245 | Europe Blows Up

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How does a judgement of the German constitutional court threaten to explode the European project?  David talk to Helen Thompson, Adam Tooze and Shahin Vallee about what the court's decision might mean for
the Euro, for the response to the pandemic, for Franco-German relations and for the future of central banks.  Can the great European fudge continue?  And what happens if it can't?

Plus a bonus chat with Ed Miliband and Geoff Lloyd from the ‘Reasons to be Cheerful Podcast’ https://www.cheerfulpodcast.com/

186 | Adam Tooze on the Global Slowdown

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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.

117 | Moneyland

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We talk to Oliver Bullough about his acclaimed new book Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take it Back.  Where is Moneyland?  How did London become its capital?  And will Brexit, or a Corbyn government, or another financial crash change how it operates?  A conversation about tax havens, money-laundering, the politics of corruption and the corruption of politics.  With Jason Sharman, author of The Despot's Guide to Wealth Management, and Helen Thompson.

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113 | Crashed

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Helen and David talk to historian Adam Tooze about his epic new book Crashed: How A Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World. Why did the crash of 2008 take so many people by surprise? How did it spread from the US around the world? Why was Europe so vulnerable? And how do the answers to these questions help explain Brexit, Trump and what's now going on in places from Hungary to China? Plus, as we approach the 10-year anniversary of the event the triggered the crisis, we explore what might have happened if Lehman Brothers had been saved.

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32 | John Lanchester

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David and Helen talk to novelist and LRB essayist John Lanchester about banks, money and power.  Why have so few bankers gone to jail since the financial crisis?  Can the Euro survive?  Should we be more frightened of unaccountable power in Wall Street or in Silicon Valley?  Plus John updates us on how he's getting on with his Amazon Echo: it's scarier than you think.  In collaboration with the London Review of Books.