Sara Thompson

Financial Technology (FinTech)

Financial apps have transformed the way people budget, invest, and track spending, often offering sophisticated tools at little or no upfront cost. Yet many of these services generate revenue by collecting, analysing, and sometimes selling anonymised or aggregated user spending data to third parties. This raises a difficult question: is exchanging personal financial information for convenience a reasonable trade-off, or does it expose consumers to unnecessary privacy and security risks? Experts agree that financial apps can deliver genuine value, but they also stress that transparency and informed consent are essential. The debate is ultimately about trust—whether consumers can confidently understand how their financial data is used and whether the benefits justify the potential loss of privacy.

Global Business / Economy

Private equity has moved well beyond corporate buyouts — it's now in your child's daycare, your elderly parent's care home, and your local emergency room. Eileen Appelbaum, Josh Lerner, and Atul Gawande debate whether private equity's expansion into essential services is driving efficiency and investment, or extracting value from the most vulnerable people at their most vulnerable moments.