Latest Interviews

The remote-working revolution: how to get it right

Donna Sarkar, Calum Williams

Experts analyze the permanent integration of remote work, highlighting divergent global adoption rates and emerging legal complexities regarding tax liability and employment jurisdiction across nations like Finland and France. The discussion further examines operational risks such as workplace inequality, where junior staff face hurdles in networking and ergonomic safety, prompting corporate policy shifts including salary adjustments and office space reductions. Ultimately, the convergence of evolving national legislation and internal employer frameworks aims to establish sustainable boundaries for working hours, digital privacy, and future organizational structures.

Can vaccine passports kickstart the economy?

Helen Joyce

Governments worldwide are deploying vaccine passports to accelerate economic recovery and restore civil freedoms, with Israel's "Green Pass" serving as a primary model driving a projected 7.5% growth rate. While these digital credentials facilitate access to venues and travel, their implementation faces significant hurdles including the risk of viral transmission from new variants, deepening socioeconomic inequalities along generational and racial lines, and serious civil liberties concerns regarding data privacy. Experts warn that without robust transparency and sustained vaccine efficacy, these temporary measures could evolve into permanent mechanisms that further entrench disparities between wealthy and developing nations.

Israel’s election: what next for Netanyahu?

Netanyahu, Anchelle Pfeffer, Greg Karlstrom

Facing indictments for bribery and fraud, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called his fourth election in less than two years as a strategy to secure immunity legislation and avoid a trial that could strip him of executive power. While polls suggest his Likud party is unlikely to reach his target of 40 seats, the outcome hinges on small right-wing parties like Naftali Bennett's, whose kingmaker status could either extend Netanyahu's centralized, presidential-style governance or force a fragile opposition coalition led by Yair Lapid. Regardless of the winner, structural barriers to Palestinian statehood remain intact, though a new administration might improve relations with the U.S. Democratic leadership compared to the current strained bilateral ties.

How to crunch covid-19 data

Leveraging unprecedented data volumes, The Economist's data team exposed divergent global lockdown strategies through real-time mobility tracking that rapidly convinced Google to release public datasets and prompted immediate adoption in government briefings. Concurrently, the organization's simplified "flatten the curve" visualization, refined by editor Sasha Mostow and academic Drew Harris, established a critical communication standard for illustrating social distancing impacts on healthcare capacity. These efforts collectively transformed raw data into actionable policy tools, fundamentally shaping the global response to the pandemic.

Christine Lagarde: How covid-19 will shape Europe

Christine Lagarde, Zannie Minton-Beddoes, Miranda Johnson

Christine Lagarde identifies Europe as the current pandemic epicenter and highlights data suggesting female leaders possess superior crisis management attributes compared to their male counterparts. She argues that the crisis has disproportionately worsened inequality for women in informal sectors, necessitating government-led interventions such as board quotas and structured support pipelines to ensure recovery. Looking ahead, Lagarde outlines plans for the "Next Generation EU" funds to drive green and digital transformation, while noting that fiscal stimulus and the potential rollout of a central bank digital currency will be critical for a robust economic rebound in 2021 and beyond.

Can flying go green?

Val Miftikoff, Simon Wright

Facing a historic economic downturn and rising environmental pressures, the aviation industry is accelerating a "green reset" driven by the potential of hydrogen-electric technology to eliminate carbon emissions by 2050. While sustainable aviation fuels offer immediate drop-in solutions, high costs and a lack of infrastructure have created a market deadlock that experts argue requires over $500 billion in investment and immediate government mandates to resolve. Val Miftikoff and other leaders emphasize that without substantial public funding and policy incentives like fuel taxes, the transition to zero-carbon flight remains commercially unviable for decades.

Covid-19 vaccines: what information can you trust?

Ed Carr, Natasha Loder

Regulatory bodies and bioethicists are navigating complex challenges including the deployment of single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines, the strategic extension of mRNA dosing intervals to boost population immunity, and the ethical implications of mandatory vaccination or vaccine passports. While media outlets must carefully distinguish between chance adverse events and vaccine causation, experts emphasize that the rapid adaptability of mRNA platforms provides a robust foundation for updating shots against future viral mutations. Ultimately, governments favoring pragmatic public health measures over legal mandates are balancing rising hospitalization rates with the risk of fueling vaccine hesitancy among the public.

GameStop: what it reveals about the US stockmarket

Alice Fullwood, Henry Kerr

In early 2021, a coordinated surge by millions of retail investors on the Reddit forum WallStreetBets drove GameStop's stock price to over $450, triggering a historic short squeeze that forced institutional short sellers to absorb massive losses. The volatility caused significant market disruption, including trading restrictions by platforms like Robinhood and intense regulatory scrutiny regarding liquidity management and retail investor protection. While analysts view the event as an isolated phenomenon rather than a broad bubble, it permanently altered market dynamics by highlighting the growing influence of social media-fueled retail trading against traditional Wall Street institutions.

Joe Biden's top 7 domestic priorities

Joe Biden, Jon Fasman, Charlotte Howard

President Biden launched a $1.9 trillion economic relief package targeting pandemic response, job recovery, and childhood poverty while simultaneously pursuing net-zero emissions goals through executive actions and agency-wide initiatives. The administration advanced legislative proposals for undocumented immigrant pathways and systemic racism reforms, though analysts warn these efforts face significant congressional hurdles alongside debates on Big Tech regulation. Ultimately, the administration's strategy prioritizes competent, incremental governance over political grandstanding to navigate deep partisan divides and stabilize the nation's economy and social structures.

Cindy McCain: what next for the Republican Party?

Cindy McCain, Joe Biden, John McCain, Donald Trump

Cindy McCain, the widow of Senator John McCain, asserts that the Republican Party has strayed from its historic values of inclusion and predicts a potential fracture due to current high partisanship and the January 6th insurrection. She contrasts the recent violence with the successful democratic transition under President Joe Biden, whom she praises for prioritizing bipartisanship and immediate crisis management regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Ultimately, McCain envisions a new era of cooperation where the law-abiding majority within the party helps restore the United States' global standing as a beacon of hope and democratic stability.

How Biden can be a global leader

Biden, Donald Trump, John Prideaux

The Biden administration seeks to restore America's diminished global standing by rejoining international bodies like the WHO and Paris Climate Accord while reversing the isolationist "America First" policies of the Trump era. Facing a fragile domestic political landscape with slim congressional majorities, President Biden aims to stabilize diplomatic relations through predictable multilateralism, including a planned global democracy summit and strategic continuity in containing China. Ultimately, the administration recognizes that healing domestic division and successfully navigating congressional hurdles are prerequisites for proving US democratic resilience and rebuilding trust with allies.

Bill Gates: How to fund the green revolution

Bill Gates, Zanny Minton Beddoes

Bill Gates outlines the necessity of achieving net-zero emissions through massive technological innovation to solve hard-to-abate industrial sectors like steel and aviation, rather than relying solely on behavioral change. He argues that a $2 trillion global investment strategy must prioritize public R&D funding and venture capital to eliminate the green premium, with the United States serving as the essential exemplar and primary buyer to drive down costs. While carbon taxes remain politically elusive, the path forward requires governments and corporations to shift from symbolic actions to substantive financing of real decarbonization technologies alongside historical emission reductions.

Misty Copeland: why ballet has so few black dancers

Misty Copeland

Misty Copeland, the first Black female principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, leverages her historic breakthrough and advocacy for arts education to challenge systemic discrimination and narrow aesthetic standards in classical ballet. Drawing from personal experiences with colorism and her research into predecessors like Raven Wilkinson, she critiques the industry's reliance on blackface and typecasting while urging a shift toward viewing technique as transcending race. Copeland further contextualizes her career milestones as irreversible progress comparable to the Obama presidency, emphasizing how such visibility fundamentally expands the perceived future for marginalized young artists.

Life after Trump: what’s the future of the Republican Party?

Trump, Joe Biden, Idris Kahloun, James Astle

Despite his 2020 election loss, Donald Trump maintains dominant control over the Republican Party, compelling former critics like Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio to align with his populist platform to avoid electoral backlash. This entrenched loyalty, reinforced by base support for the 2020 election fraud narrative, has created a fragmented media ecosystem and left Trump with minimal internal opposition as he contemplates a 2024 run. Analysts warn that the party's future trajectory remains volatile, with the strength of Trump's personal appeal serving as the decisive factor in either cementing a populist era or allowing for a potential succession.

Jean Hynes, Managing Partner of Wellington Management

Jean Hynes, Katie

Jean Hines assumes the role of CEO at Wellington Management in July 2021, leveraging her expertise as a leading healthcare portfolio manager to guide the firm's $1.2 trillion asset portfolio across 50 distinct investment boutiques. Hines outlines critical long-term investment drivers, including global population aging and biomedical innovation, while emphasizing an "open collaborative platform" that grants portfolio managers autonomy within a unified research framework. Her leadership transition reflects a strategic shift toward integrating forward-looking regulatory and macroeconomic analysis, a methodology refined through her own career experiences and a commitment to cultivating deep, continuous learning for future investors.