The Economics Show

When the US government banned a top AI lab from exporting its newest models, the world took notice. Export controls forbidding foreign access to Anthropic’s Mythos and Fable systems locked most of the world out of using this cutting-edge technology. As AI becomes more embedded in our daily lives, countries want to secure access to frontier models. But unless you’re the US or China, your country doesn’t have a top-tier national champion. So what can other countries do to secure sovereign control over AI? What kind of leverage can they exert? And can they use AI to boost – rather than break – their economies? Soumaya speaks to UK AI minister Kanishka Narayan to discuss.

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Further Reading
How the DeepMind mafia brought the AI boom to London
UK companies ‘should be worried’ about Anthropic’s latest AI model, minister says
Did Anthropic talk its way into an AI export ban?
Anthropic chief tells G7 leaders to ‘resist the temptation to splinter’ over AI

Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Sound design by Sean McGarrity. Original music by Breen Turner. Broadcast engineering by Andrew Georgiades. Flo Phillips is the FT’s head of audio.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For decades, China accelerated its industrial development through a straightforward bargain: foreign firms invested in China, often through joint ventures, gaining access to the enormous Chinese market, while Chinese companies absorbed western tech and knowhow. Today, that dynamic is changing. China's high-tech industries are now world-leading, and western governments are looking on enviously. So should the US and EU now take a page from China's playbook? Host Soumaya Keynes speaks to John Minnich, assistant professor of international relations at LSE, about the history of Chinese tech transfer, how it drove industrial sophistication and whether the west could — or should — attempt something similar.

Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Further Reading
How China pulled off a great tech reversal
EU to include UK and Japan in ‘Made in Europe’ plans
John Minnich: Divide and Conquer: Industry Market Structure, Inter-Firm Rivalry, and Bargaining over Technology

Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Flo Phillips is the FT’s head of audio.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just before the UK voted to leave the EU in June 2016, the Treasury (and others) warned the consequences would be catastrophic. GDP would fall and unemployment would rise, Sterling would dip and government borrowing would climb. The shock of Brexit would plunge the UK into a recession. Ten years later, it’s clear some of those predictions were wide of the mark. But Brexit has made the UK’s economy smaller. As would-be Labour leaders Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham openly discuss the case for rejoining the EU, Soumaya asks Anand Menon, head of the UK in a Changing Europe think-tank, what the UK’s relationship with the EU should look like. They discuss the UK’s surprising areas of economic outperformance, why Labour’s “red lines” are hampering its trade ambitions and what the EU would demand if the UK moved to rejoin.

Further reading:
Andy Burnham plays down rejoining EU after Wes Streeting advocates Brexit reversal
Ten years on, what’s next for Brexit? You asked, we answered
Britain re-entering the EU ‘an inevitability’, says Treasury minister

Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.
Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Flo Phillips is the FT’s head of audio.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Everything looks to be going China’s way: Beijing has a stranglehold on the world’s critical minerals, and its high-tech manufacturing has rapidly become world-leading. Its massive trade surplus is undermining vital industries in the rest of the world. Is this part of a Chinese masterplan for world domination? The truth is a little more nuanced than that. Soumaya Keynes speaks to Jessica Chen Weiss, director of the Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. They discuss why decoupling is a “fantasy”, what “middle powers” are doing better than the US and the social and the domestic challenges that still hold China back.

Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Further reading
A cold peace between the US and China is good enough
Pete Hegseth says US-China ties are ‘better than in years’
America needs to put the renminbi back on the international agenda

Hosted by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a reversal of roles, Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman steps into host Soumaya Keynes shoes to quiz her and co-author Chad Bown about their new book "How to Win a Trade War", and the lessons it contains for surviving a global world order where traditional trade rules are being abandoned. They discuss the fragile domestic politics of a trade war, what the rest of the world can learn from China and reasons to be sort of cheerful about the future of global trade.

Further reading
No one wins a trade war. Or do they?
Why Europe must embrace tariffs

Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and sound design by Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.