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Episode details

World Service,03 Apr 2014,55 mins

Indices 'Rigged' says Writer Michael Lewis

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High frequency trading is under the spotlight as well known and controversial author Michael Lewis turns his attention to the activities of the automated stock trading systems in his book Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt. We hear from the author himself but also from Wall Street watcher Matthew Philips of Bloomberg Businessweek, who is one of the many people taking exception to the way 21st Century traders are depicted in the book. Microsoft opts to give away its Windows operating system for free - to manufacturers of smartphones and tablets at least. Is this the death of Microsoft's successful business model? Will it head off Android users before it is too late? University of Maryland professor of Economics Peter Morici is in our Washington bureau discussing these and other questions, including the new official Kim Jong Un haircut with Jean Lee of the Associated Press who is in Seoul. And, as a Paul Gauguin turns up on a factory worker's kitchen wall in Sicily, we ask how can a painting ever be worth tens of millions of dollars.

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