Podcasts

Ever heard of money flipping? It’s a new scheme doing the rounds on Facebook and social media that promises to turn your £50 into potentially thousands. So how do you do that? Simple really, you pay others to get onto the bottom rung of a pyramid and then recruit more people to move you up a level and get paid yourself. What makes it so dumb is that it doesn’t even try to have the legitimate veneer of famous pyramid schemes of the past. It’s a Ponzi scheme, plain and simple, but what is one of those and who was Charles Ponzi, the man the scams are named after. On this week’s podcast, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost step back to America in 1920 to find out how Ponzi soared and then crashed – and look at the new money flipping scheme that has brought a trick as old as time to today’s digital age.

In this episode of Policy Matters, hosts Franz Buscha and Matt Dickson are joined by Dr Lindsey Macmillan from University College London to discuss the role of education in social mobility. Issues relating to education are never far from the policy agenda or the headlines – whether it is early years education, university tuition fees or the possible return of grammar schools. But what does academic research tell us about the role of education at each age and stage in improving life-chances of children from poorer backgrounds, and what does this mean for policy? Franz and Matt discuss these issues with Lindsey; and also consider the limits as to what education policy can achieve, given the way that the UK labour market – and wider society – is structured.

Adam talks to author Dean Williams about the inspiration and insight behind his first book, The Path to Financial Peace. Dean discusses why it’s not how much you earn that’s important, but rather how much of what you earn is kept and invested. He talks about the importance of a financial review and the power of compounding, why the lack of financial education in schools is detrimental to our attitude towards finance as adults, and how education and mindset is crucial to finding your own pathway to wealth. Find out more at www.exclusivevisions.co.uk.

Professor Tim Evans looks at Italy's new government and considers whether its policies might pose a bigger problem for the EU than Brexit, at the Swiss Vollgeld referendum which, aiming at ending fractional reserve banking, is making Central Bankers nervous and at the Orwellian nightmare facing a persecuted minority in China.

James Cameron-Wilson reviews Deadpool 2 in the context of a box office depressed by great weather, the Royal Wedding, football and other distractions. He also reviews the Blu-Ray release of the 1960 movie Inherit the Wind, with Spencer Tracy and Frederic March and the home release of the Chilean Oscar-winner, A Fantastic Woman, both of which he strongly recommends.

Graham Spooner of The Share Centre looks at the recent results from Marks & Spencer, asking if they could have done anything differently with hindsight. He also examines the closure of Tesco's non-food website Tesco Direct and figures from Kingfisher as well as setting into context in the light of the record highs for the stock market and the firmness of the oil price.

Steve Caplin turns his attention to the Google virtual assistant that can book restaurants, the device to "magnetise rice", 3D helmets for the Swiss Guard, Uber and NASA's flying taxis, chatting with life-size holograms and the Boggle-solving app.

High house prices mean that the biggest barrier to buying a home in Britain is raising a deposit. With mortgage interest rates at near record low levels, many would-be homeowners could afford monthly payments - but saving the average £30,000 deposit would take years. For a lot of first-time buyers that means a trip to the Bank of Mum and Dad, but what if that's not an option? It is possible to buy a home without raising tens of thousands of pounds, if you take a 95% mortgage. With one of these deals, a first-time buyer able to pass mortgage affordability tests could put down a 5% deposit of £10,000 and buy a £200,000 home. But is that a good idea? Didn't small deposit mortgages crash the economy a decade ago? Are they not leaving themselves heavily overexposed to falling house prices? In this week's podcast, Simon Lambert and Georgie Frost dig into the world of buying a home with a small deposit mortgage, busting the myths and considering the benefits and the risks.

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: Macy’s surprises; Walmart slips; Home Depot sells off; PayPal makes a big buy; And Campbell’s Soup gets a shakeup; Our analysts discuss those stories and dish out some marital advice for the royal wedding.

It’s pretty easy to find investments that can pay you a chunky 5% or 6% yield. The challenge is to find investments where the dividend is sustainable and won’t be cut. Ed Bowsher heads to the “Big Call: Dividend Debate” conference and finds out several tips on how to do this by speaking to: Edward Lam of Somerset Capital Management, Mark Baker of Link Asset Services, Chanchal Samadder of Lyxor and David Stevenson of ETFstream.