Weekly Economics Podcast

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 different: the best bits from a live event hosted by the New Economy Organisers Network in London in November about progressive populism. The guests were the political theorist Chantal Mouffe, who literally wrote the book on progressive populism ('For A Left Populism'), and the American campaigner Jonathan Smucker, author of 'Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals'. Podcast host Ayeisha Thomas-Smith chaired the debate. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. Music: Podington Bear, licenced under Creative Commons. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

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 a glimpse at what our ‘new normal’ might look like. It’s a disaster on a global scale and it’s been taking hold for some time. So why aren’t we in a panic? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Dave Powell, head of environment at the New Economics Foundation, who's been feeling a bit Thom Yorke about it all. Links: Dave's NEF blog: 'Climate breakdown: where is the left?' https://www.neweconomics.org/2018/07/climate-breakdown-where-is-the-left Dave's Business Green article: 'In praise of mild discombobulation' https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/opinion/3036945/in-praise-of-mild-discombobulation Sustainababble - the weekly comedy podcast about the environment that Dave co-hosts with Ollie Hayes: http://www.sustainababble.fish Enjoyed this series? Tweet us your comment

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 money. Does this tell us anything about what the Bank of England thinks is going to happen to the economy? And was it the right decision? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith speaks to Alfie Stirling, head of economics at the New Economics Foundation. Find Ayeisha's new 4-part BBC Radio 4 series, Economics with Subtitles, on iPlayer Radio: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bf9lbd Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

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 it include people with wildly different ideologies under the same umbrella? Is it possible to be a progressive populist – and even if it is, should progressives use that label? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by academic and writer Eliane Glaser, and Michael Walker from Novara Media. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

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 dystopia? Or could there be a whole range of potential futures, some of them shiny and welcoming, others dark and scary? Hanna Wheatley is joined by New Economics Foundation researcher Duncan McCann, and Carl Miller, research director for the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

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 what was in the deal itself? How practical is the government’s position on Brexit? And what are the alternatives? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Marley Morris, senior research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research, and Andrew Pendleton, NEF's director of policy and advocacy. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. Music by Anamorphic Orchestra and Podington Bear used under Creative Commons licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

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 moving online and shopping from our sofas, or is this a sign that our economy might be in deeper trouble? Does Brexit have anything to do with it? Will Greggs be okay? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Krissie Nicolson, founding organiser of the East End Trades Guild, and Will Brett, NEF's director of communications. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. Music by Yung Kartz, Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear used under Creative Commons licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

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. Meanwhile, good old-fashioned regulation seems to have been decidedly out of favour with recent governments – and leaving the market to just do its thing isn’t all that popular with campaigners. When it comes to the environment, do all of these approaches have their place? What works best? And are there better or worse ways to make sure our economy doesn’t wreck the planet? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Dave Powell, head of environment at the New Economics Foundation, and Alice Bell, director at climate charity 10:10. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. Music by Podington Bear and Messer Chups used under Creative Commons licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation –

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 been talk of a ‘Brexit dividend’ – does that mean the infamous battle bus promise has come true? Or will some of us have to pay more tax to keep our NHS on life support? And whatever happened to fixing our broken social care system? This week, Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Sarah Bedford, head of social policy at the New Economics Foundation, and Andy Cowper, comment editor of the Health Service Journal. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. Music: The Blank Tapes, Jahzzar and Podington Bear. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

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 of many people. On this week's podcast, we’re giving you an update on what we’ve learned since that night; what the inquiry has heard; and the shifting national conversation about Grenfell. Ayeisha Thomas-Smith speaks to Luke Barratt, business reporter at Inside Housing, and Katya Nasim, a campaigner with the Radical Housing Network. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

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. We’ve had a change of Home Secretary, but will there be a change in policy? The government set up a ‘Windrush taskforce’ in April – but will it right these wrongs? And what does the ‘hostile environment’ policy say about the UK’s difficult relationship with its own history? This week, Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Omar Khan, director of the race equality think tank, the Runnymede Trust, and writer and researcher Maya Goodfellow, who is writing a book about the immigration debate in Britain. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. Music: Eklektik Ensemble and Podington Bear. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out

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 giving everyone a set amount of money each year will liberate them to do what they want with their lives – and keep them out of poverty. But some people think universal basic income is a utopian impossibility. Others think it’s dangerous. So there’s a proposal for another solution: universal basic services. Instead of giving people money, why not guarantee all of the public services they need to live a full life? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith explores the two ideas with Barb Jacobson, Co-ordinator of Basic Income UK, and Anna Coote, New Economics Foundation Principal Fellow. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think t

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 week, some people are worried that we’re entering a new Cold War. Meanwhile, UK gas supplies have run low thanks to the recent winter freeze. What if Russia were to switch off our gas? Has it done it to other countries? And how would we get by? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Dave Powell, who leads on the environment for NEF, and Dustin Benton, Policy Director for the environmental think tank Green Alliance. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Music: Bengale, Eklektik Ensemble, Rockabye Baby, and Prokofiev. Produced by James Shield. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's people-powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

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 falls out of their reach. Politicians talk about building more homes but very few of them talk about directly reducing house prices. If house prices are too high for people to be able to buy houses, how can we bring them down? And can we do it without upsetting homeowners and crashing the economy? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Joe Beswick, who leads on housing for the New Economics Foundation, and housing campaigner Beth Stratford, a PhD researcher at the University of Leeds. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield and Huw Jordan. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

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 difference between your defined benefits and your defined contributions, getting your head round the issues can feel like doing an economics PhD before you’ve done your 101. So this week we’re breaking down what the university strikes are all about, and what they tell us about everyone else’s pensions too. Ayeisha Thomas-Smith speaks to two striking lecturers: Nadine El-Enany, co-director of the Centre for Research on Race and Law at Birkbeck, and SOAS Senate chair Meera Sabaratnam. They are joined by writer and researcher Christine Berry, who is also a postgraduate student at Sheffield University. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield and Huw Jordan. Music: Podington Bear, licenced under Creative Commons. The award-winning Wee

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 the 2016 presidential election, reporting from one small town in Indiana, called Muncie, nicknamed ‘Middletown, America’. In this week's podcast, Ayeisha Thomas-Smith asks Gary about Middletown today. Can it help explain a US election result that few people predicted? And do we have ‘Middletowns’ in the UK that can help us understand our own political upheaval? Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield and Huw Jordan. Music: Podington Bear and Jahzzar, licenced under Creative Commons. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

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 prices have led some to wonder whether digital currencies have fuelled a dangerous speculative bubble that needs to be curbed by regulators. Is the Bitcoin boom over? Or was it just the start for digital currencies? This week, Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Carl Miller from Demos, Fran Boait from Positive Money, and Duncan McCann from NEF. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield and Huw Jordan. Music: A Life in Pictures by David Hilowitz, licenced under Creative Commons. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

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? Or does it only affect those wealthy enough to be trading? This week, Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Frank van Lerven, NEF economist, and Anna Isaac, economics correspondent at The Telegraph. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield and Huw Jordan. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

Brexit dominates the news agenda. But with all the talk of the single market, impact assessments and trade deals, it sometimes feels as if this debate is only happening in the comment pages of newspapers, or the corridors of Westminster. What happened to the people? The Weekly Economics Podcast is back with a special episode: a discussion we recorded live in London at the end of 2017, between political theorist Maurice Glasman, activist Ruth Ibegbuna, and the academic Rob Ford. The question journalist Mary Riddell put to them was: where are the people in the Brexit debate? Plus: Ayeisha Thomas-Smith gives an update on CabFair, our plan to create an ethical alternative to Uber. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield and Huw Jordan. Music this week is by Simon Mathewson and Podington Bear. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.or

Chancellor Philip Hammond got out his red box out again last week, to let us know how the country's finances are – or aren't – holding up, and what the Government's going to be doing with its money this year. The headlines were mixed, so what should our take-away be? Will the Chancellor's proposals be enough to make our economy "fit for the future"? And with Brexit looming, is the Government doing enough to deal with the country's economic problems? This week, David Powell is joined by Kate Bell, Head of Economic and Social Affairs at the Trades Union Congress, and Miatta Fahnbulleh, the new CEO of the New Economics Foundation. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield and Huw Jordan. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org