Behind the Money

Saks Global, the parent company of the historic luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue, recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The move occurred a little more than a year after the company purchased Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman in a debt-fuelled takeover. The FT’s Wall Street editor Sujeet Indap and the US investment editor Eric Platt walk through how that acquisition played a role in the bankruptcy and whether more highly leveraged companies will seek bankruptcy protection in 2026.

Clips from ABC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Warner Brothers

The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.

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For further reading:
Death of a dream: Saks’ crisis exposes luxury department store woes
Leveraged luxury: fall of Saks Global to scorch US business stars
Saks divisive debt reshuffle shows a retail sector under strain

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Follow Sujeet Indap on X (@sindap), or on Bluesky (@sindap.bsky.social). Eric Platt is on X (@EricGPlatt), or on Bluesky (@ericgplatt.ft.com). Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.

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

Every January a collection of the world’s top business and political leaders head to the Swiss town of Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. The event is a week of panels and networking meant to promote dialogue among elites. But a scandal last year threatened to overshadow the 2026 meeting, which begins in a few days. Critics have also questioned the event’s relevance in a changing world. The FT’s Switzerland and Austria correspondent, Mercedes Ruehl, explains the problems the WEF has faced and shares her reporting on how this year’s event is shaping up.

Clips from the World Economic Forum, Instagram: @christinelagarde

The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.

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For further reading:
Microsoft and McKinsey pay up to $1mn each to back Donald Trump’s Davos hub
Davos assured Trump ‘woke’ topics were off the agenda
The Davos set in decline: can the World Economic Forum save itself?
‘A family enterprise’: WEF founder Klaus Schwab on alleged wrongdoing at Davos

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Follow Mercedes Ruehl on X (@mjruehl), or on Bluesky (@mjruehl.bsky.social) Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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

From the artificial intelligence bubble to trade policy, Michela asks Martin Wolf, the FT's chief economics commentator, how the biggest stories of last year will affect the economy in 2026.

The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.

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For further reading:
Forecasting the world in 2026
Why the world should worry about stablecoins
Trump’s tariffs will damage the world

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Follow Martin Wolf on X (@martinwolf_). Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.

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

The surge in scams, phishing attacks and digital fraud is raising serious liability questions. So who should be doing more? In this live recording from this year’s FT Global Banking Summit, Michela poses that question to executives from Citi, KPMG and Open Banking Excellence.

The conversation was recorded on December 2, 2025.

The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.

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For further reading:
We have to be able to hold tech platforms accountable for fraud
The rise of deepfake scams — and how not to fall for one
At Singapore’s anti-fraud convention, even the experts get scammed

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Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.

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

Economists like to model people as rational creatures who make self-interested decisions. But humans don’t act that way. Why do investors, politicians and ordinary people act against their best interests – and how can they be nudged into making better decisions? To find out, FT economics commentator Chris Giles speaks to Richard Thaler, the founding father of behavioural economics. Thaler is a professor at the University of Chicago who won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on how humans make (often irrational) decisions.

This is a repeat of an episode published on The Economics Show, a sister podcast of Behind the Money, on November 7, 2025. Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Presented by Chris Giles. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music by Breen Turner. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Our broadcast engineer is Andrew Georgiades.

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