Trumponomics
Episodes
Travel Genius, a New Show From Bloomberg
07 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What’s the most sure-fire way to get a flight upgrade? How can you find the best, secret local restaurants by asking just one question? What's the f...
Prognosis, a New Show From Bloomberg
02 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Where does a medical cure come from? 100 years ago, it wasn't uncommon for scientists to test medicines by taking a dose themselves. As medical techno...
Writing a Book With Paul Volcker
01 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Volcker made his mark as the inflation-defeating chairman of the Federal Reserve. Now at age 91, he's just published a new memoir called "Keeping...
The U.S. Economy Is Doing Great. Why Isn't Housing?
25 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The housing market is one of the few sectors of the U.S. economy that isn't sharing in the recent pickup in growth. Purchases are slowing down, builde...
Coming Soon: The New Economy
24 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Bloomberg’s head of economics Stephanie Flanders calls on Bloomberg's worldwide network of reporters and expert commentators to cast a fresh eye on ...
Bonus: One Belt, One Road, Part 4
23 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the final episode of our special series on China's Belt and Road initiative, we go to Europe to learn more about how that continent is involved wit...
Coming Soon: The ETF Story
19 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The creation story of the first exchange-traded fund is actually the best way to understand how they work. And it's not just educational, it's enterta...
What Makes Some Emerging Markets Always Win?
18 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Why do some emerging markets consistently succeed while others flame out? Anu Madgavkar, partner at McKinsey Global Institute, shares the secret sauce...
Kai-Fu Lee on the Great Game to Dominate Data
11 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Don't fret too much about tariffs and trade deficits. The real competition between the U.S. and China will be in artificial intelligence and data, say...
Bonus: One Belt, One Road, Part 3
09 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the third episode of this four-part series on China's Belt and Road initiative, we look at Kenya and how Chinese investment in cargo and commuter r...
"Best Economy" Ever? A Historian Tackles Trump's Claim
04 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The job numbers are strong and GDP growth looks great, but is it really the "best economy" in U.S. history as President Donald Trump says? Robert Gord...
Jeffrey Sachs On Making Foreign Policy Reflect Economics
27 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For all the current strength of American economy, the country lacks the economic clout to bend the world to its liking. The U.S. lacks a foreign polic...
Bonus: One Belt, One Road, Part 2
25 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the second of this four-part series on China's Belt and Road initiative, we talk to Haslinda Amin, who hosts the second episode of Bloomberg's TV s...
Brazil's Wild Election Holds Key to Region's Economy
20 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Can South America's largest economy get any worse? It may all depend on the outcome of next month's presidential election in Brazil. The campaign has ...
How Trade War is Reshaping China
13 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The force of the trade war unleashed by Donald Trump goes beyond peeved farmers and pricier gadgets. The entire economic model of modern corporations ...
Bonus: One Belt, One Road, Part I
10 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As a special bonus, we’re bringing Benchmark listeners the first peek at a four-part series on China’s Belt and Road Initiative. President Xi Jinp...
Big Questions Are Hanging Over the Auto Industry
06 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The auto industry is being buffeted from all sides. Consumer tastes have shifted, forcing manufacturers to retool product lines. President Donald Trum...
How Economics Shaped The End of WWII
30 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Economic divisions in the U.S. brought an end to World War II as much as the atomic bombs. On the anniversary of Japan's surrender, historian Marc Gal...
Americans Get Lots of Government Money, And They Still Hate Washington
23 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Why do so many Americans ignore their hip pocket? Portions of the country where citizens are increasingly dependent on government programs, like Kentu...
What You Need to Know About Turkey's Financial Crunch
16 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Turkey's currency plunged this month after President Donald Trump stepped up economic sanctions in a dispute over a detained pastor. It was already go...
Bitcoin's Big Problems
09 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Bitcoin was recently called a combination of a bubble, a Ponzi scheme and an environmental disaster by one of the world's leading authorities on finan...
We'll All Be Eating Bugs Sooner Than You Think
02 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It's not tastebuds or the latest fetish at trendy health food stores that's driving the boom in bug gastronomy. Broad economic forces like climate cha...
Alaska: Front Line in the Global Trade War
26 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump's trade war is hitting a wide variety of goods produced in America, and Alaska's fisheries are caught in the crossfire. The ind...
How America's China Trauma Strains Alliances
19 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Trump's election wasn't a fluke. Nor are tariffs a passing fad. They reflect deep-seated trauma at the country's decline relative to China. So enraged...
Why India-China Comparisons Miss The Point
12 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How many times have you heard India and China mentioned in the same breath? We may be looking at the South Asian giant all wrong. The best comparison ...
Why China's Population Is About to Plunge
05 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Is a trade war or surging debt the biggest threat to China's economy? Try declining fertility. While the nation recently relaxed its one-child policy,...
How Falling Fertility Threatens the Global Economy
28 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Around the world, women are having far fewer children than they were 50 years ago. This decline in fertility threatens to cause falling populations in...
How Will a Trade War Impact China's Economy?
21 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. and China are on the verge of a trade war, one that President Donald Trump says will be easy to win. So how will it really impact China's eco...
How Countries Are Grappling With The Gender Pay Gap
14 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Globally, women make 50 percent less than men. In the U.S. and U.K., it's about 20 percent. Why? What are some countries trying to do to fix it? And i...
Why Older Workers Are the Key to the U.S. Economy
07 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
With the U.S. jobless rate at the lowest level since 2000, where can employers turn to fill positions and keep up with demand? There's a huge corps of...
How the Opium Wars Shaped China's Approach to Trump's Trade Threats
31 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
No need to be caught off guard by the latest tweet from Donald Trump about tariffs and China. The underlying nature of Western economic links with the...
What's Behind the Rise in Oil Prices
24 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. is producing more oil than ever. So why are oil prices rising so much that a gallon of gasoline now costs almost $3? Wasn't shale oil suppose...
How Argentina Ended Up With Interest Rates At 40 Percent
17 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In Argentina, the cost of borrowing is shooting up to stratospheric levels with interest rates rising to 40 percent. The country's leadership promised...
Why China Wants Sway Over Vanuatu
10 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Listeners are probably familiar with China's economic and strategic ambitions in the South China Sea. But have you heard about what China is up to in ...
Bonus: The Pay Check, a New Podcast
09 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a big, expensive, global mystery. Why do women still make less money—a lot less—than men? In the US, the average woman makes 80 cents to ev...
Everybody Gets a Job!
03 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. unemployment rate may be at the lowest level since 2000, but some economists want the federal government to go further and guarantee a job fo...
How Artificial Intelligence is Taking Over the Economy
26 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
From self-driving cars to robot-powered factories, artificial intelligence is taking over significant pieces of the global economy. But while this is ...
How Water Will Determine the Global Economy's Winners and Losers
19 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For years, oil was the major determinant of which countries rose to -- and lost -- power in the global economy. Today, that commodity increasingly is ...
Does This Crazy Stock Market Mean Trouble for the U.S. Economy?
12 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It's been a wild ride for investors in the U.S. stock market these past couple months. Yet for all the chaos on Wall Street, Main Street seems to be d...
Why Populism Isn't All About Economics
05 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What if it's not the economy, stupid? The Great Recession and the long, moderate expansion that's followed gets blamed for a lot of political upheaval...
Who's Running China's Economy Now?
29 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You've heard about Xi Jinping now becoming China's leader for life. But did you know about his new economic team? They are the ones who could help dir...
How The Uber Economy Helps Riders At The Expense Of Drivers
22 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It may be hard to remember, but not too long ago, hailing a taxi in many cities was often a hassle. Ever since companies like Uber and Lyft entered th...
What's Behind the Great Trade Skirmish
15 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum don't add up to a trade war. It's more like a frontier skirmish. But, what would a real conflict look lik...
How Nafta Made Mexicans Fat
08 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The North American Free Trade Agreement has been labeled everything from an unfair deal for U.S. workers to a boon for commerce across the continent. ...
This Tropical Paradise Is the Scene of a New Cold War
01 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Maldives, known as an exotic and luxurious tropical vacation spot, is fast becoming one of the world's most important geopolitical footballs. Chin...
Coming Soon: Decrypted Season 2
27 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Decrypted returns on March 6th with a brand new season. Here's a sneak peek of what's in store. We'll be releasing new episodes every Tuesday starting...
There's a Crisis Brewing in the Coffee Industry
22 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There's a crisis in coffee. On Java, the Indonesian island that gives your morning shot its nickname, the bean is struggling. A booming Asian middle c...
Why Nearly A Tenth Of Denmark's Labor Force May Disappear
15 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Almost one-tenth of Denmark's labor force is made up of foreign workers. But with quality of life standards increasing in eastern European countries, ...
Coming Soon: What'd You Miss This Week
12 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This month, Bloomberg is excited to bring you a brand new show. Every Friday on What'd You Miss This Week, we'll feature the most interesting intervie...
Will Amazon Disrupt Health Care?
08 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway recently announced they're joining forces to tackle America's expensive health care system. Health care ...
Why a Big Gender-Pay Gap Exists for Selling Clothes
01 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You may have heard of a gender-pay gap in America, but here's a statistic that's really eye-opening: Workers at men's apparel stores earn 56 percent m...
When Japanese People Die, Their Land Goes Into Purgatory
25 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What happens to someone's land when the owner dies? In Japan, no one knows. In fact, no one knows who owns more than 10 percent of the nation's landma...
As #MeToo Sweeps the World, Economics Profession Has Its Own Reckoning
18 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
An online discussion board where women are frequent subjects of vitriolic attacks. A lack of diversity in top positions. Strong evidence of discrimina...
How Trump's Tax Cut Will Lead To NYC's Fall
11 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The American South will keep rising and Dallas will eclipse New York. The city that never sleeps has had its obituary written plenty of times, but it ...
How a Secretive Conclave Decides When U.S. Recessions Happen
04 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Whether the U.S. tips into recession this year or not, chances are you won't hear about it until well after it happens. That's because the decision on...
Benchmark's Look Ahead to the Biggest Economic Stories of 2018
28 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What will be the most surprising economic development of 2018? Who will be the most influential people that you haven't heard of? What kind of non-eco...
Benchmark's Look Back at the Biggest Economic Stories of 2017
21 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What was the year's most surprising economic development? Who were the most influential people that you haven't heard of? What were the non-economic d...
This Market Says Maybe America Isn't So Great Again Yet
14 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
America's GDP is growing at an amazing 3 percent! Unemployment is at the lowest level in 16 years! The stock market is reaching a new record high ever...
The Trade War Didn't Happen. Here's Why and What's Next
07 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Wait! There wasn't a trade war this year. Wasn't Donald Trump's election supposed to mean a rejection of open commerce between nations? Bloomberg's An...
Having a Resume Gap Is Becoming Less of a Job Hurdle
30 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
For many women and an increasing number of men, it's been hard to get a job again if you take some time off for family reasons and have a long gap on ...
Coming Soon: Trillions, a New Podcast
28 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Money goes where it's treated best. That simple truth is a big reason why more and more money—trillions, in fact—flows into a powerful, low-cost t...
How a Red State City Fell in Love With Muslim Immigrants (Rebroadcast)
23 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Benchmark takes the week off for the Thanksgiving holiday and re-runs an episode from March. Post-industrial Midwestern America helped propel Donald T...
Big Data Goes Where Economies Fear to Tread
16 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Figuring out the global economy has always involved looking at the data. But only in recent years has big data, such as that contained in satellite im...
Trump's Big Gamble on a New Fed Chief
09 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
By picking Jerome Powell to replace Janet Yellen as Federal Reserve chief, President Donald Trump is making a historic gamble that his five predecesso...
Mexico Didn't See Trump Coming
02 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Mexico just didn't see it coming. The free-trade backlash and anti-Mexican rhetoric that helped fuel Donald Trump's rise came as a surprise to officia...
A Crash Course in Refugee Economics
26 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The biggest challenge refugees face is economic. A couple of financial market insiders are here to help and have recruited some of the biggest names o...
Creating Catalonia From Scratch
19 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How do you create a new country? For Catalonians looking for independence from Spain, secession can give you an emotional high, but what about the bil...
Puerto Rico's Economic Devastation Can Barely Be Measured
12 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Before Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico three weeks ago, the U.S. territory's economy was already in shambles, thanks in part to an overlo...
Forget Oil. Religion Is Big Business in Saudi Arabia
05 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Saudi Arabia may be best known for its vast supply of oil, but outside of that industry, Islamic tourism is one of the kingdom's biggest businesses. H...
Will the World's Most Powerful People Lose Their Jobs?
28 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Some of the planet's most powerful people may be out of a job in the next two years. Beginning in the next few months, terms start ending for the cent...
North Korea's Unlikely Economic Boom
21 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
North Korea seems an unlikely place for capitalism to take hold. But markets are playing a bigger role in daily life in the country. While that's crea...
This Food Company Is the Lehman Brothers of Croatia
14 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A troubled company threatens a nation's entire economy. It's not Lehman Brothers a decade ago -- and it's not even a bank. No, this time it's Agrokor,...
India's Surprising Economic Partition
07 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
As India and Pakistan celebrate their 70th birthdays, Benchmark looks at the economic partition of colonial India into the two independent nations. Th...
Most Companies Talk Creativity; Few Walk It. Art Can Help
31 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Western Capitalism is supposed to thrive on Joseph Schumpeter's idea of creative destruction. Yet few companies really nurture creativity. Beancounter...
Thucydides's Trap Has Implications for Economics, Not Just Conflict
24 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What is Thucydides's trap and how does it foretell the future of U.S.-China economic ties? Much has been said about China's strategic challenges to Am...
Make America Pay Its Bills. Again.
13 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What is the U.S. debt ceiling, where did it come from and why does it matter? This time the familiar Washington ritual has a twist. And investors are ...
Setting a New Benchmark With Our 100th Episode
10 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Benchmark crew celebrates the podcast's 100th episode with a trip through highlights as picked by hosts and producers, both past and present. From...
Where the U.S. Still Rules in Asia
04 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Why does the U.S. still dominate discussion in a major Chinese city? On a multi-week trip to Asia, Dan discovers a surprising place where America's do...
Why Everyone Needs to Care About the Fed's Shrinking Balance Sheet
27 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Federal Reserve said this week that it's about to try something that's never been done on this scale in the annals of central banking: reduce its ...
What Our Trump Time Machine Got Right -- and Wrong -- About the Economy
20 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
One year ago, the Benchmark crew ventured into the future -- July 2017 -- to imagine what was then all but unimaginable: How would the U.S. economy ...
You Just Missed Your Chance to Get Rich on Toronto Real Estate
13 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Home prices in Canada's largest city have been on a tear. But the party could be on the verge of ending, at least temporarily. The Bank of Canada's de...
The One Caveat Hanging Over Jobs in America
07 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. labor market looked pretty strong in June, with more Americans getting jobs and unemployment close to a 16-year low. All strong, with one gla...
The World's First Modern Financial Crisis: 1997 Edition
29 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Twenty years ago this week, a momentous event more than a century in the making finally occurred: Hong Kong's handover to China. Turns out, that wasn'...
Why New York's Summer of Hell Matters to More Than Commuters
22 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
New York subway riders and commuters, already mired in a miserable year, are bracing for a summer like no other amid rising delays, service cuts and o...
Sushi Robots Show Way to Surprise Japanese Recovery
14 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Surprise! Japan's economy is no longer down and out. Instead, it may just be the next big growth surprise. Almost three decades since the collapse of ...
Mafia Making a Racket With Chili-Pepper Inflation
07 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Central banks tend to be more comfortable pulling levers of economic policy than being on the front line of crimefighting. For the monetary gurus of I...
Why Millions of Americans Still Live Paycheck-to-Paycheck
31 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Millions of middle-class Americans face an unexpected reality in today's era of economic growth: their paychecks vary so much that paying bills and sa...
Brazil's Real Problem Is Economics -- Not Graft
22 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What on earth is going on in Brazil? Less than a year after impeaching one president for fiddling fiscal accounts, her successor is on the ropes amid ...
This Nation Has the Secret to Trump's GDP Goal
17 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump's road to 3 percent growth might run through New Zealand. The faraway nation is the only developed economy that's been expanding at such ...
Why Labor Unions Don't Have the Clout They Used To
10 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A major puzzle in the U.S. economy is why wage gains have been relatively subdued in the last couple of years, even as all signs point to a tight job ...
Never Mind the Chewing Gum, Singapore is Global Trade Colossus
04 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The world's easiest place to do business, the second-largest container port and the biggest center for commodities trading. There's a lot more to Sing...
Key to Mideast Peace May Lurk Within the Economy
26 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Israel's economy is so innovative that it's forcing otherwise hostile Arab neighbors to look at ways they could also benefit -- and the result could e...
How Surfers Ride the Wave to the Next Economic Boom
20 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Here's an economic statistic you don't see very often: Top-flight surfing breaks can drive growth. Fresh from his 11-year-old daughter's surfing lesso...
Why GDP Is a Dumb Way to Measure Economic Output
12 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
G, a D and a P. Three letters, lots of trouble. Gross Domestic Product is the world's most common way to measure the value of all goods and services p...
Here's What Happens When a Chinese Firm Buys a Closed GM Plant
05 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump spent plenty of time on the campaign trail accusing China of stealing American jobs by taking away factories and using unfair t...
Death and Despair in White America
29 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We usually don't think about economics as a life-or-death subject. But for white Americans without a college degree, there's no other way to describe ...
How a Red State City Fell in Love With Muslim Immigrants
24 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Post-industrial Midwestern America helped propel Donald Trump to the nation's top job. You've heard that a hundred times. But did you hear about St Lo...
Inflation Makes Duke Bootee Wonder How I Keep From Going Under
16 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Who says economics has to be all about numbers? Take a trip back in time with the Benchmark crew to the early 1980s, when double-digit inflation was s...
The United States of Inertia
08 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Americans like to think of themselves as great risk takers, rolling back frontiers and imbued since birth with a spirit of entrepreneurship. But what ...
Trump Can Party On With This Blueprint From Europe
01 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Forget Vladimir Putin. If Donald Trump and the Republicans want to stay in power, they could do well to emulate the approach of Poland's Law and Justi...