Tune In Stephanomics

A month into the US–Israel conflict with Iran, the global economy is already feeling the strain—from surging oil prices to shifting interest rate expectations. Host Stephanie Flanders speaks with Tom Orlik and Dina Esfandiary from the Bloomberg Economics team about how Iran has managed to turn economic pressure into strategic leverage, complicating the outlook for President Donald Trump and raising the risk of prolonged instability.

On this episode of Trumponomics, Stephanie Flanders sits down with Nobel Prize–winning economist Daron Acemoglu to unpack one of the most urgent questions facing the global economy: how is artificial intelligence changing the future of work, and what are the potentially dire consequences for society and democracy?

Everything we think we know about recessions is wrong—or at least mostly wrong—according to ExxonMobil Chief Economist Tyler Goodspeed. He argues downturns aren’t the inevitable result of overheated booms and don’t arrive simply because expansions last too long. In his new book, Recession: The Real Reasons Economies Shrink and What to Do About It, which spans 250 years of US and UK economic history, Goodspeed contends recessions are typically the product of sudden, overlapping shocks—particularly to energy and food—that derail otherwise healthy expansions.

Oil and gas traders are confronting a potential worst-case scenario after the US-Israeli strike on Iran Saturday: the Strait of Hormuz is effectively paralyzed, Saudi Arabia’s largest refinery is shut and Iran has hit Qatar’s giant liquified natural gas export facility. On this week’s episode of Trumponomics, host Stephanie Flanders speaks to Bloomberg Opinion columnist Javier Blas and Ziad Daoud, chief emerging markets economist for Bloomberg Economics. Together they unpack the unsettlingly wide range of outcomes from the war, and how Russia will gain economically the longer the conflict continues.

On this episode of Trumponomics, host Stephanie Flanders speaks with Josh Green, national correspondent at Bloomberg Businessweek, and Anna Wong, chief US economist for Bloomberg Economics, about President Donald Trump’s upbeat economic message during his State of the Union address and the reality on the ground. Affordability fears remain despite government data indicating slowing inflation, and the Supreme Court ruling upending Trump's tariff strategy has thrown fresh uncertainty into the mix. Our guests ask whether those numbers will outweigh shaky consumer sentiment, tariff turmoil and growing anxiety over artificial intelligence ahead of the midterms.

Host Stephanie Flanders is joined by Bloomberg News Editor in Chief John Micklethwait and Jennifer Welch, chief geoeconomics analyst for Bloomberg Economics, to unpack the Munich Security Conference and what it revealed about the shifting global order. From Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s rising influence inside the US administration to Europe’s rethinking of nuclear deterrence and ties with China, the conversation explores how Trump has reshaped alliances.

Donald Trump has been touting his pick to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell as an economic boon, claiming Kevin Warsh will help deliver an improbable 15% rate of US growth. But financial markets will likely be content with something less hyperbolic: reassurance he won’t simply do the president’s bidding. The former Fed governor’s nomination initially sent yields and the dollar higher while knocking gold sharply lower, moves consistent with expectations of a tougher line on inflation and a smaller central bank balance sheet. But on this week’s episode of Trumponomics, Evercore ISI Vice Chairman Krishna Guha argues that investors may be over-interpreting Warsh’s hawkish reputation.

Donald Trump returned to office promising once again to rein in China’s economic rise. Instead, his first year back has delivered Xi Jinping something close to the opposite: a world more open to Chinese exports, more willing to hedge against Washington and increasingly uncertain about the reliability of the US or its commitments. On this episode of Trumponomics, host Stephanie Flanders speaks with Lowy Institute Senior Fellow Richard McGregor and Bloomberg Executive Editor Dan Ten Kate about how the US president’s unpredictable and often combative diplomacy has given the Chinese president more room to maneuver—all without forcing Beijing to change its export-heavy, state-driven economic model.

Nigel Farage sits down with Stephanie Flanders on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos to argue that Brexit and Donald Trump weren’t shocks, but the opening chapters of a global shift away from consensus politics and globalization. From US growth and NATO to China, energy and Britain’s post-European Union future, Farage lays out his vision of "national interest" in a fractured world.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Donald Trump’s return is forcing allies, executives and investors to rethink how they deal with an economic superpower that keeps everything “on the table.” In this episode of Trumponomics, host Stephanie Flanders, Bloomberg News Editor in Chief John Micklethwait, Bloomberg Television host Annmarie Hordern and Sridhar Natarajan, Bloomberg News’ chief Wall Street correspondent, examine whether Europe is finally prepared to push back after a year of accommodating tariffs, trade threats and now even territorial claims while Trump scrambles to address an affordability crisis at home while pushing a business-friendly approach to AI abroad.

Host Stephanie Flanders, Bloomberg’s head of government and economics, is joined by Anna Wong, chief US economist for Bloomberg Economics, and Bloomberg News correspondent Saleha Mohsin to unpack the political backlash sparked by the Trump administration's criminal probe into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, including rare pushback from a few Republican lawmakers and Donald Trump’s own Treasury secretary. The discussion explores how the move, which Powell says is over monetary policy rather than building renovations, could backfire by hardening his resolve, complicating Trump’s plans to install a new Fed chair and his attempts to force interest rate cuts.

This week, Stephanie Flanders examines the economic fallout of the US attack on Venezuela and Washington asserting effective control over the South American country. The discussion focuses on what this means for global oil markets, US economic power and the rules-based international order. Javier Blas, a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and energy expert, and Bloomberg Economics analyst Chris Kennedy, who served as a member of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s policy planning staff, explain how access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves could give the US unprecedented leverage over energy prices and foreign policy. They also analyze how it increases geopolitical instability and may help, or hinder, Trump's domestic political goals.

On this episode of Trumponomics, host Stephanie Flanders is joined by Bloomberg Economics Chief Economist Tom Orlik, Bloomberg Opinion columnist Parmy Olson and Bloomberg News US politics editor Mario Parker to look back at a chaotic 2025—marked by Donald Trump’s messy April tariff rollout and a presidency defined by seemingly deliberate uncertainty—and ask what it means for 2026.

On this episode of Trumponomics, host Stephanie Flanders examines how rising insurance costs—both health and automotive—are becoming a major driver of the affordability crisis spreading across America, and what the implications may be for next year’s midterm elections. Bloomberg reporter Rachel Cohrs Zhang, who covers health policy, joins to explain the imminent spike in health insurance costs for millions of Americans as the Republican-controlled Congress, having won the government shutdown fight with Democrats, allows subsidies for coverage under the Affordable Care Act to expire despite some last-minute wrangling. Boston Bureau Chief Brooke Sutherland highlights a less publicized, parallel surge in auto insurance premiums, driven by the rising costs of repairing sensor-laden vehicles.

When the Trump administration posted its 29-page national security strategy on Dec. 5, it presented foreign governments with a jarring reinterpretation of America’s place in the world and how it sees traditional allies. On this episode of Trumponomics, host Stephanie Flanders, along with Adam Farrar, senior geoeconomics analyst for Bloomberg Economics, and Shawn Donnan of Bloomberg News, discusses how the White House broadside appears to reorder US priorities. In particular, they analyze its clear message that—to Donald Trump—economic power isn’t just a component of US national security; it is national security.

US President Donald Trump may soon name Kevin Hassett as the next Fed chair, subject to Senate confirmation. So what happens if he gets the job when Jerome Powell's term ends next year? On this episode of Trumponomics, host Stephanie Flanders, Bloomberg Economics Chief US Economist Anna Wong and Washington correspondent Saleha Mohsin unpack why Hassett has emerged as the likely pick, and what it could mean for markets, interest rates and the Fed’s independence.

On this episode of Trumponomics, host Stephanie Flanders sits down with Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan to unpack the shifting dynamics of global trade in an era of US protectionism and rising geopolitical tension. From Donald Trump' retreat from America's postwar role to the deepening lack of trust between Washington and Beijing, Balakrishnan explains why today’s economic disruptions are less a sudden storm than “geopolitical climate change.” Yet amid fractured supply chains and rising uncertainty, he offers a note of optimism—highlighting how Asia, Europe and other mid-sized economies are forging new alliances to keep globalization alive.

On this week’s episode of Trumponomics, host Stephanie Flanders, Bloomberg’s head of government and economics, dives into what she calls “the curious case of the everywhere, nowhere tariffs.” Since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, his sweeping new trade levies—pitched as a way to “liberate” the US economy—have dominated headlines and whipsawed markets. But where are the real effects? Flanders is joined by Anna Wong, Bloomberg Economics’ chief US economist, and Brad Setser, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, to untangle who’s actually paying for these tariffs, how they have affected the US economy so far, and whether there’s any evidence they’re accomplishing any of Trump’s stated goals.

On this week’s Trumponomics, host Stephanie Flanders explores how Democrats are repurposing President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign theme—affordability—as their own political cudgel, and whether it could lead to more victories in 2026. Bloomberg political correspondent Nancy Cook and The Atlantic writer Annie Lowrey join to unpack the politics and policy behind America’s enduring cost-of-living crisis.

On this week’s Trumponomics, we sit down with former White House Chief of Staff for Barack Obama and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. A former Democratic congressman and ambassador to Japan, Emanuel—who won’t rule out a run for president in 2028— joins host Stephanie Flanders to share his “pro-America” economic agenda, arguing that the real reason US politics has turned fraught is that “the American dream has become unaffordable.”