Make Me Smart

What’s a digital dollar?

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You’ve heard about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but how are they different from a digital dollar? On this Whaddya Wanna Know Wednesday, we’ll discuss the benefits and drawbacks of a digital dollar as the Federal Reserve ponders making its own digital currency. Plus, we’ll explain the economics behind robocalls and vaccine mandates. And we get an email from a listener and her cats who want to know what’s up with pet food shortages.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

  • “What exactly is a digital dollar, and how would it work?” from Popular Science
  • “China’s digital yuan is a warning to the world” from Wired
  • “Tired of robocalls? The FCC is stillllll trying to stop them” from “Marketplace Tech”
  • “THE ANNOYANCE ENGINE: Spam robocalls became profitable scams by exploiting the phone system, but you can stop them” from Business Insider
  • “Fact check: Workers fired for refusing a vaccine are unlikely to qualify for unemployment” from USA Today
  • “Half of unvaccinated workers say they’d rather quit than get a shot – but real-world data suggest few are following through” from The Conversation
  • The Pet Food Institute on the pet food supply challenges 

    • Read the transcript here.

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