People & Profit

As the US and the world mark Donald Trump's 100 days in office, we look at what the milestone means for business. The US president ran in large part on a pledge to "Make America Wealthy Again", promising that his tariffs – a vestige of the 19th century, for most economists – would return manufacturing jobs to America and trigger a stock market boom. Can this strategy work? Or is it hurting both the US and the global economy? FRANCE 24's Charles Pellegrin speaks to Isabel Guzman, the founder of Avenida Advisors and a former administrator of the Small Businesses Administration during the Biden presidency. She also chairs the Global Risk Advisory Council, which maps out and assesses reputational risks for companies and organisations. 

Countries that once followed the gospel of free trade and liberalism are changing tack and focusing on national interests before anything else, with Donald Trump’s America being a case in point. Our business editor Charles Pellegrin takes a deep dive into how geopolitics is reshaping the global economy with David Baverez. He's a French investor based in Hong Kong and author of the book "Bienvenue en économie de guerre" or "Welcome to the wartime economy", published in French by Novice. 

The Baltic nation of Estonia has been calling for a significant boost in EU defence spending for years and is now seeing that call heeded. Sharing a 300-kilometre border with Russia, Estonia would be on the front lines in case of an invasion. Tallinn has committed to bump up the country's defence spending to 5 percent of GDP by next year – well above the current NATO commitment of 2 percent. For more, FRANCE 24's Charles Pellegrin speaks to Estonian Foreign Affairs Minister Margus Tsahkna. 

Watch moreEstonian city of Narva prepares for potential Russian invasion

From food delivery and ride-hailing apps to handywork and domestic services, millions of people around the globe work within the so-called gig economy – a term applied to independent contractors or freelancers, usually on digital apps. While the flexibility offered by online gig platforms can be attractive, it comes at the cost of limited job security, lack of social protection and sometimes exploitation. But gig workers are getting organised with protests and even some advances. To better understand the plight of these workers, Charles Pellegrin talks to Jamie Woodcock, a senior lecturer in digital economy at King's College London and author of "The Fight Against Platform Capitalism: An Inquiry into the Global Struggles of the Gig Economy".

Also in the programme, we bring you a report from our correspondent in China, where all three of the country's top delivery platforms almost simultaneously announced new social security benefits for their drivers in March. 

The fight against malnutrition, the world's leading cause of infant mortality, was chronically underfunded even before the US halted its funding for humanitarian aid and development. As Paris hosts the Nutrition for Growth summit this week, we look at how healthy eating isn't just a developmental issue but also an economic one. Every dollar invested in nutrition generates a return of 23 dollars, while malnutrition can cost up to tens of billions of dollars to the economy. So why is hunger and malnutrition still an issue today and how do we generate the political will to fix this problem? Charles Pellegrin talks to Joel Spicer, president and CEO of Nutrition International and Cleo Kawawaki of the Asian Development Bank.

Watch moreGlobal nutrition crisis: UNICEF head insists that investing in children 'pays off forever’

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has released its Global Debt Report for 2025, and the conclusion is that the world is practically drowning in debt at record levels. As European nations pledge to boost their defence spending in the face of a new transatlantic security reality, and as burgeoning trade wars threaten to raise prices faster, are countries able to achieve growth while keeping borrowing in check? FRANCE 24's Yuka Royer speaks to Carmine Di Noia, the OECD's Director for Financial and Enterprise Affairs. 

Since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Russia's economy has proved to be robust despite sanctions, inflation and labour shortages. But how long can it last? Charles Pellegrin takes a deep dive with his guest Richard Connolly, associate fellow and specialist on the Russian economy at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in the UK. He is also the author of a commentary titled “Russia’s Wartime Economy isn’t as Weak as it Looks”.

Online scamming has reached global proportions, with an estimated 200,000 people forced to execute lucrative scams in Myanmar and Cambodia alone. This week's show delves into a criminal activity that's grown into a $500 billion per year industry that now rivals the illegal drug trade in size. Charles Pellegrin speaks to Sue-Lin Wong, The Economist’s Southeast Asia correspondent and creator of an eight-part podcast investigation into the scamming industry entitled "Scam Inc". 

The economy is a top concern for voters in Germany as they go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new government. The country has seen two consecutive years of economic contraction and this stagnation could very well continue for a third year. Its post-Covid recovery was completely stunted by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the energy crisis that followed, laying bare Berlin's deep dependence on Moscow's oil and gas. Now the return of Donald Trump as US president is further muddying the prospects for growth. To better understand how Germany got here and how it can dig itself out of this hole, Charles Pellegrin talks to Shahin Vallée, senior research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations. 

After the Paris AI Action Summit wrapped up earlier this week, we look at the future of AI governance and its impact on the global economy. In a bid to make up for lost time, Europe and France have pledged significant boosts in artificial intelligence investments and promised to keep regulations from stifling innovation. FRANCE 24's Charles Pellegrin speaks to Sasha Rubel, European head of generative AI policy at Amazon Web Services, and Alexandre Zapolsky, the president and co-founder of Linagora, a French open-source software editor and creator of the Lucie chatbot, which has made quite a few headlines in the past few weeks.