Hello, I'm Simon Long, finance editor at The Economist, and you're listening to money talks.

On this show, traditional carmakers seem likely to stick together in the face of technological disruption.

Tech rivals are putting pressure on carmakers.

To provide mobility, to provide autonomous driving and to

driving and to provide connected cars they need to spread the

cost of those new technology over as many vehicles as they possibly can.

Also we'll have a report from the Royal Economic Society's annual conference

about the current economic consensus over the impact of Brexit.

We are going to see GDP decline over the next 5 to 15 years

and that decline could be as substantial as 700 pounds per year per

household up to somewhere in the order of eight times that number.

And we'll hear why the gold price has weathered recent geopolitical shocks.

If you think the world is going to hell, then gold's the asset for you.

If you think we're going to muddle through as usual, then it's not really that exciting.

First though, traditional carmakers are under increasing threat as deep-pocketed tech giants continue to work their way into the transport industry.

The proliferation of ride sharing technology and the advent of self-driving vehicles

are compounding worries amongst traditional carmakers.

So could joining forces be the next step. worries amongst traditional car makers.

So could joining forces be the next step?

Simon Wright, our car industry correspondent, joins me now to discuss.

Simon, we've already seen recently this one deal where GM sold its European operations

Opel to PSA of France. Does that herald a new wave of consolidation in the industry?

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