Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

World Service,12 Oct 2013,28 mins

The End of American Exceptionalism?

In the Balance

Available for over a year

Have you ever heard of Nezahualcoyotl? No? Find out how this medieval Mexican poet inspired the programme to ask if America's economic crown is slipping. Manuela Saragosa and her guests, Edward Alden of the Council on Foreign Relations, Mthuli Ncube, chief economist and vice president of the African Development Bank, and professor Danny Quah of the London School of Economics, discuss whether political wrangling over US public finances has damaged the country's global economic standing. And the programme's resident Irish comedian and commentator Colm O'Regan reflects on his own country's relationship with the USA, and wonders if countries should have a plan B

Programme Website
More episodes