The Money Programme

Financial speculators have been blamed for inflicting recession on the rich world and starvation on poorer countries. They have been accused of buying up contracts for vital commodities - not to use, but to hold in the hope of price rises. And, by buying up billions of dollars worth of food and oil contracts, it's claimed that they artificially drove up prices, wrecked businesses and put food out of the reach of people in poorer countries.

James Caan takes a trip out of the Dragons' Den to look at the job market as unemployment figures in the UK reach their worst levels in decades. Unemployment could reach over three million by 2011. In Scotland, the jobless number could almost double in the next 12 months. It is a problem that is affecting every sector from finance to manufacturing. Some employers will have to cut 75 per cent of their staff. Is there any cause for optimism?

In the last of the Money Programme series looking at Britain in recession, financial journalist and author Merryn Somerset-Webb sets off to find out what we should be doing with our money as risk is high, interest rates are low and pensions are in turmoil. Merryn meets experts and savers of all ages who are each tackling the savings dilemma in a different way.

In the second of this Money Programme series looking at different sectors of Britain's economy in the recession, Newsnight's Paul Mason covers the moving story of rising unemployment from the shop floor of two struggling manufacturing companies in the Midlands.

The Money Programme's Fiona Bruce gained exclusive access to Bill Gates as he prepared to step down from full-time involvement with Microsoft in June 2008. His audacious mission to put 'a computer on every desk and in every home' is now close to a description of modern life. In building his multi-billion dollar company, Gates made himself the richest man in the world, but he has also been dogged by controversy, as his ruthless leadership contributed to Microsoft being sued by the US Government. In a special one-hour edition of the Money Programme, Fiona Bruce presents the definitive profile of Bill Gates as he embarks on his latest challenge - giving away the billions he has amassed, through the charitable foundation he runs with his wife and his father. She examines the fortunes of Microsoft as it faces up to competition from internet-based companies. And the programme talks about Gates the man, the businessman and the philanthropist with a who's who of his friends, colleagues and rivals.

Delia, Jamie, Gordon, Nigella, Rick, Gary and Antony - their names and faces are everywhere, they are all over the TV schedules, their own brand products dominate the department stores and their cookery books fill up the bestseller lists. We think we know them well, but for the first time this is the story of how they took British cuisine out of the joke book and into the record books. With behind-the-scenes access to the chefs and the teams of experts who helped build their empires, this is the untold story of how they turned their cooking skills into vast multi-million-pound businesses and international brands.

Britain's 10 million small shareholders are being systematically targeted by an international criminal network of fake investment firms who have conned them out of millions of pounds. When Dr John Ashley got a letter from Spain offering him free advice on his savings, he thought it wouldn't do any harm to say yes. How wrong he was. Eighteen months later and £60,000 poorer, Dr Ashley rued the day he listened to Madrid-based investment firm Benjamin Fisher.

With 620 million cars worldwide and fossil fuels running out, are biofuels the green solution to our energy needs? Now there's a revolution going on in the garages of the UK as individuals and companies switch to biofuels. Retired teacher Dick Jones makes his own biofuel, to power his people carrier from the local pub's converted chip fat. Although the chemicals involved are potentially dangerous, the rewards can be worth it. Jones says he likes "the idea of using a waste product to make oil, and I like the idea of being energy independent, but it also saves a lot of money". It costs him some £21 for a tank of home-made bio-diesel, compared with £80 at the garage. Growing phenomenon Businesses including McDonalds and Stagecoach are starting to experiment with biofuels. # UK Biofuel consumption 2004 - 21 million litres # 2005 - 118 million litres # 200 - 264 million litres # 2006 - 264 million litres # 2007 - 500 million litres Source: HM Revenue & Customs They are both trialling fuels made from used cooking oil. But unfortunately there is not enough used chip fat to power our entire economy, which is why biofuels made from food crops like maize, wheat, palm oil and rapeseed, are seen by some as the answer. The justification is when the plant-derived biofuel is burned in an engine, the CO2 released is offset by the amount of the gas that the plants absorbed as they grew. Previously, only Brazil (and at one point Zimbabwe) made fuel from sugar cane, but now the US and Europe see biofuels as the way forward. The UK Government has said that by 2010 5% all UK fuel should come from biofuels. The EU has gone even further, setting a target of 10% by 2020. Food or fuel But how are we going to reach those targets? Critics argue it will mean diverting crops from food to fuels. Will the knock-on effect be a hike in the prices of cereal and grains which hit those already living in poverty hardest? Greenpeace's John Sauven says that "when it comes down to it, you can put food in someone's stomach or you can put fuel in the tank of the car and it's that kind of black and white". And the criticisms don't stop there. Mr Sauven says the demand for biofuels has piled even greater pressure on the world's already fragile rainforests. "It's a disaster to see the rainforests being cleared whole-sale and massive monoculture palm oil plantations put in their place," he says. Traceability Both the UK and the EU have issued guidelines on sourcing biofuels from sustainable sources, but it is hard to enforce. # Average UK unleaded petrol prices Feb 2008 - 104 pence per litre # Feb 2007- 86 pence per litre # Feb 2006 - 90pence per litre # Feb 2005 - 80pence per litre # fact here # Feb 2004 - 81.9pence per litre # Feb 2003 - 80.2pence per litre Fuel giant Shell says it could not guarantee its biofuels do not come from palm oil. Shell's head of Future Fuels, Graeme Sweeney, says "traceability will improve over time". "It won't be possible in the beginning to trace everything, but that doesn't mean to say that we shouldn't do all that we can," he continues. But the bio-fuel industry is not the only one to place demands on palm oil resources. National differences Andrew Owens, of biofuel manufacturer Greenergy, believes the biofuel industry has been unfairly blamed. Although it does not use palm oil, Mr Owens says "you have to look at all the consumers of palm oil, and not just biofuels". "The lion share is the food industry." The car industry has embraced biofuels, investing in designing the so called 'flex-fuel' car, which can run on either unleaded petrol or biofuel. The market leaders are the Ford Focus and the Saab bio-power., but if you do want to run them on the maximum biofuel efficiency, there there's a hitch: the cars take 85% biofuel, known as E85 and it is only available at a handful of UK forecourts. There is a country where things are different: Sweden. There are more than 1,000 biofuel stations there and...

The Money Programme's Fiona Bruce gained exclusive access to Bill Gates as he prepared to step down from full-time involvement with Microsoft in June 2008. His audacious mission to put 'a computer on every desk and in every home' is now close to a description of modern life. In building his multi-billion dollar company, Gates made himself the richest man in the world, but he has also been dogged by controversy, as his ruthless leadership contributed to Microsoft being sued by the US Government. In a special one-hour edition of the Money Programme, Fiona Bruce presents the definitive profile of Bill Gates as he embarks on his latest challenge - giving away the billions he has amassed, through the charitable foundation he runs with his wife and his father. She examines the fortunes of Microsoft as it faces up to competition from internet-based companies. And the programme talks about Gates the man, the businessman and the philanthropist with a who's who of his friends, colleagues and rivals.

Despite the credit crunch, increasing inflation and falling house prices, some businesses are reporting record profits. Pawnbrokers, bailiffs, company liquidators and discount retailers are recording bulging order books and soaring profits. The boss of Ryanair says the slump is actually good for his business.

Guinness is one of Britain's best loved brands, yet sales of the famous black stout have been falling year after year both in the UK and Ireland. But with nearly 250 years of history behind it, Guinness is not about to go quietly.

The website eBay has become the focus of a new breed of entrepreneurs who hope to make money by trading online. Jameel Verjee is a corporate lawyer turned entrepreneur, who wants to raise funds from potential investors in the city.

In the fast moving world of fashion, 2005 has unquestionably been the year of the budget chain Primark. With 123 shops in the UK and more on the way, it has become a leading player in the high street. It scooped one of the major prizes at the High Street fashion awards this autumn, and its low-cost, high-fashion clothing has even appeared in the fashion bible Vogue.

We've all had to break a motorway journey, whether it is for petrol, food or to go to the loo. Yet, many of us will hesitate before taking the slip-road to a service area for fears about the quality and the price of the food on offer, or even the state of the loos.

Some of Britain's richest people pay remarkably little tax. A Money Programme special investigates how they do it.

The online auction site eBay is ten years old - that's pensionable age in "internet time". But this original star of Silicon Valley's dotcom boom is still growing at over 40%, and now earns half a billion pounds a year.