Despite the pandemic, house prices across the world are soaring.

What's driving this boom from the blue and how long can it last?

You're listening to money Talks on Economist Radio, our weekly

podcast on the markets, the economy and the world of business. I'm Simon

Long, an editor at The Economist and coming up on today's show.

With sleek apps, cool ads and low fees, FinTechs have done their best to distance themselves

from the state old world of banking.

So why are some now jumping through hoops

to become banks themselves?

The head of the OCC is saying,

you know, come on in that the water is fine to all of these FinTech banks suggesting

that he's quite keen to embrace these new business models.

And in the 1980s, the Fizzy drinks business was at its most sparkling. We reflect on the life of Donald Kendall, the legendary CEO who set off the COLA Wars.

In one corner, call it the red corner, we had the veteran champion, Coca-Cola, and in the blue

corner we had the underdog, Pepsi, became a cultural phenomena. First, in the global recession a decade ago, average house prices across the world fell by over 10% in real terms.

In March this year as the economic impact of the pandemic began to bite,

economists, investors and homeowners once again braced for the worst.

But things have turned out rather differently.

First though, to house prices and how remarkably healthy those prices are in these

pandemics. Home sales across the US are on the rise as viral... Why are a real estate

prices dropping? The world's largest single asset class is booming.

Against all expectations really, the global housing market has continued the strength that it saw in

...