Business Daily

How do you feed a world in lockdown? We’ll be looking at the pressures on the global food supply chain in this episode of Business Weekly. As many choose to buy more locally produced food we’ll ask whether new habits will stick. Two renowned economists tell us that any governments handing out Coronavirus bailouts must learn the lessons from the financial crisis of 2008 and impose tighter conditions. ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus speaks to us about life in Sweden during the pandemic and gives us his thoughts on fellow countrywoman Greta Thunberg. Plus - has the coronavirus forever changed the workplace as we know it? Lucy Burton presents.

Coal has suffered the brunt of the huge slump in electricity demand as the world has gone into lockdown. It has highlighted the fossil fuel's Achilles Heel: When there is too much supply on the grid, it's coal-fired power stations that get switched off, not solar or wind.Justin Rowlatt speaks to the head of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol, as well as analysts covering the two countries most central to coal's future. Delhi-based Sunil Dahiya says that India is already reckoning with renewable energy that is cheaper 24/7 than the cost of operating its existing coal fleet. Meanwhile Shirley Zhang of energy analysts Wood Mackenzie says that China's plans to build new coal-fired power stations is already baked in.Plus, Business Daily's favourite chemistry professor, Andrea Sella of University College London, explains why coal played such a central role in getting the Industrial Revolution started, with the help of an uncooperative steam engine.Producer: Laurence Knight(Picture: Cooling towers at the de

Some of the world’s richest people have been digging deep during the pandemic, donating their own money to help fight Covid-19. With some of the wealthiest 1% already funding medical research, we ask how comfortable we should be with billionaires taking on an even bigger role in public health. Vivienne Nunis speaks to David Callahan, editor of the website Inside Philanthropy and Rob Reich, Professor of Political Science and co-director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at Stanford University. Chris Anderson, the head of the ideas-sharing platform, TED, tells us philanthropy needs a shake-up. And, neuroscientist Dr. Christof Koch explains what it’s like to work at a medical research institute funded by private money. (Picture: a charity savings jar. Credit: Getty)

Lockdowns and the coronavirus pandemic have disrupted global food supply chains and limited the range of products on supermarket shelves in the rich world. Could new buying habits stick even after lockdowns end? Will less choice and seasonal produce become the 'new normal'? Manuela Saragosa talks to Guy Singh Watson of Riverford Organic Farmers in the UK, who welcomes the change in what's on offer, and Abdoul Wahab Barry of the International Fund for Agricultural Development in Cote D'Ivoire, who tells us what the disruption means for farmers in West Africa. And Professor Richard Wilding from Cranfield School of Management, a logistics and supply chain expert, gives us his take on what supply chains will look like in the future. (Image: Nearly empty pasta shelves in supermarket; Credit: Press Association)

Coronavirus is prompting the biggest government bailout effort of all time. Billions of dollars are being spent rescuing companies hit by the economic damage caused by the pandemic, but there are already criticisms that money is not going where it is most needed. In the US small and medium sized firms have been refused bailout loans, while larger firms have been borrowing millions; Ed Butler mulls the inequities in the system with Amanda Fischer of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and Amanda Ballantyne of the Main Street Alliance. Eric de Montgolfier, Chief Executive of Invest Europe, an umbrella body representing private equity firms argues that all companies should be treated the same and Carys Roberts at the UK’s Institute of Public Policy Research suggests that certain criteria should be adopted by governments when they step in and that businesses themselves need to be responsible. (Image: UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, Credit: AFP Getty)

On Business Weekly we hear from New York chef Gabrielle Hamilton who’s lost her life's work to the pandemic and is worrying about her future and that of her staff. What help are governments giving to small businesses like hers? As New Zealand announces that it has no new cases of Covid-19 we find out how businesses are adapting to a new way of working as the country begins to lift lockdown restrictions. Advertising mogul Sir Martin Sorrell tells us about the effect the pandemic is having on his industry - and we’ll hear from the editor of a newspaper who tells us how he’s coping with a fall in advertising revenue.Plus, as parents struggle with working from home and looking after children, we find out what life is like for single parents at the moment.Presented by Lucy Burton.

Why are stock markets so buoyant as the global economy slides into a possible coronavirus-induced depression? Some 33 million Americans have lost their jobs in the past two months of the pandemic, yet the Nasdaq market is now higher than it was at the start of the year.The financial markets and the economy have been described as two staggering drunks tied together by a rope. Manuela Saragosa explores this odd analogy and how it applies to the current disconnect between share prices and jobless claims, with the help of Jane Foley, financial strategist at Rabobank.Meanwhile emerging markets are experiencing unprecedented financial outflows that risk undermining their ability to limit the damage Covid-19 does to their economies, according to Martin Castellano of the Institute of International Finance. Yet in the US, the Federal Reserve had no problem staving off financial calamity by promising to do whatever it takes, says Fed economist Julian Kozlowski.Producer: Laurence Knight(Photo: Drunken couple. Credit: Ge

The English Premier League's plans to finish the season after weeks of shutdown. Almost all major European football leagues have been on hold since March due to coronavirus. Ed Butler speaks to BBC Sports journalist Emlyn Begley about missing live football and his new love for the Belarusian league - the only place in Europe still staging matches. Football finance expert Kieran Maguire explains why failing to finish the season could cost the Premier League more than $1bn. And football club chairman Mark Palios says the current plan of playing matches behind closed doors is not an option for less wealthy clubs in lower leagues.(Photo: Anfield Stadium, home of Liverpool FC, after the shutdown of the league in March. Credit: Getty Images)

Could economy minister Paulo Guedes be the next key ally to abandon embattled President Bolsonaro?A corruption scandal has already seen the popular justice minister walk away. Meanwhile Bolsonaro fired his health minister as he seeks to reverse his own government's lockdown on the economy. With the official number of Covid 19 cases in the country surpassing 100,000, we hear the frustration of a doctor on the frontline.As for the economy minister, the BBC's South America business correspondent Daniel Gallas explains how this proponent of spending cuts and privatisation is coming to terms with a hugely expensive income support programme backed by Bolsonaro. Plus economist Monica de Bolle of the Peterson Institute explains why she fears that despite these measures, her country could be on the verge of a depression.Presenter: Manuela Saragosa Producer: Laurence Knight(Photo: People using protective masks wait in line outside a Caixa Economica Federal bank branch in Sao Goncalo, Brazil, to receive urgent g

New Zealand is seen by many as a great example of surviving coronavirus, but with such a tourism-heavy economy there are concerns a further shock is to come. One idea mooted to help alleviate this is the so-called “trans-Tasman bubble” in which travel restrictions between Australia and New Zealand would be reciprocally lifted, before all the world’s borders open up, to stimulate commerce between the two nations. This programme features Colin Peacock in Wellington, Maggie Fea from Gibson Valley Wines in Queenstown, Veteran New Zealand politician Peter Dunne and Pacific health policy expert Dr. Colin Tukuitonga.(Picture: The Australia and New Zealand flags. Picture credit: Getty Images)

Gabrielle Hamilton used to run the celebrated New York restaurant Prune. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit. After being forced to shut the place that was her life's work, she wonders if there will still be a place for it in the New York of the future.(Picture: Gabrielle Hamilton preparing food in the kitchen of her now closed restaurant Prune; Credit: Eric Wolfinger)

The most compelling reports and interviews from the BBC's business programmes over the past week, examining the huge issues facing policymakers and asking what the future holds for our working lives. This week we ask a big moral question - will the deliberate shutting down of economies in an effort to slow Covid-19 kill more than the virus itself? Or as some have predicted will a recession actually save lives? We have a report from Brazil where conflicting messaging has sown confusion and fear. And we'll hear from small business owners, musicians and even horticulturalists. Presented by Lucy Burton.

Living under lockdown is challenging for everyone, but for hundreds of millions of single parents around the world, it can be a terrifying ordeal. It’s not only emotionally draining, but can also be financially crippling, as Tamasin Ford has been finding out. She speaks to Sarah Cawley who delivers lunches to people who can’t leave their homes; she's from One Parent Family Scotland. We also hear from single mums, Fatia Islam in Paris and New Yorker, Thea Jaffe. Victoria Bensen, CEO of Gingerbread, the charity for single parent families in England and Wales talks about the mental and financial strain on single parents and Neferteri Plessy, founder of the charity Single Moms Planet paints a picture of lockdown in Santa Monica, in the US.Picture of Neferteri Plessy and one of her children, cr Neferteri Plessy.

Governments around the world are planning to roll out contact tracing apps to help contain the spread of coronavirus. But will they work? Ed Butler speaks to BBC technology reporter Chris Fox about the technology that underpins them, and to researcher Natalie Pang from the National University of Singapore about the experience of Singapore's TraceTogether app, launched last month. But conventional human contact tracing has been around for decades. UK contact tracer Karen Buckley describes the challenges of the job, and John Welch from the non-profit Partners in Health describes his experience of contact tracing amid the Ebola outbreak in Africa and argues that apps are no substitute for an army of dedicated human contact tracers.(Photo: A man holds a smartphone showing a contact tracing app launched in Norway this month. Credit: Getty Images)

In today's Business Daily we're asking some awkward, often neglected questions - will the economic recession itself prove more fatal than coronavirus? How do and how should governments put a value on human life? To help answer these questions we speak to Bryce Wilkinson, a senior fellow at the New Zealand Initiative; US science journalist and biostatistician, Lynne Peeples and John Broome, a Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford University. (Picture of a wallet via Getty Images).

The World Bank has warned global remittances, which is the money migrant workers send home, will fall by around 20% in 2020 because of coronavirus. The bank predicts this will affect the income of at least tens of millions of families. One such family is that of Smitha in Kerala, whose husband is stuck in Dubai unable to work due to lockdown. But it’s not just about subsistence. Michael Clemens at the Centre for Global Development says remittance flows are a crucial resource for helping families and communities pull themselves out of poverty, and the effects of this sharp fall in remittances will be felt for many years to come. Meanwhile, Yvonne Mhango, Sub-Saharan Africa at Renaissance Capital, explains how the impact felt in Africa will differ across regions. And Michael Kent, CEO of digital payments service Azimo, explains how services like his could fill the gap left by the shuttering of brick and mortar transfer shops. Producer: Frey Lindsay. (Picture: Smitha and her family. Picture credit: Smitha Girish

Coronavirus has derailed the global economy, closing entire business chains across the world. Big companies may have the collateral to withstand the storm, but what about smaller ones? We speak to three business owners to find out. Ramjit Ray in Calcutta in India, Victoria Brockelsby in High Wycombe in the UK and Mustafa Jaffer in Allentown in the US. (Picture description: Coronavirus calculator via Getty Images).

Countries in Europe are planning to scale back lockdown measures and reopen their economies. But what will the new normal look like? Ed Butler speaks to the BBC's China media analyst Kerry Allen about the experience of Hubei province in China, which ended its lockdown earlier this month, and to Markus Dulle, owner of several DIY stores in Austria, where some shops have begun trading again after a month of shutdown. Experts agree that a programme of testing for the coronavirus is needed before lockdown measures are scaled back - Oxford University economist Daniel Susskind explains why selecting specific groups of people would be more effective than testing everybody at random. And Michel Goldman, professor of immunology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, explains why a return to 'normal' could take generations.(Photo: A staff member hands out masks at a reopened DIY store in Austria, Credit: Getty Images)

A crunch meeting of EU leaders today aims to finally show Italy and others solidarity in the struggle against coronavirus.A plan is gaining momentum for the European Commission to raise a trillion-plus-euro fund to invest in the recovery of the European economy, something that could mark a major step towards federalism if it succeeds, but many fear could trigger the unravelling of the European project if it fails to win approval.Manuela Saragosa, herself half-Dutch and half-Italian, asks whether the plan can bridge the bitter divide between her two parent nations over how to handle the crisis. Dutch economist Esther Rijswijk says the Netherlands won't want to hand over money without conditions attached, but Italian MP Lorenzo Fioramonti says the very word "conditions" has become a taboo in an increasingly angry and euro-sceptical Italy.Meanwhile, one of the plan's co-authors, former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, explains why he thinks he's come up with a solution that avoids the usual messy EU fudge

With factories around the world shuttered during the coronavirus outbreak, we’re asking whether the world’s intricate global supply chains will come out of the pandemic intact. We’ll hear from garment factory workers in Bangladesh who are finding themselves out of work, and from David Hasanat, CEO of the Viyellatex group, which has seen its orders drying up. And David Simchi-Levi, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT, thinks the pandemic will lead to global supply chain restructuring, potentially meaning higher prices for consumer goods.(Picture: A garment worker in Dhaka, Bangladesh who has been laid off following cancelled orders at her factory. Picture Credit: Salman Saeed/BBC)