[Audio Pod] Can Anyone Run an Airline, and Trump Gold Cards Sold

This week on Insider Exchange, we’re back after a run of public holidays and travel. Jimmy returns from China’s auto show with gifts in hand — including a pair of “Macron glasses” for Simon, who chose the beach over the trip. Balance.

In Useful Updates, we unpack Spirit Airlines shutting down, the UAE exiting OPEC, renewed rate hike pressure, evolving crypto regulation, the rise of spam marketers, Beyers’ liquidation, updates to the PVoC programme, and the Bank of Japan buying $35bn worth of yen.

In the Deep Dive, we ask a deceptively simple question: can anyone run an airline? We break down the real costs, operational complexity, thin margins, and whether the airline business is actually profitable — or just looks glamorous from the outside.

In Make-It-Make-Sense, we look at Trump’s gold cards and how many have actually been sold, petrol prices in Iran, and what it really costs to attend the Met Gala.

We close with an Unfiltered Opinion as Simon takes aim at Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton after Miami — a performance he clearly feels fell well short of expectations.