San Francisco.

In San Francisco, home of the $9.79 hourly minimum wage, vacancies are cropping up downtown. (Steve Rhodes / Planet Money Flickr pool)


On today's Planet Money:

You've got economic riddles, and economists have answers.

First up, Emily Oster of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business tackles the question about minimum wage. Why is that cities that have raised their minimum wages so often have lower rates of joblessness and healthier economies?

Second, Robert Frank of Cornell wrestles with the question of why software companies set such widely varying prices for essentially the same software.

If you want to propose your own answers, hit the comments before you listen.

Bonus: After the jump, talking about Tim Geithner on Capitol Hill.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: A Fine Frenzy's "Blow Away." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

The special investigator general for the TARP bailout told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner should have thwarted plans by foundering AIG to pay out $168 million in bonuses. SIG-TARP Neil Barosky reports that Geithner's former staff at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York knew about the bonuses when they were arranging the bailout of AIG -- even if their boss didn't.

Listener Ryan Muir of WYPR land recommends this clip from Barofsky's testimony:

categories: Planet Money Podcast

4:03 - October 14, 2009

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