Planet Money
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How much for that egg
Recently, one of our NPR colleagues wrote a message to all of NPR saying he had extra eggs to sell for cheap, but needed a fair way to distribute them during a shortage. What is…
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OIRA: The tiny office that’s about to remake the federal government
OIRA — the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs — is an obscure, but powerful federal office around the corner from the White House. President Trump has decided that it should get even more powerful.…
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Trade war dispatch from Canada
How do you run a business when a trade war is brewing? As President Trump’s tariffs kick in – or are paused or are restarted – businesses around the world are trying to navigate the…
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Do trade deficits matter?
At the heart of President Trump’s tariffs is this idea that we should not be buying more from other countries than they are buying from us. Basically, he wants to get rid of the trade…
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How the War on Drugs got us… blueberries
Ever wondered why you can buy fresh Peruvian blueberries in the dead of winter? The answer, surprisingly, is tied to cocaine. Today on the show, we look at how the War on Drugs led to…
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Tariffs: What are they good for?
What are tariffs good for? For years, mainstream economists have basically said: tariffs are not good. They are an import tax paid by consumers, they’ve said, and they discourage free trade, and we want more!…
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PM x Radiolab: Can the economy grow forever?
Earth can sustain life for another 100 million years, but can we? This episode, we partner with Radiolab to take stock of the essential raw materials that enable us to live as we do here…
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Planet Money buys a mystery diamond
The deal seemed too good to be true. There’s a website that’s been selling top quality diamonds at bizarrely low prices. Prices we couldn’t find at any retail outlet. Prices so low, we could buy…
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Can we just change how we measure GDP?
There’s one statistic that rules them all when it comes to keeping track of the economy: gross domestic product (GDP). It’s the sum of all final transactions, so all the goods or services bought and…
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Escheat show (Update)
Note: This original episode ran in 2020. Walter Schramm did everything right as an investor — at least according to the philosophy of Warren Buffett. So how come he lost a small fortune? In this…