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China’s model for economic development holds serious appeal for countries looking for an alternative to the Washington consensus of economic and political liberalisation. But what exactly is the “China Model”? And should America and its allies be worried about China’s growing confidence in exporting it?Hosts: Mike Bird and Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: Elizabeth Economy, Hargrove senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University; and Yasheng Huang, Professor of Global Economic and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

More than 100,000 tracks are added to Spotify every day. A growing share of them are now generated by AI. That sounds like bad news for artists, as well as the businesses that rely on them. So what does the music industry look like in the age of AI?Hosts: Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird. Guests: Andy Mooney, CEO of Fender and Michael Nash, chief digital officer at Universal Music GroupTranscripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Narendra Modi is one of the most popular politicians on the planet. India’s prime minister is eyeing a third term atop the world’s biggest democracy. A tea-seller’s son, Mr Modi began life an outsider and the man behind the political phenomenon remains hard to fathom. India has become an economic powerhouse during his ten years in charge. But he’s also the frontman for a chauvinistic Hindu nationalist dogma. Can Mr Modi continue to balance both parts of his agenda and finish the job of turning India into a superpower? The Economist’s Avantika Chilkoti finds out what makes him tick. Launching June 2024.To listen to the full series, subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Across the developed world, birth rates are tumbling. That poses a fiscal threat: a smaller working-age population will struggle to fund pensions and health care for a growing number of old folk. In the face of a sudden shortfall of babies, governments face a problem: how do you incentivise people to have more kids?Hosts: Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: anthropologist Ayo Wahlberg and The Economist’s Cerian Richmond Jones.To hear more on this topic, listen to our Drum Tower podcast on why China’s one-child policy is still having an impact on the country’s birth rate.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcastsSign up for our new weekly newsletter dissecting the big themes in markets, business and the economy at www.economist.com/moneytalks Get a world of insights for 50% off—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Today’s global financial system is dominated by the dollar and depends on Western capital, institutions and payment networks. A number of forces are now combining to reduce the system’s reliance on this financial plumbing, and on America in particular. Those who resent the country for using its control over the global financial system to impose its will through sanctions want to cut the superpower out. As US-China tensions increase, is the stage set for a split into separate financial systems?Hosts: Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird. Guests: Art Karoonyavanich, head of equity capital markets at DBS, Singapore's biggest bank; Adam Szubin, former Acting Under Secretary at the US Treasury; and Eswar Prasad, Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy at Cornell University.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcastsSign up for our new weekly newsletter dissecting the big themes in markets, business and the economy at www.economist.com/moneytalks Get a world of insights for 50% off—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Costco is the world’s third-biggest retailer, after Amazon and Walmart. What sets it apart from its competitors is the peculiar adoration it seems to inspire from shoppers. And it’s not just Costco cardholders who love the wholesaler. Wall Street analysts fawn over the stock. Though the retailer’s sales are less than half of Walmart’s, its return on capital, at nearly 20%, is more than twice as high. What is behind Costco’s enduring success?Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Mike Bird and Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: Costco superfans David and Susan Schwartz; and Joe Feldman, an analyst at Telsey Advisory Group.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcastsSign up for our new weekly newsletter dissecting the big themes in markets, business and the economy at www.economist.com/moneytalks Get a world of insights for 50% off—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Singapore is about to get a new prime minister: Lawrence Wong. Only three people have previously held the job since the country gained independence from Malaysia almost 60 years ago—and they have overseen what is nothing short of an economic miracle. The city-state surfed the wave of globalisation and became wealthy in the process. But the tide may be turning on a more open world—and open markets. Can Mr Wong maintain the country’s success?Hosts: Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: The Economist’s Patrick Foulis and Lawrence Wong.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcastsSign up for our new weekly newsletter dissecting the big themes in markets, business and the economy at www.economist.com/moneytalksListen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology— subscribe to Economist Podcasts+For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

For decades, the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz looked like an outsider in his field. As the world opened up to trade in the 1990s, the former chair of Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors and Chief Economist for the World Bank grew disillusioned, eventually becoming one of the most prominent critics of globalisation. Now Joe Biden is pulling back from unfettered trade with China and has turned to massive subsidies in an effort to reindustrialise America. So is Joseph Stiglitz finally having his moment?Hosts: Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird. Guests: Joseph StiglitzSign up for our new weekly newsletter dissecting the big themes in markets, business and the economy at www.economist.com/moneytalks Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

It’s been more than twenty years since China joined the World Trade Organisation and integrated itself fully into the world trading system. Back then, there was enthusiastic and bipartisan support for trade with China in Washington. That alliance in favour of liberalisation has now been transformed into a consensus that America’s trade relations with China are far too close. So where is the US-China trade war heading next?Hosts: Mike Bird and Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: Dr Keyu Jin, associate professor of economics at the London School of Economics and author of “The New China Playbook”; and Michael Stumo, CEO of the Coalition for a Prosperous America.Sign up for our new weekly newsletter dissecting the big themes in markets, business and the economy at www.economist.com/moneytalks Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

More than 1bn people around the world are obese. That means there should be extraordinary demand for drugs to cure or mitigate the condition. Novo Nordisk is now Europe’s most valuable company and Eli Lilly’s market value has more than doubled. Both make the “miracle” drugs that can help people shed up to a fifth of their body weight. But these drugs promise to do more than boost drug companies’ profits. How will they reshape the economy?Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Mike Bird and Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: The Economist’s Georgia Banjo; pharmaceuticals analyst Michael Nedelcovych; and John Cawley, a professor of public policy and economics at Cornell University.Subscribers to Economist Podcasts+ can listen to our January 2023 episode on the economics of thinness.Sign up for our new weekly newsletter dissecting the big themes in markets, business and the economy at www.economist.com/moneytalks Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Five decades ago, the field of behavioural economics was just getting off the ground, as psychologists brought insights from their studies to the theory-heavy world of academic economics. The discipline shot to international fame in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and faced a major test during the covid pandemic, when governments around the world used the theories of its founding father, Daniel Kahneman, to encourage people to stay at home and get vaccinated. Following the death of Mr Kahneman last month, what’s next for the field of behavioural economics?Hosts: Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood, and Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: Simon Cox, The Economist’s China economics editor; George Loewenstein, one of the founders of behavioural economics; and Caltech’s Colin Camerer, who applies psychology and neuroscience to economics.Sign up for our new weekly newsletter dissecting the big themes in markets, business and the economy at www.economist.com/moneytalks Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Five decades have passed since the oil embargo of 1973 sent shockwaves through the global economy. For many years, the biggest fears about oil centred on its supply. But soon demand for the commodity will be the primary influence on energy markets, as governments try to incentivise the shift to clean energy. When will the world hit “peak oil”—and how turbulent will the energy transition be? And as the age of oil reaches its endgame, which producers will be left standing?Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Mike Bird, Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: Jason Bordoff of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University; Meghan O’Sullivan of the Belfer Center at Harvard University’s Kennedy School; Vijay Vaitheeswaran, The Economist’s global energy and climate innovation editor. If you would like to apply for The Economist’s finance and economics internship, please click here for more information.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—Subscribe to Economist Podcasts+For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Restructuring advisers are often the first on the scene when a business starts to teeter. To some, that makes these bankers, consultants and lawyers capitalism’s emergency surgeons, rescuing companies from death. To others, the steep fees of these advisers, which may be the final bill an ailing company can afford, suggest a less flattering comparison: vultures. This week, we settle the debate once and for all.Hosts: Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird. Guests: Kevin Kaiser of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; and Joff Mitchell of AlixPartners.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—Subscribe to Economist Podcasts+For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Amazon started with a plan to disrupt bookselling. It sold cheap books online, delivering them straight to customers’ homes. Three decades later it employs a million people in America and owns one hundred warehouses, each stocked with millions of products. More than a third of the US e-commerce market flows through it. Now, another company has spied an opportunity to disrupt Amazon: Temu. The Chinese e-commerce giant wants to undercut its US rival, delivering impossibly cheap stuff to Americans straight from factories in China. How worried should Amazon be?Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Mike Bird, Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: Wendy Woloson of Rutgers University-Camden; Mark Shmulik of Bernstein; Michael Morton, an e-commerce analyst at MoffettNathanson; and Josh Silverman, CEO of Etsy.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—Subscribe to Economist Podcasts+For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

An article from The Economist read aloud. Our leader argues that both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have ideas that endanger America’s economy.

Investing in infrastructure used to mean partnering with governments to build unglamorous assets like roads or sewage treatment plants. But increasingly, companies are turning to infrastructure investors to help build and pay for everything from chip factories to fibre-optic networks. Why are investors pouring money into these assets?Hosts: Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird. Guests: John Buttarazzi, a professor at Georgetown University; and Leigh Harrison, head of real assets at Macquarie, the world’s largest infrastructure investment manager.Get a world of insights for 50% off—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

American investors have had a phenomenal run. Over the last 14 years, the S&P 500 index of US stocks has delivered returns of 11% a year in real terms. In cash terms, $100 invested in 2010 would be worth $600 today. What would it take for the good times to keep coming? Can AI keep the bull market alive? Hosts: Alice Fulwood, Mike Bird, Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management; and Jordan Brooks of AQR Capital Management, a quantitative hedge fund.Get a world of insights for 50% off—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

An article from The Economist read aloud. Our Bartleby column explains why office anger can be helpful, so long as you don’t throw anything.

It's been two years since Russia brought war to Ukraine. America, Britain and the European Union may not have intervened by putting boots on the ground—but they have launched a massive financial counteroffensive. Vladimir Putin’s government, his cronies and the businesses profiting from the war are all subject to sanctions, yet the Russian economy has proved remarkably resilient. So, does financial warfare work?Hosts: Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: The Economist’s Cerian Richmond Jones; Juan Zarate, the architect of America’s sanctions after the September 11th attacks; and Nicholas Mulder, author of “The Economic Weapon”, which examines the rise of sanctions as a tool of war.Get a world of insights for 50% off—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.