273 | Thomas Piketty: Three Years On

We revisit our interview with the economist Thomas Piketty recorded the week Emmanuel Macron won the French presidency and David and Helen ask what we have learned since.  Where does Macron fit on the
left/right political spectrum?  What has his cult of personality done to French politics?  And are we anywhere nearer knowing how to tackle the problem of inequality?  The last in our series of updates from the Talking Politics archive.

239 | Adam Tooze/Shockwave

David and Helen talk to Adam Tooze about what we know about the crisis that we didn't know a month ago, and what we still don't have much of a clue about. From fights inside the French government to the fate of the planet, from shale gas to corona bonds, we try to join up the dots. Plus a small update, recorded after news of the oil price-drop… | Read 'Shockwave' by Adam Tooze in the LRB 

227 | Adam Tooze on the Crisis

We talk to Adam Tooze in New York about the possible impact of coronavirus on the global financial and political system.  How does this crisis compare to the financial crisis of 2008?  What are the implications for the future of the Eurozone?  And what have we learned already about the shift in power from the US to China?  Plus we talk to Helen Thompson in London about how it intersects with the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.  The first of a series of conversations about the biggest event of our times. Updated overnight

193 | Cameron's Referendum

David and Helen take a step back to unpick the tortuous history of how we got to the Brexit referendum in the first place. Does the justification Cameron offers in his new memoirs stack up? What was he trying to achieve? And why did we end up with an in/out vote when the political risks were so great? A conversation linked to David's review of Cameron's book in the current 40th anniversary issue of the LRB. https://www.lrb.co.uk

186 | Adam Tooze on the Global Slowdown

Helen Thompson and Adam Tooze take us beyond Brexit to look at the global situation and the bigger threats we face. Italy, Germany, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Russia, Trump vs. the Fed, the US vs. China, Hong Kong, the dollar, the euro, climate change, oil: an amazingly wide-ranging conversation that somehow manages to connect it all up.