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03Phone-in edition20130423

For the last 5 years economic questions have dominated the news. But do you have questions that haven't been answered?

What would happen if a country left the Euro? What do hedge funds actually do? What about quantitative easing? If the Government owns a third of its own debt, why can't it just write it off and solve our debt problem overnight?

In a special edition of Stephanomics, the BBC's economics editor Stephanie Flanders and an expert panel including Andrew Dilnott, Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Janet Henry, Chief European Economist at HSBCIB and Peter Antonioni, co-author of 'Economics for Dummies' will try and answer your economics questions in a live phone-in.

Get in touch with your questions NOW. Email: stephanomics@bbc.co.uk or tweet @bbcradio4 #stephanomics or call 03 700 100 444 from 8am on Tuesday 23rd April.

Stephanie Flanders and an expert panel answer your economics questions in a live phone-in.

Stephanie Flanders presents a series on the economics of our times

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In the first of a brand new series of conversation programmes about economics, Stephanie Flanders discusses the global financial crisis with a panel of top economic thinkers. Together they'll debate the future: how will the current crisis play out a decade from now? Will the euro even exist by then? What will happen to jobs and can Western economies expect to grow at all over the next few years? Stephanie will be joined this week by David Roche, President of Independent Strategy, a global investment research firm, Nicola Horlick, Chief Executive of Bramdean Asset Management and Will Hutton, Chair of the Big Innovation Centre, a new think tank set up by the Work Foundation.

Producer: Caroline Bayley
Editor: Stephen Chilcott.

Stephanie Flanders discusses the global financial crisis with top economic thinkers.

Stephanie Flanders presents a series on the economics of our times

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In the second of three programmes, Stephanie Flanders discusses the global financial crisis with a panel of top economic thinkers including George Soros. She'll be asking just who is to blame for the current economic mess we're in. Was it the fault of the bankers - who plenty of people want to blame - or was it the economists? And what can we learn from this, or is the problem that we simply don't learn lessons from past crises? Stephanie Flanders will be joined in the studio to debate these questions by the billionaire investor, George Soros, Sir Howard Davies, who is the former director of the LSE, former chairman of the FSA and former deputy governor of the Bank of England, and also Dr DeAnne Julius, chairman of Chatham House and a former member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee.
The programme is broadcast first on BBC Radio 4 and later on BBC World Service Radio, BBC World News TV and BBC News Channel TV.
Producer: Caroline Bayley
Editor: Stephen Chilcott.

Stephanie Flanders on the global financial crisis with top economists and George Soros.

Stephanie Flanders presents a series on the economics of our times

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Every week sees another "make or break" summit to save the euro. This week it's the G20 in Cannes. But somehow the global markets always seem to be a step ahead...In the third programme in her series of debates about the financial crisis, Stephanie Flanders asks a panel of top economic thinkers whether the world has the institutions it needs to confront today's problems. Stephanie is joined in the studio by Willem Buiter, Chief Economist at Citigroup, Jim O'Neill Chairman of the asset management division of Goldman Sachs and Katinka Barysch, Deputy Director of the Centre for European Reform in London. They'll also discuss whether the lesson of the last few years - especially in the eurozone - is that national democracies and global markets simply don't mix. The programme is broadcast first on BBC Radio 4 and later on BBC World Service Radio, BBC World News TV and BBC News Channel TV.

Producer Caroline Bayley
Editor Stephen Chilcott.

Stephanie Flanders discusses the global financial crisis with top economic thinkers.

Stephanie Flanders presents a series on the economics of our times

020120120717In the first of a new series, the award-winning BBC's Economics Editor, Stephanie Flanders, discusses with leading economists what will pull Britain out of recession and restore the economy to growth. In the 1930s, after the Great Depression, Britain recovered first through a housing boom in the private sector and then through rearming for a world war. Eighty years on, what is going to do the trick this time?

Among those joining Stephanie are the leading economic historian, Nicholas Crafts; Kate Barker, the expert on housing and planning and former member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee; and Oxford University economist, Dieter Helm.

Top economists discuss with Stephanie Flanders how to get the UK economy to grow again.

Stephanie Flanders presents a series on the economics of our times

020220120724In the second of her discussion programmes looking at the key economic issues of our time, Stephanie Flanders asks where the Chinese and US economies are heading. Conventional wisdom holds that America is set on an historic downward path while the Chinese giant is poised to dominate the global economy. But is this view too simplistic?

Although managing only a low growth rate at present, dramatically lower energy costs are helping the US reindustrialise its economy. At the same time it continues to enjoy unrivalled advantages in the technology and service sectors. Meanwhile, China's growth is slowing and its economy still rigidly planned. It is critically dependent on imported raw materials on the one hand and on exports to the advanced industrialised economies on the other. It is also strangely imbalanced with prodigious amounts of investment but puny levels of consumption.

So what does the future hold for the two global economic giants - and how will Britain be affected? Joining Stephanie to discuss the prospects are: Arvind Subramanian of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC and author of Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China's Economic Dominance; Charles Dumas, chief executive of the independent economic consultancy, Lombard Street Research, and author of The American Phoenix: Why China and Europe Will Struggle After the Coming Slump; and Paul Ormerod, economist and writer on business, whose books include Butterfly Economics.

Producer: Simon Coates

Editor: Stephen Chilcott.

Stephanie Flanders discusses what the future of the US and Chinese economies mean for us.

Stephanie Flanders presents a series on the economics of our times

02033-320120731In the final programme of the current series, Stephanie Flanders discusses with three leading economists how far long-term economic growth should be the over-riding objective of governments and societies in countries like Britain.

In the boom years, we saw that growth did not automatically lead to increased human contentment or greater welfare. So should we continue to accord it the level of priority which British governments of all parties have given it over recent decades?

One of the reasons why long-term growth may not provide us with a greater sense of well-being is that it does not solve problems created by inequality. But if we had different economic aims would inequality be tackled more successfully? And if so, how?

If we decide to move away from faster growth as our economic objective, that would have other implications for the economy. Governments might no longer feel bound to create freer markets to drive growth. So where might such a dramatic shift in thinking take us? And what are the implications for things like the environment.

Among those joining Stephanie to discuss these ideas are the biographer of John Maynard Keynes, Lord Skidelsky; the environmental economist, Cameron Hepburn; and the leading advocate of free-markets, Patrick Minford.

Stephanie Flanders asks if in the quest for growth should we prefer quality over quantity?

Stephanie Flanders presents a series on the economics of our times