Weekly Economics Podcast

By New Economics Foundation

What's Weekly Economics Podcast about?

Kirsty Styles chats to experts from the New Economics Foundation and elsewhere about the big economic issues in the UK and beyond. New episodes on Mondays.

Produced by James Shield. Programme editor for NEF: Huw Jordan.

Brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the independent think tank and charity campaigning for a fairer, sustainable economy.

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Election 2019

12.02.2019

The election is just around the corner and the outcome will determine the future of the country, and the shape of the economy. So what are the parties planning to do if they win power? How radical are their policies? ...

Weekly Economics Podcast episodes:

12.02.2019 Election 2019 The election is just around the corner and the outcome will determine the future of the country, and the shape of the economy. So what are the parties planning to do if they win power? How radical are their policies? ...
11.25.2019 How to fix the childcare system The childcare system in England is broken. Our nurseries are among the most expensive in the world, but our childcare professionals are some of the lowest paid workers in society. For a long time, government policy on childcare has been ...
11.20.2019 Universal Basic Services Our public services are in dire need of investment. The question of how much investment has loomed large over the first weeks of the election campaign. But in the middle of a debate over competing spending plans, isn’t it also ...
11.12.2019 Hostile Environment: how immigrants became scapegoats How did the word immigrant become such a loaded term? How did the public conversation about immigration become so toxic? And is there another way forward – an alternative to the hostile environment? This week we're at SOAS, part of ...
11.07.2019 Algorithms of Oppression We're away this week recording our exciting live event with Maya Goodfellow for the podcast next week. In the meantime we're listening back to a live episode we recorded in April. Safiya Umoja Noble is an associate professor at UCLA ...
10.28.2019 The stories that broke the economy, and the stories that can fix it Some common lines you’ll hear about the economy: we all put money in, or take it out. Some people pay their fair share, but others don’t. We can’t overspend – putting public spending on the national credit card would be ...
10.21.2019 How to make the 4-day week happen It’s one of the most important inventions of the 20th century. But unlike the phone, the car, computers and indoor plumbing, the weekend is still stuck in the 1930s. As productivity increased, the promise of shorter working hours always seemed ...
08.14.2019 The rent is too high More and more of us are renting for longer – not by choice, but by necessity. In cities especially, more people are renting into their thirties, forties and beyond, sometimes raising children in rented flats with no long-term security. But ...
08.06.2019 The myth of meritocracy It’s the story we’re all told when we’re growing up. Work hard at school so you can get into a good university. Work hard at university so you can get a good job. Get a masters degree – taking on ...
07.26.2019 The new PM and the future of Conservatism This week the UK got a new prime minister, and the Conservative party got a new leader. After nine years in government, will this be a pivotal moment in history, or a last gasp? Apart from a more hard-line stance ...
07.15.2019 Is wellbeing the new GDP? If you’ve been listening to the Weekly Economics Podcast for a while, you’ll know that we think there’s much more to economics than GDP. But it still dominates the way politicians and much of the press talk about the economy. ...
07.08.2019 Generation Left The polls show that while previous generations became more conservative with age, millennials are staying left wing for longer. And age and education now seem to be the big dividing line in our politics, replacing class as the key division. ...
07.01.2019 What should the climate movement do next? It’s been a busy year for the climate movement since last summer’s scorching heatwave. Extinction Rebellion shut down the streets, the school strikes saw thousands of young people take a stand, and the Green New Deal has shot to the ...
06.24.2019 Inclusive Ownership Last month, the owner of a chain of British hi-fi shops did something unusual. Julian Richer, the founder of Richer Sounds, gave away control of the company to the employees, and even gave them each a £1,000 cash bonus for ...
05.29.2019 Algorithms of Oppression (Live) Algorithms have a huge influence on the way that we see the world. We increasingly understand news through social media — as libraries shut down more of our knowledge is found with the click of a search engine rather than ...
05.21.2019 A Beginner's Guide to Neoliberalism: 7 – Changing the Rules It’s been 4 years since Kirsty Styles and James Meadway told the story of neoliberalism, from Hayek to Thatcher to the end of history. But now, the band is back together, alongside NEF chief executive Miatta Fahnbulleh. It’s 2019, the ...
05.13.2019 A Beginner's Guide to Neoliberalism: 6 - The Alternatives Kirsty Styles and James Meadway talk about the alternatives to neoliberalism. This episode was recorded back in August 2015, which feels like a million years ago. We still think it's worth listening to, but a lot has changed since then. ...
05.07.2019 A Beginner's Guide to Neoliberalism: 5 - The End of History? James Meadway and Kirsty Styles discuss how neoliberalism lives on today. This episode was recorded back in August 2015 and a lot has changed since then. The good news is James and Kirsty will be back for a brand new ...
04.29.2019 A Beginner's Guide to Neoliberalism: 4 – Acceptable in the 80s James Meadway and Kirsty Styles explain how neoliberalism took hold in the UK in the 1980s. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Music by Chris Zabriskie (www.chriszabriskie.com), sanmi (www.freemusicarchive.org/music/sanmi) and Christian Bjoerklund (www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Christ…n_Bjoerklund) used under Creative ...
04.22.2019 A Beginner's Guide to Neoliberalism: 3 – World Domination James Meadway and Kirsty Styles explain how neoliberalism came to dominate economies around the globe. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Music by Chris Zabriskie (www.chriszabriskie.com), sanmi (freemusicarchive.org/music/sanmi/) and Christian Bjoerklund (freemusicarchive.org/music/Christian_Bjoerklund/) used under Creative Commons ...
04.15.2019 A Beginner's Guide to Neoliberalism: 2 – The House That Hayek Built Economist James Meadway and journalist Kirsty Styles continue their 6-part miniseries about neoliberalism. In part 2, they tell the story of how the once obscure ideas of theorist Friedrich Hayek moved from the fringe to the mainstream, ushering in the ...
04.08.2019 A Beginner's Guide to Neoliberalism: 1 – The Basics For the next 6 weeks, we’re doing something a bit different. We’re telling the story of neoliberalism, from the beginning. We call it A Beginner’s Guide to Neoliberalism. We first ran the series back in 2015, but it’s as relevant ...
03.18.2019 What explains the knife crime epidemic? With Gary Younge Knife crime is at a nine-year high. Everyone agrees: something must be done. Some politicians want more police on the streets, or tougher sentences. Others want cuts to mental health services to be reversed. One MP has suggested every knife ...
03.13.2019 How to shockproof the economy It’s hard to listen to the news at the moment without hearing some kind of warning about economy. Nearly all of those warnings focus on one thing – Brexit. It’s true that lots of people think Brexit is risky – ...
03.04.2019 Rewind: Can we bring down house prices without crashing the economy? We’re away this week, but in the meantime thought we’d listen back to one of our favourite episodes from last year. If house prices are too high for people to be able to buy houses, how can we bring them ...
02.25.2019 What's the deal with the Green New Deal? The Green New Deal has rocketed to the top of the agenda in the US. It's an ambitious plan, spearheaded by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to decarbonise the US economy and eliminate economic insecurity at the same time. But in fact the ...
02.18.2019 Public Ownership 2.0 Public ownership is back on the agenda. Opinion polls show high levels of support for taking all kinds of things back into public hands, from the railways to water to energy, and the Labour party is committed to a vast ...
02.11.2019 What would a progressive border policy look like? The Windrush scandal outraged the nation last year. But last week the Home Office reinstated deportation flights to Jamaica for criminal offenders who they say are foreign nationals. Meanwhile, parliament passed a new immigration bill last month, promising to control ...
02.05.2019 How the economy is damaging our mental health This Thursday is Time To Talk Day, a day meant to encourage people to talk about mental health. But what are the wider social and economic factors that are causing poor mental health in the first place? Is the economy ...
01.29.2019 Why economics needs a rethink Last week saw a record number of the world's elite flying their private jets to Davos for the World Economic Forum. Oxfam reported that in the 10 years since the financial crisis, the number of billionaires around the world has ...
01.21.2019 What's really making the NHS sick? Two years ago, nurses and doctors warned that the annual NHS winter crisis was now 'the new normal'. In the cold weather, hospitals were overwhelmed by patients that they did not have the space to treat. But we've had a ...
01.14.2019 Lexit vs Remain and Reform Grace Blakeley argues the case for 'Lexit' (a left-wing exit from the European Union) while Laurie Macfarlane thinks 'Remain and Reform' is our best option. With a vote on the Prime Minister's deal imminent, what are the options? Paul Mason ...
12.23.2018 Populism (Live) with Jonathan Smucker & Chantal Mouffe Can populism be progressive, and what role did it play in the US mid-terms this year? We’ll be back with a brand new series in the new year, but in the meantime we wanted to bring you something a bit ...
08.13.2018 Summer climate breakdown We’ve just had a few days of respite from the craziest temperatures, but this summer’s heatwave has felt unusual. Parks turning to dust and reservoirs running out. Record temperatures and sweeping fires. It feels as though, this summer, we’ve had ...
08.06.2018 Why the interest rate hike was a bad move Last week the Bank of England moved interest rates to their highest level in almost a decade. If you’ve got a mortgage, it might get more expensive. If you’ve got savings, you might get a bit more interest on your ...
07.30.2018 Can populism be progressive? Jeremy Corbyn and Donald Trump; Erdogan in Turkey and the Five Star Movement in Italy; Podemos in Spain and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. All of them have been described as populists. But what does ‘populism’ actually mean? How can ...
07.24.2018 The rise of the data oligarchs There are troubling signs that the new data-driven economy is inheriting all the same problems as the old one: power imbalances, monopolies and a lack of accountability. How gloomy should we be? Will technology inevitably lead us to a digital ...
07.16.2018 Brexit: what next? In between the resignations and the reshuffles, what have we learned about about where Brexit will go next? Much of the focus has been on the response to the deal the prime minister reached with her cabinet at Chequers, but ...
07.09.2018 Is it the end of the road for the high street? Is British shopping in crisis? Major names are struggling or closing down, nearly 22,000 jobs are at risk, and the UK now has an estimated 1,800 fewer high street shops than it had a year ago. Are we all just ...
07.02.2018 Can we tax our way to a cleaner planet? One of the most fashionable economic ideas of the past decade has been ‘nudge’ theory – the idea that a little prod from government can encourage us to change our behaviour and be better citizens, maybe without even realising it. ...
06.25.2018 Happy birthday NHS? Happy birthday, NHS! That was the message from the prime minister last week, as she announced an extra £20bn of funding for the NHS in England by 2023. But is that enough? And where will the money come from? There’s ...
06.18.2018 One year on from the Grenfell Tower fire The fire at Grenfell Tower a year ago last week was, above all, a tragedy for its residents, their friends, and their families. It’s also come to symbolise a deeper crisis in British society – at least in the eyes ...
06.11.2018 Does the Windrush scandal signal the end of Britain's 'hostile environment'? Papers destroyed by the Home Office. Forced out of work. Denied cancer treatment. Held in detention. Deported. Those are just a few of the terrible stories we’ve heard about the treatment of the Windrush generation over the past few months. ...
04.04.2018 Universal Basic Income or Universal Basic Services? Universal basic income – an idea that almost no one had heard of just a few years ago – is now one of the most fashionable concepts in progressive politics. With automation increasing and wages stagnating, the theory is that ...
03.28.2018 What if Russia cuts off our gas? A nerve agent attack on an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury has led to a retaliation by the UK government – expelling diplomats and ramping up a war of words. With Putin winning another huge election victory last ...
03.19.2018 Can we bring down house prices without crashing the economy? It’s one of the biggest contradictions in British politics. Across the country, baby boomers who own a house cheer as the value of their property rises. Meanwhile their millennial children watch on in horror, as owning their own home increasingly ...
03.12.2018 Why are university lecturers on strike? Universities up and down the country have been shutting down as lecturers have walked out, arguing that the changes to their pension schemes could leave them thousands of pounds a year worse off in retirement. If you don’t know the ...
03.05.2018 'Middletown, America' with Gary Younge As the Guardian's US correspondent, Gary Younge documented America’s social and economic challenges, the role of race in the country’s politics, and the deadly consequences of US gun laws. Now the Guardian’s editor-at-large, Gary took an unusual approach to covering ...
02.28.2018 Is the Bitcoin boom over? Technology is transforming the world of money. Or at least that’s what the Bitcoin junkies would have you believe. They say digital currencies have arrived and are about to revolutionise the way we buy things. But recent downturns in their ...
02.21.2018 What happened to the stock markets? (And does it matter?) There's been a panic in the stock markets in recent weeks after the Dow Jones plunged more than 1000 points on a single Monday in the first week of February. When the stock market plunges should we all be worried? ...

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