Coming soon: Martin Wolf and Paul Krugman unleashed
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I'm Martin Wolf, the Financial Times Chief Economics Commentator. And I'm Paul Krugman, Professor at the City University of New York and, I guess, self-employed online pundit. In six episodes to run throughout June and early July, we'll be discussing the economic events reshaping our world. And it's going to be interesting doing this together because, well, we've known each other, according to my calculations, around 40 years.

So what topics would you like to discuss? I mean, obviously, it doesn't look like the trade war and all of that is going to be over anytime soon. And we need to talk about that. Are you prepared to think a little about the political economy of this?

How can it be that what is on the face of it, the most successful economy in the world, has decided to elect somebody who intends to blow it up? I'm friends with some science fiction writers, people who write sort of near future dystopian stuff. And they're very upset because they feel that they're being put out of a job because they're

What's actually happening is making everything that they wrote look mild by comparison with the reality. I mean, if it weren't for Donald Trump,

We would be talking a lot about how do we get China to not be such a disruptive player in the world economy. I'd like to talk about Europe and why is it lacking? Almost for consolation, I've been doing some work on AI and what it might mean. These are all things that if it weren't for that guy in the White House, would all be at the top of our conversation and really we should be talking about it.

Well, I actually think those are very much the issues we might want to discuss. I think we have enough subjects, don't we? Should be fun. I'm looking forward immensely to our conversations. I'm sure I'll learn a lot. And I'm sure that our listeners will too. And they will be able to listen on the FT's Economic Show starting in early June and available for free wherever they get their podcasts. I think that's been rather good. Okay.

Did you know that foreign investors are quietly funding lawsuits in American courts through a practice called third-party litigation funding? Shadowy overseas funders are paying to sue American companies in our courts, and they don't pay a dime in U.S. taxes if there is an award or settlement. They profit tax-free from our legal system, while U.S. companies are tied up in court and American families pay the price to the tune of $5,000 a year.

But there is a solution. A new proposal before Congress would close this loophole and ensure these foreign investors pay taxes, just like the actual plaintiffs have to. It's a common sense move that discourages frivolous and abusive lawsuits and redirects resources back into American jobs in

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