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West Africa: Youth and Ambition

West Africa: Youth and Ambition

Africa has the youngest population of any continent in the world and that figure is expected to double in less than 30 years. The BBC's Tamasin Ford travels across three countries to hear from young people about their hopes and dreams for their working lives. In Ghana, she talks to award winning actor and producer Yvonne Nelson. In Ivory Coast Tamasin hears from Edith Brou, CEO of her own Digital Agency, the Africa Content Group. And in Liberia, young people tell Tamasin about their hopes for the future in a country where youth unemployment is very high amongst the sixty percent of the population who are under 25.

(Photo; Young men on the streets of Monrovia, Liberia. Credit: Tamasin Ford)

Sierra Leone's Economic Struggle

Sierra Leone's Economic Struggle

As the country prepares for elections, Ed Butler visits Sierra Leone to find out how people are feeling about the economy as it fights back following the devastating Ebola outbreak. Ed speaks to top politicians and also hears from ordinary people struggling to make a living. And he asks what happened to money donated to deal with Ebola victims, amid reports of corruption.

(Picture: Children attending school on November 15, 2017 at the Old Skool Camp. Credit:SAIDU BAH/AFP/Getty Images)

Yemen: Trade in Wartime

Yemen: Trade in Wartime

Business Daily hears remarkable stories from Yemen's civil war. The tens of thousands of African economic migrants risking everything each year to travel into the world's worst humanitarian crisis. And the man who decided to start a coffee export business out of the very heart of the war-zone. Ed Butler talks to Mokhtar Alkhanshali from the Port of Mokha coffee company, humanitarian worker Rabih Sarieddine at the International Organization for Migration's office in the Yemeni port of Aden and journalist Iona Craig who's been reporting on Yemen for many years. The programme contains descriptions of kidnapping and violence.

(picture: Yemeni tribesmen from the Popular Resistance Committees, keep watch at Nihm district, on the eastern edges of the capital Sanaa, on February 2, 2018. (Credit ABDULLAH AL-QADRY/AFP/Getty Images)

Tricking Yourself to Save

Tricking Yourself to Save

Are you saving for a rainy day? Eight of the world's major economies will between them have a joint shortfall of some $400 trillion in the next thirty years in terms of pension provision, according to the World Economic Forum. The assumption here is that most of us need about 70% of our working income to get by in our retirement years. But the shortfall they've come up with is a staggering 5 times the size of global stock markets. Luckily, Dan Ariely, a behavioural economist based at Duke University in the US, has been studying some of the simple human tricks that perhaps might nudge us towards a more prudent attitude.

(Picture: Getty images)

Who Profits from Nuclear Weapons?

Who Profits from Nuclear Weapons?

US President Donald Trump has pledged a major upgrade to the country's nuclear deterrent, but are a handful of private defence contractors driving the multi-billion dollar modernisation programme?

Jonathan King, a veteran campaigner against nuclear proliferation and professor at MIT, argues guaranteed profit margins and secrecy make the industry very attractive to such companies.

But Hawk Carlisle, chief executive of the US National Defense Industrial Association, tells Ed Butler the private sector is the only area capable of building such weapons and that there is adequate competition and government scrutiny.

Plus, how complicated is it to make a bomb these days? Robert Kelley, a former weapons inspector in Iraq, says technology is advancing so fast that it's getting easier and easier.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Picture: Ballistic missiles being launched in North Korea. Credit: AFP photo/KCNA via KNS, Getty Images)

What Should We Look Out For in 2018?

What Should We Look Out For in 2018?

We predict and discuss the biggest business and economic trends of the coming year. Have we failed at handling globalisation, and how can we deal with it in the coming year? The Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz tells us how the global economy can thrive without the failings of globalisation which we have seen so far - and advises us on how to handle the increasing tendency towards interdependence between countries.

And the BBC's Rahul Tandon hears the woes of street market sellers in India. Hawkers sell their products at a much cheaper price than many other retailers - but at what cost to the country and society? We look at the role of the open market seller in an increasingly regulated economy.

Plus, we take a look at what's in store for global stock exchanges and industries with experts Stephanie Hare, an independent political risk analyst, and Gabriel Sterne from Oxford Economics.

(Image: Reflection of Jubilee Bridge and Central Business District of Singapore during dusk hour in a glass ball. Credit: Getty Images)

Paradise Papers: Apple's Secret Tax Bolthole

Paradise Papers: Apple's Secret Tax Bolthole

There's been another round of revelations from the Paradise Papers - the leaked documents from a big offshore law firm. The leaks put Apple's tax affairs under scrutiny. The company shopped around for a tax haven after a crackdown on its controversial tax practices in Ireland. The BBC's Andrew Walker explains the background and Manuela Saragosa asks tax specialist Rita de la Feria, professor of tax law at the University of Leeds, whether it is possible to create a level playing field for tax globally. Also in the programme: Daniel Gallas reports from Brazil two years after the country's worst ever environmental accident. On November 5th 2015, a dam operated by the iron ore company Samarco - a joint venture between commodity giants Vale and BHP Biliton - burst in the town of Mariana. Two years on, has the region's economy recovered? (Picture: The Apple logo is displayed on the exterior of an Apple Store in San Francisco. Credit: Getty Images)

Paradise Papers: Secrets of the Global Elite

Paradise Papers: Secrets of the Global Elite

A huge new leak of financial documents has revealed how the powerful and ultra-wealthy, including the British Queen's private estate, secretly invest vast amounts of cash in offshore tax havens. Donald Trump's commerce secretary is shown to have a stake in a firm dealing with Russians sanctioned by the US. The leak, dubbed the Paradise Papers, contains 13.4m documents, mostly from one leading firm in offshore finance. Manuela Saragosa hears more from the BBC's Dominic O'Connell. Also in the programme we hear from the Premier of Bermuda David Burt and the Secretary General of the OECD OECD - and its secretary general Angel Gurria.

The Stigma of Great Wealth

The Stigma of Great Wealth

We explore the anxieties of the wealthy, and the mentality of conspicuous consumption, which is about more than being discreet about high-end purchases. Journalist Rachel Sherman tells us her accounts of interviewing some of New York's elite wealthy - who are equally as stealthy about their endeavours and purchases. We hear more about the anxiety associated with wealth, both earned and inherited, including the constant need to seem 'normal', and justify funds. Stephen Lussier, a chief executive from diamond company De Beers, tells us about the changing buying habits of some of the world's richest - including the increasing number of women who prefer to buy their own diamonds for reasons other than romance. Plus, extravagant signs of wealth are at their peak during India;s wedding season. Weddings can go on for days, and include thousands of guests and private chartered planes, and over 70 types of food. The BBC's Rahul Tandon reports that some Indian states are cracking down on what they say are 'excessive' affairs.

(Image: A wealthy man anxiously facing a City landscape. Credit: Coldsnowstorm/ Getty Images)

Does it Pay to Be Nice in Business?

Does it Pay to Be Nice in Business?

The path to a profitable business could lie in your ability to be nice. From The Empathy Business, Belinda Parmar OBE tells us that some understanding between leaders and customers, and within teams, has proven to lead to sharp rises in profits.

And some people throw billions in to the business of being compassionate, and can turn huge profits. We speak to the founder of LeapFrog Investments, Andy Kuper, whose business invests in fast-growing companies that bring about serious change to the world and to shareholders. His projects include the world's first insurer to give life cover to HIV positive people across Africa.

(Image: A black and white photo English airline entrepreneur Freddie Laker (1922 - 2006) giving a thumbs up gesture and smiling; plane in background. (Photo by London Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Bitcoin bubbles and safe havens

Bitcoin bubbles and safe havens

In times of economic crunch, where should you store your savings? Perhaps you are tempted by the rise in value of bitcoin. But can it last? And what is bitcoin anyway? A currency or an asset?

Garrick Hileman, Research fellow at the Cambridge centre for alternative finance, tells the BBC's Manuela Saragosa what to make of the cryptocurrency.

British business couple Baroness Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman tell Ed Butler about their property development where units will be sold for bitcoin.

And Martin Arnold, an analyst at London investment firm ETF Securities, weighs it up against other assets, like the safe haven of gold.

(Picture: bars of gold. Credit: Getty.)

Computer Says No?

Computer Says No?

Will robots and artificial intelligence help us in our daily lives, or steal our jobs and discriminate against us? Manuela Saragosa talks to Max Tegmark, who has just written a book about what it means to be human in an age of artificial intelligence. In it he recounts how he was left in tears after a recent visit to London's Science Museum.

She also interviews Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and robots at the University of Sheffield.

And regular commentator James Srodes has a warning about letting computers make decisions for us.

(Photo: Model robots. Credit: Getty Images)

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