The Rest Is Money

179. The Ugly Side of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill

08 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why are Trump’s tax and spending plans a global problem? Where are investors putting their money now? Can Reeves’ spending review make the UK a wi...

178. Sadiq Khan: This Government Frustrates Me

04 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why isn’t the government honouring its pledge to transfer more power to mayors? Why doesn’t the government do more to attract American talent to t...

177. Are Food Giants The New Big Tobacco?

01 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why is there an obesity epidemic? Are “fat jabs” the answer? How culpable are the food multinationals for making and marketing addictive “ultra-...

176. Trump’s Tax Cuts: America’s Liz Truss Moment

28 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Are Trump’s unfunded tax cuts trashing America’s “exorbitant privilege”? Has Europe stopped being "goodie goodie" and is it at last going for ...

175. Does Trump Spell The End Of Net Zero?

25 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How do we swap out dirty power for clean power in the UK? Why aren’t politicians more ambitious with green energy policies when it’s cheaper than ...

174. What Is Really Going On With Inflation

21 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why can’t the Bank of England’s rate setters agree on how to tackle inflation? What impact does this have on business? Should tax breaks for saver...

173. Why Starmer Didn’t Do Enough On EU Trade

20 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How much richer will Starmer’s EU reset make us? Why didn’t he negotiate for goods what he agreed for food? And will his energy deal with Brussels...

172. Is The Treasury Striving For Mediocrity?

18 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why is Rachel Reeves in a lose-lose situation with UK growth? How can the care sector survive without immigration? How are the world’s biggest retai...

171. Will Trump’s Tax Cuts Cause Soaring US Debt?

14 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Can US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, stop Trump trashing the global economy? Do Starmer’s new immigration controls make any sense? And are we a...

170. Will Trump’s Deal With China Stick?

12 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Does Trump’s China capitulation mean the tariff war is over? Is the dollar’s safe haven status dead? What does Trump’s coercion of drug companie...

169. How To Wean The UK Off Immigration

11 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What does the Conservative Party have to do to be electable? Does it matter whether Reform has absurd economic plans? And why is so much of today’s...

168. Is Trump’s Deal Good for Britain?

09 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What is the deal? Is it any good? What about the EU? Robert and Steph bring you their analysis of the good, the bad and the ugly of the UK tariff ...

167. Should We Care That Indian Workers Won’t Pay National Insurance?

07 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What are the numbers behind the new trade deal between India and the UK? Have the Conservatives lost all economic common sense? Will it matter to vote...

166. How To Cut Energy Bills

04 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Do we need to speed up or slow down the transition to green power? Should we have local power for local people in the form of zonal pricing? Are renew...

165. Trump’s Timebomb: The Warning No One Has Spotted

30 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How the slowing down of ships shows Trump’s first 100 days are not going to plan? Will Mark Carney’s Canadian election forge a ‘coalition of the...

164. The Great British Energy Crisis

27 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why does the UK have the most expensive energy in the world? Should the places that generate the cheapest energy get the lowest prices? Should the ric...

163. Trump Surrenders To China And The Fed

23 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why has Trump changed his mind about firing the head of America’s central bank? Why has he also backed down on China trade tariffs? And while Rachel...

162. The Health Gap: Fixing Inequality in the UK

20 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why do poor people in the South live longer than Northerners in similar deprivation? How do we fix health inequality? What can businesses do to help? ...

161. Trump Turmoil: Starmer Should Choose EU Over US

17 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Influential economist Jim O’Neill tells Steph and Robert why a trade deal with the EU is more important to the UK then one with Trump, that it would...

160. Trump Turmoil: The Latest Act Of Self-Harm

16 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph discuss Trump’s latest play to put tariffs on rare earth minerals, alongside the indefinite restrictions he’s put on Nvidia sendi...

159. Trump Turmoil: It’s The Hope That Kills You

15 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert explains how Trump is helping China and the EU while hurting America, what Trump’s dogma shares with the economically disastrous Soviet Union...

158. Trump Turmoil: Starmer Takes Action

14 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert explains how the government’s decision to save British Steel is a massive change to its industrial policy, and a response to Trump, how the l...

157. Trump Turmoil: Never Underestimate China

11 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

President Trump believes a trade war with America’s biggest supplier and massive creditor, China, will be more damaging for China than for America. ...

156. Trump Turmoil: A Pause Won’t Stop Uncertainty

10 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Is this America's Brexit? Robert and Steph explain why Trump's pause on the more extreme tariffs isn't a return to free trade and why the economic war...

155. Trump Turmoil: The Tariffs Kick In

09 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What are the similarities between the current economic crisis and the ‘Lehman Weekend’? Will global investors soon start dumping the dollar? Rober...

154. Trump Turmoil: Why Billionaires Are Panicking

08 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How long till markets stabilise? How crazy is Trump’s formula for calculating tariffs? What are the big dangers that lie ahead? Robert and Steph tel...

153. Reform UK: What Would Farage’s Britain Look Like?

06 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Steph and Robert speak to Zia Yusuf, Chairman of Reform UK to discuss his controversial role as a British Muslim running an anti-immigration party, wh...

152. Liberation Day: Will Trump’s Tariffs Kill Reeves’ Growth?

02 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Steph and Robert speak to Richard Hughes, head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, who has run scenarios on what will happen to the economy as Do...

151. Do the Tories have a new economic message?

30 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph sit down with Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride to hear which taxes he would reform, his fears that young people aren’t entrepreneurial ...

150. Exclusive: Rachel Reeves On Why Trump Won't Control Us

27 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Fresh off the back of the Spring Statement, the Chancellor sits down with Robert and Steph to talk growth, jobs, welfare and why the government will n...

149. Why Is Tech So Sexist?

24 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert is joined by serial entrepreneur and president of the British Chambers of Commerce Martha Lane Fox. They discuss why it is so hard for all-fema...

148. How Do You Decide Who Is Too Sick To Work?

20 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph discuss the welfare conundrum - how do you get more people into work when many businesses are not equipped or incentivised to provide...

147. What’s Wrong With Labour’s Welfare Reforms?

17 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert is back with Andy Haldane, looking ahead to the Spring Statement, and discussing proposed welfare reform. But are these changes really about he...

146. Does Trump Risk Sparking A Global Financial Crisis?

13 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert is joined by Andy Haldane, Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Arts and former chief economist at the Bank of England, to evaluate whether ...

145. Hoffman: Europe Is Regulating Itself Out Of The AI Race

10 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week Steph and Robert speak to Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn and an early investor in tech giants like Facebook and OpenAI. Reid gives...

144. The European Silver Lining to Trump’s Global Gangsterism

06 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph catch up after another gruelling week of Trump’s “America-first” agenda. They question the thinking behind his tariffs, and pre...

143. Was Starmer Right To Woo Trump?

28 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert returns from his trip to the US with the PM, to the mayhem of the collapse of relations between Trump And Zelenskyy. He and Steph assess the s...

142. Are We In A Golden Era Of Corruption?

27 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Despite being called a dictator by Trump, President Zelensky has agreed a deal that would see the US make billions from Ukraine’s minerals. Steph ca...

141. Why Aren’t UK Pension Funds Backing Britain?

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph speak with Michael Tory about the underperformance of the UK stock market compared to other countries, and why this has done so much ...

140. How Do The Bank of England Really Make Their Decisions?

20 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph discuss why inflation won’t disappear but is no worse than feared, how AI is both replacing humans and making some more productive ...

139. Why Shopping Will Never Be The Same Again

17 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph find out how AI will radically change how people will shop in the future. Retail consultant Kate Ancketill explains how every cursor ...

138. What is Elon Musk really up to?

13 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As Musk continues his hostile takeover of the US government, Robert and Steph look at the impact his dramatic overhaul is having. It sounds like chaos...

137. Trump’s Trade War: Winners, Losers and The Global Fallout

10 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph catch up after a dramatic week of Trump's trade tariffs and consider their ripple effects across the globe. Will consumers pay the pr...

136. Are Labour’s Growth Goals Meaningless?

06 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Steph and Robert are joined by Praful Nargund, founder of the Good Growth Foundation, and Chris Curtis, MP for Milton Keynes North, to speak about Rac...

135. China: Business Partner Or Security Threat?

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Steph and Gordon Corera, host of The Rest Is Classified and the BBC’s Security Correspondent, discuss the security risks posed to the UK by Rachel R...

134. Will Rachel Reeves’ New Found Optimism Bring Growth?

30 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph catch up after Rachel Reeves’ attempt to bring back confidence in the UK economy. With plans for a third runway at Heathrow, a corr...

133. Will Trump’s Chaos Strategy Work?

27 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Steph and Robert catch up on Trump’s first week back in office. Looking at the likely economic impact of his decisions on mass deportation, the envi...

132. Why Britain Isn’t A “Science Superpower”

23 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Steph and Robert speak to Sir Paul Nurse - Nobel Prize winning cell biologist and Director of the Francis Crick Institute - about how science funding ...

131. Why The Stats Behind The Budget Might Be Wrong

20 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The founder of the OBR and now boss of all official statistics Robert Chote explains to Steph and Robert why the UK’s unemployment numbers are so un...

130. The Brutal Truth Behind Britain's AI Gamble

16 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph are joined by Peter Kyle, the Science and Tech Secretary of State, to evaluate whether the prime minister’s plan to turn the UK int...

129. How Serious Is The UK’s Debt Mess?

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Steph and Robert are joined by Dr Gerard Lyons, an influential economist and Bank of China board member, to discuss whether Rachel Reeves is wise to a...

128. Will Starmer Stop Musk's Meddling?

09 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert gives us his take on 'Starmer vs Musk' and Steph tells us why she thinks business rates are going to be a big problem this year. There’s also...

127. Is Trump’s Bark Worse Than His Bite?

06 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Karen Ward, Chief Market Strategist for one of the leading financial institutions in the world, JP Morgan Asset Management, talks to Robert and Steph ...

126. Why 2025 Will Be The Most Important Year Of Our Lives

02 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Steph and Robert explain why 2025 will be the most important year of our lives, and assess whether it will be a terrible or great year.  It is all ab...

125. The Scandal Of Slum UK

30 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why are so many low income families living in the kind of slum conditions that would have shamed the Victorians? And why are so many of these slums in...

124. Can Labour Restore Public Trust in 2025?

26 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Steph and Robert reflect on some of The Rest Is Money’s big insights from 2024, including why governments should focus on improving our happiness ra...

123. When Will The Next Financial Crisis Be?

23 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph answer your questions including whether we are heading inexorably towards another financial crisis and whether the UK might be more p...

122. Google At A Crossroads

19 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Google is making huge bets on artificial intelligence and quantum computing. It is reinventing how millions of us work and live. But in the process i...

121. The Man Most Feared By Putin: Part 2

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph talk to Sir Bill Browder about making billions after the fall of the Soviet Union, only to end up with a target from Putin on his bac...

120. The Man Most Feared By Putin: Part 1

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Steph and Robert are joined by Sir Bill Browder, political activist and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, formerly the largest foreign portf...

119. Can Labour’s spending review really mend public services?

09 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph speak to Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, about whether Labour can fix our creaking public services in nex...

118. Global Mayhem: Is The UK A Safe Bet?

05 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Steph and Robert discuss what the collapse of the French government and other unfolding global crises mean for the UK, why Keir Starmer does need to c...

117. How Much Did Brexit Cost The UK?

02 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph answer your questions including why Rachel Reeves chose to raise national insurance on businesses instead of simply putting up corpor...

116. Are We Sacrificing Growth For Worker's Rights?

28 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress, Paul Nowak joins Steph and Robert to discuss whether the new Employment Rights Bill, the reforms to ‘...

115. Trump Could Kill The Dollar

25 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jim O’Neill, the influential economist who created the BRICS concept, joins Robert to explain why he thinks Reeves’s controversial budget could ye...

114. The End Of The G20?

21 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph discuss their respective trips to Brazil - with the Prime Minister for the G20 summit - and Belfast - for lunch with Hillary Clinton;...

113. Dan Neidle: Labour Put Up The Wrong Taxes

17 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tax guru, Dan Neidle joins Steph and Robert to explain why the chancellor’s decision to increase employer’s national insurance was such a mistake,...

112. What Trump’s Economics Means For Us

14 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Steph and Robert discuss how the UK should respond to Trump’s economics, why business is falling out of love with Labour and whether Starmer’s pla...

111. What Would Happen If We Didn't Tax Anyone?

11 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Undercover Economist, Tim Harford joins Steph to answer your questions, including how a taxless society would operate, whether we can get ourselve...

110. Will Trump Make Us Richer Or Poorer?

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph look at the risks and rewards of Trump’s radical plan to reshape America’s economy, they profile the unconventional likely next T...

109. How Can We Make Taxes Pay?

07 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What do beards, bachelors and windows have in common? Financial Times Columnist, Tim Harford takes us on a tax tour. And with £40 billion pounds wort...

108. Rachel Reeves Has Made An Important Start

04 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph chat to former Chief Economist of the Bank of England, Andy Haldane, about whether the Chancellor took enough risks in her budget, wh...

107. Rachel Reeves: “We Don’t Need To Come Back And Ask For More”

01 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph hear from the Chancellor about how she shaped her history-making budget, why she won’t be coming back for much more tax in future b...

106. How Much Pain Is Rachel Reeves Inflicting?

31 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Was the budget too harsh on small and medium businesses? How much pain will ‘working people’ feel from the tax changes? Is the OBR right that this...

105. What You Need To Know To Judge The Budget

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph assess Reeves’ ambitions for the most important budget since the 1980s, whether hypothecated taxes work, and how Russia, China and ...

104. Martin Lewis: Are we better off under Labour?

23 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Martin Lewis, the MoneySavingExpert, joins Robert and Steph to crunch the numbers on how Labour got it wrong on the winter fuel payment, the scandal o...

103. It’s Time To Live With Higher Inflation

20 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Steph and Robert talk to leading economist and investor Mohamed El-Erian about how growth is the only solution to our national debt burden, how he wou...

102. Anthony Scaramucci: The Truth About Trump’s Economic Madness

16 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Former Trump staffer and The Rest Is Politics US host, Anthony Scaramucci joins Steph and Robert to explain why Trump’s planned interference with th...

101. How Rachel Reeves Will Re-Write Fiscal Rules

13 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What options does Rachel Reeves have to allow for more investment, how can we be more productive as a service economy and does the NHS have a manageme...

100. John McDonnell's Alternative Autumn Budget

09 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph are joined by former Shadow Chancellor of The Exchequer, John McDonnell, to discuss what he thinks Rachel Reeves should and shouldn't...

99. How To Stop Big Tech Damaging Mental Health

06 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert speaks to economist Danny Blanchflower about the surge in mental ill-health among young people, which his global research shows is linked to th...

98.⁠ ⁠Why Reeves Is Struggling To Find Taxes

02 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph discuss how changing pensions tax relief in Rachel Reeves’s budget could lead to strikes by public sector workers, why putting up c...

97. The Economics of Happiness

29 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph are joined by Lord Richard Layard, a 90 year old economist who has dedicated his life to researching and encouraging politicians to c...

96. Will The Autumn Budget Cure Our Blues?

25 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph discuss how the Treasury can encourage more investment to fix the economy and public services, why the Bank of England didn’t cut i...

95. The Children's Homes Scandal: Part Two

22 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph catch up after the huge response we’ve had to the Children’s Services special episode and ask the Secretary of State for Educatio...

94. How To Fix Education

18 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson tells us her plans to solve: the skills gap, teacher’s pay needs, early years childcare provisi...

93. The Children's Homes Scandal

15 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A special episode on the hundreds of millions of pounds of profit disappearing out of our children's homes and into the hands of private investors. Wi...

92. Are Labour’s economic plans in trouble?

11 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph discuss how Starmer and Reeves made such a mess of scrapping the winter fuel payment, whether they were also wrong to abolish the soc...

91. Should everyone get free money?

08 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph look at the pros and cons of a Universal Basic Income. They also answer your questions on increasing the income tax threshold to £20...

90. How Billionaires Think

04 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph are joined by polling guru Nate Silver to discuss how Silicon Valley investors and tech billionaires are a breed apart from politicia...

89. Why are so many young people struggling to get a job?

01 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With joblessness amongst young people the highest it’s been for a decade, Lauren Mistry from Youth Employment UK talk exclusively to Robert and Step...

88. Why are Labour drip-feeding us the bad news?

28 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Steph and Robert discuss Keir Starmer’s gloomy speech that set the tone for a ‘painful’ Autumn budget, look at why short selling the stock marke...

87. Will Labour Scrap Council Tax?

25 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Steph is joined by economics commentator Grace Blakeley to answer your questions, including what a world without landlords would look like, how Labour...

86. The 'Capitalist Lie': who's really in control?

21 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week Steph is joined by economics author Grace Blakeley who argues that capitalism is not what we think it is. They discuss whether we really are...

85. The most important Industrial Revolution in history

18 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robert and Steph are joined by Azeem Azhar, influential tech thinker, to discuss how disruptive artificial intelligence is changing business forever, ...

84. Why inflation hits the poorest hardest

14 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What actually is ‘cheapflation’? Are higher rental costs anti-business? What would happen if we stopped trying to control inflation and just let i...

83. Do the UK riots benefit Elon Musk?

11 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How does hate speech on X impact Elon Musk’s business and why is he suing advertisers? What do we mean when we say that the UK is a “services econ...

82. Stock market turmoil: is it time to panic?

08 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Karen Ward, a Chief Market Strategist for EMEA at one of the world's leading financial institutions, JP Morgan Asset Management, as well as a former a...

81. Can Starmer’s mission-led government fix the economy?

04 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mariana Mazzucato, who created the concept of "mission-led government", talks to Robert and Steph about Labour’s five missions and whether they will...

80.⁠ ⁠Which taxes will Rachel Reeves raise?

02 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dan Neidle, the man described as a "tax dodger's worst enemy", joins Steph and Robert to discuss the options Rachel Reeves has to fill the £22bn blac...