Behind the Money

Inside the fight to stop an oil pipeline in Africa

14 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Construction of a massive oil pipeline in east Africa is underway. For the governments of the countries it will run through, it promises new economic ...

Introducing Tech Tonic, Season 4: A sceptic’s guide to crypto

08 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tech Tonic is back with a new season all about crypto!We wanted to share with you the second episode of the latest season of Tech Tonic. FT columnist ...

Blockchain seeks a role in fighting climate change

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Buying carbon credits is a way for companies to show they’re serious about fighting climate change. But keeping track of these credits is tricky. No...

Is Goldman Sachs too big to change?

31 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Early in his tenure the new Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon presented a grand new vision for what the massive bank should become. How has it panned ou...

Afghanistan one year later

24 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The FT’s south Asia correspondent Ben Parkin explains how Afghanistan’s economy has changed in the year since US forces left the country and the T...

Why central banks are baffling investors

17 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Federal Reserve has spent more than a decade buying up government debt as part of a post-2008 program to support the economy, also known as quanti...

Why VC funding is drying up

10 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Venture capital fundraising hit a record-high last year. There were more deals, and more money poured into startups last year than at any other time i...

The rise of the ‘F@$K It’ investor

03 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since the 2008 financial crisis, it’s become more and more difficult for Americans to chart a path toward financial security. Things like buying a h...

Is Sri Lanka’s economic crisis a canary in the coal mine?

27 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sri Lanka is facing dire fuel and food shortages amid ongoing economic and political crises. In this week’s episode, the FT’s Antoni Slodkowski sh...

Are big corporate profits to blame for inflation?

20 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Greedflation. Price gouging. Pandemic profiteering. What happens when turning a profit is considered a bad thing? In this week’s episode, the FT’s...

Why companies could soon pay for climate change

13 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A few years ago a Peruvian farmer filed a lawsuit against a German utility company thousands of miles away. The reason? A glacier is melting near his ...

How Spacs went splat

06 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Spacs, or special purpose acquisition companies, were all the rage at the start of the pandemic. These shell companies raise cash by listing on the st...

How tea plantations are testing private equity

29 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Late last year Unilever reached a $5 billion deal to sell part of its tea business, including brands like Lipton and PG Tips, to private equity giant ...

Introducing: Hot Money

28 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Financial Times reporter Patricia Nilsson started digging into the porn industry, she made a shocking discovery: nobody knew who controlled the b...

The Fed’s big swing at inflation

22 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Federal Reserve announced its largest interest rate increase since 1994. And it's the equivalent of the US central bank taking a baseball bat to t...

Inside Johnson & Johnson’s bankruptcy two-step

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Johnson & Johnson, one of the world’s largest healthcare companies, is facing thousands of lawsuits from people alleging they got cancer from us...

Blowing the whistle on ESG

08 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Last week authorities raided the offices of Germany’s top asset manager DWS Group and its majority owner Deutsche Bank. The raid was spurred by alle...

Tether’s path to the spotlight

01 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We’re diving back into the world of stablecoins for part 2 of 2 in our miniseries on crypto. This time, it’s a story filled with troubled companie...

A crypto vibe shift?

25 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Behind the Money is back! Our first episode is part 1 of 2 in a miniseries on crypto. First up, we're wondering: is a crypto vibe shift underway? Bitc...

We're back!

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Behind the Money is back with all-new episodes! From hostile takeovers to C-suite intrigue, Behind the Money takes you inside the business and financi...

Introducing Tech Tonic: The US/China Tech Race

13 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A new six-part series of Tech Tonic brings you stories from the frontlines of the battle between the US and China for global technological supremacy. ...

5 - Inside ESG: A sceptic vs a believer, our experts face off

03 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The amount of money flowing into investment funds that claim to invest in sustainable businesses has surged in recent years. More companies than ever ...

Introducing Working It: Can wellness apps fix us and beat staff burnout?

30 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This is the podcast about doing work differently. Join host Isabel Berwick every Wednesday for expert analysis and watercooler chat about ahead-o...

4 - Inside ESG: Sustainable finance and the threat to divest

20 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

If you want your investments to match your principles should a threat to divest be part of your long-term strategy? In the fourth episode of our ...

4 - Inside ESG: Sustainable finance and the threat to divest

20 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

If you want your investments to match your principles should a threat to divest be part of your long-term strategy? In the fourth episode of our ...

3 - Inside ESG: The tiny fund that took on a US giant and won

06 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The story of how a tiny, unknown hedge fund took on a giant of corporate America over climate change - and won. Charlie Penner of Engine No 1 talks ab...

2 - Inside ESG: Can businesses really marry profit and purpose?

23 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Milton Friedman, the renowned American economist and spiritual mentor of many entrepreneurs, argued that the social responsibility of business was to ...

1 - Inside ESG: Is the $1.7tn wave of sustainable investing hope or hype?

23 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When Tariq Fancy joined BlackRock as its first chief investment officer for sustainable investing in 2018, he was convinced that with companies around...

Trailer: Inside ESG

22 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Behind the Money presents a special 5-part series produced in partnership with the FT’s Moral Money team that goes inside the colossal sums flowing ...

Introducing Tech Tonic: You Can’t Always Get What you Quant

19 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Introducing the FT Tech Tonic podcast. You can subscribe and listen to the rest of the series here.From picking the best stocks to listening in on ear...

Financial services after Brexit

09 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The City of London is home to some of the world’s biggest banks and busiest exchanges but the UK is just weeks away from leaving the EU single marke...

Moderna’s race to the vaccine

02 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Boston-based biotech eschewed a traditional approach to vaccine development, instead pitching its use of mRNA technology to investors. That pitch ...

Reckoning with a colonial past

26 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As protests following the killing of George Floyd in the US reverberated around the world this summer, Belgium, like many other countries, experienced...

The unravelling of the Ant IPO

18 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The IPO of Jack Ma's Ant Group would have been the largest in history: it was expected to raise $37bn at a valuation of $316bn. But just days before t...

An economic uncoupling

11 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Tensions between Washington and Beijing are beginning to resemble a new cold war. Could the complex supply chains built up over a generation that prod...

US election programming note

04 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There is no episode of Behind the Money this week. Here is a preview of what we are working on for next week. Review Clips: C-SPAN, CNBC, Dallas ...

Direct lending rush

28 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The pandemic docked Carnival’s cruise ships and grounded Bombardier’s planes. But when the companies were in need of cash, one went to the bond ma...

Bank profits in a recession

21 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The market volatility of the past few months has been a boon for the trading divisions of many Wall Street banks, including Morgan Stanley. Laura Noon...

LVMH, Tiffany and a case of buyer’s remorse

14 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Bernard Arnault built a €210bn luxury empire through an unflinching acquisition strategy that earned him the “wolf in cashmere” moniker. Tiffany...

Mafia high finance

07 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

While reporting on the coronavirus crisis in northern Italy this year, Rome correspondent Miles Johnson discovered an equally concerning story in the ...

We're back with a new season

30 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Episodes will be released weekly starting Wednesday October 7. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wirecard: how to find a €2bn hole

14 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In September 2014, the FT’s Dan McCrum received a tip about a fast-growing German fintech group, Wirecard. Over the next co...

Rent, real estate and the commercial mortgage market in the age of coronavirus

26 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the US, commercial mortgage backed securities are a $1.2tn market, and an integral part of how banks lend to commercial property owners. But as the...

A history of police funding

13 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, it was as if a fire was ignited. His death, along with the killings of Breonna Taylor and Ahmau...

A programming note

09 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

An update on this week's episode Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The private equity bet that coronavirus cut short

26 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Last December executives at the Carlyle Group worked into the night to sign what they imagined would be one of the private equity firm’s most enduri...

When coronavirus hit America's meat industry

12 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This was supposed to be a record year for the US meat industry. But when coronavirus hit the meat-packing plants, it exposed a vulnerable link in the ...

Missing out on the US small business rescue

28 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Trump administration’s small business bailout programme has been plagued by problems from the start, with complaints that large companies crowde...

Running a small business during a global pandemic

14 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Mauren Pereira's drapery business was on track for its most financially successful year to date. That was until the coronavirus outbreak reached Virgi...

Ford, GM and the corporate dash for cash

31 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When credit markets seized up earlier in March, more than 130 companies rushed to their lenders to draw down at least $124bn of emergency credit lines...

We want to hear from you

26 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Behind the Money wants to hear from you, our listeners, about how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting your business and your work life. Email us at ...

Barclays and the legal fight over a company’s ‘controlling mind’

17 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A costly investigation into the conduct of senior UK bankers during the financial crisis has raised questions about what it means to prosecute allegat...

Shale's looming credit crunch

03 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More than 10 years on from the early days of the US shale boom, bankruptcy risks are rising across the sector. The FT's US energy editor, Derek Brower...

How Boeing plans to return the Max to the skies

18 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Nearly one year after the grounding of Boeing's 737 Max jet, more than 700 of these planes remain on the ground, with costs to the US manufa...

Season 3 coming in 2020

17 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A brand new season of Behind the Money with the Financial Times is coming in early 2020. Subscribe now so you don't miss an episode. Hosted on Acast. ...

The state of the Libra project

24 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this year, Facebook announced its digital currency project, Libra, to great fanfare. Just a few months later, the project has stalled amid pre...

The repo market

03 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A key short term lending market came under strain in September, raising concerns that the Federal Reserve's attempt to unwind post-financial crisis in...

SoftBank’s Masa Son under pressure

17 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

WeWork was long considered one of the most anticipated IPOs of 2019. For SoftBank, WeWork’s biggest outside investor, the listing would be the momen...

Corporate America's new role

05 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The purpose of the US corporation has evolved over time, from Henry Ford's mission to benefit the carmaker's employees to Milton Friedman's essay on s...

Disrupting Big Ag

20 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Investors poured $17bn into agricultural food and technology startups in 2018, fuelled by threats to the world's food supply, including climate change...

Luxury's resilient market

07 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Amid concerns about a slowdown in global economic growth, there is one industry telling a completely different story: luxury goods. Aimee goes to Pari...

Paying for the Caesars empire

24 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

About 10 years ago, two legendary private equity firms, Apollo Global Management and TPG, teamed up to carry out a leveraged buyout of one of the bigg...

Renault, Nissan and Fiat Chrysler's quest for a deal

25 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When Fiat Chrysler Automobiles withdrew its proposal for a €33bn merger with France’s Renault it reversed plans to create what could have bee...

Warren Buffett's cash dilemma

04 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past 54 years, shares in Berkshire Hathaway have outpaced the broader market. But now the conglomerate is holding onto more than $100bn in ca...

The unicorn IPO

12 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

What it means for a generation of tech companies with huge valuations to be making the shift to the public markets, and why some are doing it by ...

Encore: how €200bn of ‘dirty money’ flowed through a Danish bank

05 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

How did Denmark’s Danske Bank find itself at the centre of one of the largest money-laundering scandals the world has ever seen? The FT’s Richard ...

Encore: Huawei and the fight for 5G

26 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The arrest of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer, followed months of mounting scrutiny of the world's biggest telecoms equipment maker. Th...

The long courtship between Sprint and T-Mobile

19 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sprint and T-Mobile have a long on-again, off-again history. Together the companies serve a combined total of about 30 per cent of the US mobile marke...

Has the US bank consolidation wave begun?

12 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Two mid-sized American banks are joining forces in a $66bn merger - BB&T and Suntrust. It is the biggest US bank deal since the financial crisis, ...

Suspected £40m fraud at Patisserie Valerie

05 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Shares in the British bakery chain more than doubled from the time it listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2014 to late last year, just before it em...

The leveraged loan market

29 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

There is a corner of the credit market that has started to worry regulators - leveraged loans. How does the $1.2tn leveraged loan market work and why ...

What next for Detroit's carmakers

22 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The future is on the line again for the carmakers known as the "big three": Ford, GM and what is now Fiat Chrysler. Ten years ago the question was whe...

Pharma raises its bet on biotech

15 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the past month pharmaceutical companies have spent almost $100bn acquiring biotech companies. The FT's Sarah Neville explains why big pharma is rai...

China's Didi adds finance to the mix

08 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 2017, the Chinese ride-hailing app was the highest valued start-up in the world at $56bn. But after a difficult period in 2018 following the murder...

Huawei and the fight for 5G

18 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The arrest of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer, followed months of mounting scrutiny of the world's biggest telecoms equipment maker. Th...

IBM's next move

04 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In October, IBM announced it would acquire open source software pioneer Red Hat for $34bn. The deal resonated with Wall Street, but making the two com...

The oil sell-off explained

21 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Oil prices plunged below $63 a barrel on Tuesday after weeks of steady declines. The FT's Anjli Raval explains what is behind the souring mood among i...

Investors fear 'peak iPhone'

13 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Apple shares have taken a hit this month amid fears that demand for the iPhone has peaked. Tim Bradshaw explains what is worrying investors. &nbs...

How €200bn of ‘dirty money’ flowed through a Danish bank

30 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

How did Denmark’s Danske Bank find itself at the centre of one of the largest money laundering scandals the world has ever seen? The FT’s Richard ...

The future of dealmaking with Saudi Arabia

16 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Some of the world’s most influential financiers and executives have spent the past three years courting Saudi Arabia’s dealmaker-in...

The rise and fall of General Electric

10 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

GE is one of the greatest names in American business. It was an original member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and at its peak the industrial co...

Tune in Wednesday

08 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This week's episode of Behind The Money will be available on Wednesday morning, instead of our usual time on Tuesday. Be sure to check back Wednesday ...

Private equity's debt mountain (encore episode)

02 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Private equity has flooded the deal market in recent years, in part due to an era of cheap debt and fund managers on the hunt for ...

Tilray and the cannabis trade

25 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The Canadian company was the first cannabis producer to make an initial public offering on a US stock exchange, and, after a week of volatile trading,...

On the front lines of the crisis

18 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Nick was a regulator at the London Stock Exchange. Julia was an entrepreneur whose home was foreclosed. Ten years on from the collapse of Lehman Broth...

Purdue Pharma's 'one-two' punch

11 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The name “Sackler” adorns museums and art galleries around the world. But the family name has also become tainted by its association wit...

Following the cannabis money trail (encore episode)

04 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Medical marijuana is legal in 21 countries. In Canada, residents expect they will be able to buy cannabis from dispensaries and pharmacies across the ...

Khosrowshahi's year at the wheel

28 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

A little more than a year ago, Uber's board was in search of a new chief executive. Co-founder Travis Kalanick had resigned from the top job amid alle...

Digging into student debt

21 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The amount of outstanding student debt in the US has hit a staggering $1.4tn, and many millennials say the education-related debt they've been saddled...

Taking Tesla private

14 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

What is behind Elon Musk's plan to take the electric carmaker private, and who will provide the funding? The FT's Arash Massoudi explains the story th...

Tesla’s rough ride

07 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Elon Musk's grand vision for the electric carmaker has drawn dedicated fans and followers. But Tesla has also tested the patience of customers and inv...

Private equity's debt mountain

31 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Private equity has flooded the deal market in recent years, in part due to an era of cheap debt and fund managers on the hunt for ...

Taking a short break

03 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Behind The Money is going on a short hiatus for the next few weeks. We'll be back on Tuesday 31 July with brand new episodes. In the meantime, send us...

The $100bn SoftBank vision

26 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The man who built a $100bn fund has wooed investors with his vision for the future. But what is really behind the prowess of SoftBank's Masayoshi Son?...

Trump, trade and the markets

19 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

After a week that began with a tense G7 summit and ended with the US imposing more tariffs on Chinese goods, many expected to see a big slide in finan...

Following the cannabis money trail

12 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Medical marijuana is legal in 21 countries. In Canada, residents expect they will be able to buy cannabis from dispensaries and pharmacies across the ...

The hunt for Fox

05 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Rupert Murdoch built a global media empire across newspaper, television and film companies. Why is now the time for him to sell many of the 21st Centu...

The economic crisis in Argentina explained

29 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

After Mauricio Macri came to power in 2015, international investors poured money into Argentina's hundred-year bond with the hopes that the centre-rig...

The dark side of fast fashion

22 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Some big name fast fashion retailers are sourcing their inventory closer to home in order to get the latest pieces into the hands of their shoppers fa...

How WeWork really works

15 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The co-working and office providing company set out to create the office of the future and has caught the attention of big investors, including SoftBa...