logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2024
47m 12s

The History of Bad Ideas: The Gold Stand...

David Runciman
About this episode
In the second episode in our series on bad ideas David talks to the political economist Helen Thompson about the gold standard, which was meant to anchor the world economy until it all fell apart a hundred years ago. Why does gold so often appear like a stable basis for money in an unstable world – and why not silver? What made the gold standard a source of ... Show More
Up next
Today
Live Film Special: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut w/Beeban Kidron
Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to film director and campaigner Beeban Kidron about the 1999 film-length version of South Park. In among all the swearing and stupidity is a serious satire of censorship, m ... Show More
1h 8m
Apr 26
Talking … Peter Mandelson and New Labour w/Helen Thompson
In today’s episode David and Helen Thompson explore the tortured relationship between Peter Mandelson and the New Labour project that he helped to create and now seems finally to have destroyed. How has the whole history of New Labour been shaped by its origin in ideas of betraya ... Show More
56m 53s
Apr 24
PPF+: A Taste Of What You’ve Been Missing (Taster 2)
In today’s extra episode some more highlights from the PPF+ archive in another selection we first put out last summer: here are a few more excerpts we think you might enjoy. In this episode you’ll hear David talking about In the Loop and the question of why politicians do and don ... Show More
1 h
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2021
Killing the Gold Standard
April 18, 1933. It’s almost midnight in Washington, DC. Newly-elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has gathered his economic advisors for a late-night meeting. He called this meeting to announce his plan to effectively take the US off the gold standard, the system by which ... Show More
28m 5s
Mar 2023
MI263: Gold Through The Ages: Understanding it’s Role Under Different Monetary Regimes w/ Dana Samuelson
Rebecca and Dana Samuelson chat about rare gold coins, their differences from other gold/silver investments, gold's changing role in the monetary system, and its impact on pricing, and more. Dana Samuelson is the President of American Gold Exchange, Inc. with 42 years trading pre ... Show More
56m 38s
Jan 2021
More Money Less Problems
<p>Back in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning and the shelter-in-place orders brought the economy to a screeching halt, a quirky-but-clever idea to save the economy made its way up to some of the highest levels of government. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib pro ... Show More
28m 17s
Jan 2022
The Gold Standard
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the system that flourished from 1870 when gold became dominant and more widely available, following gold rushes in California and Australia. Banknotes could be exchanged for gold at central banks, the coins in circulation could be gold (as with the ... Show More
49 m
Jan 2022
The Gold Standard
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the system that flourished from 1870 when gold became dominant and more widely available, following gold rushes in California and Australia. Banknotes could be exchanged for gold at central banks, the coins in circulation could be gold (as with the ... Show More
49 m
May 2023
The Long-term Bullish Case for Gold
tail spinning
27m 47s
Apr 2024
Fool’s Gold
There are two types of people who buy gold. Speculators who see it as a risk-adverse asset class to buy when other investments look a little shaky. There are also those who hold onto gold because they believe paper money has no intrinsic value and is therefore susceptible to coll ... Show More
38m 34s