Planet Money

Every Valentine’s Day, we at Planet Money consider the things that we love, the things that we can’t stop talking about, the things that get our hearts racing…in a good way. And we give them…

Take a look in any supermarket ice cream freezer section and you may see a mystery. There are big containers of the typical ice cream brands: Breyers, Turkey Hill, and Edy’s. And there are specialty…

Anyone who has tried shopping for day care knows that it is tough out there. For one, it is hard even to get your hands on information about costs, either online or over the phone…

It’s Groundhog Day, and once again, the eyes of the nation have turned to a small town in Western Pennsylvania. Every February 2nd, the only story anyone can talk about is whether or not Punxsutawney…

A great economics paper does two things. It takes on a big question, and it finds a smart way to answer that question. But some papers go even further. The very best papers have the…

Monopoly is one of the best-selling board games in history. The game’s staying power may in part be because of strong American lore — the idea that anyone, with just a little bit of cash,…

Some of history’s biggest financial scams owe their name to Charles Ponzi. Here’s the story of the man behind the eponymous scheme. Subscribe to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney See pcm.adswizz.com for…

Driving a truck used to mean freedom. Now it means a mountain of debt. Subscribe to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal…

If the Fed had a mantra to go along with its mandate, it might well be “two percent.” We look into how that became the target inflation rate, why some economists are calling for a…

Welcome to the Planet Money Movie Club, a regular series from Planet Money+ in which we watch an economics-related movie and discuss! On today’s episode, Kenny Malone, Wailin Wong, and Willa Rubin talk about Frank…