An MRI in Japan can cost as little as $160. (Mckibillo/Flickr)

On today's Planet Money:

We continue our search for answers about why MRI prices can differ so greatly. This time we travel from New Haven, Conn. to Japan, where an MRI costs only $160. Why? Well, it's because of the government, the quality of the machines and as we'll hear from neurologist Dr. Michiko Kimura Bruno, because Japanese people really love MRIs.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Music: The Temper Trap's "Fader." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

A furniture factory worker in the southern Chinese city of Dalingshan watches a World War II movie on a Jumbotron in the town square. He says more than half the workers at his factory lost their jobs because of the plunge in U.S. consumer spending. (Frank Langfitt/NPR)

On today's Planet Money:

NPR business correspondent Frank Langfitt headed to China a few weeks ago expecting to find a triumphant people. The Chinese economy has recovered much more quickly than many parts of the world and Langfitt says he thought people would be gloating. But that just wasn't the case -- instead Langfitt found himself being comforted by the Chinese about the strength of the United States.

Many people he spoke to said their country still has a long way to go before overtaking the U.S. economy. Part of the reason, factory workers in the southern part of the country have seen layoffs that Langfitt says, just can't be compared to Detroit. Returning to factories he had visited years ago, Langfitt found doors locked and furniture strewn about outside. The reason -- Americans have stopped buying.

After the jump, more of Frank Langfitt's stories from China.

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Continue reading "Podcast: China Gives Us A Pep Talk " >

Former Bear Stearns hedge fund manager Matthew Tannin leaves a Brooklyn court house after posting bail in June of 2008. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

On today's Planet Money:

Last week two Bear Stearns hedge fund managers were acquitted on charges of fraud, stemming from the collapse of two funds they managed in 2007. The government alleged the men knowingly misled investors about the health of the funds by lying about how much money they had personally invested in them and how many redemptions they had. The defense argued that comments made by the men in personal emails were just strategy talk. WNYC reporter Lisa Chow covered the case, she joins us to talk about the verdict and what it may mean for future trials.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Music: White Rabbits' "They Done Wrong/We Done Wrong." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

The government says cash for clunkers was a success, but not everyone agrees. (Tony The Misfit/Flickr)

On today's Planet Money:

Jeremy Anwyl, the chief executive of Edmunds.com, defends his company's latest report about the effectiveness of the much-hyped and recently closed Cash for Clunkers program. Edmunds found the program added only 125,000 in sales at a cost of $3 billion, or $24,000 per new car. Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist currently serving as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, disagrees. The CEA estimates Cash for Clunkers added closer to 450,000 sales that would not have otherwise occured. And Alan Blinder, the renowned Princeton economist, takes a break from his train ride to weigh in.

After the jump, bonus reading.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Did The Cash Bring The Clunkers? " >

The scariest thing this Halloween -- the economy. (Steve Rhodes/Planet Money Flickr pool)

On today's Planet Money:

Economist and Planet Money regular Simon Johnson thinks it's time to break up the big banks. Simon says the current regulations aren't enough to prevent another crisis and we need to do something more drastic. Former head of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker and Mervyn King, head of the British central bank, agree, but that hasn't convinced Martin Baily of the Brookings Institution. Baily, who was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration, is worried about the unintended consequences of bad regulation. He says the risk simply isn't worth it.

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January 13, 1995. The money exchange line at the Mexico City airport during the peso crisis. (Jorge Uzon/AFP/Getty Images)

On today's Planet Money:

When people talk about the current economic crisis they bring up the Great Depression and Japan's lost decade, but the world's history of 'financial folly' spans much larger, through eight centuries and 66 different countries. In their new book, This Time Is Different, economist Ken Rogoff of Harvard, and Carmen Reinhart of University of Maryland, tell the stories of financial crises from medieval currency debasements to the recent subprime mess. Reinhart says our current troubles are nothing new, but what's worse, she predicts we're doomed to repeat the mistakes of our predecessors.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book.

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Continue reading "Podcast: We've Been Here Before" >

Two facilities down the street from each other -- one charges $800 for an MRI and the other $450. (Miguel Alvarez/AFP/Getty Images)

On today's Planet Money:

We know how a market is supposed to work. If two stores sell the same product, and one sells it for cheaper than the other, more customers should flock to the first store and put the second store out of business. But if we're learned anything from studying health care, it's that it doesn't always follow the basic rules of economics. To find out why the market works this way, we visited Pensacola, Florida where two health care facilities down the street from each other charge very different prices for MRIs.

Hospital administrator, Mike Smith, says that's because it costs a lot more to run his facility than the stand-alone clinic down the street. The people who own that clinic, Sharon and John Sowers, say it's all about numbers. They've got bills to pay and they have no choice but to be efficient.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Music: Passion Pitt's "Swimming In The Flood"." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

These doctors applaud President Obama's plans for reforming health care. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

On today's Planet Money:

When the government created the Medicare system in 1965, they were so desperate to get doctors into it that they allowed them set their own fees. The fee for service system was good for doctors, but bad for the budget. Joseph Califano, was President Johnson's senior domestic policy aide at the time, and he says he and his colleagues simply didn't understand the economic structure of the health care system.

Ten years later, President Ford thought he had the solution to stem rising costs -- cap the fees paid to doctors. Unfortunately this "fix," just caused another problem, overtreatment.

It wasn't until the late 1980's that an economist from Harvard, Professor William Hsiao, finally came up with method to determine competitive prices for doctor's care. Hsiao brought in doctors and asked them to rate every single thing they did based on how technically hard it was, how stressful, how much the supplies cost, etc. From this data, he developed the relative value scale. Medicare adopted the relative value scale in 1992, and it's still used today. However, the system has done little to cut rising costs -- something Hsiao blames on special interest groups.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Music: Go Music Go's "Light Of Love"." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Glenn Hubbard says giving more money to mid-size businesses like this Ethiopian shoe company will do more to help poor Africans than our current aid model. (Aaron Maasho/AFP/Getty Images)

On today's Planet Money:

The world's governments have given a trillion dollars to developing nations since WWII, and yet in some countries, particularly in Africa, the economic situation is just as bad or worse than it's ever been.

Columbia economist and former economic adviser to the Bush administration, Glenn Hubbard, says it's time to change the way we give aid to Africa. Hubbard, co-author of The Aid Trap: Hard Truths About Ending Poverty, advocates a modern day Marshall Plan, which would give money directly to local business instead of government.

Bonus Reading: Doing business indicators from the IFC.

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This pumpkin carver thought "Boo" wasn't scary enough this Halloween -- he went with "CDO" instead. (Roarke Lynch)

On today's Planet Money:

We head to Hunter College High School in Manhattan to face our toughest critics yet, teenagers.

Economics teacher Heather Hanemann has developed a curriculum based on several of the Planet Money podcasts. We visited her classroom to see what the kids thought of the show and hear how the economic crisis has played out in their lives.

After the jump, download Heather's lessons and worksheets.

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Continue reading "Podcast: In The Classroom" >

This time it's GMAC looking for a helping hand. (Williemaq/Flickr)

On today's Planet Money:

GMAC is on the way to achieving the special distinction of three federal bailouts. The financial institution (and parent company of Planet Money sponsor Ally Bank) has already received $12.5 billion in assistance, for which the government has taken a stake of nearly 35 percent in the company.

Columbia economist Charles Calomiris says the GMAC case is textbook example of the dangers that come with taxpayer bailouts.

Calomiris says the government ends up giving money to keep a foundering bank afloat. The bank takes what's known as "resurrection risk," the economic equivalent of football's Hail Mary pass.

There's more. Paul Merski, senior vice president of the Independent Community Bankers of America, says that with government backing in place, GMAC is getting an unfair competitive advantage.

Bonus: After the jump, the Ally Bank ads that made them mad.

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Continue reading "Podcast: GMAC's Hail Mary Pass" >

GM chief Fritz Henderson says it's complicated. (Philippe Lopez / AFP/Getty ImagesGetty Images)

On today's Planet Money:

Since the start of the financial crisis, the U.S. government has put $50 billion into General Motors. After GM emerged from bankruptcy this year, the public owned 61 percent of the stock of the newly reconstituted company.

How much of that $50 billion will the American taxpayer get back? CEO Fritz Henderson says business at GM is getting better, which is at least a hopeful sign for repayment. But the situation at GM is so complicated, Henderson says, that he can't say yet how much money GM will be able to return to the public coffers.

Longtime auto analyst John Casesa has crunched the numbers we have. He says GM would have to do everything right, in a strong economy, to pay back what it owes.

Meanwhile, a Congressional Oversight Panel report says the government estimates it will get back less than half the money it used to bail out GM and Chrysler.

Bonus: After the jump, the trashing of the commons.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Can GM Ever Pay Us Back?" >

Political scientist, economist, Nobel laureate. (Indiana University via Getty Images)

On today's Planet Money:

This month, Indiana University professor Elinor Ostrom became the first woman to win the Nobel prize for economics.

Ostrom explains her groundbreaking research into the public management of natural resources. The political scientist argues that people should be empowered to organize themselves in small ways that scale up to a global network. Government can be helpful in doing that, but people shouldn't rely on it alone.

Bonus: After the jump, the girl who gotten bitten by a dog.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Elinor Ostrom Checks In" >

If there are fewer food providers among vervet monkeys, each provider gets more grooming. (wwarby/Flickr Creative Commons)

On today's Planet Money:

Human beings aren't the only creatures who make economic decisions. It turns out that monkeys do it, too. Scientists have observed our primate kin exchanging goods and services and adjusting prices.

Ronald Noe, a professor of primate ethology at the University of Strasbourg, says the vervet monkey of southern and eastern Africa uses grooming as a kind of currency. They determine the value of food providers and divide their attention according to the law of supply and demand.

Bonus: After the jump, God bless the Columbia Gorge.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Economics For Monkeys" >

Gregory Schiedeler buys gum on the street in Angola from this teenager named Minguito.(Gregory Schiedeler)

On today's Planet Money:

Two people who work down the block from each other, who have often wondered about each other, but never spoken.

Gregory Schiedler works for a foreign oil company in Angola's capital Luanda. He lives in a gated community, gets driven to work every day and is responsible for spending one billion dollars in the next year. Gregory has very little interaction with Angolans except for one, the teenager who sells him chewing gum.

Minguito works on the streets of Angola selling cigarettes, shoe shines and gum to foreigners like Gregory and anyone else who wants to buy them. He's tired of working on the street and running from the police, but he says he feels like he has no choice.

Retired U.S. diplomat Herman Cohen explains why billions of dollars of oil money flowing into Angola have done little to help the people who live there.

Bonus: After the jump, another side of competition in health care.

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Continue reading "Podcast: The Paradox Of Oil " >

For Harriet's owners, the health insurance premiums are worth it. (Kristin Zorbini Bongard)

On today's Planet Money:

We give a sneak preview of our upcoming This American Life special on health insurance, airing on a public radio station near you.

How much would you pay to protect someone or something you love? Kristin Zorbini Bongard and her husband love their pet hedgehog, Harriet, so much that they spend about $80 a year on health insurance for her. Even with the coverage, they shelled out $1,911.20 for the hedgehog's cancer treatment.

Economist Tim Harford, the Financial Times' Undercover Economist, who admits to not being a pet person, says the problem with pet insurance is not that it's for pets. It's that it causes waste, because you're spending someone else's money.

Bonus: After the jump, an economic riddle about sports and parking.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Insurance For A Hedgehog" >

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.

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Continue reading "Podcast: The Riddle Of Minimum Wage" >

For the future of China's Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area, absolute confidence. (Laura Conaway)

On today's Planet Money:

Ian Bremmer of Eurasia Group and professor Kishore Mahbubani of the National University of Singapore take us on a brief world tour.

Mahbubani, author of the New Asian Hemisphere, argues that the most of the world is preparing for China's coming global dominance. It's a psychological adjustment that Americans aren't yet ready to make.

Bremmer, author of The Fat Tail, says that if the Chinese economy remains state-controlled, American businesses won't get a level playing field. But Americans shouldn't necessarily fear the rise of China, because the U.S. and China will continue to need each other for many years to come.

Bonus: A sign of life in Michigan.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Here Comes China" >

Worth it. (Elemenous/Flickr Creative Commons)

On today's Planet Money:

Human beings have always loved their children, but at certain times in history they really needed them, for financial reasons.

Mick Watson, chair of the psychology department at Brandeis University, explains how economics has impacted parenting styles from our early hunter-gatherer days to today's modern industrial society.

These days parents don't have a strict economic need to have children. Some values, he says, can't be measured in dollars and cents.

Bonus: Loving the health care in Australia.

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Continue reading "Podcast: The Economics Of Parenting" >

An appendix blows in Brooklyn.(See-ming Lee/Flickr Creative Commons)

On today's Planet Money:

You've seen those crazy-looking medical bills, the ones with row after row of prices and treatment codes. How about one that says the service cost $1,200, except your insurer paid $400 and you the patient owe nothing? Where did that other money go?

Doctor bills are complicated enough to make you go looking for a Harvard health care economist. Which is just what we did. Today, professor Joseph Newhouse fields your questions.

Bonus: In Canada, the clinics look shabby but there are no co-pays.

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Continue reading "Podcast: The Health Care Economist Is In" >

Guido Westerwelle, at right, leader of Germany's Free Democratic Party, celebrates victory with his boyfriend, Michael Mronz, after last month's elections.(Joern Pollex/Getty Images)

On today's Planet Money:

During the Great Depression, people began ditching capitalism for ideologies like communism or socialism. That hasn't happened during the Great Recession, despite people saying that capitalism's flaws are on full display. Socialist parties have been losing ground across Europe. In Germany, for example, the Socialist Democratic Party just made its poorest showing in elections since World War II.

Eurasia Group's David Gordon says the political right is doing well in Europe these days because it has co-opted issues that traditionally belonged to the left. Where the left remains popular, as it does in Latin America, successful politicians have moved to the right. Meanwhile, he argues, the left lacks a compelling narrative about what caused the economic crisis.

Bonus: The job market is not your fault.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Capitalism Just Keeps Churning" >

In San Francisco, the Cadillac plan.(Steve Rhodes/Planet Money Flickr pool)

On today's Planet Money:

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee twice voted down a measure to have the government offer a health insurance plan -- the so-called public option. In countries like England and Canada, the public option is a fact of life. Taxpayers put money into the system and everyone automatically gets health insurance from the government, in what's known as a single-payer system.

Should the government run our health insurance? Donna Smith of the California Nurses Association says it should. Smith, whose personal insurance nightmare figures in the Michael Moore documentary Sicko, says a single-payer system would get care to more people and save money.

Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation says government shouldn't become everyone's insurance company. Butler, who's from the U.K., says single-payer care is no cure-all.

Bonus: After the jump, two videos -- one for socialized medicine, and one against it.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Should Government Run Our Health Insurance?" >

Spotted in Sweden: The latest metaphor for cheaper health care in America.(steffe/Flickr Creative Commons)

On today's Planet Money:

Health care cooperatives are insurance companies owned by ordinary patients who buy in. The Senate Finance Committee is working on a $6 billion measure, pushed by Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), that would set up health care cooperatives across the nation. The idea is to have cooperatives take the place of the public option, in which the government would set up an insurance plan to compete with ones from private companies.

A health co-op that saves you money may be something of a unicorn, says reporter Keith Seinfeld of Seattle's KPLU. Seinfeld belongs to a health care cooperative already, one of only two large co-ops in the country. He says he doesn't see his own Group Health Cooperative as being better than other providers at controlling costs. What's more, the input from its 600,000 members may not amount to much when only 3,000 of them choose to vote.

With an expert opinion from Tim Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee, who says health co-ops are expensive to start and run. Their main benefit: They make people happy.

Bonus: After the jump, photo evidence of economic expansion.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Looking At Health Care Co-ops" >

The big news from the G20. (iwasaround/Flickr Creative Commons)

On today's Planet Money:

Rich nations and developing ones in the G20 got together in Pittsburgh this week to discuss the fate of the world. Also, how to fix it.

Among the key issues was how to give emerging markets a meaningful seat at the table. For starters, the G20 will now replace the G8, which includes only leading nations. David Gordon, head of research at Eurasia Group, says that's a start, a small one.

Meanwhile, NPR's Scott Horsley ventured out past the protesters in search of an alternative G20 scene.

A link from the podcast: The Fed's Job Is Only Half Over

Bonus: Comment of the week, after the jump.

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Continue reading "Podcast: G20 Makes Pittsburgh Look Good" >

Before we knew what was coming. The front page of the NY Times the day after The Giant Pool of Money aired. (Steve Rhodes/Flickr)

On today's Planet Money:

We revisit the show that fathered our podcast -- The Giant Pool of Money.

In that collaboration between NPR and This American Life, Adam and Alex set out to explain a simple question: "Why would the financial services industry rush to make lots of loans to people who couldn't pay them back?" They traced the mortgage chain from the people who took out the loans to those who re-packaged them and sold them off.

That show aired in May of 2008, several months before we knew the extent of the giant financial collapse we were headed for. Today we visit two of the people featured in that piece -- Richard, a Marine who was facing foreclosure, and Jim Finkel, a CDO manager, to see they've fared in the downturn.

Bonus: Strategic defaults, then and now.

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Continue reading "Podcast: The Giant Pool Of Money: Where Are They Now?" >

On Capitol Hill, delivering petitions against a health care bill that includes a public option. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

On today's Planet Money:

Meet Jacob Hacker, the father of the "public option." Hacker, a Yale political science professor, introduced the notion of the federal government offering a health insurance plan that would compete with ones from private companies.

President Obama calls the public option a means of pressuring private insurers to keep policies affordable, while critics say it would put them at an unfair disadvantage.

Now Hacker takes a turn defending his big idea, saying that a public plan would cost less to run and be able to bargain for better prices.

Bonus: A health insurance tale, after the jump.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Father Of The 'Public Option' Defends His Big Idea" >

U.S. tire workers say Chinese tires like these are threatening their jobs. (Liu Jin/AFP/Getty Images)

On today's Planet Money:

Right now there is someone out there writing a new line in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, a 35 percent tariff on Chinese tires. President Obama announced the new tariff last week, angering the Chinese, who quickly responded with promises to investigate tariffs for the U.S. poultry and automotive industry.

The tariff tussle has sparked fears of trade war between the United States and China. Arvind Subramanian, economist at the Peterson Institute, says the new tariff may add to messy trade relations, but it will have little impact on the marketplace. That's good news for poultry distributor Eric Joiner who says he depends on China for sales of his chicken paws.

Bonus: A Planet Money radio roundup.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Archie Bronson's "Dead Funny." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Continue reading "Podcast: Revenge Of The Tariffs " >

SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler making the best of it. (Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images)

On today's Planet Money:

Much of this economic crisis has been caused by strange financial products that fell between the cracks of regulatory agencies. As we now know, more regulators didn't always make things better, they often made things worse.

Adam Davidson and Alex Blumberg tell the story of the SEC and the CFTC, two agencies that have fought hard to stay apart while the products they regulate grow more and more intertwined. Both Republicans and Democrats agree the two should become one, but former House Financial Services Committee chairman Mike Oxley says the chances of that happening are about as good as him beating Tiger Woods.

Bonus: After the jump, a desperate sale in Los Angeles.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: U2's "Two Hearts Beat As One." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Continue reading "Podcast: The Nightmare Of Regulatory Reform " >

Alice Rivlin and Martin Bailey of the Brookings Institution at the Planet Money/Pew Charitable Trusts debate. (Katie Hayes/NPR)

On today's Planet Money:

We team up with the Pew Charitable Trusts for an intense debate on financial regulatory reform.

- Bob Litan and Scott Talbott duke it out over what to do with financial institutions that are too big to fail.

- Adam Levitin and Diane Casey-Landry sound off on a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

- Darrell Duffie and Mark Brickell dispute the future of derivatives.

With special appearances by Alice Rivlin, Martin Bailey, Charles Calomiris, Peter Wallison and Adam's dad, Jack Davidson.

Bonus: After the jump, a listener calls co-pay assistance cards "the dumbest system I've ever seen."

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: TV On The Radio's "Wolf Like Me." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Continue reading "Podcast: Planet Money Live " >

Drug maker AstraZeneca will offer you "savings" of up to $50 a month to choose their purple pill over the generic. (Rennett Stowe / Flickr)

On today's Planet Money:

Co-pays for prescription drugs are one of the ways health insurance companies try to contain costs. They make the generic cheaper than the brand name for you, the consumer, so you'll chose the drug they have to pay less for.

It's been a pretty effective system for years, but now the drug companies have come up with a way to get around it. They're handing out "co-pay assistance cards," which are basically like coupons for prescription drugs. They offer you up to $50 off the co-pay of a particular brand name drug, making the brand name effectively cheaper than the generic.

It may sound like a great deal for consumers, but John Rockoff, who reported the story for the Wall Street Journal, says the coupons come with some hidden costs.

Bonus: After the jump, an listener spots rising home prices in Phoenix.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Clipping Coupons For Health Care " >

Bracing for it in September 2008. (Paul Ellis / AFP/Getty)

On today's Planet Money:

Adam Davidson and Alex Blumberg spent the summer of 2008 working on the story that would launch Planet Money -- a Chana Joffe-Walt report about the connection between Chinese windmills and U.S. airplanes.

But a funny thing happened on the way to that first feature: in a terrifying series of financial calamities last September, the global economy darned near died.

What began as the month we all started thinking about Too Big Too Fail turned into Planet Money's first crazy, crazy year. You were there. Celebrate it with us in this anniversary podcast.

Bonus: After the jump, Planet Money's first real blog post (man, was Jeezy right) and our first seven podcasts.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Marnie Stern's "Every Single Line Means Something." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Continue reading "Podcast: Planet Money Survives First Year (Anniversary Edition)" >

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'" >

Back in medieval times, China's Yangtze River Valley looked like the most likely place for an industrial revolution. (Peter Parks / AFP/Getty images)

On today's Planet Money:

We've been talking lately with medieval historian Philip Daileader about how very little fun it was to live in 12th century France.

Now, thanks to a nudge from listener Alan Munter, we're looking at the state of economic life in Asia. Historian Kenneth Pomeranz says pre-industrial China was no picnic, either. Life expectancy in the lower Yangtze River Valley was probably about 35 in the year zero, Pomeranz says, and it was probably about the same in 1800. At least from the year 1,000 on, people began spending more time working, but without much to show for it.

Yet Pomeranz, author of the The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy, says it was one of the best places on the planet for poor people to live until the eve of the industrial revolution.

Bonus: After the jump, instant folk art.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Sa Dingding's "Alive." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Continue reading "Podcast: Economics For Medieval Chinese Peasants" >

Ticketmaster: You pay for the convenience, literally. (Ginnerobot / Flickr Creative Commons)

On today's Planet Money:

A listener wants to know why Ticketmaster charges a convenience fee if you want to print out the tickets you buy online. After all, it's your ink and paper, and you're not asking Ticketmaster to mail your purchase.

Economist Emily Oster of the Chicago Booth School of Business has been decoding the universe for us, and she's got an answer for you. It's got to do with the network effect, locking up a market and -- of course -- supply and demand.

If you've got an economic riddle for Emily Oster, e-mail it over.

Bonus: After the jump, meet former Ticketmaster CEO Fred Rosen.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Q-Tip's "Breathe and Stop." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Continue reading "Podcast: The Economics Of Ticketmaster" >

It's got to do with health care, but not with overeating. (The Truth About...'s / Flickr Creative Commons)

On today's Planet Money:

Much of the debate over changing the U.S. health care system concerns the Americans who can't get care. But a majority of Americans have insurance of one type or another, and for them, the health care system often more closely resembles an all-you-can-eat buffet.

If you want to get your knee fixed, you can. If you want that drug you saw on T.V., no problem. As a consumer, you don't have to worry too a great deal about the price, to a point, because your employer pays much of your premiums and the insurer picks up much of the medical cost.

David Goldhill, author of an Atlantic article called "How American Health Care Killed My Father," calculates that the average cost of a family's health insurance over a lifetime is $1.7 million. Goldhill proposes that Americans pay for routine care up to $50,000 over their lifetimes, and then be required to build health savings accounts that would cover the rest.

Goldhill's idea strikes Richard Kirsch of Health Care for America Now as very dangerous proposition. He says you can't treat medicine like any other commodity.

Bonus: Video: "Principles of economics, translated," after the jump.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Health Insurance Is Like An All-You-Can-Eat Buffet" >

Rep. Barney Frank, at left, welcomes Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to Capitol Hill last month. (Karen Bleier / AFP/Getty Images)

On today's Planet Money:

If any single player is driving the process for reforming financial regulation on Capitol Hill, it's Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). The chair of the House Financial Services Committee tells Adam Davidson that bipartisan consensus on the issue is beyond reach.

As you'll hear in this interview, Frank is an intense lawmaker with very definite ideas about politics and the art of the possible.

Correction: Adam says he goofed. While interviewing Frank, Adam said that Frank's staff had told him regulatory reform must happen this year or else never happen. Adam says he misunderstood and apologizes for the error.

Bonus: Rep. Frank confronts a person comparing President Obama to Hitler, after the jump.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Rep. Barney Frank Checks In" >

Signs of life in Clover, South Carolina. (Aimee Ennis / Planet Money Flickr pool)

On today's Planet Money:

China's all over the headlines these days, as its economy recovers faster than the U.S. one. World newspapers trumpet the communist nation's rise, with stories like "Asia recovery show's China's ascendance" and "China to surpass U.S. 'within a decade.'"

Analyst David Gordon, head of research at Eurasia Group, says it's true that the Chinese responded to the global recession with a fast, effective stimulus program. The rest is hype, Gordon says, since the China's economy is nowhere near big enough or dynamic enough to save the rest of the world.

Plus: Listener Aimee Ennis checks in from her interrupted subdivision in Clover, South Carolina, where the developer is -- gasp! -- building homes again.

Bonus: A blog comment that made us laugh (hey, it was better than crying).

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Continue reading "Podcast: Can China Save America's Bacon?" >

Just one person's opinion. (Simon Hildrew / Flickr Creative Commons)

On today's Planet Money:

If you find MySpace more chaotic than Facebook, that's no accident. Founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson wanted to create a site that's just as disorienting as your average nightclub, a crazy landscape of musicians and models and Hollywood desire, says Julia Angwin, author of Stealing Myspace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America.

DeWolfe and Anderson came to their social networking juggernaut from the world of porn and spyware. Their greatest asset? Complete ignorance, Angwin says. Not knowing what to fear, the entrepreneurs just dove in. It gave them a great beginning, Angwin says, but became an Achilles heel.

Bonus: DeWolfe and Anderson explain MySpace to Charlie Rose.

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Continue reading "Podcast: MySpace Was Born Of Total Ignorance. Also Porn And Spyware" >

Just spit and scan: home genetic kits like this one could mean big trouble for the health insurance industry. (CrashIntoTheSun / Flickr )

On today's Planet Money:

Information problems are some of the biggest hurdles in fixing health care. Doctors know plenty about you and your ailments, but you aren't usually given much information about them in return. Choosing your physician is an important decision, but how can you know if you are making a good choice? Robert Krughoff of Consumer Checkbook says he's got a new website, Patient Central, that makes finding a good doctor a whole lot easier. The website uses detailed survey information obtained by actual patients to measure doctor performance. One of the site's top rated docs, Dr. David Graham, says he likes the idea but thinks it isn't perfect.

Plus, a health care paradox. Sometimes you can have too much information. Naked Economist Charlie Wheelan says knowing our genetic makeup is good for us but bad for the insurance industry. Wheelan argues that as soon as our insurance pool is "corrupted" by this information, healthy people will begin to opt out and people likely to get sick will be forced to opt in at higher rates.

Bonus: A nurse says your doctor is not a mechanic.

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Continue reading "Hear: Too Much Information" >

A Crazy Eddie stock certificate: evidence in one of the largest securities fraud of all time. (Sam Antar)

On today's Planet Money:

Before Bernie Madoff, there was the Antar family. In the seventies and eighties, the family ran a popular electronics chain, Crazy Eddie, which was known for its frenetic commercials and low prices. The business was crooked from the start, but the fraud got more serious when the family took the company public in the 1984. Going public earned the Antar family millions of dollars, but infighting and jealousy later led them to turn against each other. In 1987, the Securities and Exchange Commission investigated the family and discovered years of inflated profits and overstated income.

Today one of the masterminds of the fraud, Eddie's nephew Sam Antar, explains how they did it and why it worked for so long. Antar now lectures about white collar fraud and says it's a brutal crime.

Bonus: Crazy Eddie wants you to beat the heat.

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Continue reading "Hear: Inside The Mind Of A Financial Criminal" >

Can financial innovation help this t-shirt wearer? (Steve Rhodes / Flickr/Creative Commons)

On today's Planet Money:

We started our debate on financial innovation a few weeks ago with the Atlantic's Mike Konczal and Columbia's Charles Calomiris. Today Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution and Felix Salmon of Reuters join Mike to answer the question: has financial innovation in the last 25 years been positive or negative?

-- Blogger Felix Salmon says that financial innovation was a good thing, until it became a way for bankers to get around regulation.

-- Economics professor Tyler Cowen argues that it wasn't financial innovations that caused economic calamities -- it was leverage -- banks being able to borrow huge amounts of cash with little money down.

-- Financial engineer Mike Konczal says it's all about competition. If a rival bank comes up with a new innovation, you need to compete -- whether it's dangerous or not.

Bonus: An innovation in the way you buy your newspaper.

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Continue reading "Hear: Is Financial Innovation A Friend Or Foe? " >

And imagine this here is your spleen, see. (Douglas Grundy / Three Lions/Getty Images)

On today's Planet Money:

Imagine two identical hospitals, side by side. One charges patients a little, and the other piles on the bills. Where do patients get better care? Researchers at Dartmouth say that, overall, there's no connection between the intensity, quality or cost of treatment and how well patients fare.

That's one of the biggest challenges in fixing health care -- patients, doctors and insurance companies aren't all playing with the same information. As patients visiting a doctor, most of us are like drivers taking a car to the mechanic. If we had the know-how, we'd fix it ourselves, but we don't and so we have to rely on someone else's judgment.

With appearances by Deborah Kimbell of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Chana Joffe-Walt's mom, a sunglasses vendor in Manhattan, and mechanic Ari Cohen.

Bonus: After the jump, David Kestenbaum impersonates Kanye West.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Your Doctor Is Like A Mechanic" >

Plenty of food. (Joits / Flickr/Creative Commons pool)

On today's Planet Money:

Some days, you just have to wonder why the world is the way it is. Emily Oster is making a career out of training the lens of economics on just that question.

Oster talks about her economic of analysis of AIDS and risky behavior in Africa (see her amazing TED talk on that), and she answers a riddle from a Planet Money listener. That riddle: Why, when prices are flat or falling, are restaurants piling more food on our plates?

Bonus: A health insurance testimonial from the U.K., after the jump.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Emily Oster Decodes The World" >

At rest in Burgandy, France. (Sobakasu / Flickr/ Creative Commons)

On today's Planet Money:

Is hope unfulfilled worse than no hope at all? Medieval historian Philip Daileader says it might be. People in places like 12th and 13th century France lived far more constrained economic lives than we do, but they had no expectations that their situations would ever improve.

Link from the podcast: 123 recommendations for the Australian health care system.

Bonus: After the jump, a guy in Israel wonders how Americans put up with their health care system.

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Continue reading "Podcast: Economics For 12th Century French Peasants" >

A question of resources in California. (Steve Rhodes / Planet Money Flickr pool)

On today's Planet Money:

The cost of health care is rising faster than our economy is growing -- it's an economic train wreck waiting to happen. The debate over fixing that situation rests on a couple of key questions, namely how do we get coverage for everyone and how do we control costs.

That second question turns out to be much harder to answer. For all the talk about healing, a hospital is also a business. Cutting costs at a hospital falls to a hospital administrator like Daniel Kearns. He worked at a string of hospitals in the Southwest. Kearns says the hardest part of his job was dealing with doctors, like the one who wanted baseball season tickets for his family and the one who wanted a helicopter for transportation.

Those may sound wacky, but Harvard health economist Tom McGuire, says neither patients, doctors nor hospitals have real incentives to trim expenses because they're all spending someone else's money.

Bonus: Out of college, out of work, out of insurance.

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Continue reading "Hear: Taking Health Care To The Economist" >

The problem started with gold, says Liaquat Ahamed. (Bullion Vault / Flickr/Creative Commons)

On today's Planet Money:

A lot of folks want to know who's to blame for the Great Recession. Investment manager Liaquat Ahamed says he knows who's to blame for the Great Depression.

Ahamed, author of Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, blames that economic collapse on the boneheaded policies of the leading central bankers. Ahamed says much of the problem stemmed with a return to the gold standard.

Bonus: They stole his dinner.

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Continue reading "Hear: How The Gold Standard Fueled The Great Depression" >

Pray for deleveraging. (Brooklyn Bridge Baby / Planet Money Flickr pool)

On today's Planet Money:

The recession's showing signs of easing up, but the credit crisis isn't over. Banks still aren't lending like they used to, to families or businesses.

Ira Jersey, head of U.S. interest rate strategy at RBC Capital Markets, can tell you part of the reason why. Put simply, it's that families and businesses have borrowed too much already. Now they're continuing the slow, painful process of paying the debt down or writing it off.

Bonus: The large cost of small amounts.

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Continue reading "Hear: Why The Credit Crisis Drags On" >

It's not working. (User47 / Planet Money Flickr pool © 2009)

On today's Planet Money:

Congress has been arguing for months now about the best ways to overhaul the American system of financial regulation. It's a tough conversation, because regulation can be bad in a couple of ways.

First, regulation can be ineffective, in which case it fails to prevent the outcomes it was designed to block or causes more problems than it solves. Second, regulation can overreach, in which case it stifles financial innovation.

After newfangled financial products nearly brought down the global economy last fall, you might think it's not so bad to stifle financial innovation. But financial innovation has also led to prosperity. Atlantic writer Mike Konczal and Columbia Business School economist Charles Calomiris argue the case for (and against) Wall Street creativity.

Bonus: Blog comment of the week.

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Continue reading "Hear: The Pros And Cons Of Financial Innovation" >

Counting money in Iraq, which Ian Bremmer says is "becoming a good-news story." (Sabah Arar / AFP/Getty Images © 2009)

On today's Planet Money:

Almost a year into the financial crisis, we ask foreign policy analyst Ian Bremmer to take stock of America's position in the world. Bremmer wrote The Fat Tail and leads the risk consulting firm Eurasia Group (Twitter, Facebook). He says that yes, America has lost some of its power.

Bremmer gives two reasons for that. First, he says, other countries have recovered from the crisis more quickly. The second, he says, is that the crisis has forced U.S. leaders to pay more attention to domestic affairs and play a less active role on the global stage.

On the upside, Bremmer says this is a great time to invest in Iraq.

Bonus: Eurasia Group's Global Political Risk Index.

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Continue reading "Hear: The Latest Recession Casualty? American Power" >

"Thou sayest I owe how much to the crown?" (Zoomar / Flickr/Creative Commons

By Laura Conaway

On today's Planet Money:

Drag out those leggings and chain mail armor, folks. We're going medieval, specifically the 12th and 13th centuries.

Before governments had regulators with suits and briefcases, says William and Mary history professor Philip Daileader, they had knights. The Lancelots of real life went around the kingdom forcing people to pay whatever the knights decided they owed. It was a brutal economic approach.

If you think the knights were tough, be thankful you never faced the guild system. It existed to eliminate competition and benefit producers at the expense of consumers. Craftspeople fought each other for control and tried to limit access to the market -- at their own expense, it turned out.

Bonus: After the jump, a sign that they're not hiring.

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Continue reading "Hear: Bloody, Miserable Medieval Economics" >

Gold-plated guys at Goldman Sachs. Chris Hondros/Getty Images

 

On today's Planet Money:

Goldman Sachs carries a certain mystique on Wall Street. The firm is known for hiring the brainiest people and paying them well. A number of its former executive have gone into politics, including former CEO Henry Paulson, who became President Bush's Treasury secretary, and former CEO Robert Rubin, an adviser to Presidents Clinton and Obama.

This week, Goldman finished paying back its $10 billion federal TARP loan -- with taxpayers pocketing a return of 23 percent. The firm also just released a fantastic report on its earnings, with net revenues of $23 billion for the first half of 2009. Goldman is setting aside almost half of that money for paying its 30,000 employees. In rough terms, that amounts to almost $400,000 for each worker.

Lucas Van Praag, a Goldman spokesperson, answers questions about other ways Goldman received government help and why it's rewarding the staff so richly after getting a hand from Uncle Sam.

Plus: The stunning results from our Economic Radio Story Showdown.

Bonus: After the jump, a reader looks at the showdown results and wonders what the heck just happened.

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Continue reading "Hear: The Goldman Sachs Interview" >

Yes, but when? Steve Rhodes/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

The rational school of economics holds that markets make sense. Sure, some people and businesses trade on raw, crazy emotions, but the mistakes cancel each other out. In the end, the rational school argues, market prices make sense.

And then there's real life. Anyone who has spent any time looking at the stock market has to think there's at least a decent chance the whole thing is crazy -- prices pinging around, investors making crazy bets, regulators trying to figure out who's flouting the byzantine rules.

Justin Fox, a writer for Time and author of The Myth of the Rational Market, talks about teddy bears, bubbles and Alan Greenspan.

Bonus: An hourly rate for "hassle?"

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Continue reading "Hear: Myth Of Rational Markets" >

CIT, in happier times. Click to enlarge. Derrick Bostrom

 

On today's Planet Money:

It looks like business lender CIT will be saved from bankruptcy by a $3 billion loan from its bondholders. The bondholders decided to step forward with the offer after the Treasury Department and the FDIC turned down the company's bids for help -- apparently the government decided this institution was not too big too fail. Bill Dunkelberg, chief economist with the National Federation of Independent Business, explains how CIT got into trouble in the first place.

While details of the deal are still being worked out, there is no guarantee the plan won't fall apart. A collapse of CIT could spell disaster for many of the nation's retailers who depend on the company for financing. National chains like Dunkin' Donuts are clients, and the company has even touted its aid to donut franchisees. Planet Money intern Matt Katz hit the streets of New York to find out what a world without donuts would look like.

Bonus: A CIT scrapbook, including pictures of popular hairstyles at the company.

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Continue reading "Hear: A World Without Donuts " >

Real estate agents make more money each time they sell one of these. TheTruthAbout/Flickr

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- We asked you to share your stories about how you get paid. Today we hear from real estate agent Rachel Nelson, who says she likes working on commission, and mechanic Raymond McMormick who pays his staff using a piece rate system.

-- Robert Frank, author of the Economic Naturalist's Field Guide, lays out the benefits and problems of merit based pay using the Planet Money Staff as an example.

Bonus: An indicator from the dairy aisle.

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Continue reading "Hear: How We Get Paid " >

Adam and Chana gear up for the competition. David Kestenbaum/NPR

 

On today's Planet Money:

A very special radio competition. We sent Adam Davidson, Chana Joffe-Walt and David Kestenbaum to New York's Fancy Food Show and challenged them to bring back the best economics stories they could find. Listen to their stories, hear our panel of celebrity judges weigh in and then decide who you think should be the winner.

Bonus: Listen to each story individually and vote for the winner, after the jump.

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Continue reading "Hear: Fancy Food Economics" >

In Lyndhurst, N.J., "a thriving bake shop for so many years." Brooklyn Bridge Baby/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- As U.S. job losses mount, so do calls for another round of economic stimulus spending by the federal government. So far, President Obama says it's not needed. Stay tuned, says Eurasia Group's U.S. policy analyst Sean West. He argues that Democrats now own the economy, which means the administration will have to take some kind of action to get things going again. It's just that they might not call it a stimulus plan.

-- Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) wants to know exactly what caused the economy calamity we're now living through. Conrad sponsored legislation to create the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a panel with economic experts and no elected officials, to study the matter. The group returns with its findings ... in 2010.

Bonus: Christmas in July, and not in a merry way, either.

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Continue reading "Hear: Don't Call It A Stimulus" >

As of December 2008, Zimbabwe owed $4.69 billion to international creditors. Desmond Kwande/AFP/Getty Images

 

On today's Planet Money:

The planet's rich nations met this week to discuss, among other issues, ways to help the planet's poor nations.

But those poor (and developing) nations have their own group. It's called the anti-G20, in a nod to the G20 collection of industrialized states. The anti-G20 met at the U.N. last month, where Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Martin Khor explained what keeps impoverished countries down. Answer: Their debt to the IMF and wealthier nations.

We also take a second look at the surprisingly complex financial lives of the poor, with a focus on burial societies and very alternative banks.

Bonus: A mildly sunny indicator.

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Continue reading "Hear: What Keeps Countries Poor?" >

Living outside Rustenburg, South Africa. Francois Xavier Marit/AFP/Getty Images

 

On today's Planet Money:

Economists at the World Bank calculate that 2.5 billion people live on $2 a day, but what exactly does that mean? In the developed world, living on so little would be almost unthinkable. For 40 percent of the global population, $2 a day is a reality that must, somehow, be made to work.

In Portfolios of the Poor, Daryl Collins and co-author Jonathan Morduch uncover the surprisingly complex financial lives of the most destitute people.

Bonus: Hans Rosling's mind-blowing video debunking myths about Third World.

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Continue reading "Hear: Making A Life On $2 A Day" >

Protesting budget cuts in Berkeley, Calif. Justin Sullivan/Getty

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- Here's an economic riddle: A listener says teacher colleges in his nation compete for students by making the coursework easier, resulting in rookie educators who aren't as well-trained as they might be. What would an economist call this problem, and how can it be fixed? Robert Frank, author of the Economic Naturalist's Field Guide, spots an answer.

-- Should good teachers make more than bad ones? The Obama administration says the nation needs to start rewarding merit, and economist Michael Podgursky of the University of Missouri agrees. It's just that there's no simple means of carrying that out.

Bonus: They're so glad they paid off their mortgage.

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Continue reading "Hear: Which Teacher's Worth More Money?" >

What does economics hold for South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford? Davis Turner/Getty Images

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford faced a decision last month -- stay home and fulfill his public and family roles, or sneak off to Argentina for a visit with his mistress. Sanford chose the latter, of course, and economist Tim Harford argues it must make some kind of sense. Harford writes the Dear Economist column for the Financial Times and is the author of the Undercover Economist.

-- Listener Eric Laube says he and his wife paid off their mortgage in Houston this spring. They love the feeling of being debt free. But they like the tax breaks that come with a mortgage, and it's got them thinking of taking out another.

Bonus: After the jump, a listener argues that a house may be a home, but it's not an investment.

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Continue reading "Hear: The Economics Of Cheating" >

A crowd gathers for Bernard Madoff's sentencing. Timothy A. Clary/Getty Images

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- Does anyone really pay off a 30-year mortgage? NPR's National Desk Editor Steve Drummond asked Chana Joffe-Walt to find out, and after some digging, Chana found a couple that did just that. Tamar and Chris Pearsol of Seattle share the story of their mortgage.

-- Bernard Madoff's 150 years prison sentence is the big news of the financial world today, but is there anything new to say about Madoff? Curt Nickisch, of NPR member station WBUR in Boston, says so. The citizens of his hometown view today's events with a particular pride, Nickisch says, since the man who first alerted the world to Madoff's ponzi scheme was their own Harry Markopolos.

Bonus: Comments of the day, from the blog.

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Continue reading "Hear: Paying It All Back" >

Empty stores along Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. S. Ira Grossman

 

On today's Planet Money:

Special guest host Lisa Chow of WNYC shares the story of a major pension scandal here in New York. Two placement agents, who essentially act as brokers between pension funds and Wall Street, are accused of taking kickbacks in return for providing special access to the state's pension fund. With the help of former comptroller Carl McCall, Chow explains why the relationship between private equity and pension funds is ripe for corruption.

The case has put a spotlight on the relationship between private equity and pension funds and it's raising all kinds of concerns beyond corruption. Since these funds are private, taxpayers don't know where the pension money is actually going. So what happens to the retirement of firefighters and garbage collectors if the private equity bubble pops? NYU Stern School of Business Professor Roy Smith explains how the two got together in the first place.

Bonus: A recession-worthy lunch deal in Paris.

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Continue reading "Hear: Private Equity, Public Money " >

The height of German inflation. natehofer via Flickr

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- When most Americans think about financial collapse, they flash back to the Great Depression. The Germans are haunted by another ghost -- hyperinflation. As countries around the globe pump money into the world economy to try to fix it, fears of inflation are once again growing. Josef Joffe, editor of Die Zeit, explains why history is haunting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

-- Unemployment is still climbing and that's left many people thinking about Plan B. Maybe you'd like to be a rock star or an organic farmer, but you're also probably thinking about that safety net job -- a job you could easily get if you were laid off. Listener Laura Weight gives us a reality check on why that safety job may not be as attainable as we think.

Bonus: The scene in Den Haag.

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Continue reading "Hear: 'When Money Dies'" >

More meat for less bacon. bucknam via Flickr

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- President Barack Obama's plan for overhauling regulation of the U.S. financial system calls for eliminating the Office of Thrift Supervision. David Kestenbaum visits the OTS to get the mood from employees, but only finds one person willing to talk, spokesman Bill Ruberry.

-- Last week's podcast about tariffs prompted a lot of you to ask "Are they really so bad?" Today economist Arvind Subramanian of the Peterson Institute weighs in. Subramanian says ideally he'd like all tariffs to be zero.

Bonus: No more applications in Wooster, Ohio.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Cage The Elephant's "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Continue reading "Hear: Visiting The OTS" >

Quitters in Ballard, Wash. Seven_Null7/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

We look back on the last century of banking regulation.

-- Chana Joffe-Walt leads a tour of Presidential responses to banking crises since 1907. Highlights of the trip include regulation posturing from Woodrow Wilson, FDR, George Bush and Bill Clinton, plus Alex Blumberg singing along with Lady Gaga.

-- Is regulation a necessity or an opiate of the market? Harvard Business School professor David Moss argues that those massive institutions that pose a systemic risk must be regulated. George Selgin, an economist at the University of Georgia, worries that the wrong kind of regulation can lead to even greater disaster.

Bonus: Comment of the week, after the jump.

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Continue reading "Hear: Crisis, Regulate, Repeat" >

No more fat wallets. Steve Rhodes/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

President Barack Obama unveiled his plan for overhauling regulation of the U.S. financial system. We get responses from:

-- Lobbyist Scott Talbott of the Financial Services Roundtable, who represents a lot of big banks and loves the plan.

-- Lobbyist Diane Casey-Landry of the American Bankers Association, who represents a lot of small bankers and thinks that for them, the plan creates costly redundant legislation.

-- Representative Brad Miller (D-N.C.), who says some redundancy is good -- it works for NASA's space missions.

-- Representative John Campbell (R-Calif.), who likes some of the plan but says it gives too much power to the Federal Reserve.

-- Columbia economist Charles Calomiris, who says the whole thing is a big disappointment.

Bonus: Photo evidence of boom times on the way, and a correction.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: American Analog Set's "Hard To Find." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Continue reading "Hear: Reform School" >

Grow. filmonger/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

You may have heard something about the new iPhone. But have you heard about the Harmonized Tariff Schedule? That's the giant book of guidelines by which import specialists like Brett Ewing and Jim Henderson classify everything from wood flooring to handheld gizmos for importing into the United States.

Their mission is to determine whether importers have paid the right duties on their goods, and whether exporters are illegally dumping their wares on the American markets. Economists say tariffs, their main tool, make things more expensive for everyone.

Bonus: View from a passing train.

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Continue reading "Hear: The Trouble With Tariffs" >

Voting in Iran. Majid/Getty Images

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- Voters in Iran went to the polls today to decide whether President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would keep his job. The race between Ahmadinejad and his main challenger was tight, and the deciding factor may end up being Iran's economy. Sayed Mohsen Naquvi, a Shi'a Islamic scholar who runs the non-profit Independent Viewpoints, says that if you want to understand Iran's economy, there's one book you need to read. Plus, fact-checking the particulars of a voluntary tax system with Alex's father-in-law.

-- Your private investment in outer space doesn't have to be limited to paying $12 to see Star Trek. Planet Money intern Matt Katz visited a Space Business Conference in New York and says that the 257 billion dollar industry attracts everyone from wealthy space-obsessed geeks to investment analysts from Morgan Stanley.

Bonus: a listener indicator from Boston, by way of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

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Continue reading "Hear: Iran's Shi'a Economy" >

And so good for you, too. Benet Wilson/Planet Money Facebook group

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- Bankruptcy is a wonderful tool, says GM CFO Ray Young, whose company is now in Chapter 11. And hey, it went so well for Chrysler.

-- If you happen to be one of the jilted creditors, bankruptcy doesn't seem quite so wonderful. Clown Mandy Dalton says a mall operator that went bust still owes her $200 for a family fun day. She talks it over with bankruptcy lawyer Jay Strock.

Bonus: Twitter crowd lobs questions at GM CFO Ray Young, after the jump.

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Continue reading "Hear: GM Loves Bankruptcy" >

Voting in Lebanon. Sana Tawileh

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- Voters in Lebanon picked a coalition backed by the U.S. over one supported by Hezbollah in elections on Sunday. In the weeks before the vote, Ben Gilbert of Executive magazine (paid sub. requ'd.) says he began hearing reports of people offered plane tickets and even cash to vote a particular line. Gilbert says both sides seem to have been courting voters, at an eventual cost of $1,000 a vote. He explains the economics of buying someone's ballot.

-- An economic puzzle: Automakers wring bigger profits out of bigger vehicles like trucks, SUVs and the GM Hummer, but why? Robert Frank, a Cornell economist and author of The Economic Naturalist, says the dismal science explains everything. Frank answers the Hummer riddle in three and half minutes.

Bonus: Paying more for car repair?

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Aqualung's "Good Times Gonna Come." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Continue reading "Hear: Buying The Vote" >

Outside Boston, a shuttered mortgage services store. Chris Devers/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

We're launching our fourth special this weekend on This American Life -- on some stations, you can start hearing it as early as tonight. The show is all about the people and agencies who were supposed to be watching out for the economy, and why all that watching somehow failed to stave off the financial crisis.

Chana Joffe-Walt and David Kestenbaum reveal two fascinating bits you won't hear anywhere else. The first concerns Darrel Dochow, a regulator whose tenure stretched from a bank at the heart of the Keating Five scandal to the collapse of IndyMac. The second is about Mabel Yu, a bonds analyst who tried to warn her company to stop buying mortgage-backed securities.

Plus, an interview with Jon Swan, one of the Harvard students behind the MBA Oath, and a farewell to our fabulous editor Jonathan Kern, who's retiring. He has some advice for you.

Bonus: Deer on the lawn as economic indicator.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Vitamin C's "Graduation (Friends Forever)." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Continue reading "Hear: Secrets Of The Watchmen" >

Anybody want an overpaid job? aimeesblog/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

If you've felt, say, in the last nine months or so that people who work on Wall Street make too much money, we've got a guest for you. Ariell Resheff, an economics professor at the University of Virginia, says you're right, and he can prove it.

On the other hand, we got a message on our apology line (202.371.1775) from a mortgage industry veteran who says he's at least a little bit responsible for the financial crisis. And he's not sorry.

Bonus: Psychic foreclosure detritus for sale in Seattle.

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Continue reading "Hear: Fat Cats Too Fat" >

From the Literary Digest for Jan. 10, 1931 Boats-n-cars

 

On today's Planet Money:

Congratulations, Americans, you're on the road to car company ownership. General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection today, in a deal that calls for the U.S. government to own 60 percent of the automaker.

That works out to something like an investment of $192 per taxpayer.

NPR's Frank Langfitt says two big questions remain: When will GM make money again, and how much will the United States lose?

Bonus: A postcard from a past you maybe never knew.

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Continue reading "Hear: You're A Car Mogul" >

On a tour of North Korea, "silly white folks 'working with the people.' " North Korean Economy Watch

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- When you arrive as a tourist in North Korea -- yes, it's been done -- they don't tell you the news, says Curtis Melvin. They tell you the state of the economy. And yes, they do have one. Melvin knows because he tracks it on his blog, North Korean Economy Watch. His biggest boosts come from YouTube and Google Earth, which let him watch what passes for economic development.

-- The "efficient market" hypothesis holds that everyone trading stocks is generally trying to take in the same information about companies, and the result of all that thinking is the price of stock. The efficiency of the market makes it hard for any individual to beat the market over the long haul. So why would anyone pick stocks at all, or listen to a professional stock picker like CNBC's Jim Cramer? (Further fun: Video of Cramer rebutting an academic study of his performance.)

Bonus: Paycheck bounces, life falls apart and video of a North Korean market

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Continue reading "Hear: N. Korea's Hidden Market" >

No commerce in Columbus. daneyocco/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- Chrysler went to bankruptcy court in New York City today. At issue was the question of whether Chrysler can sell a significant portion of itself to the Italian automaker Fiat. As Frank Langfitt tells us, there's much more at stake, not just for Chrysler, but for GM and the future of American capitalism.

-- Jim Higgins has a lot to lose from Chrysler's bankruptcy. The Chrysler dealership he works for, in Fairfax, Virginia, learned this month that it's among the 789 the company plans to close.

-- Think your elders are more frugal than you? Listener Jean Jakab commented on the blog that her son, Steve Jakab, had just lost his job and was floundering, and that all you really needed to do was be careful with his money like Mom and Dad. We got Jean and Steve on the phone, and lo and behold, Steve was already following their advice -- and had been for a while.

Bonus: A indicator from academia.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Say Hi's "One, Two . . . One." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Continue reading "Hear: Listen To Your Parents " >

Happy holiday: Lemonade stand, reinvented, in San Francisco's Mission District. Jim Bourke

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- On Monday, Jeff Nielsen told us about the trouble he'd had getting his mortgage reworked. He couldn't get an answer back from Wells Fargo, though his situation would seem perfect for President Obama's new program to keep people in their homes. After that podcast, wonder of wonders, Neilsen got a break.

-- Shipping executive Per Gullestrup wanted to rescue a crew of sailors from pirates demanding $7 million ransom. He ended up forging an unlikely business relationship with the negotiator, "Mr. Ali," marked by mutual respect and the gift of newborn livestock.

-- A haiku medley, written by you.

Bonus: Eating your own eats.

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Continue reading "Hear: And Three Baby Camels" >

Paging John Mellencamp. brandonshift/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- Imagine this whole darned economic crisis, or at least a major strand of it, started at a pink hotel in Boca Raton. A bunch of bankers from JPMorgan met there in 1994 to consider the future, and decided credit derivatives were it. Gillian Tett, the Financial Times writer and author of Fool's Gold, says the rest is history, miserable history.

-- How much would you pay to keep your job? Margaret Schultz works as a management consultant with General Motors dealerships. In December, she learned that her position had been given to a former manager, whose own gig had been cut. There was still a job for her -- three hours away from her husband and two young kids. Now she's staying in the new town three days a week, where she rents an apartment for $350 a month.

Bonus: A roast beef indicator.

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Continue reading "Hear: Where It All Began" >

In Chicago, who's telling whom? katherine_of_chicago/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- Three months ago, Jeff Neilsen sat in his Salt Lake City living room and listened to President Obama announce a new program for homeowners who need to rework their mortgages. He applied to his lender, Wells Fargo, and heard almost nothing. Julia Gordon of the Center for Responsible Lending says his experience is all too typical. She suggests the system is plainly broken.

-- In the U.S., 6 million homeowners are flirting with foreclosure. NPR's Chris Arnold reports that in half those cases, foreclosure appears to benefit no one involved -- not the families and not the banks. With Alex Blumberg, he visits one loan servicer, Ocwen, that reworks 75 percent of its troubled mortgages, as opposed to the industry average of 10 percent. (Chris and Alex produced a segment about this for This American Life.)

-- Firefighter Bob Greiner works at a station in the Chicago suburb of Niles, where he reports a remarkable change since the recession began.

Bonus: You've been approved!

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Suicidal Tendencies' "Institutionalized." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Continue reading "Hear: Your Future Mortgage" >

Credit card companies love people who buy the best for birds they don't own. S and C/Flickr

 

On today's Planet Money:

Credit card companies have decided to become your friend, before it's too late. If they chat you up instead of sounding threatening when you call, they figure, you might pay them back first. That's the message from New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg, who just published What Does Your Credit Card Company Know About You?

While they're getting friendly with you, credit card companies have managed to learn a thing or two about exactly your ways. For starters, they're never happier than when customers buy premium bird seed, or put their kids' pictures on their credit cards. But if they hang out at Sharx, an upscale pool hall in Montreal? That's bad news.

With a special guest appearance by Laura Roberts, who has hung out at Sharx once or twice but prefers another place.

Bonus: Their last dollar.

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Continue reading "Hear: They Know You" >

An inventory glut in the 206. Seven_Null7/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- What happens when you take giant international corporations and try to give them a single regulator? Mike Roster, a bank regulatory lawyer, says you get a whole lot of folks being overly polite. Part of the problem, Roster says, is that people too quickly forget the disasters of the past.

-- Before there was Bernie Madoff, there was Ivar Krueger. In his new book, The Match King: The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals, Frank Partnoy reveals a riot of scandal that we'd all do well to remember.

Bonus: The full interview with Elizabeth Warren, and, after the jump, a Prius dilemma.

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Continue reading "Hear: Scandals To Remember" >

Dreaming of a green New Deal. Steve Rhodes/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- The Planet Money crowd had a lot to say about our interview with Elizabeth Warren, most of it negative. Twitter pal Renee Rico takes the soapbox.

-- One set of not very popular folks is now suing another. It's bond insurer MBIA versus financial giant Merrill Lynch. At issue: whether the latter misled the former into selling insurance way too cheaply. Securities lawyer Zachary Rosenbaum decodes the briefs.

Bonus: Voters send Ohio school district an economic indicator.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: MGMT's "Weekend Wars." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.

Continue reading "Hear: Follow Suit" >

Elizabeth Warren chairs the Congressional Oversight Panel. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- We're going to file this one under Intense Planet Money Interviews. Bailout monitor and Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren sat down with Adam Davidson this week and went at least 15 rounds over what's really wrong with the economy and what should be done to fix it. Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, says the problem is as much a credit crisis as a slide in conditions for average American families.

-- Engineer Jocelyn Lally works for a big firm in Chicago, where she says several of her colleagues have recently been made part-time. The resulting quiet has led to an unexpected economic indicator.

Bonus: From Philadelphia, a living indicator.

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Continue reading "Hear: Elizabeth Warren Checks In" >

In Philadelphia, "they even took down the letters." Brady Dale/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

In the best tradition of The Bachelor, financial institutions get to choose from a small flock of regulators. Those regulators collect fees for their work, so they're hot to woo potential companies. The Planet Money Players, with special guest Dina Temple Raston, show you how it's done as they vie for the affections of one Adam Isaac Gavidson, better known as AIG.

Bonus: A listener indicator from the office.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Zero." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr

Continue reading "Hear: Regulate Me, Baby" >

Funky shoes: $300 Clownsoport

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- Figuring a little cushion couldn't hurt, West Virginia's Centra Bank borrowed $15 million from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Then CEO Douglas Leech decided TARP's restrictions weren't worth the hassle and moved to repay the money. Getting out cost the healthy bank $750,000, for complicated reasons. Now David Kestenbaum has the chance to live his radio dream: Stopping his NPR story midway so he can explain it for the rest of us.

-- When the Treasury announces the results of the banking stress tests this week, says Douglas Elliott of the Brookings Institute, we'll be looking at numbers based on a lot of information and a slew of judgment calls. Elliott, who's got a new paper out on the tests, says the real test for the economy isn't the toxic assets, but the growing defaults on far more ordinary loans.

-- It's tough out there for a clown. Mandy Dalton takes apart the business of buying $300 shoes for entertaining kids in the middle of a deep recession and a swine flu panic.

Bonus: The corporate tax loopholes President Obama wants to close.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Crystal Castles' "Untrust Us." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr

Continue reading "Hear: Fears Of A Clown" >

Once the savior of Chrysler, now resting in Curtin, Ore. Curtis Gregory Perry/Flickr

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- Chrysler headed for bankruptcy today, pushed there by President Obama in the latest twist in the surreal saga of the American automobile industry. NPR's Frank Langfitt checks in from his rounds of UAW union halls, where we hear from a Chrysler worker who says the cars his company makes just aren't good enough. Another worker says he's surprised a UAW health care trust fund ended up as a majority owner of the company, since he sat through days of votes on wage concessions without hearing a word about it.

-- We asked whether you bore any blame for wrecking the global economy, and whether you were up for apologizing on our Planet Money apology line. You were. We're leaving the line open at 202.371.1775.

Bonus: Selling the K-Car.

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Continue reading "Hear: Blame The K-Car" >

Sending a message in Chicago. Patrick Hogan/Planet Money Facebook group

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- This week Nassim Taleb, the economist who lives by the Black Swan Theory, joined Ian Bremmer of Eurasia Group and The Fat Tail in our studios. Taleb's message to the world goes like this: Never mind math to manage risk. End the bond industry. And render Wall Street as we know it illegal.

-- Noel Paterson got laid off from the Microsoft games division in January. And then, miracle of miracles, Paterson got another gig, one he likes even better -- despite the small cut in pay.

Bonus: The card Paterson's kid made him, plus your ideas for naming the new Oliver Stone movie about Wall Street.

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Continue reading "Hear: Nassim Taleb Checks In" >

Feeling it in Kansas City. JL Johnson

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- Ryan Avent had a great job, writing for the Economist's Free Exchange blog. Not quite two weeks ago, Ryan Avent got lured into another terrific opportunity: blogging for Portfolio. Which today announced that it was shutting down.

-- At least Ryan Avent's got good company in the rest of the media. Newspapers around the country are cutting their staffs and trying to figure out how to stay afloat. NPR's David Folkenflik checks the future with media entrepreneur Steve Brill and media thinker Jay Hamilton

-- Did you help break the global economy, or even the local one? Planet Money has a new call-in line for your confessions. It's (202) 371-1775.

Bonus: The Ben & Jerry's effect.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr

Continue reading "Hear: News Of Their Demise" >

Framed grafitti in Manhattan. Lindsay Collins

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- We dig a little deeper into the latest earnings reports from banks. Is it real or all a bunch of hocus pocus? Charles Peabody of Portales Partners tackles some of the real profits and says the good news is here to stay.

-- Mortgage backed securities have been blamed for causing this financial crisis. But have the current troubles been enough to kill off securitization all together? Joe Nadilo, managing editor of Asset Backed Alert, thinks not.

-- Listener Rick Alfaro has a serious problem. With help from Priya Raghubir, a marketing professor at NYU Stern School of Business, we try to help him solve it.

Bonus: An economic fable.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Howie Day's "Perfect Time of Day." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr

Continue reading "Hear: Shadow Banking" >

A pirate in the Gulf of Aden. ecpad/AFP/Getty Images

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner trekked back up to Capitol Hill this week, this time for a hearing with Elizabeth Warren's Congressional Oversight Panel.

-- Even pirates need a business plan. J. Peter Pham, an analyst of African affairs at the James Madison University, looks at the economics of guns, captains, and $2 million dropped into the sea in waterproof containers. Plus, Per Gullestrup, CEO of Danish shipping company Clipper Group, has dealt with pirates first-hand -- he says they're tough negotiators.

Bonus: An IMF chart challenge.

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Continue reading "Hear: Pirates Have Timesheets" >

Protesting a sales tax increase, maybe, in Bothell, Wash. /Seven_Null7 Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- The Obama Administration plans to convert its preferred stock in bailed-out banks to common stock. Simon Johnson, of Baseline Scenario (and now The Hearing, on the Washington Post's site), says it's mostly an accounting game, but one that signals the government's thinking about the health of banks.

-- General Motors announced 1,600 layoffs today, part of its efforts to stave off bankruptcy. But with the White House setting a deadline of June 1, says Steve Jakubowski of the Bankruptcy Litigation Blog, GM is not exactly in the driver's seat.

-- Ali Velshi's Gimme My Money Back: Your Guide to Beating the Financial Markets showed up at the office recently. Mike Pesca reviews it, with gusto.

Bonus: What the heck is glabrous?

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Lily Allen's "The Fear." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr

Continue reading "Hear: Who's Driving This?" >

Tax Day Tea Party, San Francisco Steve Rhodes/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

(Note: If you're having trouble with the player above, try the direct link.)

On today's Planet Money:

-- Major American banks have begun reporting, of all things, profits! Doug Elliot, former investment banker at JP Morgan and now banking expert with the Brookings Institute, reveals what you should make of those numbers. Hint: We're all still looking at a world of pain, but at least the decline seems to be leveling out.

-- Daniel Cross designs circuits for a struggling business that feels to him like a zombie company. Waiting for word of their fate hasn't been easy, he says, and the situation wasn't improved by a recent e-scolding from the supervisors.

Bonus: Y'all seeing what she's seeing?

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Continue reading "Hear: Listening To Profits" >

'Cheap furniture gets a bailout.' brokenbulb/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- China's foreign reserves dropped by $32.6 billion in January. The New York Times suggests that because America's biggest creditor was selling off its bonds. Economist Brad Setser sees another explanation (and adds more).

-- Millions, billions, trillions, godzillions. There's a reason you can't keep it all straight. With help from Wisconsin school teacher Bob Peterson, the Planet Money Players calculate their way, in dollars per second, to the AIG bonuses.

Bonus: Find your NPR name, plus a listener calculates $1.7 trillion.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Kool G Rap and DJ Polo's "Road to the Riches." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr

Continue reading "Hear: Godzillions On Parade" >

Where'd the economy go? Bob Barsanti

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- The last time we talked about mark-to-market accounting, a whole bunch of you wrote back, "Enron." And you were right. Bloomberg columnist and former WSJ reporter Jonathan Weil reported in 2000 on how Enron used market-to-market to create mammoth earnings. Now Weil tells you why he thinks banks should have to stick with the system now.

-- Everything you want to know about a community, you can find out from its newspaper -- especially its classified ads. Bob Barsanti, a teacher, has been tracking the ads on Nantucket island with his classes. If you're looking to rent, he says, you're in luck.

-- A couple of execs from the Minnesota Federal Reserve wrote a book five years ahead of its time. Gary Stern and Ron Feldman's Too Big to Fail: The Hazards of Bank Bailouts hit the world in 2004. It's growing more relevant by the day.

Bonus: Tips from the SEC.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Wolf Parade's "Shine a Light." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr

Continue reading "Hear: Too Big For That" >

Looking for work in Manhattan. Caitlin Kenney/NPR/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- When you need help installing a giant computer system, you might call someone like Brian McCaffrey, and these days you might be looking to pay less for that help. The IT recruiter says he's seeing hourly wage cuts of 30 percent for skilled workers on big-ticket projects.

-- Another big bailout is on the way, reports the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ says the Treasury Deparment is now aiming to extend help to life insurers as part of the TARP program. It's a complicated endeavor, one that runs the gamut from your premiums to mortgage-backed securities. Rolfe Winkler of Option Armageddon walks us through.

Bonus: Commuters of the world, sing out.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Ernie and the Automatics' "The Good Times (Never Last)." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr

Continue reading "Hear: The Next Big Bailout" >

Looking for work in Washington State. GustavoG/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- What's a lovely coat in London got to do with delicious pita in Cairo? More than you might expect, as Chana Joffe-Walt discovers.

-- Until the financial crisis began, Brandon Mitchell had been happily freelancing as an IT consultant for years. Now his work has dwindled by 75 percent. Sara Horowitz of the Freelancers Union suggests its time for new ways of tracking, and helping, the nation's self-employed.

Bonus: Google toolbar suggests socialism.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Peter Bjorn and John's "Nothing to Worry About." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr

Continue reading "Hear: That Lime Green Coat" >

Neighborhood, interrupted. aimeesblog/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- World leaders emerged from the G20 summit with a $1.1 trillion plan for saving the global economy, plus a communique that talked like a Hallmark Card and walked like vintage John Wayne. The IMF got a ton of new money for helping poor nations. Continental Europe got a call for new financial regulation. The one big player who got almost nothing, says economist Adam Posen, was China.

-- Gather 'round, economy nerds. This week the Financial Accounting Standards Board gave banks a break from mark-to-market accounting. Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson tease apart the knotty questions of what this means, why this matters, and who won what.

-- Listener Aimee Ennis checks in from Clover, South Carolina, where her new neighborhood looks to be on hold and her home value maybe isn't what it used to be.

Bonus: Vending machine goes from dollars to coins.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Citizen Cope's "Let the Drummer Kick." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr

Continue reading "Hear: Accounting Rules" >

Reading your mind in LaBelle, Florida Brian Reed/NPR

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- The leaders of 20 nations walk into a room. . . .and solve the whole economic mess in a day. Don't laugh -- that's the aim of the G20 summit in London tomorrow. Adam Posen, deputy director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, helped the U.K. think through its agenda. He'll be sitting in the good seats all day Thursday. (More: Posen's group letter to the Financial Times, reg. req'd.)

-- For ordinary folks just trying to save money, feeling safe is all about the FDIC. Chana Joffe-Walt tracks an FDIC takeover of a failed bank (full tape). Then John Bovenzi, the FDIC's chief operating officer, tells us why his agency can still handle the load.

Bonus: Where are the women economists?

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Starship's "We Built This City." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr

Continue reading "Hear: Banking On The FDIC" >

Trading up. Beerzie Boy/Planet Money Flickr group

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- President Barack Obama has a plan for the American automobile industry, as Chrysler and GM seek more loans from the government. Chrysler plant worker Joe Grassi considers the news that Washington wants his company to partner up with Fiat. Yale Law School professor Jonathan Macey says the government was right to ask GM CEO Rick Wagoner to step down, even if the request was unprecedented. Macey has been calling for Wagoner's ouster for months.

-- If Americans are saving too little and the Japanese are saving too much, how much would be just right? The market knows, says economist Kent Smetters of the Wharton school of business.

Bonus: What you've been reading today, after the jump.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: White Rabbits' "Right Where They Left." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr

Continue reading "Hear: Save Me" >

A never completed Sonic drive-through in Sacramento, CA. beerzie boy/Planet Money Flickr pool

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- The Treasury Department released a framework for regulating the financial industry this week. The plan calls for creating a systemic risk regulator to manage "certain large, interconnected firms and markets." While we still don't who is going to get the gig, the implications of the decisions they make will affect us for years to come. Adam Davidson lays out some of the possibilities.

-- How you react to the other plan the Treasury Department announced this week, the one to get toxic assets off bank balance sheets, depends a lot on what you think is the problem with the banks in the first place. Is it a solvency or a liquidity crisis? Gregg Berman of Risk Metrics Group explains the difference between the two, using $50 million and an envelope.

-- We've been looking for the bad guys in this financial crisis, but so far we haven't had much luck. Today we go to an expert, Neil Barofsky is the Special Inspector General for the TARP, the man charged with finding out who might be trying to defraud the government out of billions of dollars in bailout money.

Bonus: A letter from the Netherlands, after the jump.

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Continue reading "Hear: In Search Of Bad Guys" >

Hans Ohman and Kjell Persson employees of crane and forklift manufacturer HIAB in Sweden. The company just fired 200 people. Hasse Persson/Swedish Radio

 

On today's Planet Money:

-- We take another look at the Treasury Department's plan to help banks get toxic assets off their books. Adam Davidson breaks down three different theories on whether or not the plan will actually work.

-- Our global recession anger tour takes off -- with stops in China, Sweden and Egypt. In China, NPR correspondent Lisa Lim gives us the view from students and teachers at the China Center for Economic Studies in Shanghai. Sweden comes to us, when Swedish Public Radio reporter Linnea Ericsson stops by the studio to talk layoffs and unions. And from Egypt, Dr. Hani Henry shares the story of Cairo's own Bernie Madoff.

Bonus: Angry in New Zealand, after the jump.

Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Phoenix's "1901." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr

Continue reading "Hear: Global Frustration " >