Share Sounds. presented by Juliette Foster

Investment Perspectives: Welcome to today's edition of The Apprentice Investor. Regular listeners to the show will know that our Apprentices are five members of the Share Radio team who've each been given fifteen thousand pounds of virtual money to build their own individual share portfolios. They have a minimum of eight stocks, which they've been buying and selling through The Share Centre. So, how well are they doing? Have their portfolios risen in value, or are they wallowing in the depths of the financial doldrums? Apprentices Valsa de Winter and Alexi Phillips join Juliette Foster in the studio along with Share Radio's Senior Analyst Ed Bowsher.

Share Radio's Book Review: Can society and business exist in a mutually respectful relationship where one side knows where the other is coming from? On the surface, the answer to that question would appear to be "No", since most people believe that companies work to undermine the public interest. Yet there's no denying the fact that business and the public need each other although the challenge is to find a meaningful way of bringing both sides together. Well one man who may have the answer is the peer and former CEO of BP, John Browne, whose new book, "Connect: How Companies Succeed by Engaging Radically with Society", is published in paperback this week. John Browne joined Juliette Foster in the studio.

Marco Robinson is an entrepreneur and author of the book, "The Financial Freedom Guarantee" who says that if you follow his ten step plan, you could end up being a VERY wealthy person - and he joined Juliette Foster in the studio for a thorough run-down of the strategy and the book itself.

Conversations From Africa: Chris Bishop, Managing Editor of Forbes Africa Magazine joins Share Radio's Patrick Jones for more news from the continent in our weekly segment dedicated to all things African. This week he discusses more woes for the South African economy with talks of a downgrade to junk status, 'Guptagate', the huge mining court-case 'Once empowered always empowered' and more.

Share Radio's Patrick Jones speaks with Chris Bishop, Managing Editor of Forbes Africa Magazine. This week topics include: Jacob Zumas recent state-visit to Nigeria and the reasons for this, Aliko Dangote (Africas richest man) says Nigerias economic crisis is exaggerated, the Zimbabwean Government is weighing up whether to give compensation to white farmers & a huge court case for mining in South Africa this week.

What about investment in the Fairtrade industry? Are there special funds and how are they structured? Dana Roelofs is the Business Development Manager at 'Incofin Investment Management', a Belgian based Impact Investor that advises the Fairtrade Access Fund, which operates in Latin America and Africa. She described how the fund works to our reporter Patrick Jones.

This is Emerging Opportunities, the only show on radio dedicated to the world of emerging markets. Investment Perspectives host Juliette Foster is joined by Gavin Serkin, author of "Frontier: Exploring the Top Ten Emerging Markets of Tomorrow", who's also the Managing Editor of "Frontier Funds and Frontera News". This week we resume our trek around the Indian Sub-continent. Having explored India and Pakistan we're heading live to Dhaka today to look at recent news concerning an $81 million steal from Bangladesh’s Central Bank. For this we join Asif Khan. Aaron Grehan of Aviva Investors also joins the team on the line to talk the US Federal Reserve, scandal in Brazil and much much more.

Japan's central bank kept its powder dry at its March policy review and held off from bolstering its record stimulus policy. Economists believe that BOJ governor Kuroda Haruhiko could produce further stimulus measures in July as the economy absorbs the negative rate strategy the bank introduced in January. So, where does that leave investors tempted to put their money into Japan's markets? Can they get good returns, or are the risks too high? Juliette Foster was joined in the studio by Richard Aston, Manager of the Japan Income & Growth Fund at Coupland Cardiff Asset Management.

The House of Lords will consider a series of amendments to the government's controversial Trade Union Bill when it goes before peers on Wednesday. Condemned by critics as "undemocratic", the bill would only allow workers to go on strike if more than 50% of them voted for industrial action. Employers would also have the authority to hire agency staff to cover the jobs of workers who go on strike. However the greatest outrage has arisen from proposals to change the way that union members pay their dues, which according to Labour, could lose the party up to £8 million a year. Joining Investment Perspectives host Juliette Foster for more analysis of that story is Matt Wrack, Head of the Fire Brigades Union, and Professor John Weeks, Share Radio's regular economics commentator.

Next week the Chancellor George Osborne will unveil his spring budget to the House of Commons as speculation grows over whether he's likely to make any cutbacks or if he's course to pay down the nation's debts. Mr Osborne is saying nothing although he's dropped plans to end or alter tax relief on pension contributions in a move which campaigners believe is a missed opportunity to help the low paid. Yet regardless of what the Chancellor does on Wednesday, his calculations will have been influenced by an econimic model that critics claim is flawed and past its sell by date. Neo-classical economics may be Treasury's guding light, but has it done more harm than good? Is it time to look at the alternatives? Juliette Foster was joined in the studio by Professor John Weeks, Share Radio's regular economics commentator, and Professor Steve Keen of Kingston University London. Steve is also the author of the best-selling book "Debunking Economics".