Apple has spent two decades and billions of dollars building a massive supply chain for its products. At the centre of that operation is China. But as Beijing has become more authoritarian and relations with the US sour, it has become harder for Apple to do business there. The company has been signalling recently that it will diversify away from the country, but the FT’s Patrick McGee tells Michela why cutting ties will be extremely difficult.  

Clips from Fox News, CGTN, Yahoo, ABC 

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For further reading:

How Apple tied its fortunes to China

What it would take for Apple to disentangle itself from China

Tim Cook praises Apple’s ‘symbiotic’ relationship with China

Apple and Foxconn win labour reforms to advance Indian production plans

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On Twitter, follow Patrick McGee (@PatrickMcGee_) and Michela Tindera (@mtindera07)

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

It’s time to hit the books with Behind the Money: Night School. This series will serve as a primer to the biggest economic stories of 2023. 

On today’s episode, US Managing Editor Peter Spiegel talks with Derek Brower about energy policy. They discuss how the United States became almost energy independent, President Biden’s about-face on oil and gas, and why the Inflation Reduction Act might just transform America’s economy into a hub of green innovation. 

This series is made in collaboration with Blinkist. To hear more conversations like this, check out the Blinkist app.

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Interested in pursuing Masters of Business Administration? Sign up for our newsletter course MBA 101 for your guide to applying and getting into business school.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

There’s been a lot of big finance and economics news in 2023. Whether it's stories about rising interest rates, tech industry layoffs or bank runs, it can almost feel like you need an MBA just to make sense of it all. That’s why the Financial Times is launching a bonus series on this feed called Behind the Money: Night School. 

Over the next five weeks, this show will help you understand the concepts behind the biggest economic stories of this year. U.S. managing editor Peter Spiegel chats with FT journalists as they unpack the basics around things like energy markets, inflation and the rise of artificial intelligence. This series is supported by Blinkist. If you want to find out more about conversations like this, check out the Blinkist app.

Behind the Money: Night School debuts on Monday, April 17. And, you can find it right here, on the Behind the Money podcast feed.

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

This week, we’re revisiting an important episode from last year. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered a global food crisis. Months later, FT correspondents Polina Ivanova, Chris Cook and Laura Pitel found out how Russia aims to profit from this. 

Ivanova explains how she and her colleagues used satellite photos, transponder data and a document trail to track a Russian company’s shipment of 2,675 metric tonnes of milling wheat out of the occupied Ukrainian port of Berdyansk, across the Black Sea and over to a port in Turkey. 

Clips from CNN, PBS

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For further reading:

How Russia secretly takes grain from occupied Ukraine

Russian exit from Ukraine grain deal ‘catastrophic’ for poor nations

Ships going dark: Russia’s grain smuggling in the Black Sea

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On Twitter, follow Polina Ivanova (@polinaivanovva) and Michela Tindera (@mtindera07) 

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

Climate disasters are becoming more and more common, and the countries most vulnerable to them are often the ones emitting the least pollution. That imbalance has sparked a debate on whether rich, polluting nations have a responsibility to contribute more when there are climate catastrophes. In today’s episode, we’re looking at one country that serves as an example: Pakistan. We’ll discuss how it plans to fund its recovery after record-breaking floods – worsened by climate change – submerged much of the south Asian country last year. 

Clips from Sky News Australia, Al Jazeera, Channel 4 News

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For further reading:

Rebuilding Pakistan: how much should rich nations help?

‘It’s the fault of climate change’: Pakistan seeks ‘justice’ after floods

Pakistan is on the brink

Debt burden traps global south in a vicious circle

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On Twitter, follow Ben Parkin (@b_parkyn), Camilla Hodgson (@CamillaHodgson), and Michela Tindera (@mtindera07)

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

After the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, markets were anxious, and the prestigious, yet scandal-ridden Credit Suisse looked as if it could be next to fall. But over the span of a single weekend, the Swiss government and Credit Suisse’s crosstown rival, UBS, raced against the clock to avert disaster. The FT’s banking editor Stephen Morris provides a front row look at how the deal came together.

Clips from Bloomberg, CNBC, BBC

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For further reading:

How the Swiss ‘trinity’ forced UBS to save Credit Suisse 

Credit Suisse: the rise and fall of the bank that built modern Switzerland 

Saudi National Bank chair resigns following Credit Suisse comments

And further listening:

Behind the Money's December 2022 episode, Credit Suisse's last chance

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On Twitter, follow Stephen Morris (@sjhmorris) and Michela Tindera (@mtindera07)

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

Credit Suisse… Silicon Valley Bank… Signature Bank… First Republic… After weeks of breaking headlines about banks in crisis, we are taking a big picture look at the sector with the FT’s chief economics commentator, Martin Wolf. In this episode, he explains why banks fail, and lays out the four paths that banking reform could take in the future. 

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For further reading:

Banks are designed to fail — and they do 

US capitalism is ‘breaking down before our eyes’, says Ken Griffin

How the Swiss ‘trinity’ forced UBS to save Credit Suisse

Four ways to fix the bank problem

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On Twitter, follow Martin Wolf (@martinwolf_) and Michela Tindera (@mtindera07)

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last week raised questions about the strength of the United States’ banking system, and whether we’re headed for another financial crisis. The FT’s US financial commentator Robert Armstrong tells us why he’s not freaking out. 

Clips from CBS, NBC, CNN, DW

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For further reading:

SVB was only a little bit insolvent, luckily

SVB’s collapse is not a harbinger of another 2008

The weekend US officials hatched a plan to stave off a banking crisis 

Silicon Valley Bank shows the perils of regulators fighting the last war

For further discussion: 

Join an FT subscriber-only webinar on SVB’s collapse and the fallout, featuring Robert Armstrong and other FT journalists and guests, on Thursday March 16 1600-1700 GMT (1200-1300 ET). Register here. 

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On Twitter, follow Robert Armstrong (@rbrtrmstrng) and Michela Tindera (@mtindera07)

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

Over just a few years, the share price of an obscure company from the United Arab Emirates has jumped 40,000%. But little is known about International Holding Company, which has investments in everything from Elon Musk’s SpaceX to India’s Adani Group. The FT’s Middle East editor travelled to Abu Dhabi to get answers about its rapid growth and its connections to some of the most powerful people in the Gulf. 

Clips from MSNBC, CBS

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For further reading:

The UAE business that went from obscurity to a $240bn valuation in 3 years

The sheikh’s empire driving Abu Dhabi’s meteoric stock market rise

The Abu Dhabi royal at the nexus of UAE business and national security 

Groovy girls, typing pools and labour camps: the complicated world of IHC

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On Twitter, follow Andrew England (@cornishft) and Michela Tindera (@mtindera07)

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

Recently, flying in the US seems to be more chaotic than calm. And while it may seem like this all started recently, the FT’s Chicago Correspondent Claire Bushey takes us back to a decision that happened in the 1970s that got us to where we are now. 

Clips from NBC, PBS, CBS

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For further reading:

How the US fell out of love with flying

Passengers to keep ‘paying the price’ of aviation chaos, says United CEO

Hyper-efficiency is bad business

US airlines: higher fares and (hopefully) better service

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On Twitter, follow Claire Bushey (@Claire_Bushey) and Michela Tindera (@mtindera07)

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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