Podcasts

“The era of austerity is finally coming to an end”, announced Philip Hammond in his Budget Day speech. Well it certainly seemed like it, judging by the Chancellor’s policy announcements, which included a slew of new spending commitments – all with very little detail on how any of it was to be funded. There were pledges of more than £20bn in additional annual funding for the NHS by 2023, an extra £779m for social care, £1bn for the armed forces and £675m for a ‘Future High Streets’ fund, to name but a few. But with UK debt still approaching 88%, the highest level since 1966, is it fair or just to turn on the spending taps and ask the next generation to carry the burden and eventually foot the bill. So, was this an almost-Halloween Budget full of taxation tricks and unfunded treats? Joining us to give their take on yesterday’s Budget, policy changes and spending commitments is Mark Littlewood, Director General at the IEA and Kate Andrews, Associate Director at the IEA.

Analysing the 2018 Budget are Professor Tim Evans, Professor of Business and Political Economy at Middlesex Business School and financial journalist and broadcaster Ed Bowsher. In conversation with Simon Rose they discuss what they feel was a heavily political Budget. What did he get right and what wrong? Is this the end of austerity? Should the Chancellor have kept back more of his unexpected windfall? How can the extra money for the NHS be most wisely spent? Will his "digital services tax" redress the balance between online and bricks and mortar retailers? Should more have been done for the environment? Should Philip Hammond give up joke-telling? All this and more in our expert analysis.

Listen here Philip Hammond's Budget speech.

Want to keep up with the latest earnings updates from the States? Well join Chris Hill and the Motley Fool Radio Show team here on Share Radio, direct from Washington DC, for news, views and analysis of the US stocks that matter. In this week's show, we revisit two of our favourite interviews: award-winning financial columnist Morgan Housel talks about the psychology of money, long tails, and investor misconceptions, and Chris Hill discusses the business of popularity with ‘Atlantic’ with Senior Editor Derek Thompson, author of ‘Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction’.

This week on Live from Lord North Street, the IEA’s Digital Manager Darren Grimes sat down with the Director of FREER, Rebecca Lowe and the IEA's Editorial Manager Madeline Grant. Are millennials giving top marks to Marx - or could they be more libertarian than we think? Rebecca and Madeline put the stereotype of the millennial Marxist under the spotlight and examine where things might not be so clear cut. Finally, they look at ways free markets can craft a positive case for capitalism.

As stock market turmoil spreads across the globe, the advice is to keep calm and carry on, folks. In the latest This is Money podcast, editor Simon Lambert and host Georgie Frost discuss what's causing it, how long will it go on for and how concerned we should be. Because we're a positive bunch, we also reveal the shares that have rocketed over the last five years, some by more than 1,000 per cent. Also, we answer a reader query about state pensions - can couples inherit it from each other and how much might they get? Elsewhere, we take a look at the best way to clear your buy-to-let loan and discover how to bag a property bargain.

Siddharth Shankar says he has unashamedly exploited the potential opportunities from Brexit by founding Tail’s Trading, a company opening up British SMEs to a mammoth Asian market. He realised, not far in to an engineering degree, that he’d rather work in finance and says he made the decision to ‘jump in’ (a method he heartily recommends!). He loves jazz music, reflected here in some of his musical choices, and cites Warren Buffett as a great business role model.

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, is reportedly obsessed with the issue of productivity; whilst most of the electorate remain baffled. We talk to Vicky Pryce, Chief Economic Adviser and board member at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), who draws on her experience of being ‘responsible’ for productivity targets under the last Labour Government. Numerous explanations have been put forward for the UK’s poor productivity performance since 2008. Recent research suggests we have a particularly long tail of poorly performing companies in the UK, who fail to adopt innovations of the leading 1%. We consider this diagnosis next to many others, and speculate on what a newly formulated Industrial Strategy might do to help.

Adam talks to Asesh Sarkar, CEO of Salary Finance a fin-tech company that helps employees access tools to improve their financial health. They discuss research that shows that money doesn’t mean happiness as more people earning over £100k were more stressed than those earning less. They explore ways to improve financial and mental well-being that don’t necessarily mean simply earning more.

Graham Spooner, investment research analyst at The Share Centre looks back at numbers from Barclays and Lloyds as well as Debenhams and WPP. He looks ahead to forthcoming results from HSBC and Standard Chartered, together with BP and BT.