The $18tn Question
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 24 August 2017
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As the world's central bankers meet for their summer retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, what will be on their minds? Perhaps it will be their $18tn balance sheets, and all the extra cash they created as a consequence, argues author and policy analyst Pippa Malmgren.
The BBC's Joe Miller has been finding out how Frankfurt might cope with a sudden influx of bankers, should the world's lenders choose it as their new European home.
Air India has recently decided to offer only vegetarian food to those travelling inside India in economy class. Rahul Tandon does that quite a lot, and he says the airline's move has got him thinking.
(Photo: Coins stacked on each other in different positions. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. I'm Andrew Walker. Coming up, reaping what a decade of money printing has sowed. We'll be talking to economist Pippa Moundgren about the forthcoming meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole. |
| 0:19.0 | Whatever the old all-time record high was, the new one |
| 0:22.6 | is $18 trillion more than it was before, because that money has to go somewhere. If you give the |
| 0:28.2 | market free money, $18 trillion worth of free money, you can't be surprised that they throw it |
| 0:32.6 | around. And the BBC's Joe Miller has been finding out how Frankfurt might cope with a sudden influx of bankers. |
| 0:39.8 | They're looking around, testing the market. |
| 0:42.3 | We have, I would say, more than 10, 11 clients currently coming to Frankfurt. |
| 0:47.2 | But honestly, the people are coming, visiting, looking around, but not making any decisions. |
| 0:52.7 | That's all in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:58.0 | It's August, which means it's summer holiday time for many people in the Northern |
| 1:02.2 | Hemisphere, even central bankers. They're gathering for their annual retreat in the American |
| 1:07.2 | mountains at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. There'll be some hiking, but no real escape |
| 1:12.1 | from the challenges of monetary policy. One big issue, the return to something like normal |
| 1:17.4 | after the extraordinary policies in response to the financial crisis. The US Federal Reserve |
| 1:22.5 | has made a start, raising interest rates from their ultra-glow levels post-crisis. But central banks in the Eurozone, Japan and the UK, have much further to go. |
| 1:32.1 | I've been discussing these issues with Pippa Malgren, who was an economic advisor to President |
| 1:36.5 | George W. Bush and now to the British government. |
| 1:39.9 | I asked her what she thinks is the biggest problem policymakers face. |
| 1:43.9 | Big is a small word for the magnitude of problem that they face. |
| 1:48.4 | Think of it this way. |
| 1:49.8 | Central banks around the world injected roughly $18 trillion into the world economy |
| 1:54.9 | in the aftermath of the financial crisis, hoping that it would save us. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

