The Business podcast

Economist Joel Waldfogel explains why you shouldn't buy Christmas presents plus Larry Elliott and Simon Goodley round up a turbulent year in business and economics

John Gapper and Jill Treanor discuss a new report into the failure of Royal Bank of Scotland. Plus: we look at the history of rogue traders. What makes some bank employees risk everything when they seem to have so little to gain?

Jeffrey Sachs discusses the turmoil in the eurozone, the ethical issues underlying the financial crisis and his new book The Price of Civilisation

Philip Coggan, a historian of debt crises, discusses the current turmoil in Europe and explores the nature of money itself and our changing attitudes to it – most money now exists only on computers and the only thing that sustains it is confidence

Larry Elliott and Jackie Ashley join Tom Clark and Aditya Chakrabortty for a review of George Osborne's autumn statement on the British economy

Deborah Hargreaves of the High Pay Commission discusses her report on the inequality of salaries in Britain with the Guardian's City editor Jill Treanor

Katie Allen, Dan Milmo and Giles Tremlett discuss stark youth unemployment figures. Plus we ask whether austerity is working in Ireland

John Hooper and Larry Elliott on how Italy became the latest EU economy to face attack on the bond markets and economist Robert H Frank discusses his new book The Darwin Economy

Sheldon Garon, author of Beyond Our Means and an economic historian at Princeton University, on why the UK and the US stopped saving and started spending in the second half of the 20th century

Larry Elliott, David Gow and Jill Treanor examine the three major issues on the table this week: Greece, European banks and the EU bailout fund