Planet Money
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#459: Getting It Right
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#458: Bangladesh's T-Shirt Economy
H&M, Zara, Wal-Mart and JC Penney all buy t-shirts from Bangladesh. Soon, Planet Money will too.As you may have heard, we'remaking a t-shirtand telling the story of how it's made. We decided a few months ago to work with Jockey to make our t-shirts. Our women's shirt will be made in Colombia. Our men's shirt will be made, in part, in Bangladesh.But horrifying news has been coming out of Bangladesh's apparel industry recently. A garment factory collapsed a few weeks ago, killing more than...
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#457: Why Pink
We're making at-shirtthat tells the story of its own creation. Part of that story — color. It took long meetings, late nights and endless discussion to choose the exact hues for our Planet Money t-shirt.On today's show, we'll explain what the color of our women's t-shirt has to do with thispaintingfrom 1976, and we'll tell you how unfinished buildings halfway around the world are shaping what we see on store shelves right now.You only have three days left to get your very own Planet Money...
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#456: Marijuana Arbitrage
Nearly 20 states have legalized marijuana to some degree. As it turns out, this has profound economic consequences for dealers all across the country.On today's show, we meet a wholesaler who moves weed across the country, a California weed dealer seeking higher profits in New York, and a special agent who may be inadvertently helping the dealer out by trying to put him in jail.For More: See The Weed Trail, from WNYC
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#224: The Cotton Wars
On today's show, we meet a Brazilian who took on the world's largest superpower; a Texas cotton farmer who's tired of hearing the Brazilians complain; and a guy named Renato — a.k.a. Retaliation Master.And we hear why U.S. taxpayers are paying Brazilian cotton growers nearly $150 million a year.This show originally ran in 2011, near the beginning of our quest to make a Planet Money t-shirt. We're re-playing it now because we just re-launched the t-shirt project.If you want a Planet Money...
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#455: The Planet Money T-Shirt Is Finally (Almost) Here
We're making a t-shirt that tells the story of its own creation. To help make it happen, visit ourKickstarter page.
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# 454 The Lollipop War
Sugar costs more in the U.S. than in the rest of the world. If you're in the candy business — if, say, you make 10 lollipops a day — that's a big deal.On today's show, we visit a candy factory in Ohio (where they want U.S. sugar to be cheaper) and a sugar-beet field in Minnesota (where they don't). And, perhaps inevitably, we hear from Washington, where the fight over sugar has been playing out for years.For more, read our post from earlier today. Subscribe to the podcast. Find us...
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#453: What Causes What?
What causes what? The human brain is programmed to answer this question constantly. This how we survive. What made that noise? Bear made that noise. What caused my hand to hurt? Fire caused my hand to hurt.We are so eager to figure what causes what — that we often get it wrong. I wore my lucky hat to the game. My team won. Therefore, my lucky hat caused my team to win.On today's show we dive deep into the world of correlation and causation with Charles Wheelan, author of the new book, Naked...
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#357: How Much Should We Trust Economics?
Three years ago, Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff published a study that quickly became one of the most famous, most talked about economics papers since the financial crisis. It got so much attention because it answered a basic question everybody was asking: How much debt is too much?Reinhart and Rogoff looked at what had happened in many different countries over many years. And they found a what looked like a clear debt threshold: 90 percent. Average growth was much, much slower in countries...
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#356: The Surprisingly Entertaining History of The...
The U.S. has a really conflicted history with the income tax. For most of American history, there was no income tax at all. At one point it was ruled unconstitutional.Today, income tax is the federal government's main source of revenue. That raises a question: How did something that was once so strange to us become so central?The answer includes a few wars, a Supreme Court justice on his deathbed, and Donald Duck.For More: Read our post, "From Abe Lincoln To Donald Duck: History Of The...
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#451: Why Some People Love Tax Day
Last year, a federal program took about $60 billion from wealthier Americans and gave it to the working poor. This program — a massive redistribution of wealth --has been embraced by every president from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama.On today's show, we look at a huge, often overlooked, surprisingly interesting corner of the tax code: The Earned Income Tax Credit.For more, see our storyA Surprisingly Uncontroversial Program That Gives Money To Poor People.
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#450: Bitcoin Goes To The Moon
Since the start of the year, the Japanese yen has risen by about 12 percent against the dollar. The euro has fallen by about 1 percent.Then there's bitcoin, a virtual currency that doesn't even exist in the physical world. In the past few months, the value of bitcoin has risen by more than 1,000 percent — from less than $20 per bitcoin a few months ago to more than $200 today.On today's show, we ask: Is a skyrocketing value a good thing or a bad thing for bitcoin?
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#449: The Hidden Digital Wealth In Your Pocket
We have secondary markets for almost everything. If you no longer want that old record or CD, you can sell it to a thrift store, used record store, or on Craigslist or eBay.But what about songs from your iTunes library you no longer want?Today on the show, the story of a company that tried to set up an online marketplace where people can buy and sell old mp3s, and what happened to them. It involves a law from 1976, a phonorecord, and a judge that quotes Star Trek.For more on the legal...
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#449: Is It Illegal To Sell Your Old MP3s?
We have secondary markets for almost everything. If you no longer want that old record or CD, you can sell it to a thrift store, used record store, or on Craigslist or eBay.But what about songs from your iTunes library you no longer want?Today on the show, the story of a company that tried to set up an online marketplace where people can buy and sell old mp3s, and what happened to them.For more on the legal arguments around selling used digital media:Is It Legal To Sell Your Old MP3s?Update:...
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#448: Coney Island Back In Business
When Hurricane Sandy struck, it devastated businesses all over New York City. One area hit particularly hard was Coney Island, an iconic New York beach at the tip of South Brooklyn. At the time, wereportedon the damage to a family-owned amusement park,Deno's Wonderwheel Amusement Park, home to the Wonder Wheel, bumper cars, and the Spook-A-Rama. We reported that the place was basically doomed.But it turns out, our report was a kind of premature obituary for the business. We return to the...
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#290: North Korea's Illegal Economy
Note: This podcast was originally published in 2011. With North Koreain the newsagain this week, we're re-running it today.North Korea relies on charity to feed its starving people. But the country's elites like their luxuries — imported wine, fine china, dancing shoes.To buy those things, they need foreign currency. (North Korean currency is worthless outside of North Korea.) To get foreign currency, they need to sell things to the outside world. But North Korea's industrial base is a...
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#447: The Con Man Who Took Down His Own Country (Then...
A few years back, the Kenyan government wanted to encourage exports. So the government said to local businesses: For every $100 of stuff you sell to someone outside Kenya, we'll give you Kenyan shillings worth another $20.A con artist saw an opportunity. He launched a company that exported nonexistent gold for nonexistent dollars, and collected a real government bonus. Then, when he was about to get caught, he started his own bank. That's when the scam really took off.On today's show: How...
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#446 The Invisible 14 Million
We're an economics show. We cover the economy. But it's come to our attention that, until now, we've missed one of the biggest stories in our economy: The startling rise in the number of people on federal disability programs.It's the story of 14 million people who don't show up in most of the numbers we look at to understand the economy. These 14 million Americans don't have jobs, but they don't show up in any of the unemployment measures that we use. They receive federal assistance, but are...
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#446 The Invisible 14 Million
We're an economics show. We cover the economy. But it's come to our attention that, until now, we've missed one of the biggest stories in our economy: The startling rise in the number of people on federal disability programs.It's the story of 14 million people who don't show up in most of the numbers we look at to understand the economy. These 14 million Americans don't have jobs, but they don't show up in any of the unemployment measures that we use. They receive federal assistance, but are...
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#445: Cyprus Takes Away The Security Blanket
We'll be honest: We thought we were through with the crisis in Europe, at least for a while. The continent seemed to be muddling though just fine. So we shut down our hotline to the European Central Bank and boxed up our copies of the Masstrict treaty.But this weekend, we woke up to find we were wrong. Late night foreign minister meetings, lines at the ATMs, protests in the street — it's all back.The crisis has emerged again in an unlikely place. On today's show: Why did the world freak out...
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#444: New Jersey Wine
Sometimes your success depends on how your competitors behave. People judge you not just by your product, but by the product that your rival down the street makes.This is a problem for Lou Caracciolo. He's trying to make high-quality wine, from grapes he grows in New Jersey. But Jersey wine already has a reputation — and fancy isn't it. On today's show: Can New Jersey become the next Napa?For more, see Adam Davidson's latest NYT Magazine column,Bottle Bing.Music: Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A...
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#443: Don't Believe The Hype
Despite all the celebration, the Dow Jones industrial average has not hit record highs recently. If you adjust for inflation, the highs just aren't as high as they seem.And even if we do hit a real, inflation-adjusted high in the next few weeks, it won't mean much. The Dow is a seriously flawed stock index, and it's certainly not a good way to measure what's going on in the overall economy.On today's show, we rain on the Dow's parade and explain why a lot of very smart people, hate this...
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#442: Into The Future
On today's show: Three stories about the tricky path from the present to the future.Sales Are Like Drugs. What Happens When A Store Wants Customers To Quit?J.C. Penney's new CEO came in with a bold strategy: No more sales or coupons. It didn't work.Should The U.S. Import More Doctors?"We should think of doctors the same way we think of shirts," an economist says. "If we can get doctors at a lower cost from elsewhere in the world then we could save enormous amounts of money."If A Driverless...
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#441: Business Secrets Of The Amish
Higher land prices have forced Amish off the farms and into business. There are thousands of Amish run firms out there making everything from plumbing supplies to furniture.But running an Amish business poses unique challenges. Many Amish don't connect to the electrical grid. They don't drive cars. They prize modesty, meaning traditional advertising slogans like "best," "fastest," and "greatest" are out. An Amish company has to be creative about these things. And, the Amish have tricks they...
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#440: An Economic Makeover For The Catholic Church
The Catholic Church is not a corporation. It's a religion, a cultural force, and a global power. Still, one of the things the new Pope will have to deal with is a classic business mess — a multi-billion dollar conglomerate that has stumbled and is losing money and relevance.On today's show, experts (including a priest with a Harvard MBA) tell us what the church needs to do to turn things around.Music: Faithful Father's Pipe Organ Hymns, & Run DMC's "Down With The King."Find...
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#439: The Mysterious Power Of A Hospital Bill
If you have good health insurance, you've probably never even seen a full hospital bill. Count yourself lucky.For agiant articlein this week's Time, Steve Brill went line by line through a handful of bills from hospitals around the country. On today's show, he tells us about the crazy thicket of high prices and hard-to-decipher codes that he discovered, and we talk about what it means for the price of health care in America.
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Episode 438: Mavericks, Monopolies And Beer
Two big companies have hatched a plan that could allegedly take money out of the pockets of ordinary Americans. And it's not just any money: it's our beer money.Anheuser-Busch InBev, the biggest brewer in the world, wants to buy Grupo Modelo, the maker of Corona. The U.S. Department of Justice is suing to block the acquisition.On today's show: The story behind the case, and what it says about monopolies, competition and government regulation.Music: Rihanna's "Cheers (Drink to That)" Find...
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#437: Can Andrew Sullivan Make It On His Own?
Will readers pay for digital content?The uberblogger Andrew Sullivan recently struck out on his own. Now he's trying keep hisblogafloat by asking readers for money — and hoping that they'll contribute enough to pay for the the blog's five-person staff. On today's show, he tells us how he's doing.Also: We hear from Maura Johnston, a music writer who got fired from The Village Voice and is trying to sell adigital magazine.
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#436: If Economists Controlled The Borders
For the first time in a while, there's political momentum building to change the U.S. immigration system. On today's show, we ask three economists: What would the perfect system look like? If we could scrap the mess of a system that we currently have and replace it with anything, what would it look like?Among the answers:Let in lots more doctors and engineersAuction off immigration slots to the highest biddersOpen the gates, and let everyone in
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#436: If Economists Controlled The Borders
For the first time in a while, there's political momentum building to change the U.S. immigration system. On today's show, we ask three economists: What would the perfect system look like? If we could scrap the mess of a system that we currently have and replace it with anything, what would it look like?Among the answers:Let in lots more doctors and engineersAuction off immigration slots to the highest biddersOpen the gates, and let everyone in
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#436: If Economists Controlled The Boarders
For the first time in a while, there's political momentum building to change the U.S. immigration system. On today's show, we ask three economists: What would the perfect system look like? If we could scrap the mess of a system that we currently have and replace it with anything, what would it look like?Among the answers:Let in lots more doctors and engineersAuction off immigration slots to the highest biddersOpen the gates, and let everyone in
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#435: Why Buying A Car Is So Awful
In survey after survey, people rank buying a car as one of their least favorite experiences.Why hasn't anyone figured out a better way to sell cars? Why can't you just go to a car store and shop for cars from a bunch of different manufacturers? Why don't cars have real price tags — with real prices, that people actually pay?Today on the show: Why car buying is so unpleasant, and what your local legislators may be doing to keep it that way.
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#434: Dealing with Danger, Death, And Crime
On today's show: Four short stories about how we deal with danger, death, and crime.Here's more on those stories:1. Why Is The Government In The Flood Insurance Business? The quick answer to why the government sells flood insurance: a hugely damaging hurricane named Betsy.2. Should Gun Owners Have To Buy Liability Insurance? Most states require car owners to have liability insurance to cover damages their vehicles cause to others; some economists think we should require the same for gun...
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#433: Holding A Rainforest Hostage
Ecuador's Yasuni National Park is an amazing rainforest — home to jaguars, giant otters, the golden-mantled tamarin and woolly monkeys. The park also sits on top of hundreds of millions of barrels of oil, worth billions of dollars.The government of Ecuador faces a choice: Should it protect the park, or go for the money?The country is trying to do both. The government says it will promise to leave its rainforest untouched — if rich counties give Ecuador billions of dollars.
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#267: A New Mom And The President of Iceland
In the spring of 2011, voters an Iceland had to decide whether to pick up the tab for mistakes bankers made before the financial crisis.We visited Iceland just before the vote and met Heia Dra Jnsdttir, a 29-year-old new mom. Heia was trying to figure out how to vote so we set up interviews for her with a bunch of experts on the subject, including Iceland's president.Heia and the majority of Icelanders eventually voted "no" on the referendum, but the fight didn't end there. The British and...
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#435: A New Mom and The President of Iceland
In the spring of 2011, voters an Iceland had to decide whether to pick up the tab for mistakes bankers made before the financial crisis.We visited Iceland just before the vote and met Heia Dra Jnsdttir, a 29-year-old new mom. Heia was trying to figure out how to vote so we set up interviews for her with a bunch of experts on the subject, including Iceland's president.Heia and the majority of Icelanders eventually voted "no" on the referendum, but the fight didn't end there. The British and...
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#432: The Price Of Free Breast Pumps
The Affordable Care Act — aka Obamacare — requires health insurers to pay for breast pumps. For many insurance plans, the new rule kicked in at the start of this year.On today's show, we visit a breast pump boutique that has suddenly become a medical supply superstore. And we look at happens when a device goes from being something people have to pay for out of their own pocket to being free for anyone with insurance.
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#331: How Office Politics Could Take Down Europe
Note: This is an updated version of a podcast that originally aired in Dec., 2011.If you're looking for the beginning — and, possibly, the end — of the European financial crisis, you can find it in a single building: The Greek statistics office, at 46 Peireos Street in Athens.We visited recently and found what may be the world's most high-stakes game of office politics.On one side: The technocrats, led by Andreas Georgiou, who was appointed last year to run the office.On the other : The old...
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#320: How Fear Turned A Surplus Into Scarcity
Today on the podcast, the story of one of the most destructive and mysterious food shortages in recent memory. Colbert described it on hisThreatdown segment:The global food shortage is finally becoming an important story, because now it is affecting me. Costco and Sam's Club are now both rationing rice. You can't buy more than 80 pounds in a single visit. How am I supposed to make my famous kiddie pool paella?!?The most mysterious thing about this shortage of rice: There was more than enough...
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#431: A Billion-Dollar Bet Against Weight-Loss Shakes
Herbalife, a company that sells weight loss shakes, vitamins and other similar products, is worth billions of dollars. The company has been around for more than 30 years, and it's traded on the New York Stock Exchange.Bill Ackman thinks the whole thing is a pyramid scheme.Not surprisingly, Herbalife disagrees.Ackman manages a hedge fund that has shorted more than a billion dollars' worth of Herbalife stock. If the stock falls — and Ackman says he thinks it will fall all the way to zero — the...
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#430: Black Market Pharmacies And The Spam Empire Behind...
Chances are you've received an email with a subject line like this: "The hottest method to please your beloved one." Or this: "Want to get good health for low prices?" Or emails offering "low cost med pills!"You've probably wondered — who is sending these emails? Does anyone actually click on these links? What happens when they do?On today's show — we go deep inside the world of spam to answer these questions with the help of cyber-security reporterBrian Krebsand researcherStefan Savage.
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#429: The Price Of Things We Love
On today's show: Three short stories about the stuff we buy — books, toys and clothes.1. Are E-Books Actually Destroying Traditional Publishing? Conventional wisdom says e-books are destroying the traditional publishing business model. People pay less for e-books and that drives down price. When you talk to publishers though, you realize the story's not that simple.2. Why Legos Are So Expensive — And So Popular Legos often cost twice as much as similar blocks from a rival toymaker. So why...
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#428: Turning A Boom Town Into A Real Town
Williston, North Dakota is in the middle of an oil boom. Thousands of workers have flooded into the town, but they're reluctant to call it home. Instead, they live in bleak rentals, often sleeping in dormitory-like rooms known as "man camps."Local officials are trying to turn Williston into a real town, where people want to bring their families. But it's a tough sell.On today's show, we visit Williston, and we learn why one guy endures a thousand-mile commute, why a one-bedroom apartment...
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#427: LeBron James Is Underpaid
LeBron James, the best basketball player in the NBA, makes $17.5 million a year. And he is the most underpaid professional athlete in the world today.On today's show, we explain why LeBron is getting hosed — and why that's probably a good thing for NBA fans, team owners, other pro players, and even LeBron himself.
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#297: A Big Bridge In The Wrong Place
You would never look at amapof the Hudson River, point to the spot where the Tappan Zee Bridge is, and say, "Put the bridge here!"The Tappan Zee crosses one of the widest points on the Hudson — the bridge is more than three miles long. And if you go just a few miles south, the river gets much narrower.Our question for today's show: Why did they build a three-mile-long bridge when they could have built a much shorter, cheaper bridge nearby?Our search for an answer leads us to a forensic...
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#426: 'The Rest Of The Story' (2012 Edition)
On today's show, we take a page from radio newscaster Paul Harvey and tell you "the rest of the story."We look back at the stories we've done in 2012 and tell you what we got right, what we got wrong and how everything turned out in Belize. Plus, we try to to figure out whether that Facebook ad did anything to help Pizza Delicious.
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#238: Making Christmas More Joyful, And More Efficient
Gift-giving makes economists crazy. It's so inefficient!So we wondered: Is there a way to make the holiday season both more efficient and more joyful?On today's Planet Money, we try to answer that question by conducting a wildly unscientific experiment. We go into a seventh-grade classroom and give a bunch of kids some small gifts — candy, raisins, fig newtons.Then we ask them how much they value what they got, and if they can think of a way to make everyone better off, without buying any...
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#238: Making Christmas More Joyful, And More Efficient
Gift-giving makes economists crazy. It's so inefficient!So we wondered: Is there a way to make the holiday season both more efficient and more joyful?On today's Planet Money, we try to answer that question by conducting a wildly unscientific experiment. We go into a seventh-grade classroom and give a bunch of kids some small gifts — candy, raisins, fig newtons.Then we ask them how much they value what they got, and if they can think of a way to make everyone better off, without buying any...
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#238: Making Christmas More Joyful, And More Efficient
Gift-giving makes economists crazy. It's so inefficient!So we wondered: Is there a way to make the holiday season both more efficient and more joyful?On today's Planet Money, we try to answer that question by conducting a wildly unscientific experiment. We go into a seventh-grade classroom and give a bunch of kids some small gifts — candy, raisins, fig newtons.Then we ask them how much they value what they got, and if they can think of a way to make everyone better off, without buying any...
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#425: An FBI Hostage Negotiator Buys A Car
Thefiscal cliff, for all its grand theater, really comes down to people in a room trying to come to an agreement. People doing whatever it takes to get what they want from the other side.On today's show, three professional negotiators walk us through techniques that members of Congress may be using right now. They explain these techniques not with textbooks, but with examples from their everyday lives.
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#424: How Much Is A Firefighter Worth?
On today's show, we visit Fire Station Six in Contra Costa County, Calif.Firefighters don't go to fires as much as much as they used to. That's because, thanks to modern building codes, fires are not as common as they used to be. Yet the fire dept is still set up the same way: big trucks, lots of fire stations, and lots of firefighters who retire with lifetime pensions.Rather than close fire stations, the firefighters in Contra Costa County agreed to take a pay cut a few years back. But the...
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#423: Just Can't Get Enough
On today's show: Three Planet Money stories that aired on the radio but haven't yet made it into the show.Will A $1.9 Billion Settlement Change Banks' Behavior?Why The Falling Birthrate Is Bad News For My 2-Year-Old SonA Huge Pay Cut For Doctors Is Hiding In The Fiscal Cliff
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#422: Schoolhouse Rock Is A Lie (Or, How The Filibuster...
On our show today, we tell you everything you need to know about the filibuster, including:What Schoolhouse Rock didn't tell usWhy Aaron Burr and Jimmy Stewart are the two great villains in filibuster historyHow Senators can now filibuster bills without having to talk for hours on end
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#421: The Birth Of The Dollar Bill
Before the Civil War, there were 8,000 different kinds of money in the United States.Banks printed their own paper money. And, unlike today, a $1 bill wasn't always worth $1. Sometimes people took the bills at face value. Sometimes they accepted them at a discount (a $1 bill might only be worth 90 cents, say.) Sometimes people rejected certain bills altogether.On today's show, we figure out how this world worked. And explain how the Civil War — and the Union's need for money — changed...
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#420: The (Legal) Marijuana Business
Last month, two states voted to legalize recreational marijuana. A bunch of others states have already legalized medical marijuana.Not surprisingly, there are legitimate, legal (at least under state law) marijuana entrepreneurs trying to start businesses around the country.On today's show, we discover the one big thing that's standing in their way: getting a bank account. And we learn how hard it is to run a business on cash alone.
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#364: Should We Kill The Dollar Bill?
Note: This week's Congressional hearing on dollar coins prompted us to re-run this episode today. It originally ran in April of this year.Legislation in Congress would get rid of dollar bills and replace them with coins. Proponents say coins are easier to use and save the country money in the long run. The bill people say none of this is true.So should we kill the dollar bill?On today's show we go deep into the nature of money itself, and we find a clear answer to this question.
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#419: Taylor Swift, Helium, A Jelly-Like Mass and The...
On today's show: Four Planet Money stories that aired on the radio but haven't yet made it into the show.*A Sequester Is A 'Jelly-Like Mass,' And Other Notes On Fiscal-Cliff Jargon*Clear The Secret Genius Of Taylor Swift*The Weird Story Of Why Helium Prices Are Going Through The Roof*Energy Independence Wouldn't Make Gasoline Any Cheaper
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#418: How The Government Set Up A Fake Bank To Launder...
One day in the early 1990s, a man walked into the U.S. embassy in Ecuador. He said he had information somebody would want to hear — information on how to go after some of the most powerful drug traffickers in the world.The man worked as a money changer. He said he was getting a lot of requests from traffickers who had a problem: They had so much cash that they didn't know what to do with it. They couldn't figure out how to launder their money.What they needed was an offshore bank to help...
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#417: Lance Armstrong And The Business Of Doping
On today's show, we consider a world where everybody cheats and where you can't win unless you game the regulators: Professional cycling.Under the leadership of Lance Armstrong, the U.S. Postal Service cycling team was wildly successful, winning the Tour de France seven years in a row.According to a recentreport, the team was running a high-tech, secret doping operation during those years. The operation was run like a business, and its leader was Lance Armstrong.
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#416: Why The Price Of Coke Didn't Change For 70 Years
Prices go up. Occasionally, prices go down. But for 70 years, the price of a bottle of Coca-Cola didn't change. From 1886 until the late 1950s, a bottle of Coke cost a nickel.On today's show, we find out why. The answer includes a half a million vending machines, a 7.5 cent coin, and a company president who just wanted to get a couple lawyers out of his office.
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#415: Can A Poor Country Start Over?
Today's show is the story of two men and one big idea.The big idea is that a poor country should take a small, empty part of its territory and say: We're going to build a new city here. And in this new city, we're going to get rid of our existing laws and rules, and bring in the best laws we can find from around the world. Get help from foreign countries. Maybe the UK could serve as a court of appeals. Maybe Canada could send in a few Mounties to help set up a police force.The two men are...
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podcast11.06.12.mp3
On today's show, we examine an age-old but confusing question: why do businesses selling the same thing crowd around each other rather than stake out a bit of space on their own? To help answer that, Adam Davidson and Chana Joffe-Walt take us on a stroll of New York City's diamond, plant and, yes, chess district. Be prepared for a surprising tale of why economics helps people keep their friends close and thier enemies closer.
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#414: After The Flood, The Backup Plan
A monster storm flooded parts of the biggest city in America this week. Millions of people are still without power.But in the long run — even in the medium run — New York (and New Jersey!) will recover. And for the U.S. economy as a whole, this disaster will barely be a blip.This is largely because there are countless backup plans hiding everywhere in our economy. On today's show, a flooded grocery store reveals safety nets that are usually hidden but, at moments like these, are suddenly...
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#335: Who Killed Lard?
You rarely see lard on menus. There aren't shelves and shelves of it in every supermarket. In this country, we've sort of lost touch with the once beloved pig fat.On today's podcast, we ask — who killed lard? Was it Upton Sinclair? His novel, The Jungle, contained this memorable passage about the men who cook the lard:...and as for the other men, who worked in tank rooms full of steam, and in some of which there were open vats near the level of the floor, their peculiar trouble was that they...
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#413: Our Fake Candidate Meets The People
For months now, we've been creating a fake presidential candidate based on the best ideas economics has to offer. We came up with a platform, with the help of a panel of economists. We hashed out the disagreement among the panel. We brought in political consultants who laughed at us, but also gave us some great messaging ideas.Today, we take it to the people — or, at least, a focus group. We find out whether these economically sound ideas can get anyone's vote. And we create a couple real...
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#412: How To Fix The Patent Mess
Two big patent cases this summer in the smartphone industry:1. A jury finds that Samsung violated Apple's patents, and orders Samsung to pay Apple $1 billion.2. A judge throws out a case between Apple and Motorola (now owned by Google). The judge goes on to write an article in the Atlantic arguing that there are too many patents in America, and lots of industries could probably get along fine with no patents at all.These radically different rulings were just the latest reminder that the...
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#411: Why Preschool Can Save The World
On today's show, we meet a self-described robber baron who decided to spend his billions on finger paint and changing tables. We revisit decades-long studies that found preschool made a huge difference in the lives of poor children. And we talk to aNobel prize-winning economistwho says that spending public money on preschool produces a huge return on investment.We'll have more on preschool this weekend onThis American Life.
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#410: Why K-Pop Is Taking Over The World
America used to lead the world in making cars. Now we don't. China does.We used to be the number one maker of steel. American steel built bridges and ships all over the world. Not anymore.But the world's most popular music still comes from American artists. Turn on a car radio in Italy, walk into a store in Mozambique, and there's a good chance you'll hear an American pop tune.Music is an export, just like anything else. And, as with other exports, businesses in lots of other countries are...
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#409: The 15-Year-Old Who Bought Two Houses
Loyal Planet Money listeners may remember Willow Tufano, the Florida teenager who bought a house. We did ashow about herback in March.On today's show, we follow up with Willow. She just bought another house. She's trying to land a reality TV deal. And she recently wore a Pikachu costume on a trip to Alabama.
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#408: How To Hide Money From Your Spouse
Earlier this summer, we set up two shell companies in tax havens. On today's show, we continue our quest to figure out what people actually do with shell companies.We discover the world of "Asset Protection," which is a fancy way of saying "hiding money." It's a world of Latvian companies and offshore conferences, of people trying to hide money from their future-ex-husbands and future-ex-wives."It's kind of like Alice in Wonderland down the rabbit hole," one insider tells us.
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#266: A Former Crack Dealer On The Economics Of Drugs
Note: This show is a re-run. It originally aired inApril, 2011.Lots of economists write about the economics of illegal drugs. Here's apaperfrom a Harvard guy. Here'sanotherco-authored by a couple Chicago guys.One thing missing from those papers: Actual drug dealers.So for today's podcast, we run some economic theory byFreeway Rick Ross(pictured), who was one of the biggest crack dealers in LA in the '80s and '90s. He went to prison in '96, and was released on parole in '09.Economists say...
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#407: A Mathematician, The Last Supper And The Birth Of...
On the show today, the story of an innovation that changed the way the world works, and of the man who made this innovation possible. Luca Pacioli was a monk, a mathematician, a magician and possibly, the boyfriend of Leonardo da Vinci.Jane Gleeson-White, author of Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Created Modern Finance, tells us the story of Pacioli and how his book on mathematics changed business across the planet.
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#406: Making Economics Sexy
Earlier this year, we created a presidential candidate. A fake candidate, sure. But a candidate with real ideas — ideas embraced by economists across the political spectrum, and rejected by every politician who wants to get elected.Getting rid of the mortgage-interest tax deduction. Eliminating corporate taxes. Legalizing marijuana.On the show today, we bring in real political consultants to help us plan a campaign for our fake candidate. Our goal: Sell our candidate to America by making...
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#405: Cheating, Stealing And Quantitative Easing
Global trade wars. Small-time bike thieves. And what happens when the Fed talks big. On today's show, we bring you three short Planet Money stories.
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#404: What If You Controlled The Economy?
We play with a computer model of our broken economy and try to fix it. It turns out not to be so easy.
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#403: What Can We Do With Our Shell Companies?
A few months back, we set up a couple shell companies — Unbeliezable, Inc., in Belize, and Delawho? in Delaware.On today's show, we talk to some tax lawyers to try to figure out what we can do with our companies. We draft a resolution so we can go to Belize to meet the fake director and fake shareholder of our company. And we learn owning shell companies in tax havens is a lot more of a hassle than we thought.
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#402: Free Heroin, And Other Ideas That Won't Get You...
Earlier this summer, we assembled five prominent economists from across the political spectrum and gave them a simple task: Identify major economic policies they could all stand behind.They agreed on a broad economic platform that would sink any political candidate that supported it. (Here's theshowwe did on their platform; here's ablog post.)Today, we talk to those economists again. This time, we hear a bunch of the ideas some of them liked but others shot down — including free heroin for...
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#401: Four In One
A cab ride through the streets of Manhattan. A cramped room in Brooklyn where a man makes beautiful suits by hand. A company in Germany that can't hire workers fast enough. A trip to the moon and back.On today's show, we have four short Planet Money stories.
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#401: Four In One
A cab ride through the streets of Manhattan. A cramped room in Brooklyn where a man makes beautiful suits by hand. A company in Germany that can't hire workers fast enough. A trip to the moon and back.On today's show, we have four short Planet Money stories.
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#400: What Two Pasta Factories Tell Us About The Italian...
A decade ago, the Barilla pasta factory in Foggia, Italy, had a big problem with people skipping work. The absentee rate was around 10 percent.People called in sick all the time, typically on Mondays, or on days when there was a big soccer game.Foggia is in southern Italy. Barilla's big factory in northern Italy had a much lower absentee rate. This is not surprising; there's a huge economic gap between southern and northern Italy. It's like two different countries.Barilla execs told Nicola...
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#279: The Failure Tour Of Manhattan
On today's show, we hit the streets of Manhattan with economist Tim Harford. In his book, Adapt, Harford argues that success always starts with failure.Harford takes us on a failure tour of New York.Highlights include a Gutenberg Bible (turns out the Bible business wasn't so good to Gutenberg) and the Woolworth Building (Woolworth's had some great innovations in its day, but eventually got beat by big-box stores).Failure, Harford argues, is essential to economic growth. Old companies fail...
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#399: Can You Patent A Steak?
Tony Mata is a meat inventor; his job is figuring out new things to do with meat. He thinks he recently discovered a new steak — a novel way to cut up a chunk of beef that's currently not worth much. Mata is so excited about his discovery that he's trying to patent it.This raises a basic question: Can you patent a steak?On today's show, we talk to Mata. We visit the workshop of Gene Gagliardi, the inventor of Steak-Umm and KFC's popcorn chicken. And we try to figure out what meat inventors...
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#398: Obama, Ryan And Two Dead Economists
On today's show, we talk to Nicholas Wapshott, author of Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics.That clash is still clashing today. Paul Ryan has cited Hayek as an influence (though they disagree on some key points); President Obama has clearly been influenced by Keynes. And, really, there's no way to reconcile the ideas."This election is about two profound, competing theories that really can't exist in the same room at the same time," Wapshott says.It's on.
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#397: Why The Hero Of Harrisburg Couldn't Save The City
The city of Harrisburg, Pa owes over $1.5 billion. David Unkovic, the city's former receiver, tried to save the broke city, but his plan just led to political trouble.A few months ago, Unkovic left a scrawled, handwritten note on the steps of the courthouse. "I find myself in an untenable position in the political and ethical crosswinds," the letter said, "and am no longer in a position to effectuate a solution."Unkovic fled Harrisburg and stopped answering emails, phone calls, and questions...
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#396: A Father Of High-Speed Trading Thinks We Should...
Thomas Peterffy's life story includes a typing robot, a proto-iPad, and a vast fortune he amassed as one of the first guys to use computers in financial markets.On today's show, Peterffy tells us his story — and he explains why he's worried about the financial world he helped create.We learned of Peterffy's story from the forthcoming bookAutomate This.
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#395: Maastricht, Marijuana And The European Dream
Maastricht is the home of the euro. It's the Dutch town where European leaders signed the treaty that created the single currency.It's also a place where it's legal for "coffeeshops" to sell marijuana.Tourists from around Europe used to come to Maastricht to get high. Recently, though, Maastricht's mayor soured on marijuana tourism, and the town banned the sale of the drug to foreigners.On today's show: Even in the home of the euro, the European Dream still isn't a reality.
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#394: Why Taxpayers Pay For Farmers' Insurance
In spite of the drought, many U.S. farmers will do just fine this year. They are, after all, covered by crop insurance — a program that costs U.S. taxpayers $7 billion a year.On today's show, we travel to Fairbury, Illinois. We meet three generations of farmers who tell us that, even without government-subsidized crop insurance, their farms would survive the drought.So why does the government spend so much on crop insurance programs? We talk to an ag economist who has a surprising answer.
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#393: The Building That's In Two Countries At Once
On today's show, we visit an office building that straddles the border between Germany and the Netherlands.On one side of the building, there's a German mailbox and a German policeman. On the other side, a Dutch mailbox and a Dutch policeman.The building was supposed to make it easy to work in both countries. But it's also a reminder of how the European dream isn't yet a reality.
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#393: The Building That's In Two Countries At Once
On today's show, we visit an office building that straddles the border between Germany and the Netherlands.On one side of the building, there's a German mailbox and a German policeman. On the other side, a Dutch mailbox and a Dutch policeman.The building was supposed to make it easy to work in both countries. But it's also a reminder of how the European dream isn't yet a reality.
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#273: When The U.S. Paid Off The Entire National Debt
On Jan. 8, 1835, all the big political names in Washington gathered to celebrate what President Andrew Jackson had just accomplished. A senator rose to make the big announcement: "Gentlemen ... the national debt ... is PAID."That was the one time in U.S. history when the country was debt free. It lasted exactly one year.On today's Planet Money: The legend of the national debt. Where the debt came from, what happened the one time we paid it all off, and why Congress created the debt ceiling...
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#392: Keeping The Biggest Secret In The U.S. Economy
The monthly jobs numbers are important — really important. They tell everyone from manufacturers to stock traders how the economy is doing. Billions of dollars ride on the jobs numbers.Get them early, and you'd have everything you need to make a quick fortune. And once — just once, as far as anyone knows — someone did get them early.On today's show, we talk to the guy who got the numbers before everyone else. And we learn the crazy lengths the government now goes to in order to keep those...
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#391: The Anti-Addiction Pill That's Big Business For...
There's a pill called Suboxone that treats addiction to heroin and pain pills like oxycontin. Doctors and addicts say it's amazing."It was the best thing that ever happened," one heroin addict told us. "I was like OH. MY. LORD. This is a miracle pill."The government spent tens of millions of dollars developing Suboxone. Doctors can prescribe it in their offices. But a lot of people who want it can't get it from a doctor, so they have to buy it on the street.Today on the show: Why people have...
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#390: We Set Up An Offshore Company In A Tax Haven
On today's show, we dive deep into the world of offshore companies and bank accounts.We set up our own company in an offshore tax haven, and we find out where the easiest place to register a business anonymously is.
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#390: We Set Up An Offshore Company In A Tax Haven
On today's show, we dive deep into the world of offshore companies and bank accounts.We set up our own company in an offshore tax haven, and we find out where the easiest place to register a business anonymously is.
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#389: Handling Other People's Money
For today's show, we've collected three Planet Money radio stories never before heard on the show. All of them deal with people who handle other people's money — a politician's, a workforce's, and even a continent's:Just How Blind Are Blind Trusts, Anyway?: With questions swirling about Mitt Romney's investments, a look at how blind trusts really work.The European Central Bank's Guide To Influence: With much of the continent on shaky financial grounds, the ECB is all about influencing...
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#388: Putting A Price-Tag On Your Descendants
Given a choice between $50 now and $100 in a month, many people would take the money now. But offered $50 in a year, or $100 in 13 months, they'd wait the extra month to double their money.The lesson: People have a "present bias," says Frank Partnoy, a professor of law and finance at the University of San Diego. "So people have more impatience in a one-month time period than they do in a one-year time period."This turns out to have immense implications for public policy — implications that...
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#387: The No-Brainer Economic Platform
There's a reason economists don't run for president.We assembled five prominent economists from across the political spectrum. We gave them a simple task: Identify major economic policies they could all stand behind.They did. They gave us five tax proposals — plus one change to the criminal code — that every one of them could support wholeheartedly, from left to right.And in the process, they gave us an economic platform that would surely sink any candidate that supported it.On today's show:...
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#386: The Cost Of Free Doughnuts
Everybody likes free. But free can be dangerous, too. Today's show is sort of the flip side of free. It is what happens when you take something that was free — and you give it a price, a decision many Internet companies face today. That is a highly risky move, it turns out. And the damage can be enormous.This week, free of charge, Chana Joffe-Walt and Alex Blumberg tell the story of the Red Cross and free doughnuts — that suddenly weren't free any more. It happened 70 years ago, and the Red...
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Episode 385: How Good Governments Go Bad
You'll hear the complaint every now and then, when the global economy comes up, that the United States is becoming like Greece, or Spain, or Italy.But whenLuigi Zingalessays it, he should know: He's a University of Chicago economist. He was born in Italy. He studies, among other things, what has set the American economy apart from places like Italy.And he's worried.On today's show: How the U.S. is taking a few early steps down the risky road toward Italy, and how it could change course.
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#205: Allowance, Taxes And Potty Training
It's really, really hard to create the right kind of economic incentives — even if you're a professional economist, and all you're trying to do is teach your kids to use the toilet.On today's Planet Money, we talk to economistJoshua Gansand his 11-year-old daughter.Gans, who wrote a book calledParentonomics, tried to create a toilet-training economy for his young children. He rewarded them with candy for sitting on the toilet — and the older ones got candy if they helped the younger...
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#384: The Little Lie That Rocked The Banks
There's a certain amount of trust underpinning the financial markets. But recent news out of the United Kingdom has shaken the world's faith in a key element of the system.That element is the number banks use to determine how much to charge their customers — think of it as the measuring stick that determines nearly every other other interest rate around: mortgages, credit cards, corporate loans, complex derivatives transactions. It's calledLIBOR, or the London Interbank Offered Rate, and it...
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#383: What The Health Care Decision Means For Peoples'...
The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the health-care law will change peoples' lives. On today's show, we talk to a few of those people.When the ruling came down, we were visiting people who work at a health insurance agency in Connecticut. The Court's ruling means the company needs to find a new line of business or close down altogether. (Here'smore on our visit.)Also, we hear how people's lives changed when they lost health insurance — and when they got it.
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#382: The Cool Kids Don't Want To Go Public
Public companies helped build America. They gave millions of people the opportunity to buy a stake in the national economy. And, of course, they made some people very rich.Today, though, going public doesn't hold the same allure it once did for many entrepreneurs. "In Silicon Valley, there is a general attitude that the cool kids sell their companies rather than going public," Spencer Rascoff told us.Rascoff is the CEO of Zillow — which did go public. On today's show, Rascoff makes the case...
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Episode 381: Why It's Illegal To Braid Hair Without A...
A few years ago, Jestina Clayton started a hair braiding business in her home in Centerville, Utah. The business let her stay home with her kids, and in good months, she made enough to pay for groceries. She even put an ad on a local website. Then one day she got an email from a stranger who had seen the ad."It is illegal in the state of Utah to do any form of extensions without a valid cosmetology license," the e-mail read. "Please delete your ad, or you will be reported."To get a license,...
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#380: An Austerity Wedding
Say you've messed up so badly that the only people who will offer you help want your pain and suffering in exchange. They want, to use a fashionable term, austerity. Do you have to accept it? What if that turns out that the pain and suffering is a 20-year detour detour into economic collapse?On today's show, we hear from a Greek economist about the options open to the country. And we talk to a Greek couple that's getting married tomorrow. They're not sure how they're going to pay for the...
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#379: Does Medicaid Actually Help People?
For decades there was this debate about Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor.On one side were people making what seems like the straightforward argument: People who get Medicaid fare better than people who don't.On the other side were those making the contrarian argument. They argued that there is already a safety net for the poor and the uninsured, and that Medicaid's reimbursement rates are so low that most doctors don't see Medicaid patients anyway.The debate was perennial...
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#378: How Spain Created A Banking Monster
On today's show, we take you backstage in Spain's banking mess, the latest front in the never ending financial crisis that is Europe.It's the story of how a group of people tried to fix a problem, but wound up creating a banking monster.
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377: Can Lincoln Be Cool Again?
Lincolns used to be the coolest cars in the world. They used to be driven by kings, moguls and celebrities. Today, Lincolns are driven by the old, the out-of-touch, and the guys hustling you at the airport.On today's show: How Lincoln is trying to regain its former glory — and how the story of Lincoln may be the story of the U.S. auto industry, for better or for worse.
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#376: Three Ways To Stop A Bank Run
Once a bank run starts, it takes on a logic of its own. Even a solid, solvent bank can't hold up for long if people start to panic. This is a problem for Europe right now, as depositors continue to pull money out of banks in Spain and Greece.On today's show, we talk to Douglas Diamond, an economist who is one of the go-to guys on bank runs, and we hear from Greek bank teller who is handing out euros to panicked depositors.We walk through the three things you can do to stop a bank run — and...
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#321: How To Kill A Currency
As the world considers the possible death of the euro, it's worth considering a famous historical example. Ok, it's not that famous. But it's still worth looking at: The break-up of the Austro-Hungarian currency union in 1918.Just as the countries of Europe today share the euro, the Austrian empire and the Kingdom of Hungary had created a shared currency: the Austro-Hungarian crown.After World War I, the region broke up. All of a sudden there were lots of countries wanting to switch to their...
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#375: Promises, Promises
States across the country have promised their employees sweet retirement benefits, but haven't set aside enough money to pay for those benefits.On today's show, we hear from Illinois, which owes its state pension funds $83 billion.And we hear from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory halfway around the world. The territory may point to the future for many U.S. states: It just became the first American public pension fund to file for bankruptcy.
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#374: Why Is Syria Locked In Endless Conflict?
The uprisings in Syria, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen all started last spring. They've all resulted in regime change — except for the uprising in Syria.Why is Syria locked in a brutal and seemingly endless conflict? The answer has to do with history, politics, and a growing class of entrepreneurs who are struggling to pick a side. Their decision could turn the tide of the conflict. It could also cost them their lives.
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#373: Facebook: Now What?
On today's show, we follow a couple guys who run a pizza shop in New Orleans as they buy their first Facebook ad. We visit a business in New Jersey that sells Facebook "likes" in bulk. And we check in with a business school professor who explains what Facebook would have to do to live up to its valuation — which, even after its post-IPO fall, is still roughly $90 billion.
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#372: How Do You Decide Who Gets Lungs?
Ashley Dias is 26 years old. She has cystic fibrosis. About six weeks ago, her lungs gave out. She was rushed to the Cleveland Clinic and told she'd need a lung transplant to survive.Lungs are a scarce resource. But unlike many scarce resources, lungs aren't for sale. So doctors have had to develop a system to allocate them.Ashley's life depends on that system.
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#371: Where Dollar Bills Come From
Every single dollar bill in the world — every $20, every $100, everything — is printed on paper made at one small mill in Massachusetts. That's been the case for 130 years.On today's show, we visit the mill. We hear the story of the guy who jumped out a hotel window to win the government contract to print all that paper. And we ask: Will anybody be using paper money in 50 years?
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#370: The Real Price Of College
On today's show, we visit beautiful Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.Price of one year at Lafayette: $55,688. Up 63 percent from the price a decade ago.At least, that's the sticker price — the price you get if you add up tuition, room and board, and all the fees listed on the school's website.But there's a huge gap between the sticker price and what the average student actually pays after figuring in grants and scholarships.That's true at private colleges around the country....
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#369: If Teens Ran The Fed
We're in a gym full of high school students. The gym is at the headquarters of the New York Federal Reserve, just a few blocks from Wall Street. The students are here for the High School Fed Challenge.If you're a high school student and you dream of holding the U.S. economy in the palm of your hand — if you want the power to control interest rates and to print money out of thin air — the Fed Challenge is for you.On today's show, we sit in on the finals — and hear from a bunch of teenagers...
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#368: In A Leaderless World, Who Wins?
Ian Bremmer calls his big idea "G-Zero." Here's how he described it in anessaylast year:We are now living in a G-Zero world, one in which no single country or bloc of countries has the political and economic leverage — or the will — to drive a truly international agenda.On today's show, we take a world tour with Bremmer to find out who thrives and who struggles in a G-Zero world.Bremmer is the president ofEurasia Groupand author of a new book calledEvery Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers...
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#367: A Broke Rapper, A Mystery Donor And An Empty House
On today's show, we bring you three Planet Money radio stories:1. Pay Your Taxes: A Cautionary TaleWhen IRS agents raided the house of rapper Young Buck, they seized all his things: his white leather dining chairs, his watches, his craps table, his tattoo kit. Even his refrigerator. The Nashville artist, who was once part of 50 Cent's G-Unit, owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. 2. On The Million-Dollar Trail Of A Mystery SuperPAC DonorThe superPACs raising money to support...
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#366: How to Make It in the Food Truck Business
In New York City, roughly 3,000 food trucks compete for the business of hungry office workers. Being in the right spot means the difference between fortune and ruin.There are many rules to finding that perfect parking space. Here are six of them:On today's show Robert Smith rides along in the Rickshaw Dumpling truck, driving from deep within Brooklyn to the heart of Manhattan in search of hungry customers.
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#365: We're Headed For A Fiscal Cliff. Should We Jump?
Like most central bank chiefs, Ben Bernanke tends toward understatement. But when he testified before Congress earlier this year, Bernanke went big."On January 1, 2013," he said, "there's going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases."One of the biggest parts of the fiscal cliff is the expiration of the tax cuts passed by President Bush and extended by President Obama. If Congress doesn't act before the end of the year, taxes will go up for most Americans.Simon...
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#365: We're Headed For A Fiscal Cliff. Should We Jump?
Like most central bank chiefs, Ben Bernanke tends toward understatement. But when he testified before Congress earlier this year, Bernanke went big."On January 1, 2013," he said, "there's going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases."One of the biggest parts of the fiscal cliff is the expiration of the tax cuts passed by President Bush and extended by President Obama. If Congress doesn't act before the end of the year, taxes will go up for most Americans.Simon...
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#364: Cage Match: Coin Vs. Bill
Legislation in Congress would get rid of dollar bills and replace them with coins. Proponents say coins are easier to use and save the country money in the long run. The bill people say none of this is true.Should we kill the dollar bill?On today's show we go deep into the nature of money itself, and we find a clear answer to this question.We haul in a giant box of coins, talk to the guy who actually makes dollar bills, and watch a Senator try to use a vending machine.
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#363: Why People Do Bad Things
Traditionally, when we think about bad behavior, we think about character.But psychologists who study bad behavior — who study, say, fraud in the business world — have found that that character doesn't explain everything. They've found that a lot of unethical behavior can be explained by cognitive errors — errors that affect almost everyone.On today's show, we talk to a man who started out as an upstanding businessman, and went on to commit bank fraud involving millions of dollars. It drove...
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#362: Should Iceland Kill The Krona?
Iceland has about as many people as Staten Island. It also has its own currency, the krona. This raises a question: Does it make sense to have a currency that's only used by 300,000 people?After the country's economy blew up in the financial crisis, the government put the krona on lock down. Now, they're trying to decide whether to stay with the krona, or abandon it, and use someone else's currency.Today's show features special guest host Baldur Hedinsson, aformer Planet Money intern who...
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#361: The Matzo Economy
How do you make money manufacturing a dry, bland cracker that a tiny percentage of the population eats just one week a year?On today's show, we go inside the matzo business.A rabbi at a matzo factory explains why matzo is supposed to be hard to make. A Manischewitz exec tells us why all the rules for making kosher matzo are a boon to the company. And, perhaps inevitably, we explain what all this has to do with the 21st century economy.
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#360: Artisanal Jerky, High-Priced Nannies And Nancy...
On today's show, we eat artisanal beef jerky, sort through the wreckage of the financial crisis, watch Nancy Pelosi raise money, and meet high priced nannies.It's is a collection of our recent radio stories. Here's more:A Revival In American Manufacturing, Led By Brooklyn FoodiesWisconsin School Districts Saved After Bad InvestmentOn Tour With Nancy Pelosi, Fundraising Rock StarThe $200,000-A-Year Nanny
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#359: He Tried To Save A Broke City. Then He Disappeared.
David Unkovic is a thoughtful, mild-mannered guy who was appointed to save Harrisburg, Pa. The city had gone broke, and it was Unkovic's job to figure out how to fix things.We visited Harrisburg a few weeks back. We talked to Unkovic. We talked to some of the people in Harrisburg who were suing him. And we visited the incinerator, a boondoggle that drove the city to bankruptcy.Then, last week, Unkovic quit. "I find myself in an untenable position in the political and ethical crosswinds,"...
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#358: I'm Calling To Ask For Your Contribution
If you serve in Congress, you have two jobs: Making laws, and raising money to run for re-election.It turns out, that second job — raising money to run for re-election — is a lot easier if you serve on certain Congressional committees.On today's show, we reveal which committees are a fundraising goldmine. And which committees actually make it harder for Congressmen to raise money.The show is a preview of our hour long special this weekend on This American Life — Take The Money And Run For...
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#357: What A 16th Century Guild Teaches Us About...
On today's show, we hear the story of a 16th century German weavers' guild. They were savvy political operators, who knew how to push their competitors out of the market. They set up a system of fines, wage ceilings, and public rebukes that would be the envy of a modern cartel. It's a tale of economic monopoly and discrimination. Of inequality and conflict. And it's a story of how businesses can stifle innovation even today. Our guest is Sheilagh Ogilvie, an economic historian at Cambridge.
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#356: The Surprisingly Entertaining History Of The...
The U.S. has a really conflicted history with the income tax. For most of American history, there was no income tax at all. At one point it was ruled unconstitutional.Today, income tax is the federal government's main source of revenue. That raises a question: How did something that was once so strange to us become so central?The answer includes a few wars, a Supreme Court justice on his deathbed, and Donald Duck.
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#355: The 14-Year-Old Who Bought A House
Willow Tufano is a 14-year-old girl who recently bought a house in Florida for $12,000.Willow and her mom split the cost of the house, which they're now renting out. Willow saved up money by selling stuff from foreclosed homes on Craigslist; she plans to buy out her mom's share in the next few years.We did aradio storyabout Willow earlier this month. The story took off. Since it aired, Willow has been onEllen,CNNandABC News.On today's podcast, we hear the original radio story. And we hear...
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#354: A Former Mortgage Exec Speaks Out
On today's show, we talk with a former manager atCountrywide Financial. Cynder Niemela describes what life was like inside the giant mortgage lender back in 2006. It's not pretty.Mike Hudson, an investigative reporter with the Center For Public Integrity, is our special guest host for the show. He picked through the wreckage of the housing crisis and talked to dozens of people at big mortgage companies to find out what the mortgage industry was like back then.
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#353: How Europe Saved Itself. For Now.
Today's show, in three bullet points:How the European Central Bank finally used its super power.What that has to do with a guy who owns a bar on the coast of Spain.And why this may not be the end of Europe's debt saga.
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#352: The High-Tech Cow
On today's show, we visit Fulper Farms, a family-run dairy in New Jersey. It's a bucolic setting — white farmhouse, rolling hills, etc. But behind that peaceful image lies all the roiling tension, rising inequality and economic volatility of the 21st-century economy.We meet Claudia, the prized, high-tech cow. We meet Claudia's less-accomplished neighbor, Cow #6. And we learn why even a barn full of Claudias wouldn't be enough to keep a family-run dairy afloat.
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#351: What Mormons Can Teach The IRS
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that each Mormon in good standing should tithe 10 percent of his or her income."That's written in stone, and preached from the pulpit," says Gordon Dahl, an economist at the University of California, San Diego, who is Mormon.But while the church is very precise about that figure — 10 percent of income — it does not tell its members what income means."Which is really interesting to us economists, because we want to know how people define...
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#350: China's Giant Pool Of Money
Today on the show, we visit a giant pool of money — worth trillions of U.S. dollars! — at thePeople's Bank of China, the country's central bank.To understand how the money got there, we talk to Jacky Jiang and Rosalia Yang, a pair of very friendly exporters who show us around a factory where they make fake-wood flooring.They tell us about the changes China is going through, and explain why that pool of money might soon start flowing back to the U.S.
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#349: Private Equity, Explained
Today, in the second of our two-part series on private equity, we take another look at Bain Capital — the firm co-founded by Mitt Romney.Last Tuesday, in the first part of the series, we looked at a deal Bain did during Romney's tenure that went bad. Today, we tell the story of a deal that turned out better.And we dig into the arguments about private equity's broad role in the economy.
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#348: 'History Is A Battle Between Creditors And Debtors'
"History is a battle between creditors and debtors," Philip Coggan says on today's show. "Every so often these two clash, there is a crisis and the whole system is remade."Coggan, who writes the Buttonwood column for the Economist, is author of the book Paper Promises: Debt, Money, and the New World Order."We had a crisis in the 1930s, in the 1970s and we've got another one now."We're not even close to resolving the latest crisis, according to Coggan. The debate over debt is "what politics...
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#347: What Do Private Equity Firms Actually Do?
Are private-equity firms job-destroying monsters? Or are they knights in shining armor, riding in to fix troubled companies and make the economy work better?When you have a presidential candidate who used to run a private-equity firm, the arguments tend to shed more heat than light.So we decided to look at what private equity firms actually do — by telling the stories of two companies purchased by Bain Capital, the private equity firm co-founded by Mitt Romney.On today's show, we look at a...
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#346: Is China's Economy Genius, Or Bound For Disaster?
When you walk around a big city in China, it feels like an entrepreneurial free-for-all — guys selling stuff on street corners, lots of little shops, everybody hustling.But when you pull back the curtain on the country's economy, you find the government everywhere. The government owns, among other things, the country's biggest cell phone carrier, the three biggest airlines and the four biggest banks.Those state-owned banks in particular play a central role in the country's economy.Chinese...
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#227: Lighthouses, Autopsies And The Federal Budget
What should the government pay for?On today's Planet Money, we pose that question to Charlie Wheelan, author of the bookNaked Economics, and one-time Congressional candidate. (He lost).He gives us the econ 101 answer: The government should definitely pay for something if it's a public good, which Charlie defines as "something that we all need that will make our lives better, but the market will not and cannot provide."The textbook example is a lighthouse.Other examples of public goods...
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#345: Genius Ideas
On today's show: Four genius ideas.These ideas, as it happens, have all appeared in Planet Money radio stories. But they've never been on the podcast.A Man. A Van. A Surprising Business Plan.Rethinking The Oreo For Chinese ConsumersWhat Do The Dow's Daily Swings Mean? Not Much.How A Computer Scientist Tried To Save Greece
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#344: Can We Create Banks We Love?
Can we have a banking system that provides good services to people at reasonable rates? A banking system that doesn't bring down the global economy every few decades?Anat Admati thinks we can. She's a finance professor at Stanford, but she never paid much attention to banks until the financial crisis. (This is not unusual in the superspecialized world of academia.)After the crisis hit, Admati started reading up on banks. And, in a basic banking textbook, she came upon a single line that...
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#343: Super Bowl Economics
This is what it's like to host the Super Bowl: For one weekend, your city is the focus of the sporting universe. Fans flock in droves. They eat at your restaurants and sleep in your hotels. They buy the "I ♥ [your city]" t-shirts.The NFL estimates that hosting the country's premier sporting event will give the local economy a $300-400 million jolt.Economist Victor Matheson doesn't buy it..In today's podcast, Matheson, a professor at the College of Holy Cross, presents the case against...
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#342: The App Economy
On today's show, we hear how a hobby turns into a lucrative one-man business — and how Apple's App Store is transforming the Internet economy.The gist is super simple. In fact, it's something that's been going on in the physical world for thousands of years: Giving people a convenient way to buy cheap products.Our guest on the show is Marco Arment, one of the founders of the blogging platform Tumblr. A few years back, Marco launched a little side project called Instapaper.
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#341: A Former Lobbyist Tells All
On the podcast today, we get a glimpse from inside the room where money changes hands. Jimmy Williams used to lobby for the powerful National Association of Realtors.Williams tells us about some of the ridiculous issues he's lobbied for, the steady flow of money that congresspeople need, and how he wants to take down the crazy campaign finance system.
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#340: Who Loaned Money To Greece, Anyway?
It's the 11th hour for Europe's debt crisis. Again.Greece still can't pay back all the money it owes. So it's trying to cut a deal with its creditors. (Again.)We've been wondering for years: Who are the people who loaned money to Greece? Are they suckers? Brilliant investors?On today's podcast we find someone who loaned Greece money: Hans Humes. He runs a hedge fund called Greylock Capital Management. Turns out, his office is just a few blocks away from ours.Humes is one of the guys trying...
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#339: Katy Perry's Perfect Year
Katy Perry killed it on the pop charts last year. She went No.1 five times. She was the most played artist on the radio. But the record industry is so weird, it's hard to know whether this kind of success translates into huge amounts of money for her label.How much did the label spend on Katy Perry? And how much did they make?On today's show, we try to figure it out.
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#338: Do Sanctions Work?
It seems like there's always some country or another that the United States is imposing sanctions on. The reasons change, but the idea is always the same: economic coercion.This month, it's Iran. In response to Iran's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons, President Obama signed a law that punishes banks for doing business with Iran's central bank. This makes it difficult, in theory, for Iran to sell its oil around the world.You can see why sanctions are so appealing for the U.S. government:...
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#337:The Secret Document That Transformed China
In 1978, a group of farmers in a Chinese village called Xiaogang wrote a secret contract and hid it in the roof of a mud hut.They were afraid the document might get them executed. Instead, it wound up completely transforming the Chinese economy.On today's show, we travel to Xiaogang, and hear the farmers' story.
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#336: The Past And Future Of American Manufacturing
American manufacturing is dead, right? Not exactly. The dollar value of what we make here keeps going up and up. But the success of American manufacturers has come at a cost. The number of manufacturing jobs in this country has collapsed as factories replace workers with machines.Today on the podcast, we're going to take a trip to Greenville, South Carolina, where factories filled with bright shiny machines sit just across the train tracks from shuttered old mills. It's the perfect place to...
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#335: Who Killed Lard?
You rarely see lard on menus. There aren't shelves and shelves of it in every supermarket. In this country, we've sort of lost touch with the once beloved pig fat.On today's podcast, we ask — who killed lard? Was it Upton Sinclair? His novel, The Jungle, contained a memorable passage about the men who cook the lard and perhaps fell into the vats.Or should we blame William Procter and James Gamble? It was their company which created a new alternative to lard — the "pure and wholesome" Crisco.
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#334 A Good Year For . . .
Sometimes it feels like all we talk about at Planet Money is how the economy is going down the tubes. Not today. We visit a few people who have been doing well this year. There's a guy who buys and stores gold for investors, companies that sell off inventories when stores go bankrupt, and a guy in the coconut water business.
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#334 A Good Year For . . .
Sometimes it feels like all we talk about at Planet Money is how the economy is going down the tubes. Not today. We visit a few people who have been doing well this year. There's a guy who buys and stores gold for investors, companies that sell off inventories when stores go bankrupt, and a guy in the coconut water business.
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#333: 'The Rest Of The Story'
On today's podcast, we take a page from radio newscaster Paul Harvey and tell you "the rest of the story."We look back at the podcasts we've done in 2011 and tell you what we got right, what we got wrong and how everything turned out in Wisconsin and Iceland. Plus, we try to to figure out why that Rihanna song that cost so much money, bombed on the radio.
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#238: Why Economists Hate Gifts
Giving and receiving gifts can be a joyful thing — unless you're an economist. All those books that will never be read and ties that will never be worn are hugely inefficient.To investigate a possible solution, we went to a seventh-grade classroom at a public school in Brooklyn.The students were already familiar with the issue."This is kind of silly, but I got a Power Ranger," Tadre Jones said. "I was grateful, but I didn't really like it."So we had no trouble conscripting 10 kids to...
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#332: Jack Abramoff On Lobbying
Jack Abramoff, the former lobbyist, is out of prison and available for interviews. On today's show we talk to him — not about his crimes, but about the legal kind of lobbying that goes on every day. And we find out, how much do companies benefit from the business of lobbying.
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#331: How Office Politics Could Take Down Europe
If you're looking for the beginning — and, possibly, the end — of the European financial crisis, you can find it in a single building: The Greek statistics office, at 46 Peireos Street in Athens.We visited recently and found what may be the world's most high-stakes game of office politics.On one side: The technocrats, led by Andreas Georgiou, who was appointed last year to run the office.On the other : The old guard, including Konstantinos Skordas.Georgiou's technocratic ways — like...
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#330: Dollar Coins Are Done
Earlier this year we reported on the pileup of more than a billion unwanted $1 coins in government vaults. It was the result of a law passed a few years back that ordered the mint to create coins honoring each U.S. president.Today, the White House said it will end the program. A small number of dollar coins will continue to be minted for collectors, but the coins will no longer be put into circulation. The shift will save an estimated $50 million a year.On today's podcast, we visit a vault...
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#329: The 'Nasty, Rotten' Airline Business
Last week, American Airlines became a member of a club it hoped never to be a part of — major airlines that have declared bankruptcy. Before American came Pan Am, Delta, United, Northwest, US Airways, and Continental.Sure, fuel costs are high and planes are expensive — but why is it that the industry continues to lose money year after year? By economist Severin Borenstein's count, domestic airlines have lost $60 billion dollars in the last three decades.Even airline executives don't deny it....
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#328: Europe Turns On The Bat Signal
European governments have turned their eyes skyward looking for a hero to save them from financial collapse. But the signal they've sent into the skies over Europe is not the usual one in the shape of a bat, it's the initials E-C-B, the European Central Bank.On today's podcast, we'll tell you about the ECB's super powers and explain why they are so reluctant to use them.
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#327: A Holiday Shopping Spree
On today's show, we go shopping. We're bringing you stories about how we spend our money and what these purchases teach us about economics.Why Amazon Loses Money On Every Kindle Fire: The Kindle Fire is a book store, a movie theater and a record shop. And Amazon's the one selling the books, movies and music.Why A New York Cheese Buyer Hangs On The Euro's Fate: Most of the cheese at Murray's Cheese Shop comes from Europe. And the cheese buyer's bonus hinges on the future of the euro.The...
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#326: Why Does A Taxi Medallion Cost $1 Million?
Last month here in New York City, two taxi medallions, the metal plates that make it legal to dive a cab in the city, sold for $1 million each.On today's podcast, we try to answer the question — why? What makes these little pieces of metal worth so much?To get the answer, we go back to the 1930's with Graham Hodges, professor of history at Colgate University. Hodges says it all has to do with a famous and violent strike where cabs were set on fire in Times Square.Plus, we check in with...
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#325: Housing, Weddings, Space, Bacon
For today's show, we've collected four Planet Money radio stories that never made it to the podcast. Think of it as an early Thanksgiving buffet:What A Coin Toss Has To Do With The Housing Market — A simple experiment helps explain why there's still a glut of houses for sale, five years after the housing bubble popped.Why Are Wedding Dresses So Expensive? — A better question, according to one economist: Why are brides willing to pay so much?Requiem For Pork Bellies — The life and death of...
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#324: A Financial Adviser Bets The House
Financial planner Carl Richards tells us how he got sucked into the financial mess just like the rest of us and shares what it taught him.
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#323: From Harvard Economist To Casino CEO
Gary Loveman used to be an economics professor at Harvard Business School. He studied things like the development of the private sector in Poland.Now he runs Ceasars Entertainment Corporation, a giant gambling company. But he still thinks like an academic. He likes to say there are three things that can get you fired from Caesars: Stealing, sexual harassment and running an experiment without a control group.On today's show, he tells us how he got from Harvard to Caesars, and explains the...
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#322: Boom Town
Nevada's an economic disaster zone, with the nation's highest rate of both unemployment and foreclosures. But a few towns strung along I-80 in the middle of nowhere are doing great.The reason: They're in the middle of Nevada's gold mining country, which has boomed as the price of gold has risen.On today's show, we visit one of those towns. Elko, Nevada is indeed a happy place. But there's an undercurrent of anxiety.When you get to the edge of town, you can see why: There are all these ghost...
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#321: Kill The Euro, Win $400,000
On today's show, we talk to a guy named Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise. He's a British CEO, and he's offering a $400,000 prize to the person who comes up with the best plan for countries to leave the euro.Also: The story of another European currency union that fell apart a century ago, and the lessons it holds for the euro.
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#320: How Fear Turned A Surplus Into Scarcity
Today on the podcast, the story of one of the most destructive and mysterious food shortages in recent memory. The most mysterious thing about this shortage of rice: There was more than enough to go around.It is the epic story of a shortage that wasn't.In this global caper of good intentions gone wrong, there are shadowy trade deals, corrupt government officials, and warehouses full of rice in a country that didn't want it.
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#319: Inside Washington's Money Machine
On today's show, we go inside the rooms in Washington where the daily grind of campaign finance — Congressmen, lobbyists, money — takes place. At least, we try to go inside the rooms. Several times.And we talk to Jimmy Williams, a former lobbyist now working on campaign finance reform. He describes what it's like to meet with a Congressman when you're a lobbyist and your PAC hasn't been donating to the Congressman.
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#318: Keynes Vs. Hayek
On today's show, we hear the story of a steel-cage match between two economists. The fight has been going on for most of a century now, and it's never been more relevant: Keynes versus Hayek.It's a Deep Read interview with Nicholas Wapshott, the author of the new book Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics.
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#317: Will Economic Growth Destroy The Planet?
Economists love economic growth. It's an essential driver of rising living standards.But on today's show, we wrestle with a question we've heard a lot from our listeners: Is economic growth bad for the planet?We talk to one economist, Herman Daly, who argues that economic growth is in fact environmentally unsustainable.And we hear from a second, Robert Mendelsohn who says economic growth and a healthy environment can co-exist — but who argues we should include the effects of pollution in the...
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#316: What If We Paid Off The Debt?
We got our hands on a secret government report outlining what once looked like a potential crisis: The possibility that the U.S. government might pay off its entire debt.It sounds ridiculous today. But not so long ago, the prospect of a debt-free U.S. was seen as a real possibility with the potential to upset the global financial system.Today on the show, we hear from the economist who wrote the report. And we look at how things turned out so, so differently.
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#315: France And Germany, A Love Story
Germany and France are a couple tied together by fate.In the beginning, they were always at each others' throats. At last, they realized they weren't so different. So they stopped fighting and tied themselves together through — what else? — money.On today's show, the story of France and Germany — the relationship on which the fate of Europe depends.
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#314: The Price Of Default
It seems unlikely that Greece will be able to avoid defaulting on its loans. The real question is how the default will happen — will it be clean and organized or messy and catastrophic.The nightmare scenario Greece most wants to avoid is what happened in Argentina. A deep recession and doomed dollar peg forced Argentina to suspend payments on its debt, leaving its lenders high and dry.Today on the podcast, a cautionary tale for Greece.
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#313: The Future Of Energy
On today's show, we talk to Daniel Yergin, one of the world's most influential thinkers about energy.We talk about the future of energy in America, and about Yergin's new book, The Quest.Yergin's previous book, The Prize, looked at the businessmen and politicians who fought to control oil around the world. The Quest looks beyond oil to alternative energy. The heroes are the engineers and scientists of the energy world — the geeks, in other words.
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#312: What Is Occupy Wall Street?
We went downtown this week to talk to the protesters at Occupy Wall Street.We asked people why they were there. We heard lots of different answers.We went to the big nightly meeting, which lasts for hours. Everybody has something to say. Along the lines of:Should we buy some sleeping bags? Why does that guy get to run the meeting? What if we just buy fabric and make our own sleeping bags?This kind of back and forth, people told us, is the whole point of Occupy Wall Street. It's not a...
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#311: The Land Boom
On today's show, we visit a place where global economic forces converge: Colo, Iowa.The price of farmland in Iowa has doubled in the past few years. People rush to outbid each other at real-estate auctions, and land owners become millionaires in a matter of minutes.We look visit an auction, look at the broader economic picture, and ask an unavoidable question: Is it a bubble?
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#310: How Money Got Weird
In the 1980s, Satyajit Das worked for a finance company that owned a large stake in an airline.Das got the airline to start making speculative bets on the price of oil. That decision was good for the bottom line: One year, the company made more money from trading than it did from selling tickets on its planes.But in the long run, Das says on today's show, this was part of a much larger shift in the global economy — and that shift turned out to be a disaster.
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#309: Four In One
For today's show, we've collected four Planet Money radio stories that never made it to the podcast.A Slow Motion Bank Run In Europe: Fear can wreck a banking system and cause havoc in an economy. That's why the recent worries about big French banks are so important, and so scary.The Twist, Explained: Chubby Checker and the Fed's latest effort to push down interest rates.A Shrinking City Knocks Down Neighborhoods: Youngstown, Ohio, gave up on the idea that a city needs to grow. Now, the city...
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#308: The Dream Of Europe And The Bailout Of Greece
Germany's parliament votes next week on whether to go ahead with the next phase of the Greek bailout.On our recent trip to Germany, we talked to lots of people who think parliament should block the bailout. That's understandable, given the painful changes Germany went through to get its own house in order a few years back.But a surprising number of people told us they do support a bailout — often for very idealistic reasons."We need Greece, we need Spain, we need Italy," a cab driver told us...
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#307: Toxie's Back!
On today's show: Toxie, Planet Money's pet toxic asset, died last year. But we learned recently that she may rise from the grave.And she could theoretically earn us $75,000 — which is astonishing, given that we bought her for only $1,000. If we do make a profit, all the money will go to charity.Toxie was (is!) a mortgage-backed security — one of the complicated financial instruments that were the heart of the financial crisis. When we bought Toxie, we bought into a pool of thousands of...
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#306: Germany's Painful Solution To High Unemployment
The unemployment rate is disastrously high in the U.S. and much of Europe. But the rate in Germany is just 6 percent — and it's declining.We spent a week in Germany learning their secret recipe. On today's show, we hear the how country transformed its labor market a few years back — and how it still has the scars to prove it.
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#305: When Congress Plays Chicken
In a classic game of chicken, two cars race toward each other. The loser is the person who swerves out of the way of the oncoming car.As it turns out, chicken is something that game theorists have devoted a lot of thought toChicken is also a pretty good metaphor for the way Congress handled the debt-ceiling debate.On today's show, we talk to Steven S. Smith, a political scientist at Wash U. who studies Congress for a living. He takes us deep inside the debt-ceiling-as-game-of-chicken...
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#304: The Ghost That Haunts Europe's Debt Crisis
In Germany, a cab driver can quote you the inflation rate off the top of his head. A big bank has a contest to guess how much a basket of groceries will cost in 10 years. And a newspaper editor says: "There are two things in German psyche that are important: monetary stability, and soccer."On today's show, Caitlin and Zoe report from Germany, where the fear of inflation runs deep. It goes back to the years after World War I, when Germany experienced one of the most catastrophic bouts of...
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#303: Japan's Lost Lesson
On today's show: A financial crisis that began with the popping of a huge housing bubble and led to a stock market plunge and a banking crisis.That's right. It's a show about Japan in the 1990s.We talk to Adam Posen, who argues that the U.S. can learn a lot from Japan's mistakes. Posen is an economist at the Peterson institute and the Bank of England.
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#302: Europe's Worst-Case Scenario
Everybody's worried about Europe's economy. What's the worst that could happen?Bank runs, political riots and falling governments, for a start. Also, the end of the euro as we know it.On today's show, David Beim, a finance professor at Colubmia's b-school, lays out a worst-case scenario for Europe.
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#233: To Solve Debt Problem, Europe Borrows More Money
Europe is borrowing money to bail out countries that got in trouble by borrowing too much money.On today's Planet Money, Satyajit Das explains that European countries aren't actually putting their own money into that big euro-zone bailout fund. Instead, the fund will borrow from investors around the world — the same investors who are growing wary of lending to a bunch of countries in Europe.What's more, the fund will be guaranteed by the countries that use the euro. So the more the fund is...
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#301: Norway's Got Advice For Libya
With their current leader, Moammar Gadhafi, on the run, Libya needs to start thinking about its next big challenge — what to do with the massive amount of wealth they as a country possess in oil. It sounds strange to worry about a huge influx of money, but almost all countries that find oil suffer from the natural resource curse.There is, however, one notable exception — Norway.An Iraqi geologist named Farouk al-Kasim advised Norway on how to organize its oil industry, and he is credited...
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#300: Pizzas, Faxes and Robot Networks
The hacker group Anonymous has been grabbing headlines this year for attacking the websites of Sony, the Egyptian government and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). Unlike other cybercriminals, the group doesn't appear to be hacking these websites for financial gain — so why do they do it? Why do they spend so much time and effort shutting down these sites? Today on the podcast we talk to some close observers of Anonymous to find out how they operate and what they want.
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#299: Switzerland's Too Strong For Its Own Good
Switzerland's economy is in great shape. Low debt. Low unemployment. Tons of exports.In recent months, this economic strength has created a huge problem for Switzerland. Panicked investors around the world, who see Switzerland as a safe haven, have been buying Swiss francs like mad.That made the value of the franc shoot up — which in has caused big problems for Switzerland.On the show today, we look into the franc's crazy rise.
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#244: The Euro's Model Student
For years, Estonia played by the rules and did everything exactly the way it was supposed to. It made cut after cut and, just a few months ago, the country finally got what it wanted: It joined euro. Despite the euro's troubles, Estonia's still doing well. It has the highest growth rate and the lowest public debt of any EU country. On today's podcast, we talk to Estonia's president.
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#298: Why The World Still Needs Dollars
Every day, all around the world, people do business in U.S. dollars — even when their business has nothing to do with the U.S. The dollar is the international language of money. It's essential for global trade. This provides huge benefits for the United States. U.S. businesses can trade in their own currency. Our government can borrow money more cheaply. Mortgages and student loans are cheaper, too. For the moment, the dollar's dominance seems secure. Safe-haven currencies like the Swiss...
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# 297: A Big Bridge In The Wrong Place
You would never look at a map of the Hudson River, point to the spot where the Tappan Zee Bridge is, and say, "Put the bridge here!"The Tappan-Zee crosses one of the widest points on the Hudson — the bridge is more than three miles long. And if you go just a few miles south, the river gets much narrower.Our question for today's show: Why did they build a three-mile-long bridge when they could have built a much shorter, cheaper bridge nearby?Our search for an answer leads us to a forensic...
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#296: Italy's A Nice Place, But The Neighborhood's Going...
Italy is in trouble. The country is getting sucked into Europe's debt crisis, and leaders around the continent are trying to figure out what to do about it. On today's show, we talk to a few Italians who describe how common tax evasion is in Italy, and how big the unofficial economy is. We also talk to Andrew Balls, head of European portfolio management at PIMCO — a guy whose job is figuring out whether to lend money to Italy. He says Italy isn't in such bad shape. Yes, it's debt is high....
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#295: The Patent War
Patents are supposed to promote innovation. But in the world of software and the Internet, they're having precisely the opposite effect.Tech companies are spending billions of dollars to buy up patents — not to drive innovation, but to defend themselves from potential lawsuits. There's a legal war on in Silicon Valley, and patents are the weapons.We talked about this issue recently on This American Life and All Things Considered. On today's podcast, we ask: How much is the patent war costing...
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#294: Planet Money Live
Today's podcast is a recording of the live show Alex and Adam did in DC this week. In keeping with the vibe of the nation's capital, they go big, and talk a lot about "America." Key themes: 1. Disco destroyed America. 2. Now there are two Americas: Broken America and American Dream America 3. A three-step plan for solving America's problems.
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#293: Would A Downgrade Matter?
Let's assume that the U.S. government raises the debt ceiling, and the country keeps paying its bills next month. It's still very possible that one or more rating agencies will downgrade the country's credit rating. On today's show we ask: Would a downgrade matter? We revisit a question we asked last year: How do you rate a country? And we talk to one expert who says a downgrade of America's credit rating would make for splashy headlines, but would likely have a relatively small impact. Most...
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#292: Dollar Coins In The Wild
On today's Planet Money, more twists and turns in our story about the more than one billion dollar coins sitting unused in government vaults:We talk to self-described 'travel hackers' who use frequent-flier mile credit cards to buy dollar coins and pile up miles.And we learn that the U.S. Mint — just today! — said it would stop letting people use credit cards to buy the coins.Also on the show: Why they love U.S. dollar coins in Ecuador.
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