- 47 minutes 1 second282. Are politicians living in a tax-and-spend dream world?
Are the government plans to help low income households hitting the right spot? Is there too much focus on symptoms and not causes? Could fiscal devolution happen too quickly? Why does the IMF often give the UK a rough ride on forecasts?
Paul Johnson - former director of the IFS - is back to give us his take on the economic reforms being discussed across the political sphere. Plus Robert puts him under pressure to tell us which government has been the worst economically. Will he answer? Listen to Robert and Steph’s chat with him to find out.
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27 May 2026, 11:05 pm - 43 minutes 52 seconds281. How to tax billionaires
How many billionaires are there in the world? How much has their wealth grown by? Why do lots of billionaires pay almost no income tax? How much of a problem are tax havens? Would a 2% global wealth tax (on people with over $100million) work in practice?
Robert and Steph talk to prominent economist Gabriel Zucman about his decades long research on wealth inequality and discuss the pros and cons of wealth taxation policies.
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24 May 2026, 11:10 pm - 36 minutes 33 seconds280. Should the government set food prices?
Would a voluntary agreement between supermarket bosses and the Chancellor to cap the prices of food basics help those struggling on low incomes? Is the biggest threat to the UK now higher inflation or higher unemployment? And could Andy Burnham, as Prime Minister, take control of water and energy without destroying the public finances?
Steph and Robert discuss Rachel Reeves’ plans to protect living standards from Trump’s Iran war shock, and try to work out what Andy Burnham means when he says his “Manchesterism” is the end of neoliberalism.
The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain’s smart energy pioneer.
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20 May 2026, 5:45 pm - 51 minutes 32 seconds279. Why SMEs want more than verbal enthusiasm from politicians
Is the government doing enough to prioritise British SMEs in its defence spending plans? Should price always come first or should more expensive British made goods be the priority? Or are we in danger of propping up zombie business? And with rising energy and employment costs, how hard is it to be a UK manufacturer now?
With the government aiming to increase UK SME defence spending by fifty percent, Steph talks to a manufacturer desperate to win back the MoD contracts it lost in the 1980s. Ben Fogle and James Sleater tell us their ambitions plans for Buffalo Systems.
The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain’s smart energy pioneer.
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17 May 2026, 11:05 pm - 44 minutes 45 seconds278. Can any Starmer rival rescue the economy?
Has Labour got what it takes to deliver growth? Is a change in leadership going to help? How might Rayner, Burnham or Streeting fair against the bond markets? Could a plan to shift the tax burden away from working people and on to assets be the answer?
As the chaos in Westminster continues, and government borrowing costs reach a 28 year high, Robert and Steph discuss what it will take to get the stability we need, and more importantly the growth.
The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain’s smart energy pioneer.
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12 May 2026, 5:30 pm - 49 minutes 48 seconds277. How to make green energy a vote winner
Why is the UK’s energy pricing system so broken? Why must the transition to green energy be accelerated? And how can we make clean, renewable power the most affordable option for those on low incomes?
Robert joins Emma Pinchbeck, CEO of the Climate Change Committee, to discuss the misunderstood parts of our energy system and what the UK’s shift to renewables actually looks like.
The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain’s smart energy pioneer.
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10 May 2026, 11:05 pm - 53 minutes 24 seconds276. Will bond market vigilantes see off Starmer’s rivals?
Could the government’s creditors protect Starmer and Reeves, even if Labour is humiliated in the elections? How high are UK interest rates going to rise because of Trump’s Iran war? Has monetary policy stopped working? Could AI actually lead to the creation of millions of new jobs? And is coal consumption in the 19th Century a good way to predict this?
Steph and Robert dissect the Bank of England’s latest assessment of the UK economy. Plus Robert takes us back in time to explain why Jevons Paradox on coal consumption could be relevant to the AI revolution we’re in now.
The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain’s smart energy pioneer.
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6 May 2026, 4:00 pm - 42 minutes 48 seconds275. The Debt Paradox: Britain’s Hidden Credit Crisis
If household debt as a percentage of GDP is at its lowest since 2002, why are debt charities seeing record levels of demand? Is this a temporary problem because of the cost of living crisis or about much bigger structural problems in the UK economy? Plus, what is ‘co-erced debt’ and why is it a growing problem?
Steph talks to Vikki Brownridge the CEO of the debt advisory charity StepChange about what’s really going on for the increasing number of people struggling with money. They discuss the challenges of the ‘working poor’ and whether policy changes like the lifting of the two child benefits cap will make any difference.
The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain’s smart energy pioneer.
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3 May 2026, 11:05 pm - 44 minutes 13 seconds274. Would rejoining the EU be the best growth strategy?
How much did Brexit cost the UK? Would rejoining make us much richer? And if US managers are PSG players, are British ones more like Aston Villa’s?
Robert talks to Stanford Professor Nick Bloom about his influential forecast, recently adopted by Rachel Reeves, that quitting the EU made Britain 8% or £240bn poorer than it would otherwise have been.
The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain’s smart energy pioneer.
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29 April 2026, 11:05 pm - 52 minutes 45 seconds273. How angry are business leaders with the government?
How long will Starmer cling on for? Will politicians sucking up to Northerners make any difference to the North South divide? What’s the latest with the Strait of Hormuz and how is it impacting global prices? How is that feeding through to inflation here? Is Miliband right to stop more oil being drilled in the North Sea and what’s his plan to bring down energy bills?
After another week of Mandelson drama, Robert takes us behind the scenes and Steph looks at examples in business where bad vetting has had disastrous consequences. Plus all the latest on the markets.
The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain’s smart energy pioneer.
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26 April 2026, 11:05 pm - 53 minutes 13 seconds272. Is Anthropic holding businesses to ransom?
Is it fair that only some businesses have access to Anthropic’s super-powerful Mythos AI, given its ability to pierce cyber defences? Will OpenAI go bust? Will Demis Hassabis win the AI wars?
Robert Peston talks to Sebastian Mallaby about his biography of British AI genius Demis Hassabis, The Infinity Machine.
Note: We contacted OpenAI for comment, who told us that 'the article revisits old, widely reported episodes and frames them through selective anecdotes, anonymous claims, and incomplete context. They also said that OpenAI today is a very different company: larger, more mature, more rigorously governed, and operating at global scale.
The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain’s smart energy pioneer.
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