The Indicator from Planet Money
Episodes
Why is the federal government still killing coyotes?
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The federal government spends millions of dollars each year on wildlife damage management, a program that includes killing thousands of coyotes. Yet t...
Southwest surprises, tariff guac shock, and fraud flourishes
14 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's Indicators of the Week! Our weekly look at interesting numbers from the news. On today's show, we have Southwest Airlines changing course on thei...
How many times can you say uncertainty in one economic report?
13 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Uncertainty. That's the word-of-the-moment with tariffs, market swings and lots of economic volatility. It's also showing up in the Federal Reserve's ...
The stock market is down, but you don't need to be
12 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Government cuts. Tariff uncertainty. Sticky interest rates. These are not helping the tumbling stock market. There's a sinking feeling among some Amer...
Can you take government spending out of GDP?
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump administration has some nits to pick with government spending: They don't think it should be counted as part of the country's GDP, that it s...
What Bad Bunny teaches us about Puerto Rican tax law
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bad Bunny's new album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS laments how Puerto Rico is changing. We look at whether tax breaks to newcomers contributed.Related episo...
Can ... we still trust the monthly jobs report?
07 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Between the Trump administration wanting to change how GDP is calculated and DOGE accessing sensitive government information, statistical agencies are...
What to make of the Ukraine minerals deal
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Even after Monday's pause on military aid to Ukraine following the Oval Office blow-up, it looks like a minerals deal between the U.S. and Ukraine is ...
Is the Panama Canal a rip-off?
05 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Who pays to use the Panama Canal and how much? These questions are part of the tensions between the U.S. and Panama after President Trump threatened t...
Can the Federal Reserve stay independent?
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Trump has been on an executive order-signing spree since returning to office, with 76 so far. Today we look at two of them. Can the Fed real...
How tourist destinations recover after terrorism
03 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mardi Gras is in full swing. It's a crucial time for the New Orleans' economy, but the celebrations are cast behind the shadow of the recent terrorist...
Slender Starbucks, Medicaid at risk, and the gold card visa
28 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's Indicators of the Week! Our weekly look at interesting numbers from the news. On today's show, we have potential cuts ahead for Medicaid, Starbuc...
Europe's NATO members take an economic hit
27 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to defense, one thing looks certain: European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are going to have to pay more. Co...
A polite message from Canada to the U.S.
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump has said that Canada should be the 51st state... and Canadians? Well, they're furious about it. The nation's former finance min...
What's the long-term cost of federal layoffs?
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The personal story of how an energetic lawyer got knocked off from her dream career and what she thinks that might mean for whether the government can...
What if our income was taxed ... totally differently?
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We are back to answer YOUR listener questions. This time, we answer why bananas can be considered the 'unbothered fruit', what a flat income tax would...
Chicken meat, Gulf of Mexico lawsuit and Social Security beyond the grave
21 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Surprisingly stable chicken meat prices, a lawsuit threat against the Gulf of Mexico's name change, and the Trump administration's false claims about ...
What happens when billions of dollars in research funding goes away
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Federal funding from the National Institutes of Health has driven the biomedical research industry in cities across America including Birmingham, Alab...
How USAID cuts hurt American farmers
19 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The ties between U.S. foreign aid and American agriculture run deep — or at least used to. The U.S. International Agency for Development, or USAID, ...
What the cluck is happening with egg prices?
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We visit a local egg farm and talk to an industry analyst to get to the bottom of why the prices of eggs are soaring so quickly and when they might co...
WWE, a very expensive banana, and a quiz contestant
17 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's time for The Indicator Quiz! We test you, dear listener, on your knowledge of topics that we've covered on The Indicator.Today's quiz is an econo...
Bailing out the FAIR plan, broligarchs beef, and CFPB RIP?
14 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What's going on with the FAIR plan in a post-Eaton and Palisades fires California? What's the backstory to the frozen Consumer Financial Protection Bu...
The gutting of USAID
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, has funneled humanitarian aid to countries around the globe for over six decades. To...
Exposing Charles Ponzi
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The name Charles Ponzi immediately recalls the financial scheme that bears his name. But what of the man who helped expose Ponzi's scheme? Today on th...
The U.K.'s tariff balancing act
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump has already made noise with tariff threats against the United States' North American trading partners. And soon, the United Kin...
How the memecoin game is played
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Memecoins are having a moment, but who's making money off them? On today's show, how a dearly beloved internet squirrel found an afterlife as a crypto...
A 'Fork in the Road' for federal employees
07 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The job security of government employees has been in the spotlight since President Trump took office with big plans to slash the federal workforce. Ab...
How would a US sovereign wealth fund even work?
06 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What is a sovereign wealth fund? President Trump's executive order calling for a plan to start a U.S. sovereign wealth fund is not a new idea. But it ...
Trump's tariff role model
05 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Trump speaks fondly of William McKinley, the 25th U.S. president who was a strong advocate for tariffs. He's credited with helping to protec...
Trump threatens the grim trigger
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump had promised new tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. However, after negotiations with both Mexico and Canada on Monday tariffs...
The reality stopping water pipelines to the parched western US
03 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With so much water in the eastern U.S., why can't the region pipe some of it to its drought-prone neighbors in the West? This perennial question nags ...
Running the numbers on deportation, interest rates and math
31 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why haven't American 8th graders' math scores recovered? Does Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actually have the resources to make all the de...
Canada's key resource against Trump's potential trade war
30 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Canadians have a key leverage point if President Trump makes good on his threat to impose 25% tariffs: oil. We talk to a business journalist with the ...
Federal hiring is about to get the Trump treatment
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Trump is making big moves to shrink and reshape the federal workforce. He's offered buyouts, instituted a hiring freeze, and called for prio...
The cautionary tale of a recovering day trading addict
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The story of a man who started buying and selling stocks as a hobby ... and got seriously addicted. We also speak with a neuroeconomist about the huma...
How GoFundMe can affect your FEMA eligibility
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With the LA wildfires still burning, we were left with a lot of questions. Today, we answer two of them: whether GoFundMe campaigns could interfere wi...
Why China's DeepSeek AI is such a big deal
24 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Indicators of the Week unpacks numbers from the news. This week, we delve into what President Trump's first AI announcement reveals about the economic...
Why Trump's potential tariffs are making business owners anxious
23 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A freshly re-inaugurated President Trump is reportedly considering making his first moves on tariffs: a 10% tariff on Chinese imports and a 25% tariff...
Go ask ALICE about grocery prices
22 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Grocery prices have gone up 27 percent since before the pandemic. And high prices are especially painful for lower income households, who have less wi...
Add to cart: Greenland
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump's proposal that the United States take "ownership" of Greenland has raised a lot of eyebrows. Can the U.S. just buy itself thi...
Student loans, savings accounts, and goodbye to artificial red dye
17 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's ... Indicators of the Week! Our weekly look at some of the most fascinating numbers from the news. On today's episode, we examine three measures ...
Who's on the hook for California's uninsurable homes?
16 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Southern California wildfires are devastating large swathes of Los Angeles, destroying homes and businesses and displacing thousands. In the state...
The race to produce lithium
15 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lithium is one of the hot commodities of the 21st century: needed for electric vehicles, semiconductors needed for AI, and grid-scale batteries. While...
How batteries are riding the free market rodeo in Texas
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you want to build a grid-scale battery project in Texas, be prepared to ride the free-market rodeo. On our second episode of this week's battery se...
How batteries are already changing the grid
13 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Renewable energy, when it comes to solar and wind power, has always had a caveat: it can only run when the wind blows or the sun shines. The idea of a...
What's going on with men's labor force participation?
10 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's the first Jobs Friday of the new year, and there's good news! The unemployment rate ticked down slightly to 4.1%, and the economy added 256,000 j...
What's a moneyline bet anyway?
08 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The online financial website Investopedia compiles an annual list of the top ten financial terms that drew the most interest from their audience. The ...
Why Netflix spent billions for WWE
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last night, after years on cable, WWE's flagship show, Monday Night Raw, made its debut on Netflix. It's another example of live sports programming ma...
The water mystery unfolding in the western U.S.
06 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There's a rural area in Arizona with massive groundwater basins underneath the earth. Water should be plentiful there, but wells are running dry. Toda...
President Jimmy Carter's economic legacy
03 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On this edition of Indicators of the Week, we discuss the economic legacy of former President, Jimmy Carter. Today on the show, we detail some of his ...
Why to look twice when your portfolio is doing well
02 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
People with American stocks in their portfolio are likely very happy right now. U.S. stocks were on a tear in 2024. But to some investors, that's a re...
The curious rise of novelty popcorn buckets (Encore)
31 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Even before the Dune: Part 2 popcorn bucket went viral this year, movie theaters have been trying all types of ways to lure customers back. There's re...
Invest like a Congress member (Encore)
30 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are some new funds that track stock trading by members of Congress and their family. So we thought, why don't we get in on that? Today on the sh...
Half a billion people need reading glasses. Why can't they get them? (Encore)
27 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you need some reading glasses in the United States, you don't have to break the bank to pick some up. That's important for older folks who need a l...
How video games become more accessible (Encore)
26 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Gaming provides entertainment and community for billions of people worldwide. However, video games haven't always been accessible to those with disabi...
How TV holiday rom-coms got so successful (Encore)
24 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Happy Holidays from The Indicator! For the next week, we're running some of our favorite shows from this year. On today's show, we fire up the gas log...
What indicators will 2025 bring?
23 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
2024 is over (phew!). We had weird consumer sentiment vibes, Bitcoin went to the moon, and the economy might have achieved a soft landing. And that's...
Help us pick the indicator of the year!
20 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
2024 was a wild year for the U.S. economy: The economy did well in terms of inflation and unemployment, but vibes ruled the roost. (Mostly didn't feel...
Can empty-nesters boost housing affordability?
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The "silver tsunami" of aging Americans is often seen as a potential way to alleviate the country's housing affordability woes. However, the data sugg...
Trump's contradictory trade policies
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
President-elect Donald Trump has called for a weaker dollar given it would be good for American exporters. But tariffs, a staple of his economic polic...
Do job references matter?
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the not-so-distant past, serving as someone's job reference meant answering a few questions over the phone. Nowadays, that process is often more in...
There are a lot of billionaires in Trump's coming administration
16 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
President-elect Donald Trump's administration picks are shaping up to be a very affluent bunch. If all are confirmed, Trump's incoming administration ...
Why the US economy is still the envy of the world
14 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Economist's Simon Rabinovitch argues the U.S. economy has a set of structural advantages that have allowed it to perform remarkably well in the la...
A supermarket beef, a quantum leap, and Christmas trees for cheap
13 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's the most wonderful time of year, er, week, because it's that time when we look at the most fascinating economic numbers from the news. On today's...
An economist's role in the fall of Syria's government
12 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2012, Karam Shaar had to leave his home country of Syria due to the civil war. But he still wanted to make a difference. Through his economic analy...
The brewing recovery in Western North Carolina
11 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Federal Reserve's last Beige Book of 2024 is like Spotify Wrapped but for the economy. There's a little bit of everything inside — labor markets...
The Tuna Bonds Scandal and the fishy business of hidden debt
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Back in 2016, the economy of Mozambique tipped into crisis. The culprit was a government corruption scandal linked to more than $1 billion that offici...
How influence actually works
09 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Influence. The ability to persuade, motivate, or connect with other people. It's one of these skills that's hard to measure, but incredibly important ...
Men without college degrees aren't doing well
06 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Many men in America don't feel like they're doing as well as their fathers. But what does the data say? Today on the show, we speak to Richard Reeves ...
What a second Trump term could mean for SpaceX
05 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
SpaceX is capping off a busy 2024, with more than 100 rocket launches, including its vaunted Starship. NPR Science Correspondent Geoff Brumfiel attend...
What a difference a one-day strike makes
04 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From retail to fast food to nursing, one-day strikes have been a growing trend over the last decade. But what makes one-day strikes more or less effe...
Boeing's biggest blunder? Financial engineering.
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Boeing continues to struggle. Safety concerns, a door blowing off mid-flight, a labor strike, impending layoffs ... and that's just the past year. Wha...
How Trump's tariffs plan might work
02 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
President-elect Donald Trump made a lot of economic promises on the campaign trail, but none as sweeping as his plan to enact tariffs. Trump believes ...
What's in your wallet? Ask the new Treasury Secretary
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Many were waiting longer than expected to hear Donald Trump name his nominee for Treasury Secretary, the person in charge of pursuing his economic age...
Trump's plans for the housing market
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Across the U.S., millions of people are feeling the burden of high housing costs. During his campaign, president-elect Donald Trump promised to do som...
How big is the US housing shortage?
25 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Housing affordability is a top concern for Americans and a hot political topic. Estimates for the number of needed homes stretch into the millions, bu...
The most expensive banana in the world and other indicators
22 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We are back with a pricey Indicators of the Week. Today, we're digging into why it's so hard to get price information from funeral providers, how much...
Bond vigilantes. Who they are, what they want, and how you'll know they're coming
21 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As Wall Street investors divine what a second Trump administration might mean for markets, there's talk of a new gang in town: the bond vigilantes. On...
How Magic Johnson's Starbucks created new neighborhood businesses
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's been a lot of research showing how third spaces — a place that isn't the home nor the workplace — have brought communities together, even ...
How to shop during a crisis
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Events like the recent dock worker's strike and hurricanes sparked panic buying among American shoppers. Today, a logistics expert helps us craft a sh...
A fraught climate change conference, how are US home builders doing, and more
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There is a LOT of economic news happening at the moment (it all happens, so very much of it, all the time), so we wanted to give you an idea of what w...
The Economics of Everyday Things: Pizza (Box) Time!
17 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we're sharing an episode of a podcast that we've enjoyed, and think you will, too! It's called The Economics of Everyday Things. It's made by t...
23andMe's financial troubles, Paul vs. Tyson and Bitcoin to the moon
15 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On Indicators of the Week, we cover our favorite numbers in the news. On this week's edition we cover Netflix's foray into live sports, the possible p...
Who's powering nuclear energy's comeback?
14 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nuclear energy hasn't been a growing industry in decades. But now, it seems to be making a comeback. This week, the Biden administration announced a g...
Why the government's flood insurance program is underwater
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Major flooding events are increasingly common across the U.S., but homeowners looking for flood insurance will find few choices. The main providers of...
Why this former banking regulator is writing kids books
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In a first-best world, we'd all save enough money and there'd be no scammers. In a second-best world, we'd all know how to protect ourselves. That's w...
What's a weather forecast worth?
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The federal government has been tracking the weather for more than 150 years. Yet over the last few decades, the rise of the Internet and big tech hav...
Stocks jump, the temperamental peso, and other election aftermath indicators
08 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's ... Indicators of the Week! It's that time of week when we look at the most fascinating economic numbers from the news. On today's episode: Elect...
The story behind Cuba's economic dysfunction
07 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, a powerful hurricane hit Cuba, causing nationwide electricity outages — right after a string of power failures that have plagued the coun...
America's economy is the envy of the world. Will it stay that way?
06 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump's victory in this year's election had a lot to do with how many Americans feel about the US economy (surprise: not good). But Simon Rabin...
Why Midwest crop farmers are having a logistics problem
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's the most important day of the year for the country ... The Beigie Awards! The Beigie Awards are back to recognize the regional Federal Reserve Ba...
Why the US government is buying more apples than ever before
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For the second year in a row, the U.S. government is buying the largest quantity of apples in its history because there are not enough consumers and p...
Cool, cool, cooling jobs
01 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1% and 12,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy during October. I...
The U.S. once banned Chinese immigrants — and it paid an economic price
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1880, the Chinese were the biggest group of immigrants in the western U.S. But Sinophobic sentiments crystallized into racist policies and eventual...
What's missing in the immigration debate
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Immigration is a top concern among U.S. voters this election cycle. But Zeke Hernandez, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studies immi...
What happens when Social Security runs out of money?
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Social Security has thus far been self-sustaining—payroll taxes go into this big fund, which then pays out monthly checks. But the problem we have n...
What looks like a bond and acts like a bond but isn't a bond?
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Maldives is a small island nation struggling with a heavy debt load. Its borrowing includes $500 million worth of something called sukuk. These ar...
An economist answers your questions on love
25 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We ask economists for their expertise all the time on The Indicator, so why not their tips on love? On our final installment of Love Week, we ask econ...
Trying to fix the dating app backlash
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Unanswered messages. Endless swiping. An opaque algorithm. The backlash to online dating feels like it's reached a fever pitch recently. For today's L...
How American heiresses became Dollar Princesses
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the late 19th century, British aristocrats had a big problem. They were short on cash to fund their lifestyles and maintain their vast country esta...