Planet Money

  • 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 industrial policy. That’s the general term for whenever the government tries to promote specific sectors of…


  • 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 military buys everything from pens and paper clips to fighter jets and submarines. But 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 sailed through the Red Sea last month, it wasn’t carrying cargo to…


  • 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 February, we dedicate a show to the things in our…


  • 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 very old type of lawsuit, called a heart balm tort. 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 reason, people feel icky about putting a price on something. For example: Surrogacy is a…


  • 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 Pennsylvania. And, just like last year, all anyone can talk about is Punxsutawney Phil! It is impossible to…


  • 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 in after the war. And Americans were loving fun, cheap Volkswagen Beetles. This arrangement…


  • 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: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. They asked her about smoking pot, her extremely high scores in…


  • 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 the new captain of an oil tanker called the Cherry Valley. He…


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