A Long Time In Finance

Britain's steel industry has all but vanished, and the government has intervened to save the last blast furnaces. But how did the country that invented the steel industry reach this pass and does it even matter? We talk to historian Ewan Gibbs about steel, the state, and the importance of ownership and production in an uncertain world.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Ewan Gibbs.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Generals and politicians calling for rearmament often talk about the UK facing a "1937 moment" of rising threats and a deteriorating international situation. But what actually happened in the late 1930s, and how was an indebted and cash-strapped Britain able to mobilise its industry and spend so much more on armaments? Are there similarities to today and what can we learn? We talk to historian Dan Todman about the economic and military parallels.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Daniel Todman.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the wake of Donald Trump's demand for a juicy minerals deal in Ukraine, Neil and Jonathan join author James Barr to look at the history of possibly the greatest minerals carve-up of all time - in the post First World War Middle East - and ask the key question: "How did that all work out?"Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With James Barr.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1976, the Labour government went "cap in hand" to the IMF for a loan to tide it through deteriorating economic conditions. The price was large cuts in public spending. Neil and Jonathan talk to economist and author Duncan Weldon about the "bailout", what caused it, the changes it brought, and whether there are any parallels to the predicament faced by Rachel Reeves.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Duncan Weldon.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Until recently, Germany seemed to be going through a second wirtschaftswunder, as the country's mighty industry pumped out capital exports to China, powered by cheap Russian gas. Then everything blew up in the 2020s. Neil and Jonathan talk to Wolfgang Munchau about the wishful thinking, political misjudgments, and structural failings that led Europe's largest economy into the mire.Produced by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Wolfgang Munchau.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the summer of 1944, as Allied armies fought through Normandy, 44 nations gathered at a run-down hotel in New Hampshire to discuss the economic future of the world. What followed was the only ever formal attempt to reorder the international monetary system; one that seemed for a time successful until it collapsed unmourned in 1971. Together with the author Ed Conway, we look at the summit itself, the giant figures who dominated it (John Maynard Keynes and Harry Dexter White), what it concluded and why, ultimately, it failed.Produced by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Ed Conway.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On 21 November 1974, an obscure backbench MP, John Stonehouse, went for a swim off Miami Beach and disappeared. So began an extraordinary tale of banking fraud, money laundering, spying and identity theft, which unravelled over the following month, ending in Stonehouse's exposure and arrest and making him one of the most famous MPs in the world. Together with the author Philip Augar, we look at Stonehouse's political life and the extraordinary financial dealings that led to his disappearance.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Philip Augar.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Employees of a High Street bank rip off its customers for years. The bank refuses to admit that anything illegal happened. Yet when the fraud is finally exposed, it not only gets to decide what compensation to pay; it gets to investigate its own wrongdoing. Sound strange? We talk to the Ian Fraser about Lloyds Bank and the HBOS Reading Affair, its parallels with the Post Office scandal and the world's longest in-house investigation, under retired Judge Dame Linda Dobbs.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Ian Fraser.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium. These materials built the world we live in, and they will transform our future. Neil and Jonathan talk to writer and broadcaster Ed Conway about raw materials that drive our economies, who controls them, and how that affects Britain's place in the worldPresented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Ed Conway.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.Additional production by Ewan Cameron. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coal once powered the Industrial Revolution and made Britain the richest country on earth. Now with the closure of the country's last coal-fired power station, it will cease to play any meaningful part in the economic life of the nation. Aside from welcoming a cleaner, greener future, what are we to make of this momentous departure? Together with Ewan Gibbs from Glasgow University, Neil and Jonathan look at the epic decline and fall of King Coal. Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Ewan Gibbs.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

That's how the public increasingly sees today's managerial elite. Bosses enjoy vast rewards without seeming to be accountable for their decisions - at least the ones that go wrong. The economist (and old friend of Altif) Dan Davies has an answer: they've created what he calls an "unaccountability sink" which is delivering terrible business outcomes. Neil and Jonathan investigate.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Dan Davies.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of Britain's best known bond fund managers, and also founder of the "Bond Vigilante" blog, Jim Leaviss is leaving the City after 32 years to train as an art historian. Neil and Jonathan caught up with him to look back on his City career, the huge bull market in bonds of recent decades, and the threats that lie in store from international instability, political turmoil and deteriorating public finances across the Western world. Presented by Neil Collins and Jonathan Ford.With Jim Leaviss.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When banks were found to have manipulated the Libor rate during the financial crisis, they paid a whopping $8bn in fines but only a few junior traders went to prison. In a joint episode with Law & Disorder podcast, we look at the recently appealed cases of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palumbo, and ask whether justice has been served.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Nicholas Mostyn and Helena Kennedy.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the more striking crime statistics is that burglary is down 90% in England and Wales since the 1990s. That doesn't reflect more upright behaviour. Nope, it's just that villains are increasingly moving their operations online. We talk to author Geoff White about how Silicon Valley is helping the bad guys go digital by making it easier for them not only to con people and rob, but also to launder their digital winnings onlinePresented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Geoff White.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How did housing in Britain go from somewhere to live to being everyone's favourite financial asset? In the second of our two part series, we look at housing policy since 1970; and ask whether there has ever been a coherent approach. Also is there a natural level of home ownership and should we be encouraging everyone to buy? With Cambridge University housing expert Peter Williams.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Peter Williams.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How did housing in Britain go from somewhere to live to everyone's favourite financial asset? In the first of a two part series, we look at the mortgage market since 1970; and ask whether the high prices and low supply we endure today are a financial phenomenon. With former building societies supremo Mark Boleat.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Mark Boleat.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994, it was an online bookshop. Now its tentacles are everywhere: it's a marketplace for third party goods from around the world, a huge cloud computing business and America's largest parcel delivery group. But is this a good thing or a bad one? We talk to Dana Mattioli of the Wall Street Journal about whether Amazon is the consumer''s friend or a monopolist to rank with Rockefeller's Standard Oil.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Dana Mattioli.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podcast.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The economist Michael Jensen, who died this month, did as much as any single thinker to shape modern financial capitalism. To his detractors, he was the High Priest of Greed who justified stratospheric CEO pay and predatory private equity. His admirers believe he revived Anglo Saxon capitalism. We discuss his ideas and legacy with the independent researcher and private equity expert Peter Morris. Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Peter Morris.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podcast.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A natural monopoly delivering an essential service, Thames Water was privatised in 1989 with no debt. Now it's on its knees, crushed by more than £15bn of borrowings. Neil and Jonathan talk to Feargal Sharkey about what this says about Mrs Thatcher's most controversial privatisation, whether incentive regulation works, and whether we should just scrap the whole private structure and start again.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Feargal Sharkey.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

GEC was a British manufacturing titan; a cash-rich producer of everything from washing machines to railway trains. Then in a few years, it rebranded and restructured, shedding most of the old industrial bits to focus on telecoms. The result? By 2005, shiny new Marconi was no more. In the second of our Fallen Angel series, we talk to industrial historian Nick Comfort about one of the most abrupt collapses in UK corporate history and its heavy industrial cost Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Nicholas Comfort.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For decades ICI was Britain's largest manufacturing company - a giant fixed point around which the rest of industry orbited. Then, in little more than a decade, it split itself up, sold many of its traditional businesses, and ran up big debts buying fancy but not very profitable fragrance companies. In 2006, the end came when it sold itself to a Dutch company and disappeared. We talk to writer and industrial commentator Nick Comfort about the fall of ICI and what it says about the way the UK economy has been run.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Nicholas Comfort.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Remember Pets.com? Or Ask Jeeves? The dot com bubble of 25 years ago might have been a seismic event in markets. But was it just a collective moment of madness, or a deeper transformational moment? Or both? As AI stocks shoot towards the stratosphere, we talk to internet historian Brian McCullough, host of the Techmeme Ride Home podcast, about what we can learn from the last great tech bubble.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Brian McCullough.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of Britain's better-known economic forecasters, Roger Bootle, set up his consultancy Capital Economics 25 years ago. He made his name predicting the "death of inflation" on which he wrote an influential book in the 1990s. We discuss the importance of economic history, favourite writers, monetarism, bright spots in the world economy, and Britain's many problems with growth.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Philip Augar.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the second of our series on Privatisation and Popular Capitalism, we look at the biggest and riskiest privatisation of all - the 1987 sale of the UK's 31% stake in BP. How the Chancellor Nigel Lawson gambled that the markets were good for a quick £7bn. Prepare for the world's shortest pricing meeting, diplomatic rows with Kuwaitis and lots of long faced underwriters. And our guest Philip Augar delivers the verdict: was it a disaster narrowly averted or a triumph for the new City of London?Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Philip Augar.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Along with the sale of council houses, privatisation was a signature theme of Mrs Thatcher's government. Its aim was not just more efficient businesses, but a "share owning democracy" that would purge Britain of the "corrosive effect of socialism". With its "Tell Sid" campaign, British Gas was the high water mark of privatisation. Neil and Jonathan talk to author Philip Augar about "stagging", Cedric the Pig and how privatisation changed the City. Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Philip Augar.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with BRIEFCASE.NEWS Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if our understanding of capitalism and climate is back to front? What if the problem is not that transitioning to green energy is too expensive, but that saving the planet is not sufficiently profitable. This is the conundrum at the heart of economist Brett Christophers' provocative new book. Neil and Jonathan joined him to discuss why lower wind and solar costs may not equal a green bonanza.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Brett Christophers.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Unipart, once an unloved division of British Leyland, has grown steadily since its buyout 37 years ago, eschewing the stock market and building a "Mittelstand" like relationship with employees, customers and suppliers. Neil and Jonathan talk to John Neill, its long standing boss, about car parts, purpose versus City short-termism and why more companies don't embrace the "Unipart Way".Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With John Neill.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To some it might seem like the plot of a Jeffrey Archer novel: identical twins born to hardship who graft their way up together and ultimately get to own the Ritz Hotel, the Daily Telegraph and a socking great castle in the Channel Islands. But the story of Frederick and David Barclay is much stranger than that. With the Barclays back in the news as they attempt to recover control of the Telegraph, Neil and Jonathan talk to journalist Jane Martinson about the invisible rise of the twins, their complex finances and their ultimate falling out.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Jane Martinson.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bill Gross was the "Master of the Universe" who got the world's attention when he declared in 2010 that UK government debt was sitting "on a bed of nitroglycerine". The man who built the modern bond markets, Gross seemed to have it all. But then he blew up his career just a few short years later with some very strange behaviour. We talk to Mary Childs, journalist and author of a book on Gross, about the strange life and times of a bond market Icarus and his dead cat Bob. Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil CollinsWith Mary Childs.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What links the iconic Sydney Opera House, Monsters Inc and the mess that is HS2? Well, they involve all giant projects and most conform to the "iron law" that schemes costing $1bn or more always end up over time and budget. According to the data, a piddling 0.5% get delivered on time, for the right price, and produce the forecast benefits. So with the world facing a mountain of infrastructure projects to deal with everything from the climate crisis to clapped out transport systems, we talk to infrastructure expert Bent Flyvbjerg of Oxford University about some of the disasters and also the rare successes such as the Guggenheim in Bilbao to find out what separates the winners from the duds. Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil CollinsWith Bent Flyvbjerg.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the recent COP conference, the UK, along with 21 other countries, promised to triple nuclear capacity by 2050. But what does that mean, and how can these plants be built without the delays and cost overruns that marked nuclear projects in the 1970s and 1980s - the last time Britain had a nuclear programme? Neil and Jonathan talk to Tim Stone, head of the UK's Nuclear Industry Association and a former adviser to five energy secretaries, about how to get nuclear done.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Tim Stone.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Crypto's demise seems to have been exaggerated, a bit like Mark Twain's. After the collapse of FTX, multiple coin failures and the arrest of various coinigarchs at airports, Neil and Jonathan talk to bitcoin expert Matthew Pines about the digital, bankless currencies strange ability to shrug off these disasters and what the future may hodl. Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Matthew Pines.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's got a long history going back to Robert Maxwell and Sir James Goldsmith's long-running battle to bankrupt Private Eye, but in recent years so-called "lawfare" has become a veritable industry. We talk to David Hooper, solicitor and author of Buying Silence about the ways in which companies have used libel and privacy laws to squash their critics, the numerous abuses, and how these might be curbed.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With David Hooper.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No, it's not a novel by GK Chesterton; it's the takeover of the world's investment markets by a sinister posse of giant passive fund managers and private equity firms. These now possess the sort of political and economic power that would have made John Rockefeller green with envy. We talk to John Coates, professor at Harvard Law School and author of a new book on "The Twelve", about Blackstone, BlackRock and the rest; where the threat lies and how we should manage it. Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With John Coates.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carbon offsets seemed a neat idea: pay poor people in the Global South not to cut down trees, and then use that "avoided" carbon to sell credits to polluters in developed countries. Bish bosh, your Delta Airlines flight or VW SUV is carbon neutral. What could possibly go wrong?Neil and Jonathan pick through the rubble of the South Pole scandal with environmental consultant Andrew Garraway to find exactly what did.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Andrew Garraway.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1987, the emerging private equity industry successfully lobbied the government to slip them a tax break. It allows private equiteers to take huge bonuses from the appreciation of client funds they invest in buyouts (a wedge called "carried interest"), and pay a preferentially low rate of tax on these earnings. Now HMRC may be thinking again. We talk to tax expert Dan Neidle about the origin of this boondoggle and why - as a matter of actual law, let alone fairness - it's never been justified, and why the government should now clarify the position.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Dan Neidle.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's more than a decade since an American investor described the UK's gilts market as resting "on a bed of nitroglycerine". But with government bonds facing a plethora of troubles right now, from surging issuance driven both by current deficits and monetary policy, to persistent inflation, it's time to turn again to UK investor and self styled "bond vigilante, Jim Leaviss of M&G to ask if there has ever been a worse time to hold a gilt.Presented by Neil Collins, with the somewhat tardy participation of Jonathan Ford.With Jim Leaviss.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The recently released film, Dumb Money, recounts the tumultuous events of 2021 when a group of internet-enabled sans culottes took on Wall Street's finest in a battle over the future of Gamestop, an obscure electronic games retailer. But was it a financial revolution or an amusing (if tech enabled) throwback to the great stock market corners of the past? Neil and Jonathan talk to financial guru Izabella Kaminska about the Gamestop affair, its cultural and historic roots, and whether "flashmob" investing is here to stay.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Izabella Kaminska.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Liz Truss is the Lady Jane Grey of British politics, lasting just 49 days as PM before swirling economic chaos swept her from office. But a year on, has Britain dusted itself off and rebuilt - or are we still picking through the ruins? Neil and Jonathan talk to economic historian Duncan Weldon about Truss's economic and political legacy, Sunak's problems and the still unanswered question of how to get more economic growth.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Duncan Weldon.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The government is embroiled in a row about environmental protection. Should it apply pollution rules inherited from the EU in the way its own environmental advisers interpret them, or should it change the rules to help housebuilders construct more homes? Neil and Jonathan discuss the trade-offs with Robert Colvile, a self confessed housing nut who is director of the Centre for Policy Studies.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Robert Colville.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the concluding episode of our two part series, Jonathan and Neil look back on the dramatic events of March in the company of Josef Ackermann, who ran the Swiss bank in the 1990s, financial historian Philip Augar and banking analyst Frances Coppola. They consider the macro background to the bank's collapse, and ask whether things could have turned out differently or whether excessive risk taking was just baked into Credit Suisse's DNA. Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In March 2023 the unthinkable happened: Credit Suisse, that giant of Swiss banking, collapsed. Like the proverbial cat, it had run through its nine lives. From the Chiasso saga to unprecedented corporate fines, via troubled times on Wall Street, Credit Suisse had always lived dangerously. And finally, in 2023, the financial winds caught up with them. In this first part of a two-part special of A Long Time in Finance, Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins are joined by experts Josef Ackermann, former President of Credit Suisse's executive board, financial historian Philip Augar, and banking analyst Frances Coppola, to look at the history of a bank that lived fast and died young.Part two of the story of Credit Suisse will be in your feeds next Friday – so please subscribe now.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With net zero targets in mind, countries like the UK have ambitious targets for renewable energy. But do these make any sense? None at all, according to Doomberg, the US energy analyst. In conversation with Neil and Jonathan, he explains why he's deeply bearish about wind power, why renewables make no sense at all in Western Europe, and how there's a direct link between rising wind and solar usage and declining standards of living.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Doomberg.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The car in front? These days it's likely to be a Tesla - or Chinese. Britain's car industry built just 775,000 motors last year, the lowest figure since 1956. Dwindling investment means we increasingly lack the wherewithal to take part in the unfolding electric revolution. Amid a picture of unremitting gloom, Neil and Jonathan talk to Peter Wells, Director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff University about the scale of the problem and what can be done.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Peter Wells.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since 2019, Britain has put itself under a legal obligation to decarbonise its economy by 2050. But do people have any idea what that means, how practical it is and how much it might cost? To get an idea, Neil and Jonathan talked to Richard Halsey, innovation director at the Energy Supply Catapult about how the country is faring on its great decarbonisation crusade.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Richard Halsey.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jeremy Hunt says that by taking more risk, UK pension funds can make their members £1,000 a year better off. Sounds interesting, but is it really plausible? And should the government even try to interfere in pension markets? Neil and Jonathan talk to pensions expert John Ralfe about what he really said and didn't say, whether the proposals will make much difference, and what reforms might actually make sense..Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With John Ralfe.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"You could be an H20 Owner." That was the slogan when the water companies were sold off in 1989. But while we glugged the share sale down, the public didn't stay owners for long, and most of the companies were later flushed into the hands of international private equity firms. All we own now is the financial and ecological mess they left behind - one that's looming ever larger in the case of Thames Water. Neil and Jonathan talk to Jonathan Portes, economist and (in his youth) a Treasury civil servant who worked on the water sale about what went wrong with privatisation and how to fix it.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Jonathan Portes.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Energy policy has been one of Britain's great political failures over the past two decades. World leaders in climate pledges, we've failed to create the means to deliver them. And we barely build any green kit. This week's guest, energy expert Nick Butler has an idea for a fresh start. Create a state owned company to drive and fund investments in energy technologies with the aim of promoting green manufacturing in the UK. It sounds bold, but will it work? Jonathan and Neil investigate..Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Nick Butler.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With mortgage rates rising ever higher, it's becoming clear the UK is facing a serious housing correction. But how bad will it be, and on whom will the blow fall hardest? Neil and Jonathan talk to Neal Hudson, housing expert at BuiltSpace, about past crises in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, how this one might compare, and what we might do to soften the blow.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Neal Hudson.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vertical farming has been hailed as the future of agriculture. More sustainable, needing fewer resources such as land and labour, and the capacity to grow crops all year round. So how far can it go and why have so many recently built vertical farms got into financial difficulty? Neil and Jonathan talk to Marcus Whately, chief executive of Grow Up Farms, about the challenges and whether vertical growing can really put a salad in every bowl.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With Marcus Whately.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The hawks call it decoupling; the more dovish derisking. But it all means the same thing: imposing trade barriers between China and the West. Neil and Jonathan talk to China expert George Magnus about China's 2001 WTO accession, why the West's gamble on trade and democratisation failed, and also whether you can unscramble the trade relationship.Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.With George Magnus.Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.In association with Briefcase.News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.