How sports gambling blew up
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Sports gambling isn't exactly a financial market, but it rhymes with financial markets. What happens...
A Nobel prize for explaining why there's global inequality
14 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Why do some nations fail and others succeed?In the late 1990s and early 2000s, three economists form...
Worst. Tariffs. Ever. (update)
11 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The Smoot Hawley Tariffs were a debacle that helped plunge America into the Great Depression. What c...
There Will Be Flood
06 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Windell Curole spent decades working to protect his community in southern Louisiana from the destruc...
George Soros vs. the Bank of England
04 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
As people learn more about Donald Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, one story come...
How useful, really, are the steps you can take after a data breach?
02 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The dreaded data breach notification... It tells you your personal data's been compromised and sugge...
Why you bought your couch
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
You probably own a chair or a table or a sofa. And you probably think you know why you bought it. Be...
Title Pirates
23 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
A couple years ago, Gina Leto, a real estate developer, bought a property with her business partner....
The long view of economics and immigration (Two Indicators)
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Mass deportations. What would actually happen—economically—if the President-elect follows throug...
The great German land lottery
15 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Every ten years, a group of German farmers gather in the communal farm fields of the Osing for the O...
The strange way the world's fastest microchips are made
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is the story behind one of the most valuable — and perhaps, most improbable — technologies ...
What markets bet President Trump will do
09 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On the day after the election, Wall Street responded in a dramatic way. Some stocks went way up, oth...
Moving to the American dream? (update)
06 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Back in the 90s, the federal government ran a bold experiment, giving people vouchers to move out of...
The veteran loan calamity
01 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Ray and Becky Queen live in rural Oklahoma with their kids (and chickens). The Queens were able to b...
So your data was stolen in a data breach
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you... exist in the world, it's likely that you have gotten a letter or email at some point infor...
Why do hospitals keep running out of generic drugs?
25 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's something strange going on in hospitals. Cheap, common drugs that nurses use every day seem ...
Romance on the screen and on the page: Two Indicators
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On today's show, we have two stories from The Indicator, Planet Money's daily podcast. They just lau...
The Subscription Trap
18 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past two decades, there's been a sort of tectonic economic shift happening under our feet. ...
We asked 188 economists. And the survey says...
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
(For our story on this year's Nobel in Economics, check out our daily show, The Indicator!)Let's fac...
So imPORTant: Bananas, frogs, and... Bob's??
11 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Even in our modern world with planes and jets and drones, the vast majority of goods are moved aroun...
Can cap and trade work in the US?
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Recently, the state of Washington embarked on an ambitious new plan to combat climate change. Taking...
What's up with all the ads for law firms?
04 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The lawyer commercial is almost an art form unto itself. Learned practitioners of the law doing what...
How Venezuela imploded (update)
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
(Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2016.)Back in 2016, things were pretty bad in Ven...
What's THAT got to do with economics?
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
"Wanna see a trick? Give us any topic and we can tie it back to the economy."That is the bold promis...
Veep-onomics
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Next week, JD Vance and Tim Walz will face off in the only confirmed vice presidential debate ahead ...
How to save 10,000 fingers
20 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Table saws are extremely dangerous. The government estimates that injuries from table saws send some...
Can money buy happiness?
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
People often say that money can't buy you happiness. Sometimes, if you ask them to tell you more abo...
99 Percent Invisible: The White Castle System of Eating Houses
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today we have a guest episode from 99 Percent Invisible.It is about White Castle, the burger chain. ...
Rate Expectations
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates to get inflation under control. One side effect is that ta...
Is AI overrated or underrated?
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Are the promises made by AI boosters all hype, or are we actually under-appreciating the transformat...
Summer camp capitalism
06 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Summer camp is a classic rite of passage in the U.S. It's a place of self-discovery, where kids come...
Bingo! (Presidential debate edition)
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Campaigns can be a jargony slog. And this year, we are seeing a lot of economic terms being thrown a...
How to fix a housing shortage
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Cody Fischer decided to get into real estate development, he had a vision. He wanted to build a...
Summer School 8: Big ideas and life lessons from Marx, Keynes and Smith and more
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Take the 2024 Planet Money Summer School Quiz here to earn your personalized diploma!Find all the ep...
The trade fraud detective
23 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When David Rashid took over US autoparts maker Plews and Edelmann, the company was losing business t...
Summer School 7: The Great Depression, the New Deal and how it changed our economy
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Find all the episodes from this season here. And past seasons here. And follow along on TikTok here ...
The hidden world behind your new "banking" app
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
You might have seen ads for online banking services that seem to offer a lot of great stuff — acco...
Summer School 6: China, Taiwan and how nations grow rich
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episodes each Wednesday through labor day. Find all the episodes from this season here. And past sea...
Will the Olympics break breakdancing?
09 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For some sports, picking the winner is simple: It's the athlete who crosses the finish line first, o...
Summer School 5: 250 years of trade history in three chapters
07 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episodes each Wednesday through labor day. Find all the episodes from this season here. And past sea...
What to do when you're in a class action
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Maybe you got a boring slip of paper in the mail. Maybe you got a spammy-looking email promising you...
Summer School 4: Banker vs president and the birth of the dollar
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episodes each Wednesday through labor day. Find all the episodes from this season here. And past sea...
Summer School 3: The first stock and perpetual life
26 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episodes each Wednesday through labor day. Find all the episodes from this season here. And past sea...
What Kamala Harris' economic agenda might look like
24 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last weekend we were all thrown for a loop when President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential ...
The color monopoly
20 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2022, artist Stuart Semple opened up his laptop to find that all his designs had turned black ove...
Summer School 2: The golden ages of labor and looms
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Who has the power? Workers or bosses? It changes through the ages, though it's usually the bosses. T...
Rooftop solar's dark side
12 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
4.5 million households in the U.S. have solar panels on their homes. Most of those customers are hap...
Summer School 1: An Economic History of the World
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Planet Money Summer School is back for eight weeks. Join as we travel back in time to find the origi...
How flying got so bad (or did it?)
05 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We often hear that air travel is worse than it's ever been. Gone are the days when airplanes touted ...
The two companies driving the modern economy
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At the core of most of the electronics we use today are some very tiny, very powerful chips. Semicon...
Do immigrants really take jobs and lower wages?
29 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We wade into the heated debate over immigrants' impact on the labor market. When the number of worke...
The Carriage Tax (Update)
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
(Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2019.)In 1794, George Washington decided to raise...
The Vapes of Wrath
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When the vape brand Juul first hit the market back in 2015, e-cigarettes were in a kind of regulator...
Why is everyone talking about Musk's money?
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We've lived amongst Elon Musk headlines for so long now that it's easy to forget just how much he so...
What's with all the tiny soda cans? And other grocery store mysteries, solved.
14 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's a behind the scenes industry that helps big brands decide questions like: How big should a b...
Bringing a tariff to a graphite fight
12 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Graphite is sort of the one-hit wonder of minerals. And that hit? Pencils. Everyone loves to talk ab...
How much national debt is too much?
07 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Most economic textbooks will tell you that there can be real dangers in running up a big national de...
The history of light (classic)
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For thousands of years, getting light was a huge hassle. You had to make candles from scratch. This ...
How the FBI's fake cell phone company put criminals into real jail cells
31 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There is a constant arms race between law enforcement and criminals, especially when it comes to tec...
So you've been scammed, now what?
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We are living in a kind of golden age for online fraudsters. As the number of apps and services for ...
The junkyard economist
24 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, we ride through the streets of San Francisco with a long-time junkman, Jon Rolst...
Anatomy of a layoff
22 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
By one estimate, 40 percent of American workers get laid off at least once in their careers. And whe...
The hack that almost broke the internet
17 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, the world narrowly avoided a cyberattack of stunning ambition. The targets were some of ...
Why Gold? (Classic)
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the past few months, the price of gold has gone way up – even hitting a new high last month at ...
Zombie mortgages are coming back to life
10 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Karen McDonough of Quincy, Mass., was enjoying her tea one morning in the dining room when she saw s...
Inside video game economics (Two Indicators)
08 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why do video game workers offer labor at a discount? How can you design a video game for blind and s...
The birth of the modern consumer movement
03 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today on the show, the story of the modern consumer movement in the U.S. and the person who inspired...
Hire Power (Update)
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
(Note: This episode originally ran in 2021.)Millions of American workers in all sorts of industries ...
The case of the stolen masks
26 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
About thirty years ago, Yagya Kumar Pradhan woke up to the news that the temple he and his clan used...
How unions are stopped before they start (Update)
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
(Note: This episode originally ran in 2023.)Union membership in the U.S. has been declining for deca...
FTX and the Serengeti of bankruptcy
19 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For the last year and a half, the story of FTX has focused largely on the crimes and punishment of S...
Grocery prices, credit card debt, and your 401K (Two Indicators)
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What's going on with consumers? This is one of the trickiest puzzles of this weird economic moment w...
TikTok made me deduct it
12 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
TikTok, and other apps like it, are filled with financial advice. Some of it is reliable, some... le...
How much does this cow weigh? (Classic)
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode originally ran in 2015.About one hundred years ago, a scientist and statistician named ...
Japan's Lost Decades
05 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, Japan's central bank raised interest rates for the first time in 17 years. That is a rea...
The real estate industry on trial
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2019, Mike Ketchmark got a call. Mike is a lawyer in Kansas City, Missouri, and his friend, Brand...
How much of your tax dollars are going to Israel and Ukraine
29 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's been a lot of disagreement in Congress and in the country about whether the U.S. should cont...
The trouble with Table 101 (Update)
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
(Note: This episode originally ran in 2020.)In the restaurant game, you need to make the most of eve...
What is Temu?
22 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It is rare that a new e-commerce company has such a meteoric rise as Temu. The company, which launch...
How Big Steel in the U.S. fell
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Steel manufacturing was at one point the most important industry in the United States. It was one of...
The billion dollar war behind U.S. rum
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When you buy a bottle of rum in the United States, by law nearly all the federal taxes on that rum m...
Wind boom, wind bust (Two Windicators)
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The wind power business is a bit contradictory right now. It's showing signs of boom and bust seemin...
On the Oscars campaign trail
08 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When you sit down to watch the Oscars, what you are really watching is the final battle in a months-...
Is dynamic pricing coming to a supermarket near you?
06 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dynamic pricing is an increasingly common phenomenon: You can see it when Uber prices surge during r...
Shopping for parental benefits around the world
01 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It is so expensive to have a kid in the United States. The U.S. is one of just a handful of countrie...
The secret world behind school fundraisers
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Fundraising is a staple of the school experience in the U.S. There's an assembly showing off all the...
A controversial idea at the heart of Bidenomics
23 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Réka Juhász is a professor of economics at the University of British Columbia, and she studies wha...
Two Indicators: Economics of the defense industry
21 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Department of Defense's proposed budget for 2024 is $842 billion. That is about 3.5% of the U.S....
How the Navy came to protect cargo ships
16 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Genco Picardy is not an American ship. It doesn't pay U.S. taxes, none of its crew are U.S. nati...
It's giving ... Valentines
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
L, is for the way you Listen to Planet MoneyO, is for the Only podcast I hearV, is Very, very, fiduc...
A lawsuit for your broken heart
09 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Keith King was upset when his marriage ended. His wife had cheated, and his family broke apart. And ...
Morally questionable, economically efficient
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are tons of markets that don't exist because people just don't want to allow a market – for ...
Groundhog Day 2024: Trademark, bankruptcy, and the dollar that failed
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's Groundhog Day, and the eyes of the nation have turned to a small town in western Pennsylvania. ...
The Chicken Tax (Classic)
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Note: This episode originally ran in 2015.German families in the 60s loved tasty, cheap American-rai...
Bonus: Janet Yellen on Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!
29 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our friends at NPR's news quiz Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! recently had a very Planet Money guest on ...
Rescues at sea, and how to make a fortune
27 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At around 1 a.m. on the morning of November 15, 1994, Captain Prentice "Skip" Strong III woke to a d...
Hear us out: We ban left turns and other big ideas
24 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, we have three big economic ideas for your consideration – ideas that could pot...
Econ Battle Zone: Disinflation Confrontation
20 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After very high inflation, the United States is finally feeling some relief in the form of "disinfla...
Mid-East conflict escalation, two indicators
17 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On today's show, we look at two indicators of the economic disruptions of the war in Gaza and try to...
The Maine Potato War of 1976
13 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When you think of a potato, one state probably comes to mind: Idaho. But for much of American histor...