Podcasts

Lack of sleep is costing the UK economy billions of pounds and sleep-deprivation is putting us at risk of an early death. Research firm Rand Europe found the effect on sleep deprivation on productivity and health was losing the UK up to £40 billion each year - nearly 2% of the country's GDP. Sleeping for just one extra hour a night could add £24 billion to the UK economy. Olivia Demetriades spoke to Marco Hafner, a research leader at RAND Europe. She began by asking why a lack of sleep costs so much.

Research reveals that parents feel out of touch with the world of work and are struggling to offer career advice to their children. According to the study comissioned by Page Group because of the speed of change in the workplace parents feel disconnected and are unable to guide their children when they make career decisions. To find out more about this Greg Watt spoke to Dr Deirdre Hughes OBE - Head of Institute of Employment Research at University of Warwick & Nick Kirk of the Page Group He started by asking Nick about the findings of the research.

The British Chambers of Commerce has increased its economic forecast for both this year and next, but downgraded its outlook for 2018. The business body expects GDP to grow by 2.1% this year, up from the 1.8% it forecast just three months ago. However, it reported that uncertainty over our relationship with the EU, and higher inflation, will affect medium term growth. Suren Thiru, head of economics at the BCC spoke to Glen Goodman to talk about their Quarterly Economic Survey in more detail.

After several years of falling food prices, this trend finally looks set to reverse, with food and drink prices expected to increase over the next 12 months. Prestige Purchasing have just released their 2016 Food & Drink Inflation Report- to find out more Glen Goodman spoke to David Read, the CEO and founder of Prestige Purchasing.

When you hear about companies, you often hear about profit. But, sadly, the conventional measures of profit don't often tell us the full story about how a company is doing. To clear things up, Share Radio's Ed Bowsher spoke to Phil Oakley, Investment Analyst at SharePad

Historically, December has been the second strongest month of the year on average for stocks, a phenomenon known as the Santa Claus rally. Glen was joined by Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at CMC Markets.

Crowdfunders is our weekly look at what's hot and what's not in the crowdfunding and peer-to-peer space, examining the latest news and developments in the fast growing world of alternative finance. Your host is Ed Bowsher, and on today's show he'll be taking a look at why the FCA wants to tighten crowdfunding regulations, investigating a peer-to-peer platform with high street branches, as well as getting the scoop on the launch of a new crowd match fund: Big Society Capital.

Oil prices have surged after non OPEC members agreed with their OPEC counterparts to cut production by 558,000 barrels per day, from January 1. This follows an historic meeting of OPEC members who are also cutting 1.2m barrels per day in an attempt to cut the worldwide glut in oil and drive prices higher. For more on this, Share Radio's Ed Bowsher was joined by Roland Head, Oil expert from thefiringroom.com

Oxfam has published a 'World's Worst' list of tax havens today, highlighting 15 of worst offenders in the world of corporate tax havens. Indeed,the charity highlights the how poor countries may be even poorer thanks to tax havens dotted around the world To find out more, Share Radio's Ed Bowsher was joined on the line now by Oxfam's Tax Policy Manager Oliver Pearce.

Storyteller and financial journalist Chris Bishop speaks to Share Radio's Alex Clark, taking you across the continent of Africa for the major stories of the week. On today's programme: Chris and Alex reflect on Nanagate - a scandal that brought down a South African finance minister within days. They also tackle Ghana's recent election, as well as an African billionaire who's feeling the effects of Brexit.