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Monitoring in the post lockdown office May 20, 2020

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How much should employers know about their workers as people head back to the office? Companies have a duty of care to make sure their workers are safe, but how much monitoring is reasonable? Is this the end of privacy at work? Manuela Saragosa hears from Dutch privacy and employment lawyer Philip Nabben, as well as Sam Naficy the CEO of Prodoscore which makes software that monitors employee productivity, and Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, professor of business psychology at University College London.

(Image: A security guard checks the temperature of an employee inside an office building in Shanghai. Credit: Getty Images).

Should we keep paying workers to stay at home? May 19, 2020

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Governments are spending billions paying wages to workers who are no longer able to work due to the coronavirus pandemic. How long can we keep this up? Are we storing up problems by offering this type of unprecedented state-sponsored handout long-term?

We hear from an employee in the tourism industry who has been furloughed, a hotel owner in the North of England who has had to furlough most of his staff, as well as Torsten Bell from the Resolution Foundation think tank who originally proposed the scheme in the UK before it was adopted, and Eamonn Butler from the free-market think tank the Adam Smith Institute who argues that the system is open to abuse.

(Image: stock photo of a woman reading in the park. Credit: Getty Images.).

Venezuela: 'The world's weakest economy?' May 18, 2020

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A third of Venezuela's population is at risk of malnutrition, according to the UN and the latest gasoline crisis could weaken the country's economy further. Entire villages are said to have been cut off from food supplies because trucks can't get fuel to deliver to them. That’s the context a crisis which has made Venezuela the world’s weakest emerging economy, according to a recent review by the Economist magazine. Earlier this month the situation became even more volatile when two Americans were caught apparently trying to launch a coup attempt against the government. We hear from Adam Tooze, a professor of history at Columbia University and we get the views of Venezuelan opposition politician Manuela Bolivar. (Picture of a woman wearing a face mask walking next to graffiti reading Don't be a slave of the dollar in Caracas, photo by Federico Parra via Getty Images).

Business Weekly: 16/05/2020 May 16, 2020

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How do you feed a world in lockdown? We’ll be looking at the pressures on the global food supply chain in this episode of Business Weekly. As many choose to buy more locally produced food we’ll ask whether new habits will stick. Two renowned economists tell us that any governments handing out Coronavirus bailouts must learn the lessons from the financial crisis of 2008 and impose tighter conditions. ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus speaks to us about life in Sweden during the pandemic and gives us his thoughts on fellow countrywoman Greta Thunberg. Plus - has the coronavirus forever changed the workplace as we know it? Lucy Burton presents.

Coal vs coronavirus May 15, 2020

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Coal has suffered the brunt of the huge slump in electricity demand as the world has gone into lockdown. It has highlighted the fossil fuel's Achilles Heel: When there is too much supply on the grid, it's coal-fired power stations that get switched off, not solar or wind.

Justin Rowlatt speaks to the head of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol, as well as analysts covering the two countries most central to coal's future. Delhi-based Sunil Dahiya says that India is already reckoning with renewable energy that is cheaper 24/7 than the cost of operating its existing coal fleet. Meanwhile Shirley Zhang of energy analysts Wood Mackenzie says that China's plans to build new coal-fired power stations is already baked in.

Plus, Business Daily's favourite chemistry professor, Andrea Sella of University College London, explains why coal played such a central role in getting the Industrial Revolution started, with the help of an uncooperative steam engine.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Picture: Cooling towers at the decommisioned Willington Power Station in northern England; Credit: Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)

Billionaires and the Pandemic May 14, 2020

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Some of the world’s richest people have been digging deep during the pandemic, donating their own money to help fight Covid-19. With some of the wealthiest 1% already funding medical research, we ask how comfortable we should be with billionaires taking on an even bigger role in public health. Vivienne Nunis speaks to David Callahan, editor of the website Inside Philanthropy and Rob Reich, Professor of Political Science and co-director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at Stanford University. Chris Anderson, the head of the ideas-sharing platform, TED, tells us philanthropy needs a shake-up. And, neuroscientist Dr. Christof Koch explains what it’s like to work at a medical research institute funded by private money. (Picture: a charity savings jar. Credit: Getty)

Feeding a world in lockdown May 14, 2020

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Lockdowns and the coronavirus pandemic have disrupted global food supply chains and limited the range of products on supermarket shelves in the rich world. Could new buying habits stick even after lockdowns end? Will less choice and seasonal produce become the 'new normal'? Manuela Saragosa talks to Guy Singh Watson of Riverford Organic Farmers in the UK, who welcomes the change in what's on offer, and Abdoul Wahab Barry of the International Fund for Agricultural Development in Cote D'Ivoire, who tells us what the disruption means for farmers in West Africa. And Professor Richard Wilding from Cranfield School of Management, a logistics and supply chain expert, gives us his take on what supply chains will look like in the future. (Image: Nearly empty pasta shelves in supermarket; Credit: Press Association)

How to build a bailout May 11, 2020

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Coronavirus is prompting the biggest government bailout effort of all time. Billions of dollars are being spent rescuing companies hit by the economic damage caused by the pandemic, but there are already criticisms that money is not going where it is most needed. In the US small and medium sized firms have been refused bailout loans, while larger firms have been borrowing millions; Ed Butler mulls the inequities in the system with Amanda Fischer of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and Amanda Ballantyne of the Main Street Alliance. Eric de Montgolfier, Chief Executive of Invest Europe, an umbrella body representing private equity firms argues that all companies should be treated the same and Carys Roberts at the UK’s Institute of Public Policy Research suggests that certain criteria should be adopted by governments when they step in and that businesses themselves need to be responsible. (Image: UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, Credit: AFP Getty)

Business Weekly: 09/05/2020 May 09, 2020

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On Business Weekly we hear from New York chef Gabrielle Hamilton who’s lost her life's work to the pandemic and is worrying about her future and that of her staff. What help are governments giving to small businesses like hers? As New Zealand announces that it has no new cases of Covid-19 we find out how businesses are adapting to a new way of working as the country begins to lift lockdown restrictions. Advertising mogul Sir Martin Sorrell tells us about the effect the pandemic is having on his industry - and we’ll hear from the editor of a newspaper who tells us how he’s coping with a fall in advertising revenue.Plus, as parents struggle with working from home and looking after children, we find out what life is like for single parents at the moment.Presented by Lucy Burton.

Markets and the economy: Two staggering drunks May 08, 2020

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Why are stock markets so buoyant as the global economy slides into a possible coronavirus-induced depression? Some 33 million Americans have lost their jobs in the past two months of the pandemic, yet the Nasdaq market is now higher than it was at the start of the year.

The financial markets and the economy have been described as two staggering drunks tied together by a rope. Manuela Saragosa explores this odd analogy and how it applies to the current disconnect between share prices and jobless claims, with the help of Jane Foley, financial strategist at Rabobank.

Meanwhile emerging markets are experiencing unprecedented financial outflows that risk undermining their ability to limit the damage Covid-19 does to their economies, according to Martin Castellano of the Institute of International Finance. Yet in the US, the Federal Reserve had no problem staving off financial calamity by promising to do whatever it takes, says Fed economist Julian Kozlowski.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Photo: Drunken couple. Credit: Getty Images)

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