The supply chain's weak link

Forty years ago Japan made more than half of the world's semiconductors. Today, it produces just over 10%. But the country has big ambitions to turn that around.We hear from the CEO of a company at the centre of the government's high-stakes gamble to revive its semiconductor indu ...  Show more

When Slovakia was part of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the cars it made were noisy, thirsty and slow by western standards at the time. But when Volkswagen bought the car-maker Skoda, that was the beginning of a major change. Now, Slovakia makes almost a million cars a yea ...  Show more

The British pound plunges against the dollar to its lowest level in almost four decades. Investors seek protection in the US currency as recession fears grow in other markets. We talk to Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. The second largest ...  Show more

Many products are in short supply around the world, even turkeys for Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners. So, what's causing the supply crunch? And are we about to pay more? Join host Imran Khan. Guests: Jas Kalra, Assistant Professor in Supply Chain Management at Newcastle Univer ...  Show more

The boom in global trade was caused by a simple steel box. Shipping goods around the world was – for many centuries – expensive, risky and time-consuming. But, as Tim Harford explains, 60 years ago the trucking entrepreneur Malcolm McLean changed all that by selling the idea of c ...  Show more

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steven Pearlstein drops by to talk with Kate & Luigi about the incredible shrinking newspaper -- especially the business section -- and why that's bad for the economy. His new book "Can American Capitalism Survive?" argues that t ...