Business Daily

With less than a month to go until the US mid-term elections, voters are preparing to head to the polls with the economy high on the agenda.
From the cost of living, interest rates and tariffs, how much will economic concerns shape the result?
Rahul Tandon, Michelle Fleury and Will Bain look at whether the economy could prove to be the defining issue of these mid-terms.

We meet Janice Bryant Howroyd, founder of ActOne Group. She arrived in Los Angeles with just $900 borrowed from her mother and went on to build a multi-billion-dollar business, becoming the first Black woman to own and run a billion-dollar company.
But Janice says the foundations of her success were laid much earlier, growing up as one of 11 children in the segregated American South.
So, how did those early experiences shape the entrepreneur she would become?
Presented by Leanna Byrne
Produced by Bisi Adebayo and Barbara George
(Picture: Janice Bryant Howroyd)

The El Nino in 2023 had a detrimental impact on the cocoa harvest in West Africa, prices quadrupled and businesses reacted.
Chocolate prices skyrocketed around the world, chocolate makers were reducing their cocoa content and in some cases making their products smaller.
Since then cocoa prices have come back down, but the cost of chocolate products hasn't followed, Hannah Mullane takes a look at why.
Now, the 2026 El Nino threatens to repeat history, cocoa prices have already started rising again as bad weather is expected to impact the next harvest.
Farmers, wholesalers, and chocolate makers explain how the volatile market is impacting them.
(Photo: A large machine mixing molten chocolate. Credit: Olivia Richwald)
Presenter: Hannah Mullane
Producer: Gideon Long

With the cost of government debt reaching its highest for several decades, we're giving you another chance to hear our exploration of how the world became so dependent on bonds, those IOUs from governments and firms that helped build the modern economy. Bonds are often dismissed as a dull corner of finance, but behind the scenes they have played a central role in major economic dramas around the world.
We hear about their history, how they have shaped companies and countries, and why some fear the bond market could trigger the next global meltdown.
If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk
Presenter: Rob Young
Producer: Gideon Long
[This episode was first broadcast on 12 Jan 2026]
(Photo: A bond issued in 1648 by a Dutch water board to finance improvements to a local dike system. The bond, written on vellum, is held at Yale University Beinecke Library and is believed to be one of the oldest in the world that still pays interest. Credit: Yale University)

Protests in Spain about 87-year-old Mariacarmen Abascal's eviction from social housing reignited the housing affordability debate globally, as inflation ticks up and career prospects for the young have been impacted by the rise in AI. We head to Nigeria, India and the UK to take stock on the issue.
Elsewhere, what can sliding sales at the world's largest automaker tell us about how drivers feel about big purchases?
We get the view from Jennifer Pak China and Professor Justin Wolfers in the US, where former MAGA fans are up in arms about the rising cost of diesel amid the war in Iran.
(Photo: Demonstrators protest demanding political action to stop evictions and address the housing crisis, following the eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her home, in Madrid, Spain, 30 September, 2026. Credit: Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters)
Presenter: Rahul Tandon
Producer: Josh Martin