Saudi’s LIV golf exit is just the start

单集文稿 ...

• 00:01

  NPR.

• 00:11

  Saudi Arabia once had grandiose plans.

• 00:14

  There was a mega project in the desert called Neom.

• 00:17

  Remember that one, Darian?

• 00:18

  I do, very well.

• 00:19

  I did an episode on that two years ago.

• 00:21

  That's right.

• 00:22

  A city encased in glass.

• 00:23

  The Saudi government was also going to pour millions of dollars into New York's Metropolitan Opera.

• 00:28

  It's teaming up with President Trump's son-in-law

• 00:30

  and other investors to try to buy video game company Electronic Arts for $55 billion.

• 00:36

  The Saudis also spent $5 billion on an international golf league called LIV Golf.

• 00:45

  These projects were an effort to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil,

• 00:49

  but they were also about soft power, reputation laundering, and raising the country's cultural profile.

• 00:55

  This is The Indicator from Planet Money.

• 00:56

  I'm Waylon Wong.

• 00:58

  And I'm Diane Woods.

• 00:59

  Saudi leaders were already cooling on some of these investments, and the war in Iran could be the final straw.

• 01:06

  Today on the show, we look at how geopolitics both fueled and doomed one of Saudi Arabia's splashy cultural endeavors.

• 01:14

  Its foray into professional golf.

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