Episodes
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Charles Ponzi was the first, FTX perhaps the latest, but few "rob Peter to pay Paul" schemes will ever match the sheer scale and staying power of Bernie Madoff's $64bn heist. As a new documentary airs about the "Monster of Wall St", Neil and Jonathan talk to author and fraud connoisseur Dan Davies about the world's most destructive Ponzi scheme.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
With Dan Davies.
Executive produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Produced by Ewan Cameron.
In association with Briefcase.News
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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In this final episode of our six part series, Neil tells the story of the rise and fall of Bernie Cornfeld, mutual fund peddlar extraordinaire and founder of Investors Overseas Services, whose pitch to the aspiring affluent was "Do you sincerely want to be rich?" (Spoiler alert: they didn't end up getting rich.)
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
In partnership with Briefcase.News
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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In the fifth of our historical series, Jonathan tells the story of Clarence Saunders - grocer extraordinaire, entrepreneur and valiant battler against the soulless money-makers of Wall Street - and how he attempted the last great corner on the New York Stock Exchange.
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.
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In the fourth of our series of historical shorts, Neil explains how a competition case before the Restrictive Practices Court in the early 1980s led to the reforms that turned the London Stock Exchange from the Hogwartian Victorian club he remembers from his own time "on the floor" in the Swinging Sixties to the polyglot digital marketplace we know and love today.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Made in association with Briefcase.News
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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On May 15 1648, the same day Holland signed the Treaty of Munster ending its 80 year war with Spain, a Dutch canal board issued a bond of 1,000 Carolus guilders to a Mr Niclaes de Meijer of Utrecht promising to pay him 5 per interest in perpetuity. In the latest of our Long Time Shorts, Jonathan explains how that promise is still being kept 374 years later, what Mr de Meijer's bond might be worth today, and why the Dutch are so good (relatively speaking) at meeting their financial obligations. Lang leve Nederland!
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.
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In the second of our six-part series of historical shorts, Neil takes us back to the 1970s; a benighted time when you could only take £50 per head out of the country on your foreign holidays. We explain the regime that underpinned this miserable system, how it criminalised the otherwise law-abiding middle classes, and why its much feared (by HM Treasury) abolition in 1979 was the dog that didn't bark.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Made in partnership with Briefcase.News
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Introducing a new six part series - "Long Time Shorts", in which we serve up quick hits of financial history every Friday, Monday and Wednesday for the next two weeks. In this first episode, Neil and Jonathan look at the story of French thirty-something Max-Hervé George, whose father bought him a magical insurance policy; how this gave him the gift of 20-20 hindsight, and the agony it caused the insurance company that sold it.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
In partnership with Briefcase.News
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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“For too long in this country, we have indulged in a fight over redistribution. Now, we need to focus on growth, not just how we tax and spend," said Kawsi Kwarteng on September 23. Unfortunately for the chancellor, the bond markets didn't agree with him; yields ballooned, and a few days later he was out, followed swiftly by his boss Liz Truss. So where does that leave the UK's stressed public finances? In the second of our two part series, Neil and Jonathan talk to Britain's top bond vigilante, Jim Leaviss, and investor and writer Felix Martin about austerity, inflation, debt sustainability and where we go next.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
With Jim Leaviss and Felix Martin.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Additional editing by Ewan Cameron.
Sponsored by Briefcase.News
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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"Let us be, say I, a free Nation deep in Debt.. rather than a Nation of Slaves owing nothing.” So wrote a pamphleteer in 1720 about the remorseless rise of Britain's National Debt.
At a time of mounting concern about the public finances, we launch a two part series on the National Debt, starting with its ups and downs over two centuries with historian James Macdonald.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
With James Macdonald.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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It’s not often when a start-up fails that taxpayers end up getting a bill for £6.5bn - equivalent to a penny on income tax. But that’s what happened with Bulb, a venture that tried to bring the economics of Deliveroo and Uber to the staid business of selling power to domestic customers. Energy expert Nick Butler helps us unpick the Bulb shaped mess that ensued, how it happened and what should happen now.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
With Nick Butler.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Sponsored by Briefcase.News
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The US politician Dean Acheson once said of Britain that it had lost an empire but not found a role. Could the same be true of the City of London? Out of the EU, it needs to find a new mission to retain its slot as one of the world's top financial centres. Neil and Jonathan talk to economist (and top Frenchman) Nicolas Veron about EU competition, HK's future, global opportunities and risks.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
With Nicolas Veron.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Sponsored by Briefcase.News
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The sudden collapse of Sam Bankman Fried's $16bn crypto trading empire has caused even the most bored of apes to sit up and take notice. Investors in these digital currencies have exhibited an incredible stoicism, soaking up their punishment and "HODL-ing" through past crypto collapses, but could this be the end of Satoshi's children? Neil and Jonathan talk to crypto expert Izabella Kaminska about why crypto exchanges are like 19th century prairie banks, whether the newbies will keep coming and what currencies might survive the turmoil.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
With Izabella Kaminska.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Sponsored by Briefcase.News
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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As the world gathers at COP27 to demand further action on emissions, what role can wind and solar really play in helping us hit global temperature targets? A sceptical Michael Shellenberger, US author and environmental activist, talks to Neil and Jonathan about the renewable "religion", the need for more nuclear and gas, and how much renewable capacity you can really put on an electricity grid.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
With Michael Shellenberger.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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With Britain facing "eye-watering" decisions about public spending, many have set their sights on HS2 as the sort of gilded "grand projet" the UK can no longer afford. But does scrapping it make sense, and what sort of infrastructure should Britain invest in instead? Neil and Jonathan talk to rail expert Tony Berkeley and Tom Forth, industrial strategy thinker, about the bizarre way infrastructure spending decisions are taken and how the country might do it better.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
With Tony Berkeley and Tom Forth.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Additional producing by Ewan Cameron.
Sponsored by Briefcase.News
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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In the second part of our series on Northern Rock, Neil and Jonathan pick over the lessons from the 2007 collapse of the world's most famous ex-building society with former chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling, Stanford finance professor Anat Admati, and bank expert Dan Davies. As interest rates rise, and tremors course through financial markets, how much more robust is our banking system, and could the same meltdown happen again?
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
With Alistair Darling, Anat Admati and Dan Davies.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Additional editing by Ewan Cameron.
Sponsored by Briefcase.News
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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For a few weeks in 2007, a small ex-building society in Newcastle became the world's most famous bank as TV news cameras showed customers queuing at branches for their cash. Initially seen as a Victorian throwback, it later became clear that the collapse was a warning of much wider problems to come. As worrying tremors again strike our financial system, Neil and Jonathan ponder the lessons of Northern Rock's failure in the first of a two part series with former chancellor Alistair Darling, ex regulator Howard Davies and banking expert Dan Davies.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
With Dan Davies, Alistair Darling and Howard Davies.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Additional editing by Ewan Cameron.
Sponsored by Briefcase.News
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The market panic that followed Kwasi Kwarteng's mini budget last month has been blamed on pension funds doing something called LDI. But what is this strange practice, what is its purpose, and how has it led to a £65bn meltdown in the pensions market? Neil and Jonathan talk to pensions expert (and grand wizard of LDI) John Ralfe about the fallout and whether Neil, as a pensioner, should be worried.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
With John Ralfe.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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It is hard to find a worse reaction to a British Budget than the one accorded Kwasi Kwarteng's "special fiscal operation". Neil and Jonathan talk to Howard Davies, former financial regulator and Treasury Mandarin about why it got such a huge raspberry, what Kwarteng can do now, and how his effort rates in the roll-call of past fiscal fails, including George Osborne's "omnishambles" and Denis Healey's emergency budget of 1974.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
With Howard Davies.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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How on earth did the UK end up having to fling £150bn at the energy market just to keep the lights on? Is it just because of Vladimir Putin, or does it also involve poor decisions taken far nearer to home? Neil and Jonathan talk to energy expert Nick Butler about the history of what happened, what went wrong, and how we might put it right.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
With Nick Butler.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Sponsored by Briefcase.News
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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In the final episode on Britain's 1992 currency crisis, Neil and Jonathan look at the consequences of Black Wednesday with Jonathan Portes, Sir Paul Tucker, both of whom had ringside seats in the Treasury and Bank of England respectively, and economic historian Duncan Weldon.
Presented by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins.
With Duncan Weldon and Jonathan Portes.
Produced and edited by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Additional editing by Ewan Cameron.
Sponsored by Briefcase.News
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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