Business Daily

Latest Episodes:

Money management for millennials Jul 01, 2019

Show notes

The financial literacy gap. Manuela Saragosa talks to US podcaster and writer Gaby Dunn about why millennials like her are so bad with money. Regan Morris hears the stories of young coffee shop workers in Los Angeles, and psychologist Martina Raue explains why having role models can help when it comes to saving money.

(Photo: A smashed piggy bank, Credit: Getty Images)

Making money out of music festivals Jun 28, 2019

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It's not as easy as it looks. Dominic O'Connell reports from the biggest festival in the world Glastonbury, which kicks off this weekend. Manuela Saragosa hears from music industry analyst Chris Cooke on the growth in the industry over the last decade, and from Paul Reed, CEO of the UK's Association of Independent Festivals, about the challenges of putting on your own event.

(Photo: Glastonbury Festival in 2017, Credit: Getty Images)

Shutting down the internet Jun 27, 2019

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Governments in Africa and elsewhere are routinely shutting off the iInternet in the name of national security. It is having a significant economic impact. Ed Butler speaks to Dr Dawit Bekele, bureau director for Africa at the Internet Society, and Berhan Taye, an Ethiopian campaigner at Access Now, a global digital rights group. Otto Akama, editor of a technology blog in Cameroon called Afro Hustler, and Darrell West, director of the Center for Technology and Innovation at the Brookings Institution, discuss the effect these shutdowns have on business and the economy.

(Photo: A demonstration by Zimbabwean citizens in Pretoria earlier this year. Credit: Getty Images)

Protecting kids from porn Jun 26, 2019

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The UK plans to introduce compulsory age verification for anyone in the country to access online porn - but is this a good way of restricting children's access, or a serious threat to privacy?

Ed Butler speaks to Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group, who fears that the move could have terrible unforeseen consequences if it enabled for example a major leak of data about people's identities and porn habits. Systems of blocking access to children do already exist, as Alastair Graham, co-chair of the Age Verification Providers Association, explains.

But ultimately is relying on technology to stop children stumbling across graphic hardcore images enough? Claire Levens of advocacy group Internet Matters, who welcomes the move, says parents also need to be willing to open up a dialogue with their own children.

(Picture: Young boy looking at phone screen; Credit: Clark and Company/Getty Images)

Get a job? Jun 25, 2019

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Is unemployment in the developed world so low because people have simply given up on finding work? Ed Butler speaks to economist Danny Blanchflower of Dartmouth College, who says that a decade after the global financial crisis, workers in the US and Europe continue tp face a terrible jobs market that is not reflected in the official statistics.

Is the problem that all the well paid jobs are being created in a few rich, expensive cities that are simply inaccessible to the underemployed? That's the contention of Enrico Moretti, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. And according to Christina Stacy of the Urban Institute in Washington DC, even within these cities, service sector workers are finding themselves priced out of the property markets where the job opportunities exist.

(Photo: A homeless man sleeping on a sidewalk in San Francisco, California. Credit: Robert Alexander/Getty Images)

Life in an unrecognised state Jun 24, 2019

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How do you do business with the rest of the world when nobody officially accepts that your nation state even exists? Rob Young looks at the struggles facing unrecognised breakaway states such as Abkhazia, Transnistria and Nagorno Karabakh.

Thomas de Waal of think tank Carnegie Europe explains how many of them have turned to smuggling and even Bitcoin mining as a way of making ends meet. Meanwhile the BBC's Ivana Davidovic reports from Nicosia in Cyprus where the city's main thoroughfare is still physically divided between the prosperous Greek south and the unrecognised Turkish north.

Plus how can these nations compete international football? Sascha Duerkop has the answer. He is general secretary of Conifa, the international football league for teams that Fifa refuses to recognise.

(Picture: Children wave the North Cypriot flag; Credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images)

The Facebook currency Jun 21, 2019

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Why Facebook's Libra project will attract the attention of regulators. Rob Young hears from the BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones about why Facebook is launching its own currency. Charles Cascarilla, founder of the digital currency company Paxos explains why the Libra project is so ambitious. Rebecca Harding, chief executive of the data and analytics group Coriolis Trade Technologies and former chief economist at the British Bankers’ Association, explains why regulators will be paying attention.

(Photo: Illustration of Facebook and digital currency, Credit: Getty Images)

The next agricultural revolution Jun 19, 2019

Show notes

We need to transform the way we grow food if we are to head off disaster - so say leading agronomists. But can it be done?

The modern agricultural industry, borne out of the Green Revolution that has multiplied crop yields since the 1960s, has contributed to multiple new crises - obesity, soil degradation, collapsing biodiversity and climate change. To address this "paradox of productivity" a whole new revolution is needed, according to Professor Tim Benton of the University of Leeds and think tank Chatham House.

The BBC's Justin Rowlatt travels to the world's longest running scientific experiment, a collection of wheat fields dating back to the 1840s at the Rothamsted agricultural research centre just outside London, to ask resident scientist John Crawford whether our past success in staving off global hunger can be sustained in the coming decades.

Plus what role should the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation play, especially as that body prepares to appoint new leadership? Justin speaks to the former UN Rapporteur for the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Picture: The Broadbalk research wheat fields at Rothamsted; Credit: BBC)

Istanbul's vexed elections Jun 19, 2019

Show notes

The Turkish commercial capital must vote again for a new mayor after March's election result was overturned by the government.

Ed Butler visits the city and meets Ekrem Imamoglu, who narrowly won in March but spent just 17 days in office before the decision was made to re-run the election. Mr Imamoglu says he saw overspending and waste, and that around 10% of the city's budget could be saved.

The country is also experiencing an economic slowdown, and Ed speaks to Deniz Gider of the Turkish construction workers' union, about how it's affecting his members. Plus economist and political scientist Atilla Yesilada explains how Turkey finds itself in this current economic crisis.

(Picture: Supporters of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu protest against the re-run of the mayoral election in Istanbul; Credit: Yasin Akgul/AFP/Getty Images)

Hostile environment for immigrants Jun 17, 2019

Show notes

The attitude towards immigration in Europe and America is hardening under a wave of populist politics, and businesses are finding that despite labour shortages in many sectors, bringing workers in from abroad is becoming harder.

The BBC's Frey Lindsay reports from Stockholm on a phenomenon dubbed "talent expulsions" - highly skilled workers being ordered to leave the country because their paperwork is not perfectly in order.

A similarly bureaucratic approach has been taken in the UK, where it is dubbed the "hostile environment" for immigrants. Since the 2016 Brexit referendum some three million EU citizens suddenly find themselves subject to it. Dutch campaigner Monique Hawkins tells how she was told to leave the UK despite having lived there more than three decades. Meanwhile Danny Brooks of international recruitment firm Virtual Human Resources says UK businesses are already finding it much tougher to attract the talented employees they need.

We also get the view from Singapore. About half the city-state's residents are immigrants, after several decades of a successful pro-business immigration policy. We ask former diplomat Kishore Mahbubani what is the secret of his country's success.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Picture: "Denied" rubber stamp; Credit: bankrx/Getty Images)