Ten, nine, eight. . .. (Mint Imperial / Flickr / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 )

By Laura Conaway

This is my last post on Planet Money. Next week, I'm heading out for other galaxies.

Before I go, I want to take a moment to appreciate what has been a great year. Together, you and I and the Planet Money team built an amazing and wonderful thing. iTunes named us a top podcast for 2008. Then the blog, podcast and community won a 2009 Online Journalism Award, one of the biggies. Now it's time for me to go build other amazing and wonderful things.

Please join me in welcoming Dan Costello back to the blog for November and December. Some of you may remember him from his guest stints with us last fall. A veteran of the LA Times and a son of Massachusetts, Dan is a prince and a pro, and Planet Money is lucky to have him.

As for me, I thank you for spending the Great Recession on Planet Money. I thank NPR for making this project possible. And I thank my family for welcoming me back to the breakfast and supper table as though I'd always been there.

When I get where I'm going -- and I am going somewhere -- I'll tweet about it through @oleta. Because, hey, we can still hang out together, right?

At a September 2008 recycling drive in Brooklyn, Chinese goods piled up. (Bob Sacha)

By Laura Conaway

Call it star-crossed or star-kissed: Planet Money so happened to launch the day the U.S. government announced it was taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to save them and the rest of the economy. The news broke on Sept. 7, 2008, and the next day we published our first podcast. From the sound of it, I'd say Adam Davidson recorded it by himself at home. You couldn't even find us on iTunes yet. Adam says he thinks he was the sole person who downloaded this first edition. Listening again, I'm stunned at how relevant it remains.

Here's that podcast with guest Brad Setser above, and its blog entry after the jump:

Continue reading "Our First Podcast: 'Brad Setser Explains The China Thing'" >

By Laura Conaway

Looking back at the first news from last year's federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, you can see people searching for someone to blame for the collapse. A year ago today, one Planet Money commenter, Maria Schneider, wrote in to say:

We shareholders will be wiped out with this takeover of Fannie and Freddie. I thought our legal system was a warranty and would prevent the government from stealing from the people. We would expect the nationalization of Fannie and Freddie to be dictated by dictatorial governments such as Cuba or Venezuela. Or is this government a national socialist one?

They are stealing from the rightful shareholders of the company. We trusted the government and their cronies. I am sure their profits will soar with this measure. This is a legal system that protects the little guy, it was anyway until this government came into office. And one thought they were conservative republicans... [This] is an act of thievery.

Which prompted a dose of very strong medicine from Adam Davidson. On this anniversary week, I'll print in full his reply from the first days of the Planet Money blog.

Continue reading "Flashback: Listener Calls Fannie/Freddie Rescue 'Thievery.' Davidson Says Heck No" >

By Laura Conaway

Much of the world thinks of the global financial crisis as having begun with the fall of Lehman Brothers, on Sept. 15, 2008.

For us at Planet Money, though, it began the weekend before with the news that the federal government was stepping in to rescue mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. On Morning Edition yesterday, Adam Davidson talked about the adrenaline rush of covering the biggest economic story in decade:

I -- I remember every minute of that day. I really think that's true. For months, we had had rumors that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in trouble. But I don't think a lot of people outside of Washington or Wall Street were paying a lot of attention. And then, all of a sudden, on Sunday -- September 7th, was a Sunday last year -- we started hearing they are collapsing, the government is stepping in and rescuing them, taking them over. I jumped on a plane. I mean, it felt like covering a war. I jumped on a plane and flew to an already-existing conference of mostly former finance ministers from around the world.

And interviewing them, I started to hear language I never thought I would hear in my life. People were talking about the entire global economy coming to a total standstill. We have a global economy built on credit, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are crucial to that global credit system. And if they go down, the entire global economy collapses.

Since that day, we've seen bank failures tap the FDIC's resources, foreclosures keep climbing and unemployment grow by amazing leaps. Remember when 7.2 percent seemed like a lot? It's been a heck of a year -- how's by you?

UPDATE: We'll be airing parts of these stories on All Things Considered next week. Until then, we'll keep the polls open.

Don't miss your chance to vote for the winner of the Top Planet Money Project Iron Radio Chef Challenge. We'll be closing the polls on Friday July 17, at 1 PM ET.

Adam & David live at WBUR. Sarah Abdurrahman/On Point

 

The audio from Adam & David's live show at WBUR is now available. Listen to them take questions from On Point listeners.

We had to cancel our planned road trip this week, but Adam and David will still be appearing live tonight at WBUR. If you have any questions for them, share them here.

Today on the podcast we're going to take a little history trip of US financial regulation. Stops include crisis, despair, regulation, stability, crisis, despair (normally in that order). Along the search I stumbled upon a video of the 1999 bill signing for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act . This was the bill that allowed financial institutions to combine commercial and investment banking. It's pretty startling to compare the rhetoric here to now.

Video of the signing from C-SPAN, after the jump.

Continue reading "Regulation Is Like Clothes. You Can't Always Wear The Same Ones." >

I'll smile for $4.8 million. ucumari/Flickr

 

UPDATE: Turns out the stimulus isn't so polar bear friendly. Details after the jump.

We're looking for your favorite (or least favorite) stimulus project.

On our Planet Money (mini) road trip next week I'd like to check in on how some of the hundreds of billions of stimulus dollars are being spent.

Have any suggestions along our route?

The website Stimulus Watch by some folks at George Mason University has been collecting a lot of thumbs-downs. Example: a $4.8 million project for a polar bear exhibit in Rhode Island that would create 192 jobs. (No idea how up-to-date the website is.)

Here's a list of state websites for stimulus spending.

Continue reading "Your Favorite Stimulus Project" >

UPDATE: Unfortunately we have to postpone this trip, due to powers beyond our control. Thank you for sending your story ideas and hopefully we'll see you on the road real soon.

Caitlin, David, and I are hitting the road for Planet Money's first mini-road trip.

We are doing an event with WBUR in Boston next Wednesday, June 24th so thought we'd leave a bit early and run the blog and podcast from the road. It's a quick trial run before some more ambitious road trips we want to do later this summer.

Please help us. We need stories.

Continue reading "Planet Money Road Trip" >

Right after we all talked over assignments for our latest This American Life hour, I started making calls. One hour later I had my head in my hands. Financial regulation is one of those things where the more you dig, the foggier the picture becomes. There are so many layers and it's really hard to separate the multiple moving parts.

The Office of Thrift Supervision stood out for a number of reasons, one biggie being that they regulated some of the largest failures of this crisis. Michael Roster, the regulation lawyer at the end of our story, had something to add this morning. He says that when you see the list of failures, yes, the OTS looks pretty bad. But imagine if all those "too big to fail" institutions were allowed to fail, instead of getting bailed out:

Continue reading "Plenty Of Blame To Go Around" >

As a lot of you probably know, it's pronounced totally differently -- hard H [KHah] like Challah or Chanukah. My parents are South African. That's kind of the only excuse I really have for them picking Chana for my name.

I figured it's about time I properly introduce myself and explain how I Ianded on Planet Money.

Last August, Adam Davidson sent me a message on Facebook. He was starting a cool new project and wanted to talk. I was reporting for KPLU in Seattle at the time and freelancing for NPR. This new project thing would be about the global economy, would help listeners understand complex economic concepts and would be really fun. Honestly, I had no idea what he was picturing.

Continue reading "It's Spelled C-H-A-N-A " >

Several of you have asked to hear the full interview with Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel.

We talked about it, thought about it, and decided to post it.

It is full and unedited, so there are not the normal intros, outros and transitions. It's just the raw tape.

Download the mp3, or listen with our player after the jump.

Continue reading "The Full Warren Interview" >

Like just about every other media company, NPR is asking its employees to make some significant cuts.

The company appears to have avoided widespread layoffs, for the moment, after reaching agreement with key unions for significant cuts in compensation. Managers and executives are taking similar, and at times, greater, reductions, all of which are geared to close a projected $8 million budget gap for this fiscal year and a projected $7 million budget gap for next year. Revenues from corporate underwriting have plunged from past levels during the current recession.

The cuts involve an elimination of contributions toward retirement accounts called 403(b)s (that's the non-profit equivalent of a 401(k) ) through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, and a halving of the benefit for the next fiscal year; five furlough days for most employees through the end of the fiscal year; the elimination of a cash subsidy toward health care insurance; and the elimination of most raises next year.

Continue reading "NPR Takes A Cut" >

Alex and Adam put on a live show at KCRW this Sunday with help from Irwin Chen and Ryan Lauer of Redub.

Irwin responded to a tweet we sent out looking for graphic designers and in just a week, he and Ryan helped Adam and Alex visualize their presentation. We will put up a link to that project soon -- in the meantime check out Irwin's visualization of our Bad Bank episode with This American Life.

Lisa Fleisher writes:

man, you guys need to get some branded gear into the NPR shop. I'm sure you could come up with some really clever ideas.

Calculators, mugs, ted spread blankets (get it?), or maybe ted spread jams (tee hee). Dollhouse "piggy" banks. Adam Davidson bobbleheads. OK not really that last one.

But I'd totally buy a PM coffee tumbler.

I've been wanting a darn t-shirt for months now. Hopefully we can organize soon. What would you all like to see?

Lisa's note prompted some emails among the staff here:

Continue reading "Planet Money Mugs?" >

Welcome to the Twitterverse, Oprah.

 

Oprah just started twittering today, and I would lying if I said we weren't a bit jealous that after just 3 tweets she had already amassed 79, 507 followers. Over at Planet Money, we have tweeted 1,762 times, but we've got just 12, 269 followers -- not that we don't love you all. Hmmm... maybe Planet Money needs to be on the Oprah show next.

We're looking to revive the Economist House Calls segment on our podcast. We haven't done one for a while, but we loved hearing from you.

The House Calls are where we call you up and you tell us (and an economist) where you are in life today. Maybe you lost a job, took a job, are moving, are retiring, can't retire, vacationing, can't vacation, whatever is true for you right now. Then the economist places your personal story in a global economic context.

This isn't financial advice we're talking about, but more like a way to connect the personal with the macroeconomic.

We'd love to hear your rough outline of your economic situation -- your job, your concerns. Something brief. Hit us up by e-mail, in the comments or on Twitter.

Just back from watching our guys on NBC's Meet The Press with David Gregory. (Yes, we always dress like that.)

And check out the "Take Two" video there where Alex and Adam explain the "don't ask, don't tell" approach to saving the banks.

Folks, we're not podcasting today. We'll be back Monday, hopefully with the most amazing conversation ever about mark-to-market accounting (word to everyone who asked about Enron: yes!).

This weekend, our own Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson will be zooming around the screens of America. They're slated for Rachel Maddow Friday night and Meet the Press on Sunday.

Meet the Press has a handy Web form for sending questions for Adam and Alex. I don't know whether Rachel Maddow would use a question from Twitter, but you could always try through @maddow.

Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson won the Peabody Award today for their special on This American Life, "The Giant Pool of Money."

If I do say so myself, that single explainer of the subprime mortgage crisis was the awesome sauce. The judges wrote: "[T]his report was impressive for the arresting clarity of its explanation of the financial crisis we're in, and even more so for its having aired so early -- May 2008." We wouldn't be Planet Money without it.

Adam will be doing a live chat with the Washington Post this morning to answer your questions about the week's economic news, AIG and who we should blame for the current economic crisis. The live chat starts at 11 a.m. ET. Submit your questions here and follow the debate here.

We've been talking a lot about anger and blame over here. We're asking people to point fingers and name names.

Which got me wondering if people in other countries are drinking the haterade, too. Are people in China, Finland or Azerbaijan pissed about the global recession? And if so, who do they blame? Is there anywhere in the world where people are not angry?

We're hoping to look outside the U.S. a bit for a little international hater survey. Which countries do you think we should look at? What have you heard about international anger over the crisis? If you live abroad, who are you hearing blamed for this mess? Send us your thoughts.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman today quotes from "a recent interview" with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

Um...I think that might be our interview with him. We've got a call in to Krugman to ask him.

Why can't folks remember our program names?

Planet Money went to Capitol Hill today -- or at least, its stories did. Check out this exchange between Sen. Max Baucus and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

Bonus: Planet Money's "Bad Bank" on This American Life

The one in the middle. Chris Kleponis/AFP/Getty Images

 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's due on the line any minute now, for an interview with Adam Davidson (who'll be fueled by a last-minute dose of fruit salad). We'll break out a key part of it here, then post the full conversation for this afternoon's podcast.

UPDATE: First thought: The secretary said nationalization of the banks would be the wrong approach, but he would not say the word "nationalization."

Continue reading "Talking To Geithner" >

We've been interviewing people today about President Obama's foreclosure plan. So far, reaction to it seems to running along two tracks:

First, will it work? Is it aggressive enough to arrest the slide of housing prices and the overall economy? (See Simon Johnson's "Insufficient Boldness.")

Second, should the government be in the business of trying to keep home prices from falling? If the problem is that we had a housing bubble, why try to re-inflate it? (See Patrick.net's "US Housing Crash Continues.")

The folks at Frontline sent over the first installment of their series on the economic crisis. This one, broken into six chapters for your viewing pleasure, is called Inside the Meltdown. Adam Davidson's in it. Let's roll the film, after the jump.

Continue reading "See: 'Inside The Meltdown'" >

Tonight, at 9 Eastern, Frontline kicks off its series on the economic crisis. We got a glimpse of the opening sequence from the first installment, Inside the Meltdown, in Frontline's editing room. It was, you know, terrifying. A minute or so in, producer Michael Kirk hit pause, looked up and said, "Have we got your attention yet?" He'd gotten it.

I think Adam Davidson may even show up somewhere in this one. We'll be screening the movie on the blog tonight, too, in handy chapters.

Adam Davidson and Alex Blumberg just won a George Polk Award for amazing amazingness in radio reporting. It's for the Giant Pool of Money, about the subprime mortgage crisis.

The cool thing is that I'm watching them type out their next big special for This American Life, right this second. (Confidential to listeners: It sounds like they've just now hit the root of the doll house analogy.)

A bunch of you have asked why the experts all seem to say the economy has to keep growing. You want to know why we can't find a solid perch and stay there. If you're in that camp, or you're thinking of joining it, I may have found your guy. (Or not: Update in the comments.)

Venture capitalist (or nurture capitalist, as he often says) Woody Tasch is the founder of a new nonprofit called Slow Money. I've been talking to him for a segment I'm working on about an organic farmer who needs money to expand his operation. Tasch's publisher sent over his new book, Slow Money, in which he writes:

Is it really possible to design a market that does not demand growth?

We must dare to ask the question and we must dare to answer it.

Continue reading "Why Must Economies Grow?" >

We're all about to pedal down the street for a meeting with our partner, This American Life. We're working on a series of longer stories, sort of like the one from this weekend, and maybe even bigger.

Check in at noon Eastern for the live chat with Adam Davidson, Simon Johnson and Arnold Kling. The starter question: Should the U.S. nationalize the banks? Get 'em started, will ya?

Inspired by the Fail Blog.

 

Congratulations to our friends over at EconTalk who captured the title of the 2008 Weblog Best Podcast Award. Despite our best efforts, Planet Money came in third behind EconTalk and the much loved Harry Podcast Mugglecast. There's always next year.

The Planet Money podcast now trails the Harry Podcast Mugglecast by just 60 votes!

Help us out, it takes two clicks.

Our own network has joined with other public broadcasting outfits in asking President-elect Barack Obama to include nonprofit public-service media in the stimulus package, Current reports.

NPR and its fellow broadcasters reportedly seek $550 million. Their ideas for using the money include staffing for new Native American stations and building crisis-response teams around the nation.

UPDATE: NPR spokesperson Anna Christopher says the request is now in the form of a general proposal letter. It doesn't get into the nitty-gritty, she says, so it doesn't mention Planet Money specifically. We'll try to keep you posted.

After several years of bouncing around in the wilds of public radio, I landed on Planet Money. Before this, I produced newscasts for member stations WNYC and WBUR, and most recently I worked as a producer on the Bryant Park Project. In my new life here, I produce the daily podcast and write for the blog. Hopefully, someday, I'll find the time to produce some great video and slideshows. One of my favorite parts of the day here is picking out the music for each day's show. I try to keep it fresh and fun, so if you have any good suggestions, give me a shout.

What I sent the Planet Money crew today:

FedEx cuts salaries--this is a *BIG* deflation deal. Economists fear wage cuts more than layoffs, because wage cuts can lead to deflation, which can be disastrous and hard to stop.

Jobless claims slightly down. May be worth mentioning--not extraordinary, these days at least.

Car Industry healing itself: GM and Chrysler talks. Private sector plan to create better car batteries.

Are these signs of the car industry figuring out its own problems and solving them?

UK car bailout is *way* tougher than US one:

Markopolos: The guy who cracked the Madoff Ponzi scheme. It's been everywhere, not sure we have anything to add, but man, it's delicious to read this guy completely right about everything years ago, and totally ignored.

Econoblogs HATE Obama's SEC chief pick. They say she's a hack.

Greg Newton over at the blog NakedShorts points out that Bernard Madoff, in addition to earning suspiciously steady returns for investors, also got very, very consistent golf scores..

I had a round of emails with NPR's Mike Pesca, who thinks way faster than he can type. I'll leave the misspellings in:

Continue reading "Madoff Golf Scores: Also Too Good?" >

For next week's podcast, we're planning to take a look at the effect of individual choices on the economy.

In some cases, that may mean a shopper delaying a purchase or stocking up on cheap goods. In others, it means a business person switching suppliers, putting off the hire of a new worker, or keeping wages low.

Whatever choices you're making out there, we want to hear about it. You're living the economy, and you're creating it, too. Holler out.

File under iTunes: The Best of 2008

iTunes

 

Wow. iTunes just released its list of best podcasts from 2008, and Planet Money is right at the top, in the category of audio. We're proud to say that This American Life, our partner in this great adventure, is also best in its category, Classics. And with the Video category between us, this is probably the closest we'll ever get to Rachel Maddow.

Thank you so much, everyone, for listening to this podcast, for liking it and critiquing it and helping us nurture it along. Whatever you do, don't stop now.

We're not just doing sound and letters anymore. Adam Davidson is set to appear on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer this very night.

Adam will be joined by Charles Duhigg of the New York Times to talk about a story we're been collaborating. It has to do with five school districts in Wisconsin that borrowed a bunch of money in order to invest it. What they invested in turned out not to be so safe. (NYT/NPR)

As part of that great big project we've been hinting about, Planet Money's Adam Davidson joins the New York Times' Charles Duhigg on Weekend Edition Sunday today.

They'll be unveiling a major report in the New York Times about five school districts in Wisconsin that put $200 million into bonds that went severely, severely wrong. School board members say they believed the investment went into safe corporate bonds. Their portfolios have now lost more than 90 percent, and the districts are suing to get their money back.

The deal has bad implications for other public interests, like the New York City transit system. It's a huge story, and we'll be covering it all week.

Alex Blumberg is live chatting on Washington Post today, starting at 11 a.m. Eastern. This is your chance to catch the master in action.

Pull up a chair.

Orlando/Three Lions/Getty Images

 

Just in time for the big $700 billion bailout bill, the good folks at NPR have reinvented life online as we know it. They've rolled out what a consultant might call a fully functioning suite of social media tools.

A what?

Basically, we want you to join our online community for real. Here's the price of admission: Register (time: two minutes or less). Then comment (time: you decide).

Continue reading "The New Cup Of Coffee" >

Adam Davidson is wearing the black shirt, Alex Blumberg the determined smile.

David Kestenbaum/NPR

 

This is what it looks like when you owe All Things Considered eight and a half minutes of radio, in half an hour, on a story that just keeps changing. Tune in tonight for Planet Money's story on the day the economy darned near died. We'll also round it up for the podcast.

Washingtonpost.com asked me to do a live web chat on Friday.

I'll be answering questions (as best I can) in real time at 10 AM, ET. September 19th.

I'll also be on Morning Edition answering listener questions (they've already been recorded) with David Wessel.

We are trying to answer your questions as fast as we can. On the podcast, online, on air.

Keep the questions coming. At this point in this week, we're running on the adrenaline that comes from your questions. We feed on them. We need them. We're at planetmoney@npr.org.

Just got the word:

We are the Number Three Podcast in iTunes.

Please subscribe, if you haven't.

More coming shortly.

Keep sending in your questions: planetmoney@npr.org and we'll answer them on the 'cast.

I have to say, it's nice to have an enemy.

OK, enemy is strong. But it's nice to have a face and a name for exactly the opposite of what I am trying to do.

It gives me energy.

Laura and I are going to do a special podcast in which we answer your (and our) questions about this crazy weekend.

Please put your questions in the comments (we read them religiously) or send them to globaleconomy@npr.org.

Tune in later today for the podcast.

Thanks.

Click for full frame.

Copyright CXOadvisory.com. Used with permission.

 

It sounds a tad obscene, and maybe it is. This weekend, contributing editor Alex Blumberg hits the airwaves and podcast pools of the world with a This American Life segment on "naked short selling" -- an arcane financial maneuver that would seem to make no sense.

I heard the rough mix of Alex's piece in an edit some weeks back. It's called "Now You S.E.C. Me, Now You Don't." I'm here to tell you that the segment makes loads of sense. The practice, well ...

So give it a listen, if you'd be so kind. It plays live this weekend and goes to iTunes on Monday. We're also planning to have it here next week. Let us know what you think, will ya?

The always amazingly helpful NPR head librarian, Kee Malesky, ends any debate:

According to the company (this is how they answer the phone), it's --

LEE-man Brothers

I am really thrilled with the response to Planet Money, our brand new blog.

I was hoping to get some feedback on something I'm wondering about. How much should we push commentators to defend their positions more? And how much should we just let people say whatever they think, without defending the position?

My feeling is we should encourage people to defend their position with facts or a compelling theory or something. I just don't like bald assertions that don't have any support.

For example, there are an awful lot of comments looking for blame. Many of them blame Republicans and deregulation.

Now, in my mind, it's pretty clear: you can blame Republicans but would probably have to blame Democrats just as much. And I don't see how deregulation/free market gets the blame for this one, since Fannie and Freddie are creatures of the US government, tied into the political system, and not free market entities, like a normal private company.

That's how I see it. I feel like I'm defending the case with some evidence. But I don't know for sure I'm right.

But when I see a comment like this, from David Bockoven:

Deregulation permitted reckless capitalists to put the money at imprudent risk.

I don't know what to think. I don't have any information that could help me think through whether he's right or wrong or has a compelling view or not. It's just an assertion. Anyone can make any assertion.

Or am I just being a jerk and I should let people post whatever they want?

Please advise.

Continue reading "The Blame Game: Set Some Rules" >

Don't tell anyone, but Planet Money is still in pilot mode. We're supposed to be trying things out, building up the blog and a file cabinet of stories, running the whole shakedown cruise. But with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac happening last week, followed by Lehman Brothers/Merrill Lynch this week, we're up and running for reals.

Which brings me to this, my ad hoc bio. When I get a minute, I'll maybe write up a longer one and send it over to the people who do the official bios at NPR. For now, let's just say that I'm a writer and editor and general Web type. I came out of the alternative newsweekly world, with stints at two papers that no longer exist and another as executive editor of the Village Voice. Before I woke up and found myself buried in economics books courtesy of Adam Davidson and Planet Money --- officially, I'm an editor here -- I ran the world of Web for the late, lamented Bryant Park Project.

That's all for now. I've got a currency memo to blog.

Our team has been working behind the scenes for months to build NPR's new narrative approach to global economics coverage.

We have one of the best radio stories I've heard in a long time ready to put on the air.

We have five lovely podcasts ready for your iPod, including one in which my 25-year-old college dropout cousin and an international business expert make me look like both a snob and an idiot.

We have three awesome videos, including one of a Marxist money manager (no joke, he manages many millions) giving a tour of Greenwich Village and telling us which parts Karl Marx would like and which he'd hate.

We are ready to go.

But we can't go. We can't be on the radio or start our podcast or launch our video stories until we have a name.

Help us, please, find a name for our new team approach to economic and business coverage.

Continue reading "Please Help Us Find A Name" >

I did not realize how common this naming crisis is.

So, World of Money is taken. Trademarked. A lawsuit waiting to happen.

We need a new name.

As we squander the last weekend of summer doodling and brainstorming the words global and economy, I thought this would make a fun break:

Congress Struggles To Come Up With Cool Name For Anti-Drug Initiative

What is "Planet Money?"

"Planet Money" is an NPR multimedia team covering the global economy. It's also the name of our blog, Twitter feed and podcast.

We think a lot of people feel overwhelmed by the global economy. They know it's affecting their lives. But they don't know how to dive in, and they don't find most stories in most media outlets helpful.

We think this because we feel the same way. But we're lucky. We work at NPR and can call the leading economic thinkers and ask them to explain things to us. Slowly.

So we're building what we hope will be a fun, safe, exciting, accessible place for people to explore the global economy and what it's doing to them. We have two rules for ourselves: 1. Everything has to be interesting (and, preferably, fun or funny or poignant or somehow grabby). 2. Everything should be economically smart, but not economically dull.

What can I expect to find here?

Explanations. News. Debate. Slideshows. Audio. Video. Answers to really hard questions, like "Why do malls close?" or "What is money?"

So what is money?

Check back with us on that one, please.

Who posts on the "Planet Money" blog?

Regular contributors include Adam Davidson, David Kestenbaum, Alex Blumberg and Laura Conaway. We're always looking for guest writers with smart takes on the economy.

Who can comment?

Anyone, but play fair, please.

Do you have rules about what can or cannot be said in the comments?

You bet. Please see our guidelines for commenting.

Will blog comments be read in podcasts or radio stories?

That's entirely possible. We want this to be a two-way street.

What if I want to e-mail you privately?

We're all ears, at planetmoney[at]npr[dot]org.

Can I suggest topics or stories?

We'd love that. Drop us a line.

Can I link to your blog?

That would be great.

Will you link to my blog?

Maybe, if you're writing about the economy. It's worth asking us.

Can you tell me what to do with my 401(k)?

No. That's above our pay grade. For personal finance, we like the Bogleheads.

We're all in this together. The global economy is made up of complicated, nuanced, prickly stuff. The "Planet Money" team aims to understand it, but we don't pretend to know it all. We expect the same from you.

Be polite. No slandering, no lying, no cheating, no plagiarizing, no threatening, no harassing, no sexism, no racism, no posting other people's private information, no words you couldn't say on broadcast radio.

Ask questions. You have nothing to fear but a lack of curiosity.

Focus, people. Stay on topic. A few paragraphs can usually get any. If you've got something longer to say, let us know and we'll consider finding you some real estate.

If you're trying to sell something -- vacuum cleaners, financial services, conspiracy theories, whatever -- you're knocking on the wrong door.

Support your points -- You'll just look silly if you say someone is a moron without explaining precisely why they are a moron. This also goes for political discourse. We don't want to hear, "Obama is awesome," or "McCain is the right guy for the job." Tell us why. Specifically.

People wishing to read these in rules in longer, more legalistic form should see NPR.org's Terms of Use.