Middlegarchs are the new Oligarchs
Wanna know who is really in the top 1%? And how they use their influence? It may not be who you think. Look beyond Silicon Valley. Look beyo...
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Planet Money
The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, "Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy." Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.
Episodes
20 of 399 episodes
Is our national debt finally too much? (update)
(Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2024 .) $40,000,000,000,000. Four commas. Thirteen zeroes. It’s an eye-popping, almost in...
The Domino’s Pizza Tracker Theory of Everything
Did a pizza restaurant’s humble status page change how we wait forever? When you order a Lyft or Uber, you get texts every few minutes about...
How investing is getting riskier (Two Indicators)
Margin borrowing and sports gambling “investments” are both on the rise! Today on the show, two stories from Planet Money’s daily podcast Th...
The loan at the heart of a new foreclosure crisis
There is a new type of loan that is sweeping through the country right now. It’s advertised as a super quick and super easy way to get a mor...
Cost-cutting, quiet guilt and the inflation generation
In this economy it is boom times and doom times all at once. The statistics aren’t really capturing it. K-shaped only goes so far as a metap...
Trump drinks Venezuela’s milkshake
One week ago, President Trump announced a deal that would give the “U.S. control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in V...
Love in the time of Palantir
To a lot of people, Palantir is a mystery — what does the company know, what data do they have, and (if they have it) what do they do with i...
Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” the true story behind the anthem (bonus)
The brilliance of "9 to 5" is that it is catchy even though it’s also kinda depressing. You will be dancing along. You're enjoying it. And,...
Branded fruit: How produce got “Honeycrisp-ified"
The produce aisle is changing. You’ve noticed this, I’m sure. It is now full of superstar fruits and vegetables: The Honeycrisp apple, The C...
The continent nobody owns & everyone benefits from (Summer School)
This episode is packed with your best economic ideas from around the world and a penguin interview. It all comes together in this final sess...
Who decides what big box sells? Our GAME got us answers
There’s a room where the fates of retail products are decided. Will they make it onto the shelves of the big box stores? Usually the rest of...
Getting entrepreneurial in Korea (Summer School)
This week’s stop on our world tour - Korea. A country divided into two very different power structures since the end of WWII. Today South Ko...
You bet your life insurance
Some of the biggest firms on Wall Street are, at this very moment, waiting for thousands of strangers to die to reap their returns. Because...
Currency Chaos in Argentina (Summer School)
Just about everyone in Argentina is an expert in inflation and whether they like it or not, economic flexibility. Can we learn from them? Ov...
Older workers aren’t retiring. Should they be forced to?
When workers past retirement age can’t afford to retire — that’s one thing. When they can, and just don’t want to — that’s trickier. It used...
Sand heists and property rights in the Caribbean (Summer School)
Imagine a nation where, for the residents, land is for the claiming. You walk down the street, pick out a nice looking plot of land, and jus...
What makes a toy go viral
Squishy, slimy, fidgety toys are having a moment. But it’s more than just an anxiety-soothing, social-media fueled trend – these toys are re...
How to beat the resource curse in Norway (Summer School)
Let’s call it the luxury of restraint. This is what enabled Norway to avoid the fate of so many other countries when they discovered oil and...
Piles of cash and a town of solutions in Kenya, Nigeria (Summer School)
Let’s head to a small town in Kenya that’s become globally famous for helping economists answer some of the biggest questions facing humanit...