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Financial Times

FT columnist Gillian Tett and FT Alphaville editor Robin Wigglesworth dig into the ideas, personalities and institutions that have shaped the history of finance. 
 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Behind the Money

Today, when people hear the name Richard Nixon, they probably think of Watergate. Few remember another one of his most controversial acts – his suspension of the dollar’s convertibility into gold. The “Nixon Shock” as it became known was a quintessentially America First policy, which shattered the postwar global monetary order. But the US president was far more concerned about juicing the US economy and winning re-election than he was about upsetting America’s closest allies. In this second episode about Nixon’s pivotal decision, Professor Jeffrey Garten tells the story of its aftermath, while hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth explore the parallels with the present-day America First presidency.

Further reading:

Three Days at Camp David: How a Secret Meeting in 1971 Transformed the Global Economy, by Jeffrey E Garten (2021)

Gold and the dollar crisis, by Robert Triffin (1960)

Our Dollar, Your Problem, by Kenneth Rogoff (2025)

Credits: Getty Images, Associated Press, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library

To enjoy future episodes, be sure to subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts, also on the show's dedicated YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@FTTheStoryOfMoney

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Producer: Laurence Knight

Executive Producer: Manuela Saragosa

Original music: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Gioumpasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

Video editor: Kristen Kenyon and Josh Divney at Podcast Discovery

Learn more at www.ft.com/tsom or get in touch at thestoryofmoney@ft.com.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Nixon put America first and took the dollar off gold

A century ago, when depositors lost confidence in a bank, they’d rush to withdraw their cash. In 1971, US president Richard Milhous Nixon faced a similar dilemma. But his problem wasn’t ordinary citizens fearing for their savings. Instead, it was America’s closest allies who were nervously eyeing the dwindling supply of gold in Fort Knox at a time when the dollar’s value was tied to gold and allies’ currencies were in turn tied to the dollar. And just like a beleaguered bank manager of yore, Nixon chose to shut America’s doors to further withdrawals. His decision threatened to pull the plug on the entire international monetary system established at Bretton Woods in 1944. It was so unexpected and outrageous, it became known as the “Nixon Shock”. In the first of two episodes on the topic, hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth get the story from economist and ex-financier Jeffrey Garten – a man with a CV so long that he once even worked for the Nixon administration himself.

Further reading:

Three Days at Camp David: How a Secret Meeting in 1971 Transformed the Global Economy, by Jeffrey E Garten (2021)

Gold and the dollar crisis, by Robert Triffin (1960)

Credits: Getty Images, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library

To enjoy future episodes, be sure to subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts, also on the show's dedicated YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@FTTheStoryOfMoney

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Producer: Laurence Knight

Executive Producer: Manuela Saragosa

Original music: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Gioumpasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

Video editor: Kristen Kenyon and Josh Divney at Podcast Discovery

Learn more at www.ft.com/tsom or get in touch at thestoryofmoney@ft.com.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why Richard Nixon torpedoed the global monetary system

Priscilla Wakefield was a Quaker, writer and social reformer who believed financial security shouldn’t be reserved for the wealthy. Living in late 18th- and early 19th-century England, she founded the country’s first penny savings bank, giving working women and children a safe place to save. Victoria Bateman, author of Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth and Power, tells hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth about Wakefield’s life, her ideas and how a simple concept — saving small sums — helped spark a quiet revolution in financial inclusion, with lessons for today. But that didn’t stop Wakefield from running into financial problems of her own. 

Further reading:

Economica: A global history of women, wealth and power, by Victoria Bateman (2025)

Reflections on the present condition of the female sex, by Priscilla Wakefield, (reprinted 2015, Cambridge University Press)

Credits: Cambridge Library Collection, National Portrait Gallery, Disruption Worthies, National Park Service, Hollinger & Rockey

To enjoy future episodes, be sure to subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts, also on the show's dedicated YouTube channel here: / @ftthestoryofmoney 

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Producers: Lulu Smyth and Laurence Knight

Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa

Original music: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Giuompasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

Video editor: Kristen Kenyon and Josh Divney at Podcast Discovery

Learn more at www.ft.com/tsom or get in touch at thestoryofmoney@ft.com

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 18th-century woman who made saving possible for the poor

Take 730 delegates from 44 countries, plus another 2,000 or so hangers-on. House them in a remote, dilapidated hotel with holes in the roof and broken furniture. Deliver a train wagon filled with alcohol. Throw in some Russian spies, German prisoners of war, a troupe of bombshell “secretaries” and a magician. And then have the lead protagonist, the world’s most famous economist, almost die of a heart attack. What does that give you? Only the most successful international monetary negotiation in history. This is the story of the Bretton Woods conference of 1944, as relayed by journalist and author Ed Conway to hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth. The three weeks of chaotic talks would deliver three decades of postwar peace and prosperity, and enthrone the US dollar as the global reserve currency. The discussions also nearly killed Britain’s lead negotiator, John Maynard Keynes, and would later disgrace his US counterpart, Harry Dexter White.

Further reading:

The Summit, by Ed Conway (2015)

The Economic Consequences of the Peace, by John Maynard Keynes (1919)

John Maynard Keynes, biography by Robert Skidelsky in three volumes (1983-2000)

Treasonable Doubt: The Harry Dexter White Spy Case, by R Bruce Craig (2004)

Credits: King’s College Cambridge, the IMF, Dreamstime, Getty Images, the Hulton Archive, Ullstein Bild, Bettmann, Shutterstock, the LIFE Picture Collection, Thomas D McAvoy, Alfred Eisenstaedt, and the Darling Archive.

To enjoy future episodes, be sure to subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts, also on the show's dedicated YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@FTTheStoryOfMoney

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Producer: Laurence Knight

Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa

Original music: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Giuompasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

Video editor: Kristen Kenyon and Josh Divney at Podcast Discovery

Learn more at ft.com/tsom or get in touch at thestoryofmoney@ft.com.

Love listening to FT Podcasts? Join us live on Saturday June 20 at our inaugural NYC FT Weekend Festival at Spring Studios. Put your questions directly to our experts, experience your favourite podcast in person, and see the FT come to life. Register now and enjoy 10% off with code FTPodcast — this is one Saturday you won’t want to miss.

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The deal that put the dollar at the centre of the world

What is money? And what can a small island in Micronesia teach us about how it works? On Yap, a remote island in the western Pacific, giant calcite “Rai” stones once functioned as currency, where ownership and collective trust — rather than physical possession — defined wealth and status. In this episode of The Story of Money, macroeconomist and author Felix Martin joins hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth to explore the stones of Yap, the origins of money and why the traditional “barter theory” may be a myth.

Further reading: 

Money: The Unauthorised Biography (2015) by Felix Martin 

Uap of the Carolines (1910) by William Henry Furness III

A Treatise on Money (1930) by John Maynard Keynes 

The Island of Stone Money (1991) and Money Mischief (1992) by Milton Friedman 

‘Tralla La’ in Uncle Scrooge #6 by Carl Barks (1954) 

His Majesty O’Keefe (1954) Warner Bros 

To enjoy future episodes, be sure to subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow the show's dedicated YouTube channel here. 

Love listening to The Story of Money? Join us live on Saturday, June 20 at our inaugural NYC FT Weekend Festival at Spring Studios. Put your questions directly to our experts, experience your favourite podcast in person, and see the FT come to life. Register now and enjoy 10% off with code FTPodcast — this is one Saturday you won’t want to miss. 

Learn more at ft.com/tsom or get in touch at thestoryofmoney@ft.com.

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Guest: Felix Martin

Producer: Lulu Smyth

Senior Producers: Laurence Knight and Michela Tindera

Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa

Original music: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Giuompasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

FT Global Head of Audio: Cheryl Brumley

Video editors: Kristen Kenyon and Josh Divney at Podcast Discovery

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why money is the biggest shared hallucination in human history

In 19th-century America almost anyone could print their own money – and many did. One of the most notable figures to take this up was a man named James Brown, a charismatic conman who built a fortune producing fake banknotes. In this episode of The Story of Money, Stephen Mihm, a professor of history at the University of Georgia, introduces hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth to “the hardest working man in counterfeiting”. They discuss the parallels between banking in the Wild West and the advent of cryptocurrencies today, and the role trust plays in all financial systems. 

Further reading:

A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States, by Stephen Mihm (2007) 

The Square and Tower: Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power, by Niall Ferguson (2018)

To enjoy future episodes, be sure to subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts, and also follow the show's dedicated YouTube channel here. 

Learn more at ft.com/tsom 

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Guest: Stephen Mihm

Producer: Lulu Smyth

Senior Producer: Michela Tindera and Laurence Knight

Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa

Original music: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Giuompasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

FT Global Head of Audio: Cheryl Brumley

Video editor: Kristen Kenyon at Podcast Discovery

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When money went rogue: banking in 19th-century frontier America

Every now and then a new technology comes along that changes everything – electricity, computers, potentially AI. In mid-19th-century America, that technology was the steam locomotive. It knitted the US economy together, driving the nation’s industrialisation during the Gilded Age. But along the way, it also caused one of the biggest financial crises in American history. FT Alphaville editor Robin Wigglesworth tells his co-host, FT columnist Gillian Tett, the story of the great railway bubble that ended in the Panic of 1873. It’s also the story of the spectacular rise and fall of Jay Cooke, the greatest banker of his day, who lost a fortune betting on a railroad that would eventually span the North American continent – just not in time to repay its debts. Robin and Gillian discuss what lessons the financier’s fate holds for the investors gambling on today’s AI boom.

Credits: New York Times Archive, Otto Herschan Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Further reading:

Jay Cooke: Financier of the Civil War, by Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer (1907)

Jay Cooke's gamble: the Northern Pacific Railroad, the Sioux, and the Panic of 1873, by M John Lubetkin (2006)

Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America, by Richard White (2012)

Pop! Why Bubbles Are Great For The Economy, by Daniel Gross (2007)

A Fabulous Debt: The Epic Story of How Bonds Built the Modern World, by Robin Wigglesworth (2026 – forthcoming)

To enjoy future episodes, be sure to subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts, also on the show's dedicated YouTube channel here: 

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Producer: Lulu Smyth

Senior Producers: Michela Tindera and Laurence Knight 

Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa

Original music and sound design: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Giuompasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

FT Global Head of Audio: Cheryl Brumley

Video editor: Josh Divney at Podcast Discovery

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hitting the Buffers: The 1873 railway bust that broke one of America’s greatest financiers

Does scientific, artistic or political brilliance translate into investing success? It’s a topical question with hedge funds today accused of sucking talent away from the rest of the economy. So, the FT’s Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth sat down with reporter Toby Nangle, who has dug into the archives to assess the investment portfolios of Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, John Maynard Keynes and other widely regarded geniuses of the past. What Toby found may surprise you, as will the historical wildcard he’s unearthed.

To enjoy future episodes, be sure to subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts, also on the show's dedicated YouTube channel here.

Learn more at ft.com/tsom

Want more?

Read Toby’s full FT article here.

Toby’s sources: 

On Churchill: https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-More-Champagne-Churchill-Money/dp/1784081817

On J.M.W. Turner:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5718586

On John Maynard Keynes:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2023011

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2287262

On Einstein:

https://einstein-website.de/en/what-happened-to-the-nobel-prize-money/#:~:text=By%20May%201924%2C%20Mileva%20had,visible%20result%20of%20my%20musings%E2%80%9D.

On Jane Austen:

https://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions-online/vol36no1/toran/

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Guest: Toby Nangle

Producer: Lulu Smyth

Senior Producers: Michela Tindera and Laurence Knight 

Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa

Original music: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Giuompasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

FT Global Head of Audio: Cheryl Brumley

Video editor: Josh Divney at Podcast Discovery

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They are history’s geniuses. But were they any good at investing?

Long before modern economics, rulers such as Hammurabi in ancient Mesopotamia grappled with a political problem that still haunts our economies today: when people’s debts grow faster than their ability to repay them, the entire economic system can start to crack. Hammurabi adopted a radical solution: cancel debts entirely. Amanda H Podany, professor emeritus of history at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and a research affiliate at New York University, tells The Story of Money hosts, FT columnist Gillian Tett and FT Alphaville editor Robin Wigglesworth, what these debt jubilees say about how the ancient Mesopotamian economy worked and what it might teach us about debt today. 

To enjoy future episodes, be sure to subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts, also on the show's dedicated YouTube channel here.

Learn more at ft.com/tsom

Want more?

Check out Dr Podany’s book, Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East 

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Producer: Lulu Smyth

Senior Producers: Michela Tindera and Laurence Knight

Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa

Original music and sound engineering: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Gioumpasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

FT Global Head of Audio: Cheryl Brumley

Video editor: Kristen Kenton at Podcast Discovery

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How ancient Mesopotamians solved runaway debt

The economist John Kenneth Galbraith once quipped that “there can be few fields of human endeavour in which history counts for so little as in the world of finance.” This show sets out to prove the opposite. Each week, FT columnist Gillian Tett and FT Alphaville editor Robin Wigglesworth dig into the ideas, personalities and institutions that have shaped global finance. From unregulated banking in 19th-century frontier America to institutionalised debt jubilees in ancient Mesopotamia, and from the birth of credit derivatives to the great market meltdowns of the past, Robin and Gillian uncover the story of money because time and again, the same manias and mistakes resurface. Tune in and you might just understand where the next financial opportunities and disasters could be hiding. 

Subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts and watch the show on YouTube.

Learn more about the show at ft.com/tsom, and find out more about Gillian Tett here and Robin Wigglesworth here

Follow FT Alphaville here

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Producer: Lulu Smyth

Senior Producer: Michela Tindera

Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa

Original music and sound engineering: Breen Turner

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

Global Head of Audio: Cheryl Brumley

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 18th-century woman who made saving possible for the poor

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