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,19 Dec 2013,17 mins

Tapering begins

Business Daily

Available for over a year

Ben Bernanke confirms that the era of cheap dollars is drawing to a close. Manuela Saragosa asks the BBC's Business Editor Robert Peston what it says about the state of the US economy. She also hears from John Sudworth in Shanghai about the tremors being felt in China and other developing countries. Also in the programme, should everyone be entitled to a minimum basic income, guaranteed by the state? That is the proposal being put to a vote in Switzerland, as Imogen Foulkes reports. And if the Swiss vote yes, should the rest of us follow? Tim Harford weighs the pros and cons - will it engender a more decent society, or just a lazier one?

Programme Website
More episodes