The Economics Show

It’s a treacherous time for the Eurozone. Inflation is falling, yes, but at the same time signs of real economic weakness are growing. And there are risks on the horizon, from rising debt to trade wars to real wars. It’s a perfect time to speak to our guest Philip Lane, chief economist of the ECB and a member of its executive board. And this week we have a co-host as well, Frankfurt bureau chief and ECB correspondent Olaf Storbeck.For Philip Lane’s recent speech on monetary policy uncertainty, see hereSoumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it hereSubscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The UK is lagging behind its peers in the Eurozone. Its per capita GDP trails that of France and Germany, and yet its housing and energy is scarcer and more expensive. A recent essay by Sam Bowman, co-authored with Ben Southwood and Samuel Hughes, argues that Britain has struggled over the past 15 years because it has “banned the investment in housing, transport and energy that it most vitally needs.” Sam Bowman is a founding editor of Works in Progress, has served as director of competition policy at the International Center for Law & Economics and as executive director of the Adam Smith Institute. Today on the show, we ask him if Britain’s failure to launch is really a failure to build. Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it hereSubscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are having heated conversations about whether or not governments can be made more efficient. The results include two new agencies, Elon Musk’s ad hoc Department of Government Efficiency, and Labour’s Office for Value for Money. But when it comes to improving public services, the challenges are neither new, nor easy to navigate. This week, we are asking how to make the government more efficient. And we’re asking the UK’s former chancellor of the exchequer, Jeremy Hunt.Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it hereSubscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trump is returning to office with many of the same policies that characterised his last term. And for economists, none looms larger than the prospect of significant new tariffs. But are tariffs really as destructive as feared? After all, the Biden administration maintained most of them and the economy has remained strong. Today on the show, we put the question to Kimberly Clausing, a professor at UCLA, and formerly lead economist in the Biden administration's Office for Tax Policy.Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it hereSubscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.