Planet Money

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Business

What's Planet Money about?

The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, "Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy." Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.

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LAST EPISODE

J. Screwed

05.23.2020

This month, J.Crew went bankrupt. But not before inventing a whole new way of thinking about promises to lenders.

Planet Money episodes:

12.11.2019 #592: The Bell Wars A special holiday episode about the epic, decades-long feud between the two companies that make just about every handbell in the world.
12.07.2019 #956: The Carriage Tax The argument over the constitutionality of wealth taxes has been going on since 1794, when George Washington decided to raise money by taxing the rich, through their carriages.
12.04.2019 #773: Slot Flaw Scofflaws Where there are casinos, there are wannabe cheaters. One group of Russian hackers cracked slot machines with math, iPhones, and a whole lot of swiping.
11.29.2019 #955: Pirate Videos On today's show, Blackbeard the pirate and a fight between two of the most powerful forces in American law: states' rights and property rights.
11.27.2019 #674: We Cooked A Peacock In the 1600s, a good spice rub was the ultimate display of wealth. People would risk their lives for a sack of cloves. On today's show, we cook a recipe from the spice trade days.
11.22.2019 #954: What Is Foreign Interference, Anyway? Millions of foreigners with temporary visas live and work in the US. Some of them want to participate in the elections. What's the line between participating and meddling?
11.20.2019 #953: Three Sides Of A Car Loan There is an alarming trend in the U.S. right now: 7 million people are at least 3 months behind on car payments. It's a record high, but is it a crisis?
11.16.2019 #952: Sperm Banks Sperm banks are whisking DNA around the world. And a sperm banker in Denmark created one of the biggest sperm operations, with help from his mom's freezer... and mad cow disease.
11.13.2019 #951: Snakebite There are millions of snakebite victims per year, but antivenom hasn't really changed since its development over 100 years ago. A doctor goes to extremes to find a solution.
11.08.2019 #950: Overrated Or Underrated? Tyler Cowen rates the NBA, Karl Marx, Adam Smith, the humanities, your neighbors, and more.
11.06.2019 #777: Free Love, Free Market A free-love commune of perfectionists in upstate New York embraced the free market, and became a blockbuster brand.
11.02.2019 #949: The Pigou Club Canada has put a price on pollution. The economist behind the idea thought about it more than a century ago.
10.31.2019 #948: A Series Of Unfortunate Recessions There is one real-life economic monster that can take away your money, your job, and your future: A recession.
10.25.2019 #947: Some-of-the-Money Ball Baseball is a winner-take-all career path. But income pools could change the way baseball players, and other people in high risk/high reward professions, think about uncertainty.
10.23.2019 #946: Fries Of The Future The modern french fry isn't just crispy and delicious, it's a technological marvel.
10.19.2019 #945: The Liberty City Von Ormy, Texas is a small city with a big dream: To thrive with almost no regulations, property taxes, or debt.
10.16.2019 #753: Blockchain Gang Charlie Shrem's odyssey in and out of prison is a parable for everything that has happened with bitcoin during its first years: from idealists to outlaws to respectable citizens.
10.11.2019 #944: We Should Have Mentioned That We answer some of the most popular questions our listeners had after listening to our recent shows: on baseball cards, the repo market, and the least common American.
10.09.2019 #763: BOTUS The Volfefe Index measures how much the President's tweets affect volatility in the bond market. In 2017, we launched our own investing project based on the President's tweets.
10.04.2019 #943: Unicorn Cowboy Masayoshi Son raised the biggest venture capital fund in the history of the world, made WeWork possible, and radically changed the way startups work.
10.02.2019 #942: Capitalism In The Courtroom Investors can fund lawsuits for profit, which gives more people access to the courts. But some worry it will warp the justice system.
09.28.2019 #941: Three Bets Planet Money takes a gamble on three stories about bets gone... every which way.
09.25.2019 #770: When India's Cash Disappeared When India suddenly got rid of most of its cash, in an effort to end corruption and modernize its economy, chaos ensued. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
09.20.2019 #940: Interest Rates... Why So Negative? Interest rates are low and getting lower. Some are even negative. Which means we live in a weird world, where people are lending out money and getting back less.
09.18.2019 #658: Strike One An automakers' strike against General Motors in the 1930s changed the world of unions forever. Before, striking was dangerous and illegal. Today, it's a fairly civilized business.
09.13.2019 #939: The Working Tapes Of Studs Terkel In the 1970s, Studs Terkel interviewed scores of people about their jobs for his book Working. Today, we hear a few of those conversations — and follow up with the subjects.
09.11.2019 #794: How To Make It In The Music Business Behind popular music, there is this hidden economy of music producers buying and selling sonic snippets, texting each other half-finished beats, and angling for back-end royalties.
09.07.2019 #938: The Marshall Plan Sometimes to help yourself, you help your enemy. After WWII, the U.S. launched what might be the most successful intervention in history, rebuilding Germany and more.
09.04.2019 #371: Where Dollar Bills Come From Imagine being the company that makes all the world's dollar bills. We found that company and took a look inside.
08.30.2019 #937: Moving To Opportunity? In the 1990s, the government ran an experiment to test the economic impact of moving people to lower-poverty neighborhoods. The results surprised them.
08.29.2019 #936: The Modal American Who is the average American? Bad question. You end up with a clumpy amalgamation of qualities. If you want to know how real people are living, you want the Modal American.
08.23.2019 935: You Asked For A Food Show How to get the best value from the salad bar? Why do Americans refrigerate their eggs? What's the deal with Choco Pies? It's the food edition of listener questions.
08.21.2019 #934: Two Yield Curve Indicators A 13-year-old listener wrote in asking if the inverted yield curve means that a recession is on the way. Today on the show, we try to answer him.
08.16.2019 #933: Find The Helium You need helium to launch rockets into space. It's also essential for MRI machines and cellphones. But the world is running short on helium. So we're going looking for more.
08.14.2019 #616: How Solar Got Cheap Solar energy used to be a fantasy. Then it arrived, but was too expensive for most people to afford. Now it's cheap. Here's how it happened.
08.09.2019 #932: Deep Learning With The Elephants Counting elephants is key to saving them. But in the rainforest, they're hard to spot. One scientist is listening for them instead, with the help of artificial intelligence.
08.07.2019 #931: The IT Guy Vs. The Con Artist Felipe was an IT professional looking for a new gig. Then a notorious con artist offered him a job. Felipe took the job — and tried to con the con man.
08.03.2019 #930: Twins Scientists have been studying twins for a long time, trying to figure out how much of human behavior is influenced by the environment, and how much of it is in our genes.
07.31.2019 #598: That Time We Shorted America, Part Two We shorted America, taking a bet against its entire stock market. Today, we find out the results, and revisit the very first person to short a stock back in the 17th century.
07.26.2019 #597: That Time We Shorted America, Part One Today on the show, we ignore the advice of some very smart people and bet against something people love.
07.24.2019 #929: Could A Wealth Tax Work? Elizabeth Warren wants to tackle inequality by taxing the wealth of the mega-rich ($50-million-or-more rich). Wealth taxes failed in Europe. Can they work in the U.S.?
07.19.2019 #928: Hong Kong The Hong Kong protests tap into a complex history between China and the West. It's a story of isolationism, opium wars, and the rise of capitalism.
07.18.2019 #927: The Indicator In The House One state, two very different stories: Why Huntington Beach won't build new homes during a housing shortage, and what private firefighters say about their industry and inequality.
07.13.2019 #926: So, Should We Recycle? Recycling in America is on life support. Some towns aren't even picking it up anymore. And it might be a good thing for the planet.
07.10.2019 #925: A Mob Boss, A Garbage Boat and Why We Recycle In 1987, an Alabama man made a deal with the mob. He ended up with 3,186 tons of trash no landfill would take. It was the accidental birth of recycling in the U.S.
07.05.2019 #924: Stuck In China's Panopticon The Chinese government is using face recognition, DNA samples and more to track the Uighur population. Americans — some unknowingly — have helped build this surveillance state.
07.03.2019 #752: Eagles vs. Chickens Picture an organic farm, with thousands of free-range chickens roaming on open land. Now picture it from the vantage of a soaring bald eagle. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet.
06.28.2019 #923: Good Teachers, Bad Deal Thousands of teachers got grants from the Department of Education to help pay for college. Then, some of those same teachers found out they owed thousands of dollars in debt.
06.27.2019 #922: The Cost of Getting Your Money Back It's easy to reverse transactions on credit cards. But Venmo is a different story. A woman who accidentally sent $1,500 to a complete stranger found this out the hard way.
06.21.2019 #921: Tales From The Parking Lot What can you do when your car is booted in a private parking lot? Is that even legal? Can Uber drivers cause surge pricing? When do parking tickets become a civil rights issue?

Newer episodes

Older episodes

Planet Money

What's Planet Money about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Planet Money episodes:

#592: The Bell Wars

#956: The Carriage Tax

#773: Slot Flaw Scofflaws

#955: Pirate Videos

#674: We Cooked A Peacock

#954: What Is Foreign Interference, Anyway?

#953: Three Sides Of A Car Loan

#952: Sperm Banks

#951: Snakebite

#950: Overrated Or Underrated?

#777: Free Love, Free Market

#949: The Pigou Club

#948: A Series Of Unfortunate Recessions

#947: Some-of-the-Money Ball

#946: Fries Of The Future

#945: The Liberty City

#753: Blockchain Gang

#944: We Should Have Mentioned That

#763: BOTUS

#943: Unicorn Cowboy

#942: Capitalism In The Courtroom

#941: Three Bets

#770: When India's Cash Disappeared

#940: Interest Rates... Why So Negative?

#658: Strike One

#939: The Working Tapes Of Studs Terkel

#794: How To Make It In The Music Business

#938: The Marshall Plan

#371: Where Dollar Bills Come From

#937: Moving To Opportunity?

#936: The Modal American

935: You Asked For A Food Show

#934: Two Yield Curve Indicators

#933: Find The Helium

#616: How Solar Got Cheap

#932: Deep Learning With The Elephants

#931: The IT Guy Vs. The Con Artist

#930: Twins

#598: That Time We Shorted America, Part Two

#597: That Time We Shorted America, Part One

#929: Could A Wealth Tax Work?

#928: Hong Kong

#927: The Indicator In The House

#926: So, Should We Recycle?

#925: A Mob Boss, A Garbage Boat and Why We Recycle

#924: Stuck In China's Panopticon

#752: Eagles vs. Chickens

#923: Good Teachers, Bad Deal

#922: The Cost of Getting Your Money Back

#921: Tales From The Parking Lot

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