U OK, UK?

你还好吗,英国吗?

The Indicator from Planet Money

2026-06-09

9 分钟
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单集简介 ...

In the United Kingdom, young people are out of work, government borrowing costs are high, and the nation is burning through PM’s like yesterday’s leftovers. A lot of countries are feeling the economic strain of the Iran war. But is the UK the country we should be worrying about? Fact checking by Leyla Doss. Your Next Listen — What broke Britain’s economy? Connect with The Indicator — Sign up for The Indicator’s brand new newsletter— Buy the Planet Money book— Find our socials, YouTube and more!— For sponsor-free episodes, subscribe to NPR+  See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
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  • This is The Indicator from Planet Money.

  • I'm Weyland Wong, here today with Ilya Merritts, a longtime public radio reporter now based in London.

  • Hello, Ilya.

  • Hey, Weyland.

  • So I have a rhetorical question for you, and really, it's a rhetorical question for your adopted country.

  • You okay, UK?

  • Oh, Weyland.

  • Groan.

  • And yes, that's a really good question.

  • You are correct to ask that question because the UK economy is looking a little queasy right now.

  • First, there was an IMF report saying the Iran war would hit UK growth hard.

  • They later revised it up just a little.

  • Then UK government borrowing costs hit a 28-year high.

  • And then there was the news that a million young people are out of work.

  • There is a rising sense of impatience here.

  • Have you noticed they keep changing prime ministers?

  • Six prime ministers in ten years.

  • So if the citizens keep thinking that we're going to fix it in 18 months,

  • and if we don't fix it in 18 months, we'll just get a new leader,

  • that's a problem because it's not reasonable to expect that we can fix these problems so quickly.