Hey, it's Adam Grant from Worklife, a podcast from TED.

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Learn more at freshworks.com. The Economist. Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist.

I'm Jason Palmer.

And I'm Rosie Bloor. Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

China's citizens are serious savers, and that's a problem when it comes to consumption. One way around that would be

reforming the famously stingy pension system. It would be good stimulus and good social policy,

if the government dared to do it. And I really hope that I sound completely normal to you right now,

and not like Donald Duck,

because apparently a lot of you listen to podcasts at double speed.

Our correspondent asks if I'm being precious by minding about this

and how your listening experience might suffer.

But first... When France's President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the country's parliament in June of last year, it was entirely unexpected, a gamble.

He had hoped to recoup the political majority he'd lost in 2022, but his minority got even

more minor.

...