蜜芽传媒

Whether you have a mortgage, credit card, pension or savings in the bank, interest rates determine how much money you pay out or earn. Financial markets have spent most of this year trying to guess whether the US central bank is going to raise rates this year, from their level of 0.5%. Stock market investors have become used to the cheap money of the post-crisis years. Central banks in most advanced economies are independent of government. So convention dictates politicians keep out of discussions about interest rates. We ask one of his economic advisers why he is breaking a political taboo by commenting on the actions of a central bank.

California has become the first US state to grant expanded overtime pay to farm workers. The Democratic Governor, Jerry Brown, signed the historic bill, which requires farmers to pay workers overtime after eight hours per day - two hours less than now - or forty hours per week.

Shares in Samsung have fallen by 7% on the news that its flagship new smartphone is being recalled over fears it could burst into flames. It is because of the lithium ion battery contained inside the Samsung Galaxy Note. Up to 2.5 million of these particular phones are being recalled around the world.

Rob Young is joined throughout the programme by two guests on opposite sides of the Pacific - Jason Abbruzzese, a business reporter at Mashable, in New York, and Satyajit Das, a writer and former banker, in Sydney, Australia.

(Photo: Donald Trump holding the flag of the United States. Credit: Bryan Snyder/Reuters)