The Rest Is Money

Robert and Steph catch up after another gruelling week of Trump’s “America-first” agenda. They question the thinking behind his tariffs, and predict who will really pay the price for them. With cautious optimism, the pair also consider whether or not the UK and Europe could pull together to regenerate their economies and their militaries. Is Trump the shock that could reverse decades of European d...

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 significance of Trump withdrawing support from Kiev. They also look at whether US/UK trade deals are on the cards, whether Starmer’s decision to slash aid to fund defence makes sense, and whether King Charles has just proved he is value for our money....

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 catches up with The Rest Is Politics’ Alastair Campbell as they ponder how the deal might play out. Plus the impact of Musk’s meddling on geopolitics and what Starmer needs to be doing and saying to Trump in their pivotal meeting this week. Sign up to ou...

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 damage to all our living standards. They discuss whether the government is doing enough to compel or encourage the funds that manage our money to invest in UK businesses Sign up to our newsletter to get more stories from the world of business and fin...

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 according to Anthropic’s new data and what’s really motivating Trump in his rapprochement with Putin. Sign up to our newsletter to get more stories from the world of business and finance. Email: restismoney@gmail.com X: @TheRestIsMoney Instagram: @TheR...

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 movement and click is being analysed to provide retailers with ways to predict, and therefore manipulate, how we buy. All that plus we chat about the role of AI assistants, celeb avatars, and how retailers are tackling theft and low consumer confiden...

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 but could it pave the way for a more radical approach to public finances in the UK? Plus we discuss what Musk wants from OpenAI. And whether all this drama will end with a spectacular Trump/Musk fallout. Or have they both got too much to lose? Sign...

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 price for an "America-first agenda"? And, is there any genius in Trump sowing economic uncertainty? Also, will the Bank of England’s “careful and gradual” approach to cutting interest rates to 4.5%, go far enough?   Sign up to our newsletter to get mor...

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 Rachel Reeves’s growth targets. They consider what growth actually means to everyday people, whether it’s felt evenly, or if Labour should be prioritising something else altogether. Sign up to our newsletter to get more stories from the world of busines...

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 Reeves’ new ploy to secure Chinese investment. Also, how Huawei was replaced by Tik Tok, and then DeepSeek, as the latest digital threat to the West and why an era of subtle ‘cognitive warfare’ has been ushered in by social media. Sign up to our newslet...

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 corridor of investment between Cambridge and Oxford as well as money for projects in places like Manchester and Wrexham, we discuss the pros and cons. And for a change it’s Steph who takes on the role of Eeyore. Sign up to our newsletter to get more storie...

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 environment, energy and prices. As well as what wasn’t said on things like trade tariffs with China. Plus with Rachel Reeves hoping to convince us she’s got a plan for growth this week, we discuss whether a third runaway at Heathrow is going to cut it. And...

Steph and Robert speak to Sir Paul Nurse - Nobel Prize winning cell biologist and Director of the Francis Crick Institute - about how science funding needs to change, why the UK is failing to lure global talent, how we scrub up against the other OECD countries in terms of research and development and how - despite being a geneticist - it took him 55 years to discover who his biological parents wer...

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 unreliable and why the chancellor should be braver and not obsessively try to meet her fiscal rules at all times. We appreciate your feedback on The Rest Is Money to help make the podcast and our partnerships better: https://opinion.askattest.com/EWJ34 S...

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 into an AI world leader, while simultaneously modernising public services and making us richer, has any chance of succeeding. We appreciate your feedback on The Rest Is Money to help make the podcast and our partnerships better: https://opinion.askattest....

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 ask China to invest in the UK, whether the Chancellor will need to come back for more tax rises later this year and what he really advised Liz Truss to do. Sign up to our newsletter to get more stories from the world of business and finance. Email: re...

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 a discussion about misunderstood concepts in economics, first up: GDP. Plus we catch-up on the exciting post Steph and Robert received over Christmas. A clue: it involves a Clinton and a Truss. Sign up to our newsletter to get more stories from the wo...

Karen Ward, Chief Market Strategist for one of the leading financial institutions in the world, JP Morgan Asset Management, talks to Robert and Steph about how Starmer can restore investors’ confidence, why she worries that the surge in the Magnificent 7 huge tech stocks is over, how AI can make most of us better off and whether Trump will be less radical than his rhetoric. Sign up to our newslett...

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 about the unraveling of globalization and the proliferation of wars. One word nutshells the world on a fulcrum: Trump. Sign up to our newsletter to get more stories from the world of business and finance. Email: restismoney@gmail.com X: @TheRestIsMoney...

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 social and council properties? Robert and Steph look for explanations and solutions, and ask whether Labour’s promise to build 1.5m homes will help, in a conversation with ITV’s award-winning investigations editor Dan Hewitt. Sign up to our newslett...

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 rather than our incomes and why Labour’s biggest mistake was to ignore the black hole in the public finances before the election. Sign up to our newsletter to get more stories from the world of business and finance. Email: restismoney@gmail.com X: @TheR...

Robert and Steph answer your questions including whether we are heading inexorably towards another financial crisis and whether the UK might be more prosperous if the National Health Service were privatised. Sign up to our newsletter to get more stories from the world of business and finance. Email: restismoney@gmail.com X: @TheRestIsMoney Instagram: @TheRestIsMoney TikTok: @RestIsMoney goalhanger...

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 is it also eating its own lunch, destroying the search business that turned it into one of the world’s most valuable companies? Steph and Robert put all this and more to Matt Brittin, Google’s most powerful European executive, as he prepares to step do...

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 back. This is a story of murder and corruption leading him into his life’s work persuading governments to hit human rights abusers where it hurts. The threat of Putin’s revenge is ever present and Bill’s stories include the time he was bundled into a ca...

Steph and Robert are joined by Sir Bill Browder, political activist and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, formerly the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia, to discuss how using Russia’s frozen assets against them could help Kiev win the war, why Putin won’t take a Trump peace deal and why the toppling of the Assad regime may only prolong the war in Ukraine. Sign up to our newsle...