Financial History and Market Cycles: The Financial Times Launches ‘The Story of Money’ Podcast
The Financial Times has launched The Story of Money, a podcast series hosted by columnist Gillian Tett and FT Alphaville editor Robin Wigglesworth. The program examines global financial history through the lens of past crises, institutional shifts, and recurring market patterns to provide context for modern economic trends, including cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence. The series is available on major podcast platforms and the Financial Times website.
Examining Financial Precedents and Market Crashes
The podcast aims to connect historical financial events with contemporary market behaviors. By analyzing phenomena such as the South Sea Bubble and 19th-century frontier banking, the hosts explore why certain financial patterns, such as speculative bubbles and debt cycles, repeat across centuries. According to the Financial Times, the series utilizes the publication’s 138-year archive to trace the evolution of global monetary systems.
Specific episodes address significant historical markers, including:
- The South Sea Bubble: An analysis of one of history’s most prominent financial crashes.
- The Nixon Shock: A two-part exploration of the 1971 decision to decouple the U.S. dollar from gold.
- 19th-Century Banking: A comparison between historical unregulated banking experiments and modern decentralized finance (DeFi).
- Debt Management: Investigations into institutionalized debt forgiveness practices in ancient Mesopotamia.
Host Expertise and Editorial Background
The series is led by two senior figures within the Financial Times organization. Gillian Tett, a member of the FT editorial board and Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, brings experience in capital markets, social anthropology, and crisis reporting. She is the author of Fool’s Gold, which detailed the events leading to the 2008 financial crisis. She has received multiple industry honors, including Journalist of the Year at the 2009 British Press Awards.
Robin Wigglesworth serves as the editor of FT Alphaville, the publication’s dedicated financial blog. His reporting focuses on market structure, passive investing, and global economics. Wigglesworth is the author of Trillions, a history of the rise of index funds and passive investing, and A Fabulous Debt, which examines the history of the bond market.
Integration into the FT Podcast Network
The Story of Money joins an established roster of Financial Times audio content. The network includes FT News Briefing, Unhedged, The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes, Political Fix, Tech Tonic, The Rachman Review, and Hot Money. The new series follows a weekly release schedule, with episodes debuting on Wednesdays.