Planet Money
Wanna see a trick? Give us any topic and we can tie it back to the economy. At Planet Money, we explore the forces that shape our lives and bring you along for the ride. Don't just understand the economy – understand the world.
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Wanna go deeper? Subscribe to Planet Money+ and get sponsor-free episodes of Planet Money, The Indicator, and Planet Money Summer School. Plus access to bonus content. It's a new way to support the show you love. Learn more at plus.npr.org/planetmoney
Episodes (51)
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...
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...
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 on Earth —...
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 a...
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...
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...
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...
How Tupperware took over our homes, with Decoder Ring
Tupperware is the stealthy star of our modern homes. These plastic storage containers are ubiquitous in our fridges, pantries, and closets. But the original product was revolutionary. So was its...
The last time we shrank the federal workforce
If you cut every single federal job President Donald Trump wants to cut, how much money would that save?
A president has tried to massively shrink the size of the federal government before. It was in...
A president has tried to massively shrink the size of the federal government before. It was in...
How to start a bank
In some ways, starting a bank is a lot like starting any other business. Who will you hire? Where will you be located? What color will the couches be? But it's also way more complicated. There are...
The Parable of Peanut the Memecoin
Memecoins are having a moment. Everyone from Hawk Tuah to President Donald Trump to animal influencers like Moo Deng the pygmy hippo have been turned into cryptocurrency. But what are the costs of...
The Memecoin Casino
What do Moo Deng the pygmy hippo, social media sensation Hawk Tuah, and the President of the United States all have in common? They've all inspired highly valuable, highly volatile memecoins.
The...
The...
The controversy over Tyson Foods' hiring of asylum seekers
Last year, Tyson Foods shuttered a meat processing plant in Perry, Iowa. The company said it made the decision because the plant was old and inefficient. But the closure was devastating for the...
The rise and fall of Long Term Capital Management
There's this cautionary tale, in the finance world, that nearly any trader can tell you. It's about placing too much confidence in math and models. It's the story of Long Term Capital Management.
The...
The...
Can the president override Congress on spending?
So the president can't spend more money than Congress has agreed and voted to spend. But can the president spend less money than Congress wants?
It all comes down to something called "impoundment" and...
It all comes down to something called "impoundment" and...
The Big Government Money Pipe Freeze
There has been chaotic uncertainty around billions of dollars allocated by Congress. The Trump administration ordered a pause on — and review of — certain types of federal assistance. A judge blocked...
The 'Crypto Wizard' vs. Nigeria
The trip that changed Tigran Gambaryan's life forever was supposed to be short — just a few days. When he flew to Nigeria in February of 2024, he didn't even check a bag. Tigran is a former IRS...
The fight for a legendary shipwreck's treasure
The San Jose was a marvel of 17th century technology. The Spanish galleon weighed more than a thousand tons, was made of wood reinforced with iron, and featured three masts and 64 cannons. In its...
How the scratch off lottery changed America
Americans spend more on scratch lottery tickets per year than on pizza. More than all Coca-Cola products. Yet the scratch ticket as a consumer item has only existed for fifty years. Not so long ago,all...
How DeepSeek changed the market's mind
On Monday, the stock market went into a tizzy over a new AI model from Chinese company DeepSeek. It seemed to be just as powerful as many of its American competitors, but its makers claimed to have...
Re-imagining the energy grid ... through batteries (Two Indicators)
When it comes to solar and wind power, renewable energy has always had a caveat: it can only run when the wind blows or the sun shines.
The idea of a battery was floated around to make renewables...
The idea of a battery was floated around to make renewables...
The "chilling effect" of deportations
After being sworn into office, President Trump signed a whole host of executive actions and orders that affirm his campaign promise to crack down on immigration.
Trump's border czar has said Chicago...
Trump's border czar has said Chicago...
After the fires
The fires in Los Angeles are almost out. Residents are starting to trickle back into their burned-out neighborhoods. When they get to their houses, they face a series of almost impossible questions:...
Tariffs, grocery prices and other listener questions
Donald Trump is just about to begin his second presidency. And it may be safe to say that every single person in America has at least one question about what's to come in the next four years.
So, we...
So, we...
The Land of the Duty Free (classic)
(Note: This episode originally ran in 2018.)
Is it really cheaper to shop at an airport Duty Free store? And why are so many of them alike?
In the 1940s, if you were flying from New York City to London...
Is it really cheaper to shop at an airport Duty Free store? And why are so many of them alike?
In the 1940s, if you were flying from New York City to London...
The case for Fed Independence in the Nixon Tapes
You know Watergate, but do you know Fedgate? The more subtle scandal with more monetary policy and, arguably, much higher stakes.
In today's episode, we listen back through the Nixon White House tapesFedgate?>...
In today's episode, we listen back through the Nixon White House tapesFedgate?>...
ZIP Codes!
The ZIP code is less like a cold, clinical, ordered list of numbers, and more like a weird overgrown number garden. It started as a way to organize mail after WWII, but now it pops up all over our...
The potato-shaped loophole in free trade
Ever since free trade opened up between the US and Mexico in the 1990s, trillions of dollars of goods have been going back and forth between the two countries, from cars to strawberries to MRI...
If AI is so good, why are there still so many jobs for translators?
If you believe the hype, translators will all soon be out of work. Luis von Ahn, CEO and co-founder of the language learning app Duolingo, doesn't think AI is quite there... yet. In this interview,...
The Rest of the Story, 2024
After the gift exchange comes another great holiday tradition: returns season. Once again, we are joining the fun in our own Planet Money way. We are returning to stories from years past to seereturning...
The Indicators of this year and next
This year, there was some economic good news to go around. Inflation generally ticked down. Unemployment more or less held around 4-percent. Heck, the Fed even cut interest rates three times. But for...
The habitat banker
Our planet is in serious trouble. There are a million species of plants and animals in danger of extinction, and the biggest cause is companies destroying their habitats to farm food, mine minerals,...
How sports gambling blew up
Sports gambling isn't exactly a financial market, but it rhymes with financial markets. What happens on Wall Street somehow eventually also happens in sports gambling. So in the 1980s, when computers...
A Nobel prize for explaining why there's global inequality
Why do some nations fail and others succeed?
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, three economists formed a partnership that would revolutionize how economists think about global inequality. Their work...
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, three economists formed a partnership that would revolutionize how economists think about global inequality. Their work...
Worst. Tariffs. Ever. (update)
The Smoot Hawley Tariffs were a debacle that helped plunge America into the Great Depression. What can we learn from them?
Today on the show, we tell the nearly 100-year-old story of Smoot and Hawley,...
Today on the show, we tell the nearly 100-year-old story of Smoot and Hawley,...
There Will Be Flood
Windell Curole spent decades working to protect his community in southern Louisiana from the destructive flooding caused by hurricanes. His local office in South Lafourche partnered with the federal...
George Soros vs. the Bank of England
As people learn more about Donald Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, one story comes up over and over: a legendary trade that he played a small part in while he worked at George...
How useful, really, are the steps you can take after a data breach?
The dreaded data breach notification... It tells you your personal data's been compromised and suggests steps you can take to minimize the potential harm. On today's episode, Kenny Malone pulls out a...
Why you bought your couch
You probably own a chair or a table or a sofa. And you probably think you know why you bought it. Because it was comfy. Or blue. Or the right price. But what if the style, the color, the cost, maybe...
Title Pirates
A couple years ago, Gina Leto, a real estate developer, bought a property with her business partner. The process went like it usually did: Lots of paperwork; a virtual closing. Pretty cut-and-dry....
The long view of economics and immigration (Two Indicators)
Mass deportations. What would actually happen—economically—if the President-elect follows through on promises to deport millions of people from America.
We don't have to guess.
Today we have two...
We don't have to guess.
Today we have two...
The great German land lottery
Every ten years, a group of German farmers gather in the communal farm fields of the Osing for the Osingverlosung, a ritual dating back centuries. Osing refers to the area. And verlosung meansverlosungOsing>Osingverlosung...
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...
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 what...
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...
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 Queens – like...
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...
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, hostsPlanet>The>...
First, hostsPlanet>The>...
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...
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...
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. The...
Can cap and trade work in the US?
Recently, the state of Washington embarked on an ambitious new plan to combat climate change. Taking a page from economics textbooks, the state instituted a statewide "cap and trade" system for...
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