Some podcasts are about the news.

Some podcasts are about politics and science and history.

But my new podcast for the BBC World Service is about losing the man I loved.

It's called goodbye to all this and you can find it by searching for goodbye to all this wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker.

My guest today is regarded as one of the leading analysts of the UK and global economies,

with a track record that has won him top jobs in the private and public sectors.

For much of his career, Jim O'Neill worked at Goldman Sachs, rising to be chief economist at the

renowned Merchant Bank. His early understanding of the rising importance of the emerging

economies led by China prompted him to coin an acronym, the brick economies, namely Brazil,

Russia, India and China, which came to define an era of shifting economic power. After leaving

Goldman, O'Neill served briefly as commercial secretary to the

British government, led by David Cameron, a job in which he championed closer economic partnership

with China, and he's become a staunch advocate of bold economic measures to refashion capitalism

along more equitable, sustainable, decentralized lines.

Now, of course, the UK and countries across the world are grappling with a prolonged

economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. So has the case for a bold reimagining of

capitalism been put on hold? Well, Jim O'Neill joins me now.

Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you, Stephen. Nice to be with you. It's good to have you.

Is the world economy weathering this COVID-19 pandemic as well as you expected?

It was through September, even though there were many

significant issues about the medium to long term state of the world, some of which have been

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