logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2025
3m 47s

Trailer: Scam Inc

The Economist
About this episode

A sophisticated, predatory, multi-billion dollar industry is emerging from the shadows. It already rivals the size of the illicit drug trade. And it’s about to get bigger and much more powerful. 


The Economist’s Sue-Lin Wong follows a trail that starts with the collapse of a bank in rural Kansas to uncover a global, underground scam economy built around human trafficking, corruption and money laundering. Can it be stopped?


Available now.


To listen to the full series subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.


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

Up next
Today
House of Kurds: on the ground in northern Syria
In recent days Syrian government troops have tried to retake territory held by the country’s Kurdish minority. Our correspondent reports from the region. Factions are fighting to control Vietnam’s Communist Party Congress: the winner will change Vietnam’s future. And are millenni ... Show More
20m 56s
Yesterday
Power ballot: Japanese PM’s electoral gamble
Japan’s prime minister Takaichi Sanae has called an election three months into her term. Can she capitalise on her popularity, or will her less-popular party be punished at the ballot box? Will a new treaty curb the destruction of the oceans? And how fancy restaurants are respond ... Show More
23m 37s
Jan 19
Thin ice: could the Greenland clash kill NATO?
Donald Trump has promised to impose a 10% tariff on eight countries, all NATO members, that oppose his plan to acquire Greenland. As the argument over the territory’s future continues, our correspondent analyses the fragile state of international relations. American megachurches ... Show More
23m 55s
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2025
Trailer: Scam Inc
<p>A sophisticated, predatory, multi-billion dollar industry is emerging from the shadows. It already rivals the size of the illicit drug trade. And it’s about to get bigger and much more powerful.&nbsp;</p><br><p><em>The Economist</em>’s Sue-Lin Wong follows a trail that starts ... Show More
3m 47s
Jan 2025
Trailer: Scam Inc
A sophisticated, predatory, multi-billion dollar industry is emerging from the shadows. It already rivals the size of the illicit drug trade. And it’s about to get bigger and much more powerful. The Economist’s Sue-Lin Wong follows a trail that starts with the collapse of a bank ... Show More
3m 47s
Jan 2025
Trailer: Scam Inc
<p>A sophisticated, predatory, multi-billion dollar industry is emerging from the shadows. It already rivals the size of the illicit drug trade. And it’s about to get bigger and much more powerful.&nbsp;</p><br><p><em>The Economist</em>’s Sue-Lin Wong follows a trail that starts ... Show More
3m 47s
Feb 2025
Trailer: Scam Inc
A sophisticated, predatory, multi-billion dollar industry is emerging from the shadows. It already rivals the size of the illicit drug trade. And it’s about to get bigger and much more powerful. The Economist’s Sue-Lin Wong follows a trail that starts with the collapse of a bank ... Show More
3m 47s
Jan 2025
Trailer: Scam Inc
<p>A sophisticated, predatory, multi-billion dollar industry is emerging from the shadows. It already rivals the size of the illicit drug trade. And it’s about to get bigger and much more powerful.&nbsp;</p><br><p><em>The Economist</em>’s Sue-Lin Wong follows a trail that starts ... Show More
3m 47s
Jan 2025
Trailer: Scam Inc
A sophisticated, predatory, multi-billion dollar industry is emerging from the shadows. It already rivals the size of the illicit drug trade. And it’s about to get bigger and much more powerful. The Economist’s Sue-Lin Wong follows a trail that starts with the collapse of a bank ... Show More
3m 47s
Jan 2025
Trailer: Scam Inc
A sophisticated, predatory, multi-billion dollar industry is emerging from the shadows. It already rivals the size of the illicit drug trade. And it’s about to get bigger and much more powerful.  The Economist’s Sue-Lin Wong follows a trail that starts with the collapse of a bank ... Show More
3m 47s
May 2025
Martin Wolf talks to Kenneth Rogoff: Trump is accelerating the dollar’s decline
The US dollar has been in slow decline for around a decade – so says Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard professor, and former chief economist of the IMF. Donald Trump’s trade policies have raised a lot of questions about the future of the dollar – and how its decline could affect the rest o ... Show More
30m 18s
Mar 2025
The Sunday Read: ‘The Cryptocurrency Scam That Turned a Small Town Against Itself’
<p>Jim Tucker could hardly believe what he was hearing. It sounded like fiction, a nightmare too outlandish for an unassuming town like his.</p><p>It was July 2023, and Tucker was hosting a meeting of the board of Heartland Tri-State Bank, a community-owned business in a small Ka ... Show More
27m 37s
Apr 2025
Taking Stock of the ‘Sell America’ Trade
Something strange happened in the US financial system earlier this week: the stock market, the bond market, and the value of the dollar all slumped. This volatility andrecent threats to fire Fed chief Jerome Powell are unnerving foreign investors, who are flocking to a new phenom ... Show More
20m 12s