh evidence of the forced transportation of Uighur Muslims from Xinjiang province to provide labour in factories across China. Ed Butler speaks to one of the report authors, Nathan Ruser from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. In some cases the factories are linked to major brands like Nike, Apple and Volkswagen. Yuan Yang, Beijing correspondent for the Financial Times, says she for one is not surprised by the reports.

(Photo: Protesters attend a rally in Hong Kong on December 22, 2019 to show support for the Uighur minority in China, Credit: Getty Images)

How fewer Latin Americans crossing the US border is affecting the economy. Alice Fordham reports from Juarez on the Mexican side of the border on the migrants forced to make Mexico their home while they await the outcome of their asylum cases in the US. Ed Butler speaks to Jessica Bolter from the Migration Policy Institute in Washington DC about the slowing rate of people trying to cross into the US illegally. And Giovanni Peri, economist at the University of California, Davis, discusses the impact tighter immigration policies are having on the US labour market.

(Photo: Children look through the border fence in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on January 31, 2020. Credit: Getty Images)

Rubber is Liberia's most important cash crop, and the Firestone Libera rubber plantation is the country's biggest employer. But the company faces accusations that it pollutes rivers and violates labour rights. US-based Bridgestone Corporation, Firestone Liberia's parent company, denies this. Tamasin Ford investigates the allegations.

(Photo: A Firestone-branded tyre used at an IndyCar Series racing event in Texas in 2020, Credit: Getty Images)

Misinformation about the coronavirus outbreak is undermining the efforts of health officials and medical researchers to contain it.

Doctors find themselves under attack from conspiracy theorists who believe they are concealing the truth about the origin of the epidemic. Meanwhile bogus and sometimes highly dangerous advice is spreading on social media about how to protect yourself against the disease.

Ed Butler asks Cristina Tardaguila of the International Fact-Checking Network who is promoting these malign rumours. And Professor Karin Wahl-Jorgensen of the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Culture tells him that mainstream media also bear some responsibility for stoking public hysteria.

Plus Peter Daszak, president of the US-based health research organisation EcoHealth Alliance, says one of the most worrying aspects of the conspiracy theories is that it is driving many medical researchers to stop sharing their findings.

(Picture: Viruses; Credit: wildpixel/Getty Images)

What can soap boxes, sweet wrappers and tin cans tell us about our shopping history? Manuela Saragosa visits Robert Opie at his Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising in west London.

He's been keeping discarded items and packaging since he was a school boy - well over 50 years. In the process he's created a collection that charts the retail revolution of the past century. It's one that showcases how the whole idea of branding and packaging evolved, and tells us something about how we once lived.

Repeat of programme first broadcast on 20 August 2018.

Some West African countries already use a single currency - the CFA franc. Now there are plans to introduce a broader shared currency - the eco - across 15 states. But the region's economic powerhouse Nigeria has put those plans in doubt. Tamasin Ford speaks to business people in the region about what difference a new single currency would really make.

(Photo: CFA franc banknotes, Credit: Getty Images)