The Rest Is Money

Is it fair that city traders can make loads of money betting on the economy’s demise? Are people with working class backgrounds better at trading? How do you go from making millions on a trade floor to becoming obsessed with wealth inequality? In the first of our two-part series, we sit down with economist Gary Stevenson. He tells us how he made millions by betting on our economic decline, and why...

Why are some countries richer than others, even though money, people and ideas can flow freely round the world? Why is it so hard for a country to turn things around and become rich? Are illiberal leaders like Trump good for their economy? What role do sovereign wealth funds play? Nobel prize winning economist Simon Johnson gives us his theory on the damage extractive institutions do to wealth dis...

How do we unlock trillions of pounds of long term capital and keep it in the UK? What can we learn from a brewery in Newcastle and the Vimto factory in Manchester? Why don’t more people invest in start-ups and scale-ups? Is it all about tax incentives?   Nigel Wilson is the former CEO of the financial giant Legal and General who has funnelled billions of pounds of pension and insurance money into...

How much can Burnham re-engineer the fiscal rules? Should he stick to a manifesto that has already been trampled over? Who should he choose to be chancellor? Will the markets approve?  The former director of the IFS is back to tell us about the constraints and opportunities the new prime minister will have to get the economy growing and improve living standards. Listen to Robert and Steph’s interv...

Why are each of us £15,000 a year worse off than we should be? What can we learn from the US about housing? Can ‘Manchesterism’ work across the UK? How much is the triple lock state pension holding back young people?  Paul Johnson, former director of the IFS, is back to tell us about his new research on The Prosperity Gap and what it means for the new Prime Minister. Plus why Count Binface should...

Can Andy Burnham’s civil service employ fewer but more productive officials? Is it fair to blame Brexit and Covid for the rising headcount? Is the government buying British the best growth policy? How the government can save £30bn a year by being more efficient. Tech boss Stephen Kelly - former CEO of Sage Group - tells us about working with David Cameron’s government to make £50bn in public secto...

Should political leaders show us their tax returns in detail? Are the financial questions concerning Farage about tax or something else? Which politicians were careless and which were more culpable? Robert and Steph chat with Dan Neidle who reveals his investigations into the financial affairs of several high-profile politicians. The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain’s sma...

Will all the rich people leave if we slap a wealth tax on them? How have plans for a 5% billionaire tax in California gone down? Is tax the best way to redistribute wealth more fairly? Former tax lawyer Dan Neidle is back to tell us why he thinks the theories of influential economists Gabriel Zucman and Thomas Piketty are all pie in the sky. So what would he do instead? Listen to Robert and Steph’...

Why is cutting VAT for specific sectors a bad idea? Should there be a flat rate on everything, including the things currently exempt? Why does cutting business rates only benefit landlords? Are we keeping too many inefficient businesses going? Dan Neidle from Tax Policy Associates is back to explain why he thinks no one deserves special treatment when it comes to VAT and business rates. Plus why B...

Why did Nick Clegg quit Meta, and what does he really think about Silicon Valley? Why are tech bosses so greedy? And how can Europe catch up in the AI race? Robert sits down with Nick Clegg (former UK Deputy Prime Minister and Meta's ex-President of Global Affairs) to discuss how the UK can once again become a tech and economic powerhouse. The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Bri...

Should it be about the pre-distribution, rather than re-distribution, of wealth? Will that create an economy with fewer billionaires? How would it work in practice? Is it even possible given the balance of power lies with the rich? Leading economist Professor Mariana Mazzucato is back to tell us why her theory on ‘The Common Good’ is a game changer for Western economies. Plus does she think Gabrie...

Is the UK stuck in a debt and tax doom loop, and how do we get out? How do we cut welfare spending? How important is it to give regional mayors more agency over tax and spending? And what can we learn from Mississippi? Robert and Steph talk to former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt about his take on the economy now he's not running the Treasury, as detailed in his new book 'Can we be rich again?'. Plus for...

Are the government plans to help low income households hitting the right spot? Is there too much focus on symptoms and not causes? Could fiscal devolution happen too quickly? Why does the IMF often give the UK a rough ride on forecasts? Paul Johnson - former director of the IFS - is back to give us his take on the economic reforms being discussed across the political sphere. Plus Robert puts him u...

How many billionaires are there in the world? How much has their wealth grown by? Why do lots of billionaires pay almost no income tax? How much of a problem are tax havens? Would a 2% global wealth tax (on people with over $100million) work in practice? Robert and Steph talk to prominent economist Gabriel Zucman about his decades long research on wealth inequality and discuss the pros and cons of...

Would a voluntary agreement between supermarket bosses and the Chancellor to cap the prices of food basics help those struggling on low incomes? Is the biggest threat to the UK now higher inflation or higher unemployment? And could Andy Burnham, as Prime Minister, take control of water and energy without destroying the public finances? Steph and Robert discuss Rachel Reeves’ plans to protect livin...

Is the government doing enough to prioritise British SMEs in its defence spending plans? Should price always come first or should more expensive British made goods be the priority? Or are we in danger of propping up zombie business? And with rising energy and employment costs, how hard is it to be a UK manufacturer now? With the government aiming to increase UK SME defence spending by fifty percen...

Has Labour got what it takes to deliver growth? Is a change in leadership going to help? How might Rayner, Burnham or Streeting fair against the bond markets? Could a plan to shift the tax burden away from working people and on to assets be the answer? As the chaos in Westminster continues, and government borrowing costs reach a 28 year high, Robert and Steph discuss what it will take to get the s...

Why is the UK’s energy pricing system so broken? Why must the transition to green energy be accelerated? And how can we make clean, renewable power the most affordable option for those on low incomes? Robert joins Emma Pinchbeck, CEO of the Climate Change Committee, to discuss the misunderstood parts of our energy system and what the UK’s shift to renewables actually looks like. The Rest is Money...

Could the government’s creditors protect Starmer and Reeves, even if Labour is humiliated in the elections? How high are UK interest rates going to rise because of Trump’s Iran war? Has monetary policy stopped working? Could AI actually lead to the creation of millions of new jobs? And is coal consumption in the 19th Century a good way to predict this? Steph and Robert dissect the Bank of England’...

If household debt as a percentage of GDP is at its lowest since 2002, why are debt charities seeing record levels of demand? Is this a temporary problem because of the cost of living crisis or about much bigger structural problems in the UK economy? Plus, what is ‘co-erced debt’ and why is it a growing problem? Steph talks to Vikki Brownridge the CEO of the debt advisory charity StepChange about w...

How much did Brexit cost the UK? Would rejoining make us much richer? And if US managers are PSG players, are British ones more like Aston Villa’s? Robert talks to Stanford Professor Nick Bloom about his influential forecast, recently adopted by Rachel Reeves, that quitting the EU made Britain 8% or £240bn poorer than it would otherwise have been. The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Ene...

How long will Starmer cling on for? Will politicians sucking up to Northerners make any difference to the North South divide? What’s the latest with the Strait of Hormuz and how is it impacting global prices? How is that feeding through to inflation here? Is Miliband right to stop more oil being drilled in the North Sea and what’s his plan to bring down energy bills? After another week of Mandelso...

Is it fair that only some businesses have access to Anthropic’s super-powerful Mythos AI, given its ability to pierce cyber defences? Will OpenAI go bust? Will Demis Hassabis win the AI wars? Robert Peston talks to Sebastian Mallaby about his biography of British AI genius Demis Hassabis, The Infinity Machine. Note: We contacted OpenAI for comment, who told us that 'the article revisits old, widel...

Why are one million young people not in education, employment or training? Is the benefits system part of the problem? Are schools out of date? What’s the alternative?   Steph talks to former health minister Alan Milburn – who is leading a review into NEETS -about the systemic health and structural barriers to work. They discuss the cost to the economy and the alarming stat that if a young person...

What’s the point of the government’s new £500m sovereign AI fund? How is the government planning to avert AI Armageddon? Isn’t it time for AI to be permanently in the classroom not banned from it? Robert talks to AI Minister Kanishka Narayan to explore the government’s strategy for a trillion-dollar British AI ecosystem-and whether the UK can truly scale a sovereign challenger to rival the likes o...