Hello, I'm Simon Long, the Economist's Finance and Economics Editor, and you're listening to Money Talks.

Coming up on the program, why are the markets so blase about nuclear Armageddon?

I think the answer is they don't believe it's going to happen.

How technology even in rich countries is making banking more inclusive.

It's a story of the marriage of mobile phones and finance.

And China's great leap backwards are its capacity cuts for real.

What seems to be different this time... are its capacity cuts for real.

What seems to be different this time

is that the political will and the power

to enforce these dictates appears to be stronger. But first, the world is reading some scary headlines these days after North Korea's

latest and biggest test of a nuclear bomb.

America's ambassador to the United Nations has accused the country of begging for a war.

Her boss, President Donald Trump, sometimes gives the impression he's only too willing to oblige.

Now you'd expect all this to rattle the financial markets and

to discuss their reaction I'm joined by a buttonwood columnist Philip Kogan.

Hello Philip. Hello Simon. So which is it rattled or eerily calm?

It's definitely nearer to eerily calm.

We've seen a bit of reaction, gold is up, Treasury bond yields have fallen, indicating investors

are buying government bonds, the South Korean stock market

which is probably the most sensitive to all this is down a bit, but the markets are not reacting

in a way that reflects the rhetoric being shown by either the US or North Korea.

Now why is this?

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