We all know the government uses taxes to pay for things. But what about using taxes to control behavior? This week on Summer School, Professor Darrick Hamilton of The New School, helps us explore the true power of the tax code. Can taxes help lift people out of poverty? What about saving the planet?
Get tickets to our August 18th live show and graduation ceremony at The Bell House, in Brooklyn. (Planet Money+ supporters get a 10 percent discount off their tickets. Listen to the July 8th bonus episode to get the discount code!)
The series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Eric Mennel. Our project manager is Devin Mellor. This episode was edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark and fact-checked by Emily Crawford and Sierra Juarez. Engineering by Robert Rodriguez.
Always free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
Find more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.
Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
-
The strange way the world’s fastest microchips are made
This is the story behind one of the most valuable — and perhaps, most improbable — technologies humanity has ever created. It’s a breakthrough called extreme ultraviolet lithography, and it’s how the most advanced microchips…
-
What markets bet President Trump will do
On the day after the election, Wall Street responded in a dramatic way. Some stocks went way up, others went way down. By reading those signals — by breaking down what people were buying and…
-
Moving to the American dream? (update)
Back in the 90s, the federal government ran a bold experiment, giving people vouchers to move out of high-poverty neighborhoods into low-poverty ones. They wanted to test if housing policy could be hope – whether…
-
The veteran loan calamity
Ray and Becky Queen live in rural Oklahoma with their kids (and chickens). The Queens were able to buy that home with a VA loan because of Ray’s service in the Army. During COVID, the…
-
So your data was stolen in a data breach
If you… exist in the world, it’s likely that you have gotten a letter or email at some point informing you that your data was stolen. This happened recently to potentially hundreds of millions of…
-
Why do hospitals keep running out of generic drugs?
There’s something strange going on in hospitals. Cheap, common drugs that nurses use every day seem to be constantly hit by shortages. These are often generic drugs that don’t seem super complicated to make, things…
-
Romance on the screen and on the page: Two Indicators
On today’s show, we have two stories from The Indicator, Planet Money‘s daily podcast. They just launched Love Week, a weeklong series exploring the business and economic side of romance. First, hosts Wailin Wong and…
-
The Subscription Trap
Over the past two decades, there’s been a sort of tectonic economic shift happening under our feet. More and more companies have switched from selling goods one by one to selling services, available as a…
-
We asked 188 economists. And the survey says…
(For our story on this year’s Nobel in Economics, check out our daily show, The Indicator!) Let’s face it. Economics is filled with terms that don’t always make sense to the average person. Terms that…
-
So imPORTant: Bananas, frogs, and… Bob’s??
Even in our modern world with planes and jets and drones, the vast majority of goods are moved around the planet in cargo ships. Which means our ports are the backbone of our global economy.…