Today on Down to Business English, Skip Montreux welcomes special guest host Samantha Vega to talk about technology in the food industry.

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Skip Montreux and Dez Morgan discuss the youth unemployment situation in the EU and UK.

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Skip Montreux and Dez Morgan discuss the economic benefits of shale oil and the controversial drilling technique of fracking.

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Skip: Hello everyone. Skip Montreux here. Thanks for joining us on Down to Business English today.

Dez: Yes, welcome back listeners, I hope everyone is well. How is life treating you Skip?

Skip: Me? Oh not so bad. I’ve been dealing with a few issues in my office which have caused some minor setbacks recently, but essentially I am good. How about you Dez? How is family life treating you?

Dez: Well, thanks for asking. Well, the big news here is Roxie and I have just bought a flat in Scotland.

Skip: Nice! Congratulations.

Dez: Thanks Skip. But unfortunately this investment will be taking most of our salaries for the next 20 years.

Skip: That is if you are still around in 20 years. You don’t lead the healthiest of lifestyles Dez.

Dez: That is certainly a consideration but I imagine the world will be a very different place by then.

Skip: It most definitely will.

Dez: I wonder if we'll all be driving around in self-controlled electric flying cars, living in solar heated and cooled apartments that are floating in the clouds, and if everyone will have a computers strapped to their wrists that are more powerful than a supercomputer today?

Skip: Actually, with the advances in technology over the last 20 years, that scenario doesn’t sound too far off. But I am sure that fossil fuels will continue to play a big part in our lives for the foreseeable future, especially now with the recent discoveries of shale oil in the US.

Dez: Maybe. I still prefer my version though. Anyway Skip is that our story for today, shale oil?

Skip: Well partly. Today we’ll be talking not only about shale oil and the countries with the biggest reserves but also we’ll be taking a look at the advent of a new oil drilling technique known as fracking, as well as how all of this will affect the energy markets moving into into the future.

Dez: Okay, lets do it. Let’s get D2B...Down to Business with...with that list of topics that Skip just rattled off.

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Today on Down to Business English, Skip Montreux and Dez Morgan update several of the business news stories they have reported on in recent episodes.

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Skip: A big hello to all of our listeners out there. Welcome to a new episode of Down to Business English, the show that helps you build your base of professional vocabulary through discussing the latest in business news.

Dez: And a big hello to you too Skip.

Skip: I’m sorry. Hello to you Dez.

Dez: Hello Skip.

Skip: Okay, now that we have all greeted each other, how are things?

Dez: Well my wife Roxie and our new baby daughter have just gone on a trip back to Scotland for a week.

Skip: Oh nice, so you are free then! Are you going to paint the town red. Party every night till dawn. Get out your old dancing shoes maybe?

Dez: No Skip. I am going to take it pretty easy. Maybe get a takeaway, get out some of the Playstation games that I’ve been meaning to play, maybe Skype a few people that I haven’t spoke to in a while and check up on the prices for the Baltic Dry Index.

Skip: The Baltic what? Wait a minute, you don’t even have a Playstation, that’s way too cool for you.

Dez: You’re right. I don’t have a Playstation, and the Baltic Dry Index is the index used to calculate the cost of shipping goods transported by sea.

Skip: In the Baltic Sea?

Dez: No that’s just the name.

Skip: So, is that our story for today? Shipping charges?

Dez: Actually not really. But I am trying to create a nice segue into our episode today.

Skip: Really? I’m a bit confused.

Dez: Nothing new there. Anyway, I thought that today we could do a roundup of some of the recent stories we’ve covered here on D2B. So, of course Scottish Independence and computer games were the first two topics I mentioned. Then Skype, which is owned by Microsoft and therefore connected to the story we did on their acquisition of Nokia.

Skip: Okay, I see that now.

Dez: But I couldn’t think of anyway to shoehorn Khalifa port into the conversation so I talked about the Baltic Dry Index.

Skip: Well this is a relief. If we were doing a report on the Baltic Dry Index and shipping charges, I would need to pour myself a giant sized coffee to stay awake. So let’s do it...let’s get D2B Down to Business with updates on some of the most recent stories covered on Down to Business English.

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Skip reports on the crypto currency Bitcoin. What is it? How did it start? And why has it been in the news recently?

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Dez: And welcome to Down to Business English

Skip: Thanks for downloading us today. It is good to have you here.

Dez: So Skip, what have you been up to recently?

Skip: Well to tell the truth, I'm working as much as I can, saving my money up for a trip I'm planning to the US later this year.

Dez: Oh? Where in the US are you going?

Skip: I am on my way to Texas actually.

Dez: Nice.

Skip: Yes, I’m hooking up with some friends and we are going to do some offshore fishing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dez: Great, but it sounds expensive. At least the exchange rate is still somewhat favorable for you coming from Japan.

Skip: Well, the Japanese Yen has weakened over the last few months but historically it is still fairly strong.

Dez: The currency in the UAE is officially tied, or artificially pegged, to the US dollar, so has not been faring too well over the last few years.

Skip: A lot of that has to do with the US quantitative easing policies which has seen the America create more and more money.

Dez: And the more money they print, the more people lose faith in the currency and so its value goes down. The same thing has been happening in Britain too. In fact there are a couple of towns that have created their own money.

Skip: Really? Can they do that?

Dez: The two that I can think of are Brixton in London and Lewes, which is near Brighton in Sussex. Both places have created their own pound which is equivalent to a British pound but can only be used to make local purchases. So I guess they can do that locally.

Skip: That is interesting but on a much larger scale, have you heard about Bitcoin, the alternative international online crypto currency?

Dez: Bitcoin? Yes I've heard it mentioned but I'm not that up on the details. So are you going to tell me and the listeners the story behind Bitcoin?

Skip: I sure am. Are you ready?

Dez: I'm all ears?

Skip: Great. So let's get D2B...Down to Business with Bitcoin. What is it? How did it start? And why has it been in the news recently?

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Dez gives his take on the upcoming Scottish referendum on independence from the U.K. He also has a big announcement to make.

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Dez fills in Skip on all the details about the recently opened Khalifa Port in the UAE and how it is impacting the regional economy. While doing so, he also reveals a bit of his ‘nerdy’ side.

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Skip provides Dez with the business background on something he has been spending way too much time on recently–computer games.

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Skip explains everything you need to know about the recent acquisition of Nokia by Microsoft. He even throws in his own little conspiracy theory…

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Skip Montreux & Dez Morgan are back together again! Today they talk you through everything you need to know about the history and geopolitical forces behind the Iran-Pakistan pipeline.

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