A controversial idea at the heart of Bidenomics Réka Juhász is a professor of economics at the University of British Columbia, and she studies what’s known as ind […]

Two Indicators: Economics of the defense industry The Department of Defense’s proposed budget for 2024 is $842 billion. That is about 3.5% of the U.S.’s GDP. The […]

How the Navy came to protect cargo ships The Genco Picardy is not an American ship. It doesn’t pay U.S. taxes, none of its crew are U.S. nationals, and when it s […]

It’s giving … Valentines L, is for the way you Listen to Planet MoneyO, is for the Only podcast I hearV, is Very, very, fiduciaryE, is for… ECONOMICS! Every F […]

A lawsuit for your broken heart Keith King was upset when his marriage ended. His wife had cheated, and his family broke apart. And that’s when he learned about a […]

Morally questionable, economically efficient There are tons of markets that don’t exist because people just don’t want to allow a market – for whatever reaso […]

Groundhog Day 2024: Trademark, bankruptcy, and the dollar that failed It’s Groundhog Day, and the eyes of the nation have turned to a small town in western P […]

The Chicken Tax (Classic) Note: This episode originally ran in 2015. German families in the 60s loved tasty, cheap American-raised chicken that was suddenly coming […]

Bonus: Janet Yellen on Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! Our friends at NPR’s news quiz Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! recently had a very Planet Money guest on their show: Treas […]

Rescues at sea, and how to make a fortune At around 1 a.m. on the morning of November 15, 1994, Captain Prentice “Skip” Strong III woke to a distress call. Skip was […]

Hear us out: We ban left turns and other big ideas On today’s episode, we have three big economic ideas for your consideration – ideas that could potentially imp […]

Econ Battle Zone: Disinflation Confrontation After very high inflation, the United States is finally feeling some relief in the form of “disinflation.” But, why exa […]

Mid-East conflict escalation, two indicators On today’s show, we look at two indicators of the economic disruptions of the war in Gaza and try to trace how far t […]

The Maine Potato War of 1976 When you think of a potato, one state probably comes to mind: Idaho. But for much of American history, Maine was home to the […]

The Universal Basic Income experiment in Kenya There’s this fundamental question in economics that has proven really hard to answer: What’s a good way to help peo […]

The case of the serial sinking Spanish ships Picture the Pacific Ocean of the 16th century. Spanish Galleons sail the wide open seas, carrying precious cargo like […]

The Rest of the Story, 2023 It’s that time of year again! Our annual year-end tradition of checking in on the stories we’ve reported and the people we met along the […]

The Indicators of this year and next Today on the show, hosts from Planet Money and The Indicator debate the economic indicators of this year and next […]

We buy a lot of Christmas trees (Update) *Note: This episode originally ran in 2020* ‘Tis the season for Americans to head out in droves and bring home a f […]

Dollarizing Argentina Argentina has been on a decades-long search for economic stability, but it always seems to be out of reach. High inflation has been plaguing […]