Tim Harford cuts through the jargon of the economic terms and ideas dominating the news.
Radio 4,·16 episodes
Welcome to Understand: The Economy
Everything you need to know about the economy and what it means for you.
The Economy: 1. Inflation
What is inflation, why does it matter, and is someone to blame if it goes up?
The Economy: 2. Interest Rates and Mortgage Rates
What’s the Bank of England got to do with mortgage rates?
The Economy: 3. Economic Growth and GDP
What is economic growth, and what happens if there isn’t any?
The Economy: 4. Bonds, Gilts, Stocks and Shares
Who lends the government money and why? And what exactly does the stock market do?
The Economy: 5. Banks
What are banks and what do they do with our money?
The Economy: 6. Recessions
What is a recession and why might one happen?
The Economy: 7. Jobs and Unemployment
Why might your wages be low even if everyone who wants a job, has one?
The Economy: 8. Pensions
Why is it so hard to save for when we’re older?
The Economy: 9. International Trade and Currency Markets
The reason we can eat pineapples and sell aeroplane parts.
The Economy: 10. Inequality
Why are the rich, rich and the poor, poor, and was it always this way?
The Economy: 11. Pricing and discounting
How does pricing work, and when is a bargain really a bargain?
The Economy: 12. Credit
What is credit, and how do we use it?
The Economy: 13. National Debt
What is the national debt?
The Economy: 14. Bankruptcy and insolvency
How does going bankrupt affect us and the economy?
The Economy: 15. Energy market
Our energy bills explained.
