The Story of Money

The recent collapse of Tricolor Holdings, a subprime auto lender in Texas, has left a trail of losses and questions from Wall Street to low-income immigrant communities throughout the American south-west. The FT’s US banking correspondent Akila Quinio, and Amelia Pollard, US investment correspondent, explain what they’ve found. Clip from Fifth Third - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -...

Ecommerce start-up Jumia was supposed to become the “Amazon of Africa”. Its prospects seemed promising after raising close to $800mn prior to its IPO in 2019 — more than any African start-up. But in the years since, things haven’t gone the way investors probably hoped. The FT’s west and central Africa correspondent Aanu Adeoye explains Jumia’s plans to turn the business around, and what its challe...

The natural diamond industry is facing an existential threat: lab-grown diamonds. They’re chemically and physically identical to natural stones, and they're just a fraction of the price. Eleanor Olcott, the FT’s China technology correspondent, travelled to the epicentre of lab-grown diamond production in the central Chinese province of Henan to see how they’re made. While the FT’s natural resource...

Earlier this summer, energy supermajor Chevron secured access to one of the most valuable oilfields in the world. It was the culmination of a months-long battle that pitted America’s second-largest oil company against the largest, ExxonMobil. The FT’s US energy editor, Jamie Smyth, looks at what Chevron aims to do next, and how it plans to take on its larger rival.    Clips from CNB...

AI music generators - platforms that use artificial intelligence to create new, original music from scratch - can make songs that are almost indistinguishable from human creations. For some musicians, they’re the next frontier in music-making technology. But for others, they represent a grave threat, flooding the world with low-grade AI music, stealing the jobs of working musicians, and even spell...

This week we're sharing an episode from, Unhedged, another podcast from the FT network. The annual meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is supposed to be an intellectual retreat. Instead, it was overshadowed by personal and political attacks on US Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook. Today on the show, Katie Martin talks to US economics editor Claire Jones about her reporting fr...

Palantir shares have soared this year, making the data analytics company one of the most valuable listed US tech groups. The FT’s Tabby Kinder explains how a paradigm shift in Silicon Valley helped propel Palantir to new heights and why many think it will be among the biggest winners of more US federal spending on national security, immigration and space exploration – even as others have started q...

This is a revised version of an earlier episode and clarifies the position of Zyn in the US market. As the popularity of cigarettes has slid in the past couple decades, Big Tobacco has been searching for a new hit product. Now, they think they’ve found it: nicotine pouches. FT reporters Clara Murray and Mari Novik explain how nicotine pouches became popular, and whether they’ll become the sector’s...

Two summers ago, hedge fund manager Bobby Jain set out with a huge goal: build a hedge fund that can rival the likes of industry giants Citadel and Millennium. But in the year since his firm started trading, Jain has found the going tough. FT hedge fund correspondents Amelia Pollard and Costas Mourselas explain what difficulties he has encountered, and whether building a true rival in this space i...

This week we’re sharing an episode from Fixable, a podcast from TED. In it, hear about the resurrection of Barnes & Noble.  Chief revival architect and CEO James Daunt joins hosts Anne Morriss and Frances Frei to discuss the unconventional leadership strategies that helped him navigate through the pandemic and keep bookstores alive in the age of Amazon and e-books. Anne and Frances explor...

The competition for junior talent between private equity and Wall Street banks reached a new peak this summer. That’s thanks to a controversial recruiting practice that is causing both industries to find talent earlier and earlier. Now, powerful figures such as JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon are publicly decrying the strategy. The FT’s Wall Street editor Sujeet Indap and banking editor Ortenca Al...

Can Tim Cook save Apple from the trade war? Has Mark Zuckerberg really been a fan of Donald Trump all along? And is the bromance between Elon Musk and the president really over?  In a new season of Tech Tonic, Murad Ahmed explores the relationships between Trump and some of the titans of the tech world. What is really driving those relationships, and what might they mean for the future of tec...

Top consulting firms have repeatedly found themselves facing a reputational crisis. The most recent example was in early July, when a Financial Times investigation revealed that Boston Consulting Group had modelled a plan to ‘relocate’ Palestinians from Gaza after entering into a multimillion-dollar contract to help launch an aid scheme for the enclave. In this week’s episode, the FT’s US accounti...

It’s been exactly 90 days since US President Donald Trump paused most of his ‘reciprocal’ tariffs. With just a 10 per cent blanket tariff on all imports and a higher tariff on China, economists predicted the American economy would feel the heat pretty quickly. But the sky hasn’t fallen yet – the world’s largest economy is holding strong. The FT’s US economics editor Claire Jones explains why...

When Iran attacked a US airbase in Qatar – a response to strikes on its nuclear facilities – many feared a global war may be imminent. But there was one market that didn’t break a sweat: oil. It’s typically a commodity that surges at the first sight of conflict in the Middle East. This time though, oil traders bet that the conflict involving Iran, Israel and the US would be short-lived. The FT’s e...

The Royal Bank of Scotland was once the biggest bank in the world. Then, hubris got the best of it. During the financial crisis the UK government spent £46bn to bail out the bank. Seventeen years and a rebrand to NatWest Group later, the government just sold its last shares in it and officially ended the country’s “bailout era”. The FT’s Akila Quinio analyses what this means for the economy and fo...

LVMH’s wine and spirits division, Moët Hennessy, has long been a source of success – and cash – for the luxury goods behemoth. But more recently, that’s changed. The FT’s Paris correspondent Adrienne Klasa, found that certain strategic decisions made under the company’s former CEO have contributed to a change in its fortunes. She examines the missteps and whether the division can make a comeback.&...

A decade ago, Indonesia produced only 6% of the world’s supply of refined nickel. Now, it has a de facto monopoly on the market. How did it happen? The FT’s Jakarta correspondent A. Anantha Lakshmi and FT’s commodities correspondent Camilla Hodgson examine what propelled this explosive growth and how China helped it happen.  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  For f...

In a special six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman discuss the economic events reshaping the world in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s election.  Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. ...

Blackstone, Apollo and KKR. Although they have similar origins, these three top private capital groups are moving in different directions amid tumultuous markets. What do these approaches look like? And will they hold up in a potential downturn? The FT’s Antoine Gara, US private equity and deals editor, breaks down each approach and who’s most likely to perform best in the future. - - - - - - - -...

This week, Swamp Notes goes to London for a live recording. Katie Martin, host of the Unhedged podcast, and Chris Giles, author of the FT’s Central Banks newsletter, discuss what Trump’s next few months might be like. Have markets truly recovered from the “liberation day” shock? What happens after the 90-day tariff pause is over? Our guests weigh in.  Subscribe to the new Swamp Notes feed&nbs...

Ireland has become a major base for US pharma companies, including Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson. That’s bolstered the economies of individual towns and played a role in the country’s massive budget surplus. Now, US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats are bringing a dose of uncertainty. The FT’s Ireland correspondent Jude Webber traveled to the town where the world’s supply of Bo...

Massive conglomerates used to define corporate best practice. Think about a company like General Electric, known as “the everything company”. But today, there’s a new popular model: de-conglomeration. The FT’s former US energy reporter Amanda Chu examines whether this is working for a power business that GE spun off last year – or if it’s just another Wall Street fad.  Clips from BBC, Bloombe...

In March, Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission, were fired from their jobs by the Trump administration. They say this was done illegally and are challenging their dismissals. Michela talks with Bedoya about what happened, and why he thinks businesses should be concerned.   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -&nbs...

Goldman Sachs may have picked its next chief executive years before any planned handover. It has raised eyebrows on Wall Street and would break from the usual process, where multiple candidates typically compete for the top job down to the last second. But it also completes an incredible comeback by current Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. The FT’s US banking editor Joshua Franklin explains how So...