Share Radio Breakfast

On this day in 2001, the American energy giant Enron filed for bankruptcy. Enron took accounting fraud to a whole new level, and its demise even led to the disintegration of its accountants Arthur Andersen. Its collapse was the worst business failure in US corporate history to date. Matt Cox has been investigating the causes and consequences of the fall, and the lessons we’ve learnt over a decade and a half later.

On the eve of Small Business Saturday, the Director, Michelle Ovens, joined Share Radio Breakfast to look ahead to the event. Research by the Small Business Saturday campaign found that being our own boss makes us happier. It also said that economic and political uncertainty has failed to leave its mark on the sector. Michelle offered further insight into this.

Oil prices are sitting at their highest level in a year. For now, financial markets seem convinced the Opec cartel's new deal to limit global crude production will stick. Motoring organisations have already warned petrol prices may rise by 9p a litre, adding about £5 to the average cost of filling up a car. But what of Oil's cousin, natural gas. How has the market for that been affected? Matt Cox has been hearing from Edgar van der Meer, Senior Analyst at industry specialists NRG Expert.

On Sunday, Italy holds a referendum. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi wants the power to streamline the country's creaking political system, reducing the power of upper house senators from blocking what he sees as essential economic reforms. But many are predicting he will lose. The worry for the markets is that a large protest vote could give the populist Five Star movement enough momentum to put Italy on a slippery slope to leave the Euro currency zone, plunging Europe into a fresh political and financial crisis. Dijedon 'Doni' Imeri is a country risk analyst for IHS Markit and he joined Share Radio Breakfast.

Luke Johnstone, Founder of PACK'D, a frozen smoothie kit making business, was awarded last night Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the Amazon Growing Business Awards. We started by asking him how he started his own business and the idea behind it.

The Mint, the only institution licensed to provide coins in the UK, has announced it will look at launching a digital gold offering, allowing users to trade the assets using a blockchain based system. So how will this new digital gold blockchain work? Share Radio's Matt Cox spoke to monetary innovation researcher Garrick Hileman to find out more.

Impax Asset Management group has just announced results for the year ended 30 September 2016, describing it as one of the most successful years in their nineteen year history. Profit before tax are flat compared to last year, increasing to 5.2 million pounds from 5.1 million pounds, but these were up against more difficult background for investment. Ian Simm, Founder and Chief Executive, joined Share Radio to discuss the results.

Josh Lowe, Reporter at Newsweek, joined Share Radio for his Thursdays comment of the latest political news. We started by asking him the news that Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's has privately told at least four EU ambassadors that he supports Freedom of Movement despite the Government's stance.

John Hardy, Head of FX Strategy at Saxo Bank, joined Share Radio to talk on currencies. We started by asking him about the impact of the continued rise of oil prices on the currency market.

As the National Grid launched its report into the future of energy networks yesterday, it's also rather concerned with a power connection perhaps more important to the present. The National Grid is investigating damage to the The Interconnexion France-Angleterre, which gives the UK access to French power and vice versa. Power capacity has been cut in half and, as winter approaches, so grows the UK's energy demands. To find out more about the causes and consequences, Share Radio's Matt Cox spoke to Diarmaid Williams, International Digital Editor of publications Power Engineering International & Decentralised Energy.