Planet Money

  • The prince of prints and his prints of Prince

    In 1981, photographer Lynn Goldsmith took a portrait of the musician Prince. It’s a pretty standard headshot — it’s in black-and-white, and Prince is staring down the camera lens. This was early in his career,…

  • How to fight a patent pirate

    Back in the 1990s, Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar was in his office in New Delhi when he came across a puzzling story in the newspaper. Some university scientists in the U.S. had apparently filed a patent…

  • Summer School 8: Graduation and the Guppy Tank

    Congratulations to the Planet Money Summer School Class of 2023! Today, you become masters of business administration… spelled with lower-case letters for legal purposes. Your diploma is waiting for you just across the stage. But…

  • The secret entrance that sidesteps Hollywood picket lines

    Across Hollywood right now, writers and actors are picketing in front of studio lots. They’re walking back and forth, holding up signs demanding concessions on things like pay, how many writers work on projects, and…

  • Summer School 7: Negotiating and the empathetic nibble

    How do you get the best deal? How do you know you’re getting the best deal? Whether you’re talking down the price of a car or talking up your salary, you don’t have to be…

  • Vacation, and why the U.S. takes so little of it

    Do you work more for more money? Or work less for more time? For some, this is the ultimate economic choice. Every single worker in the European Union is guaranteed four weeks of paid vacation.…

  • Summer School 6: Operations and 25,000 roses

    “It’s difficult to control everything,” says our guest professor for this week, Santiago Gallino. “What is not difficult is to plan for everything.” Today we venture into the sphere of business that masters the planning,…

  • The new Biden plan that could still erase your student loans

    This summer, the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s plan to forgive student loan debt for millions of borrowers. Except, on the same day Biden first announced that plan, he also unveiled another, the SAVE plan.…

  • Summer School 5: Tech and the innovator’s dilemma

    For anyone running a business, technology is both threat and opportunity. Today, we run through techniques entrepreneurs can use to take advantage of new tech or defend against the dangers. It’s not just about the…

  • A tarot card reading for the U.S. economy

    Predicting the future of the economy is always a dicey proposition. That is especially true after more than three years of pandemic-related economic weirdness. No one quite knows what will happen next. Will the Fed…

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