The UK is lagging behind its peers in the Eurozone. Its per capita GDP trails that of France and Germany, and yet its housing and energy is scarcer and more expensive. A recent essay by Sam Bowman, co-authored with Ben Southwood and Samuel Hughes, argues that Britain has struggled over the past 15 years because it has “banned the investment in housing, transport and energy that it most vitally needs.” Sam Bowman is a founding editor of Works in Progress, has served as director of competition policy at the International Center for Law & Economics and as executive director of the Adam Smith Institute. Today on the show, we ask him if Britain’s failure to launch is really a failure to build.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are having heated conversations about whether or not governments can be made more efficient. The results include two new agencies, Elon Musk’s ad hoc Department of Government Efficiency, and Labour’s Office for Value for Money. But when it comes to improving public services, the challenges are neither new, nor easy to navigate. This week, we are asking how to make the government more efficient. And we’re asking the UK’s former chancellor of the exchequer, Jeremy Hunt.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Trump is returning to office with many of the same policies that characterised his last term. And for economists, none looms larger than the prospect of significant new tariffs. But are tariffs really as destructive as feared? After all, the Biden administration maintained most of them and the economy has remained strong. Today on the show, we put the question to Kimberly Clausing, a professor at UCLA, and formerly lead economist in the Biden administration's Office for Tax Policy.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Michael Clemens of George Mason University is an expert on the economics of migration, and a scholar of its history. With the newly elected President Trump promising to deport millions of immigrants, we thought it was the perfect time to talk about what illegal immigrants mean to the present economy and, more pressingly, what an economy without them might look like.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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In 2025, some major provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are going to expire. Meanwhile, spending is likely to rise. That means there is going to be a conversation about tax policy. Natasha Sarin was a counselor to Treasury secretary Janet Yellen at the US Treasury, and is now a professor at Yale and president of the Budget Lab, a research centre analysing US policy. And one thing she has been studying is the tax position of many of the ultra-wealthy. Much of their wealth is in stocks, which aren’t taxed until they’re sold. This week we are going to ask, what is the best way of taxing the top 1 per cent?

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Intuitively, research and development is a building block of a productive future. But exactly how important is it, and can we put a number on it? Heidi Williams is a professor of economics at Dartmouth College, and an expert on innovation policy. She is also a visiting fellow at the Congressional Budget Office. Today on the show, she joins Soumaya Keynes to discuss public and private funding for R&D, how the two sources interact, and what we can know about how much it’s all worth to the economic future of a country.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

With the US election in a matter of weeks, today Soumaya Keynes is joined by the FT’s Washington bureau chief, James Politi. They discuss the Kamala Harris platform – from industrial policy to tax reform to housing – and what it might all cost. They also talk about how Kamala Harris might differ from Joe Biden, and which staff members might stay and which might go.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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The effective altruism movement has been on a wild ride over the past decade. EA started – in the popular consciousness, at least – as a forum for mindful questions about where best to put charitable dollars. Think bed nets and de-worming pills. But, since then, EA seems to have devolved into rationalisations for making tons of money, freak-outs about AI and the end of humanity. Today, on the show, Soumaya and guest Martin Sandbu, the FT economics editorial writer, discuss EA’s evolution, its future and whether it even makes any sense.

Soumaya Keynes writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here

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

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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