Stephanomics

The U.S. doesn’t just have a new president this week. The world’s largest economy is also getting a new Treasury Secretary, albeit a familiar face, in Janet Yellen. Host Stephanie Flanders talks with Bloomberg’s U.S. Treasury reporter Chris Condon, who listened in to Yellen’s confirmation hearing for a sneak preview of what her reign at 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue might look like.

Across the Pacific in Hong Kong, Senior Asia Economy Correspondent Enda Curran goes in search of an unexpectedly elusive commodity—shipping containers. The global shipping industry is struggling to deliver what the world wants to buy, leaving exporters and importers everywhere feeling the pain and awakening fears that these supply chain issues could stop the economic recovery in its tracks.

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Covid-19 isn't just a deadly threat to human life; it's also a mental health catastrophe with economic consequences. Fear of illness, strict lockdowns, isolation from friends and family, rising unemployment and collapsing businesses weigh on the hearts and minds of people all across the globe. 

But poor mental health isn’t just a symptom of economic malaise: It can also be a cause. Bloomberg economics reporter William Horobin reports from Paris about what the psychological effects of the pandemic could mean for our longer-term prosperity, and what can be done to help. Host Stephanie Flanders also speaks with Baron Richard Layard, an expert in the economics of happiness at the London School of Economics. He talks about why the coronavirus should make us rethink how we treat mental illness, how "building back better" should mean services rather than roads and railways, and why money really doesn’t make us happy. Really.

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An economy is its people. Alongside the almost 360,000 killed by the coronavirus in the U.S., there are millions more whose lives have been upended by the pandemic’s economic shock. Bloomberg senior reporter Shawn Donnan introduces one of those people as he investigates the widening inequalities across America, and host Stephanie Flanders talks with Bloomberg reporter Michael Sasso about what the results of this week’s Georgia Senate runoff could mean.

Across the Atlantic, U.K. economy reporter Lizzy Burden speaks with the frustrated truck drivers stranded on the front line of Britain’s Covid and Brexit woes, desperate to get home to their families—and clean toilets. Flanders also talks with senior U.K. economist Dan Hanson about the country’s latest lockdown and its last-minute trade deal with the European Union.

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The events of 2020 caught most people off guard. The global economy was upended, prompting unprecedented responses by governments and central banks while shaking up supply chains. It was also a year that made many of us rethink the way we live. 

On this podcast, host Stephanie Flanders leads a roundtable discussion about the year’s most memorable moments, and what 2021 may hold in store for us. She's joined by Bloomberg Editor at Large Francine Lacqua, Chief Economist Tom Orlik, former Beijing Bureau Chief Sharon Chen and Businessweek Economics Editor Peter Coy. 

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As a tumultuous year for the global economy comes to a close, host Stephanie Flanders speaks with someone on the front line of the policy response. Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane discusses the outlook for recovery now that vaccinations have begun, how central bankers view inflation and whether the pandemic is really the answer to the productivity puzzle.

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Adding robots to factories, retail stores or mines was historically seen as a job killer by workers and the unions that support them. But this year, automation has allowed sectors of the economy to continue producing with fewer people, minimizing the coronavirus risk for workers. U.S. economy reporter Olivia Rockeman explains what that might mean in the long term and what needs to happen to help the displaced.

Host Stephanie Flanders talks with Harvard Economics Chair Richard Freeman about how 2020 has changed the world of work and what the future will hold. She also speaks with Bloomberg’s Chief European Economist Jamie Rush about what kind of economic boost the rollout of coronavirus vaccines could bring.

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Internet companies have long been the target of complaints that they don’t pay their fair share of taxes. The system wasn’t built for a digital global economy, but how do you now impose rules on multinational tech giants? Bloomberg Economy reporter William Horobin reports from Paris on the battle to find common ground among almost 140 countries and avoid a new transatlantic trade conflict.

Host Stephanie Flanders talks with Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the center for tax policy at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the man trying to find a way through the arguments. 

She also speaks with Ivory Coast reporter Leanne de Bassompierre about a very different trade spat between the chocolate makers we all know and love and the West African nations that produce their cocoa. It’s a fight that might play out in the price of your Hershey’s kisses this Christmas.

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In Washington, personnel is policy. The people President-elect Joe Biden has picked to run economic policy can tell us a lot about what we might expect from the next administration. Bloomberg Businessweek Economics Editor Peter Coy introduces us to the key players and explains what Bidenomics could look like. 

Then host Stephanie Flanders speaks with Harvard University Professor Jason Furman, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama. He says the U.S. should stop worrying about debt and rethink fiscal policy, explaining why members of the new administration, many of whom he considers friends, are the right people for the job.

Finally, with less than five weeks before the U.K. leaves the European Union, Flanders talks with Bloomberg finance reporter Viren Vaghela about the damage already done to London’s financial industry and what’s at stake if the trickle of jobs and money leaving Britain becomes a flood.

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The hard reality of the Covid-19 pandemic is that while those at greatest risk of dying are retirement age or older, the economic disaster and its consequences fall disproportionately on the shoulders of the young.

How does it feel to be one of these people, knowing you're on the hook for years of lost economic opportunity while others dictate the terms of any recovery? Bloomberg London news apprentice Eileen Gbagbo, age 21, reports on how the virus is inflaming intergenerational tensions. 

Then host Stephanie Flanders speaks with London School of Economics Professor and former Bank of England policy maker Charles Goodhart and Talking Heads Macroeconomics founder Manoj Pradhan about their book, "The Great Demographic Reversal." They give their thoughts on why inflation is going to return and how automation can--and can’t--help future generations handle the burdens ahead.

And finally, we’re back at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum to hear from United Nations Special Envoy for Climate and Finance and former BOE Governor Mark Carney about how the world of finance is going to help the planet get to zero carbon.

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This week’s episode of Stephanomics comes to you from the third annual Bloomberg New Economy Forum, where global leaders have gathered for a virtual discussion of how to solve the world’s biggest challenges, not least of which is the coronavirus pandemic.

Stephanie Flanders brings together former Fed Chair Janet Yellen, ex-Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers to analyze the unprecedented economic response to Covid-19. They debate whether world leaders have done enough to help Main Street instead of just Wall Street, and whether global institutions are being too timid this time around. 

Flanders is then joined by Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin, who talks about the future of trade as Brexit approaches, and just where U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden’s Irish grandparents came from.

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