Money Talks from The Economist The Economist

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: https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2024/04/30/why-the-one-child-policy-still-affects-chinas-birth-rate

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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/podcasts
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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/podcasts


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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/podcasts

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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 Stiglitz

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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.

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