Podcasts

One way of gauging optimism in the state of the economy is to look at the amount of office space under construction. The level of office construction in central London is currently at its highest level in 8 years, with 14.8 million square feet of new office space currently being built. However, there are signs that rate of new developments is starting to slow. Simon was joined by Shaun Dawson, research manager at Deloitte Real Estate and author of the London Crane Survey.

The inflation rate fell unexpectedly last month. The Consumer Prices Index dropped to 0.9% in October, down from 1% in September. The falling price of clothing and university tuition fees has held the inflation rate back this month, as the fall in the value of the pound has so far not fed through to consumers. Simon spoke to Pete Comely, our resident inflation expert and author of Inflation Matters.

This is Emerging Opportunities, the only show on radio dedicated to global emerging markets. Your hosts are Share Radio's Juliette Foster and Gavin Serkin, the Managing Editor of the Frontier Funds Consultancy and author of 'Frontier: Exploring the Top Ten Emerging Markets of Tomorrow'. Well, as the world absorbs the magnitude of change about to be unleashed by American President-elect Donald Trump, one constituency feeling particularly nervous is the green energy lobby. Trump has dismissed evidence of mankind's impact on climate change as a "hoax" and President Obama's Clean Power Plan to cut plant emissions as a "war on coal." He's also vowed to "cancel" last year's Paris climate accord - an agreement by 190 countries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions - and says he'll dismantle the Environment Protection Agency. One company whose world Trump has changed in the space of a week is JCM Power. Juliette and Gavin were joined all the way from Toronto by the company's co-Founder and Chief Executive, Christian Wray.

Next month, the people of Ghana will vote in presidential and parliamentary elections against a backdrop of rising inflation and economic uncertainty. President John Dramani Mahama - who took power in 2012 - is looking to win a second term, though if he succeeds he'll face a series of uphill challenges. Second quarter GDP fell to 2.5% after a first quarter surge of 4.8%, while 30% of government revenue is paying off external debts, which according to anti-poverty groups is worsening Ghana's already fragile situation. Share Radio's Juliette Foster was joined in the studio by Tim Jones, Senior Policy and Campaigns Officer for the Jubilee Debt Campaign, and Professor John Weeks, Share Radio's regular economics commentator.

Responding to accusations that fake news posted on Facebook helped Donald trump win the election, both Facebook and Google have announced steps to prevent fake-news websites from generating revenue through their ad-selling services. To find out more about this, Matt Cox spoke to media commentator Ray Snoddy.

When it became apparent six days ago that Donald trump was to become president elect, we were preparing for another day of post-EU referendum volatility. There was movement but it was muted, as traders responded to the statesmanlike tone of Trump’s victory speech. So what was the take from a traders perspective? Randy Frederick, MD of Trading and Derivatives at Charles Schwab, joined Share Radio Breakfast to offer an insight.

How can investors keep up with the extraordinary pace of change in the past six days? Since US voters went to the polls on Tuesday, some investors have sold up and piled into safe havens like gold, only to see the financial markets do an unexpected about-face. With impeccable timing, the Open University Business School is staging its annual conference with the theme of "investor behaviour", and its Research Professor, Janette Rutterford, spoke to Share Radio's Nigel Cassidy about recent investor behaviour, and what it tells us about our understanding of finance.

As Donald Trump prepares to assemble his economic team, markets are rallying in expectation of a new period of fiscal stimulus. However, with Republicans in Congress set on strict deficit reduction targets, Mr Trump may be unlikely to achieve his policy pledges, including $1trn worth of spending on infrastructure. Robert Van Egghen has been speaking to Jim O'Sullivan, Chief US Economist at High Frequency Economics, who explained why the Republican party could stop Mr Trump from fulfilling his spending promises.

Gadgets and Gizmos with Share Radio's technology editor Steve Caplin.

Simon Rose was joined by John Phelan chief economist at Agrimoney to discuss Trump and Hilary’s economic policies. Trump seems to view trade as a zero sum game, a fight with winners and losers. He talks of the all the money the US supposedly 'loses' to China or wherever. What he fails to mention is the goods and services China 'loses' to the US in return for these bits of paper. Hilary thinks all government spending is investment and believes in myths like the minimum wage and the gender pay gap.