What are the political and economic factors to watch in 2020? Will the trade wars continue, will Brexit get done and who will be the next US president? Ed Butler is joined by economists Professor Meredith Crowley, Reader in International Economics, University of Cambridge; Guntram Wolff, Director of Bruegel, an economic think tank and Professor Raghuram Rajan of Chicago Booth School of Business to discuss how the events of 2019 will influence the coming year and give us their forecasts for...

What is best practice for employers dealing with mental health problems at work? The World Health Organisation estimates that depression and anxiety cost the global economy about one trillion dollars a year in lost productivity. About half of all workers suffer from poor mental health but few of us talk to our employers about it. So how can an employer support someone going through a crisis, and does the workplace have a role in breaking down the stigma around mental health? Manuela Saragosa...

Are mandatory quotas desirable or necessary to ensure more diversity in our company boardrooms? The Netherlands has just passed a law obliging listed companies to have 30% of their non-executive boards made up of women and California has till the end of the year to ensure at least one woman is on the board of its public companies. But that law is being challenged, and quotas elsewhere have had mixed success. So why bother? Manuela Saragosa and guests Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe, founder and...

Can we trust the political adverts in our news feeds? Who is sending them, why are we being targeted and are they even true? This week we're looking at the thorny issue of political advertising on social media. Is regulation needed to ensure fair and trustworthy election campaigns or would restrictions endanger free speech and limit voter choice? Ed Butler is joined by Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC technology correspondent, data rights lawyer Ravi Naik, Lisa-Maria Neudert, doctoral researcher at the...

Divestment has become a rallying call by environmental campaigners in the fight against climate change. It's when environmentally aware investors put pressure on their fund managers, employers and governments to move money away from polluting industries. An estimated $11 trillion have been divested from fossil fuel stocks since the 2015 Paris climate summit, but has that divestment made a difference? With emissions continuing to soar, wouldn't it be better just to tax energy companies more?...

At a time when we’re living longer, healthier lives should we do away with the notion of retirement and just keep on working? Are the skills of older people adequate, and are they even wanted in a youth-obsessed society? Ed Butler will be discussing the financial drivers behind working longer, the social benefits of being actively employed and the choices that governments, employers and individuals need to make to prepare for older age. Our guests this week are Samuel Engblom, Policy...

The EU has a new parliament, new leadership, but the same old problems; Brexit, political populism and an economic slowdown. How will it stand up to the test? This week’s In the Balance comes from the 'Kilkenomics' festival of economics and comedy in Ireland, in front of a live audience of festival-goers. Rory Cellan- Jones is joined by a panel of top Irish, European and American economists in Cleere's pub in Kilkenny, along with comedian Colm O’Regan who is reflecting on how small countries...

Some of the world’s top thinkers on artificial intelligence discuss the threats intelligent machines might pose to humans. With Turkey claiming it may be able to launch autonomous killer drones in the near future, is it time we all thought a bit harder about how we want this cutting edge technology to be deployed? Ed Butler and guests discuss artificial intelligence, from military hardware, to online advertising and insurance. Ed is joined by Dame Wendy Hall, Professor of Computer Science at...

India has a poor record when it comes to the balance between the sexes. Gender bias begins early in conservative families where girls may be denied education and forced into household work. Playing sport is one way of challenging these gender stereotypes. But it's a struggle. From social discrimination to equal pay, sportswomen say they have to fight prejudice at every step. It starts with questions on their choice of sport and the way they dress, and moves on to why they want to step out of...

Across the globe an estimated forty million people are victims of modern day slavery, either in forced labour or forced marriages. Devina Gupta and her guests in Delhi discuss what can be done to end this. In India alone around 18 million people live in modern slavery, according to the Global Slavery Index - although that statistic is questioned by the Indian government. Joining Devina to explore the reality of this hidden world are Riya Singh, a young female activist who works to end...

What's the best strategy for starting a business from nothing? What if you have to start over - either in a new country or because of a business failure or setback in life? We hear from a Syrian refugee who started her cheese making business from the ground up and from South Africa we are joined by the managing director of an organisation advising small scale entrepreneurs who are doing business in tough conditions. Also in the programme, Ed Butler is joined by a venture capital funder who...

How many of us think we are being watched at work? The indications are that workplace surveillance is on the rise. Everything from closed circuit television cameras, key-stroke logging to wearable devices can be used by employers to keep an eye on us as employees and to track our actions and behaviour at work. The use of “people analytics" to shape the workforce is a big and growing area of business. Increasing amounts of data collected on workers is being used to make predictions about our...

Thanks to technology, these days it’s possible to work almost anywhere. You can log on from your kitchen table, in a trendy café or even on the beach. So what’s the point of the noisy, crowded office? Perhaps it’s time we ditched the daily commute and found better places, and better ways, to get the job done. Manuela Saragosa has been discussing, with her three guests, just what kind of spaces we’ll be working in in future, and whether the office has some redeeming features after...

Giving and receiving feedback is one of the hardest skills to get right in the modern workplace. We dig into the subject to find out the best, and worst, ways to hold frank discussions at work. Ed Butler is joined by three expert guests: Joseph Grenny runs a leadership consultancy, VitalSmarts, in Salt Lake City offering advice to business. He also chairs a not for profit organisation called The Other Side Academy, working with former prisoners or homeless people where feedback is instant and...

As the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, Ed Butler asks whether people will soon be routinely working in outer space. A commercial space race is underway with companies preparing for the day when humans set up a lunar base and then move on to Mars. Ed hears from an expert from NASA, a promoter of commercial opportunities for space businesses and from a psychologist about what to expect from a working life in space. Contributors: Pedro Quinteiro, ISPA -...

Where have all the good jobs gone? With the shift from manufacturing to service sector jobs in many industrialised countries, Audrey Tinline and guests look at whether some jobs are providing a better quality of work than others. Many people now expect to have a number of different jobs, or even careers, across their working lives - have we lost something in not having a job for life? Or have we gained new freedoms to re-invent ourselves? Contributors: Lynda Gratton, Professor of...

Prison labour is a feature of penal systems almost everywhere around the world and many private companies profit from it. But whose benefit is the work really for? Does it help the prisoners? Or is it just a way of reducing the huge costs that tax-payers pay each year to keep people behind bars? Join Ed Butler to hear from former prisoners and experts on prison work to find out more about the true cost of penal labour. Contributors: Chandra Bozelko, former prison inmate, writer and...

Should the big tech firms be broken up? Are companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google now so powerful and influential in the way they dominate our lives, our businesses, and certain specific markets, that they need to be cut down to size? Ed Butler is joined by a trio of expert guests to ask whether the USA and the EU need to change anti trust and competition laws in order to deal with the tech firms? Guests: Scott Hemphill, NYU law professor. He teaches a course called BigTech and Standard...

India is in the middle of the world’s biggest election and the battle to reach the country's 900 million voters is on every screen. Political parties are spending big money on digital strategy and social media marketing. But is all the investment worth it? Is it reaching the voters it should and swaying political choices? Devina Gupta from the BBC's WorklifeIndia is joined by a popular actor turned politician, the public policy head of India’s own vernacular social network, and a digital...

In the Balance digs into the sometimes murky business of philanthropy. Giving away large sums of money has become a hot topic, as some of the world's most high profile donors and institutions have become mired in controversy.The most obvious example has been over donations to arts and culture organisation made by some members of the Sackler family. Some of the family wealth was founded on the US company Purdue Pharma, the maker of an opiod painkiller. But it's not just the Sackler riches that...

As the Indian election gets underway, should politicians be turning their attention to India's silent killer? Join Devina Gupta and guests in India as they sit outside in one of the country's most polluted cities to consider how poor air quality is affecting people's lives, businesses and health. Should air pollution be one of the biggest election issues? In the Balance joins forces with WorkLifeIndia to hear from residents, activists and business people in one of the world's most polluted...

As the warnings around the risks of climate change increase, some in the left, led by US democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are trumpeting an economic solution called the Green New Deal. The idea is that a massive public injection of money could fix the shortfall in green tech in the US, turn America into a zero-emissions economy and tackle poverty all at the same time. But how would such a plan work? Do the numbers add up or is it just fantasy economics? Joining Ed Butler to discuss this...

Online gaming and e-sports are huge industries, but there are concerns about over-use and addiction and the way gaming takes up the time of young people. China is forcing some of its biggest games companies to put restrictions on the number of hours a day under 18s can play. But do such curbs make any difference, both to the young gamers and to the gaming business itself? Rory Cellan-Jones hears from a gaming expert and former professional e-sports player, a former online gaming addict and...

European leaders have given Theresa May a short breather by extending Britain’s departure to either April 12th or May 22nd, depending on whether or not she can get her withdrawal deal passed by the UK parliament. But no matter when or how Britain leaves the EU, has the economic damage already been inflicted? Anu Anand speaks to European business leaders about how much the uncertainty has already cost them financially. And how the political acrimony experienced in the run-up to Brexit could...