Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Jason Palmer. Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Mobile phones are, of course, not just for making calls. In the developing world, they can represent someone's first link to the formal financial system.

But, along with the benefits of mobile banking, come the risks of fraud and exploitation.

And fashion houses pump out an abundance of pricey clothes, a new line available every six months.

But what about the stuff that doesn't sell? Incinerating it all turned out to be pretty bad PR,

so high-end brands are having to come up with other ideas.

First up, though.

Last night, President Donald Trump delivered his fourth State of the Union address.

It was full of dramatic flourishes and actions seemingly precision-engineered to rankle Democrats.

The State of the Union address is one of the big set pieces of American politics. John Priddo is our United States editor.

It once drew a vast TV audience live. The audience is not so big now,

but it's still a very good opportunity for the president to address the nation

uninterrupted.

If you go back to previous state of the unions, what presidents have often tried to do is use

them to announce policy initiatives, which would then be followed through later on.

There was less of that in President Trump's state of the union.

There was a lot of stuff about how fantastically the country was doing.

Jobs are booming, incomes are soaring, poverty is plummeting.

You know, he talked about the government having shattered the mentality of American decline.

And our country is thriving and highly respected again.

And it was really a description of America that was flourishing and flourishing entirely thanks to the good work of the Trump administration.

But there wasn't just that. There was a great deal of partisan rancor as well.

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