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Currency

Episode 771: When India's Cash Disappeared, Part Two

People line up outside a bank to exchange old currency notes with new ones on November 10, 2016 in New Delhi India. Shams Qari/Barcroft Media via Getty Images hide caption

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Shams Qari/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Currency

Episode 771: When India's Cash Disappeared, Part Two

May 12, 2017 • What happened when India's Prime Minister declared most of the paper money in India worthless? We travel to India to see what happened after the country's demonetization.

Episode 771: When India's Cash Disappeared, Part Two

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Episode 770: When India's Cash Disappeared, Part One

Anil Bokil, a mechanical engineer by training, had a plan for demonetization. He presented it to now Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2013. Chhavi Sachdev /NPR hide caption

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Chhavi Sachdev /NPR

Currency

Episode 770: When India's Cash Disappeared, Part One

May 10, 2017 • Something incredible happened in India about six months ago. The government declared most of the paper money invalid. Demonetization they called it. Today, we meet the man who came up with the plan.

Episode 770: When India's Cash Disappeared, Part One

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Episode 667: Auditing ISIS

Uncredited/AP

Currency

Episode 667: Auditing ISIS

December 4, 2015 • What happens when ISIS takes over your city? Today on the show: We meet a man who lived in ISIS controlled territory. He talks about paying taxes, where he kept his money and a $50 candy bar.

Episode 667: Auditing ISIS

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Episode 665: The Pickle Problem

Currency

Episode 665: The Pickle Problem

November 25, 2015 • A national network of food banks couldn't figure out how to get the right food to the right place at the right time. So they tried a bold experiment: the free market.

Episode 665: The Pickle Problem

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Episode 662: OMG TPP

Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

Currency

Episode 662: OMG TPP

November 6, 2015 • The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership isn't secret anymore. We dove in. From tariffs for waterproof overalls to copyright rules, we tell you what we found. Also, a way countries can get around it.

Episode 662: OMG TPP

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Episode 253: Gold Standard, R.I.P.

Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England, c. 1930 Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Currency

Episode 253: Gold Standard, R.I.P.

January 16, 2015 • On today's Planet Money: The gold standard and the Great Depression. It's the latest in our gold series.

Episode 253: Gold Standard, R.I.P.

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Episode 252: The Gold Standard

David Kestenbaum/NPR

Currency

Episode 252: The Gold Standard

January 14, 2015 • We visit the respected finance writer (and charming curmudgeon) James Grant. He makes the case for going back on the gold standard.

Episode 252: The Gold Standard

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Should We Kill The $100 Bill?

Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images

Radio

Should We Kill The $100 Bill?

August 14, 2014 • Nearly 80 percent of all the U.S. currency in the world is in $100 bills. But some people want to get rid of the bill altogether.

Should We Kill The $100 Bill?

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Episode 560: Hunting For The Hundreds

SERGIO GOYA/DPA /Landov

Currency

Episode 560: Hunting For The Hundreds

August 13, 2014 • Most U.S. cash is in $100 bills, but you rarely see them. Today on the show, where in the world are all the $100s? And what are they being used for?

Episode 560: Hunting For The Hundreds

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Episode 553: The Dollar At The Center Of The World

Thomas D. McAvoy/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty

Currency

Episode 553: The Dollar At The Center Of The World

July 16, 2014 • Today on the show, how a New Hampshire hotel filled with boozing economists saved the global economy.

Episode 553: The Dollar At The Center Of The World

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A Venture Capitalist Is Betting A Pair Of Socks (And $50 Million) On Bitcoin's Future

Marc van der Chijs/Flickr

Currency

A Venture Capitalist Is Betting A Pair Of Socks (And $50 Million) On Bitcoin's Future

February 5, 2014 • A leading investor thinks bitcoin is going to change the world. A prominent writer disagrees. They make a bet about what we'll be using for money in 2019.

A Venture Capitalist Is Betting A Pair Of Socks (And $50 Million) On Bitcoin's Future

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Episode 515: A Bet Over Bitcoin

Marc van der Chijs/Flickr

Currency

Episode 515: A Bet Over Bitcoin

February 5, 2014 • A big-time venture capitalist thinks bitcoin will change the world. A prominent writer thinks bitcoin is going to disappear. On today's show, they make a long-term bet on bitcoin's future.

Episode 515: A Bet Over Bitcoin

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Paper Or Plastic: How Americans Buy Stuff, In 1 Graph

adfa

Currency

Paper Or Plastic: How Americans Buy Stuff, In 1 Graph

January 15, 2014 • Americans use debit cards more often than any other form of payment. Cash is still used more often than credit cards.

A Bitcoin Insider On Crime, Congress And Satoshi Nakamoto

This is not a bitcoin. eagleapex's posterous/Flickr hide caption

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eagleapex's posterous/Flickr

Radio

A Bitcoin Insider On Crime, Congress And Satoshi Nakamoto

November 22, 2013 • "This little baby — what my wife used to call my 'pretend money project' — is really going mainstream," says the chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation.

A Bitcoin Insider On Crime, Congress And Satoshi Nakamoto

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Episode 371: Where Dollar Bills Come From

Robert Benincasa/NPR

Currency

Episode 371: Where Dollar Bills Come From

September 25, 2013 • On today's show, every single dollar bill in the world — every $20, every $100, everything — is printed on paper made at one small mill in Massachusetts. That's been the case for 130 years.

Episode 371: Where Dollar Bills Come From

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Currency: The U.S. Is Dominant, Europe Is Fading, And China Is Irrelevant (For Now)

Quoctrung Bui / NPR

Currency

Currency: The U.S. Is Dominant, Europe Is Fading, And China Is Irrelevant (For Now)

September 24, 2013 • Roughly $5 trillion worth of currency is traded every day. Here's how that money is spread among the world's currencies — and how the picture has changed in the past few years.

Episode 369: If Teens Ran The Fed

Future central bankers of Ridgefield High Jacob Goldstein/NPR hide caption

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Jacob Goldstein/NPR

Currency

Episode 369: If Teens Ran The Fed

September 18, 2013 • If you're a high school student and you dream of holding the U.S. economy in the palm of your hand — if you want the power to control interest rates and to print money out of thin air — the Fed Challenge is for you.

Episode 369: If Teens Ran The Fed

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The World Capital Of Counterfeit Dollars

A policeman shows printed sheets of counterfeit bills seized by Peruvian police. AFP/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Currency

The World Capital Of Counterfeit Dollars

September 5, 2013 • Making fake dollars is big business in Peru, where counterfeiters hire people to finish each bill by hand.

Why (Almost) No One In Myanmar Wanted My Money

Lam Thuy Vo / NPR

Radio

Why (Almost) No One In Myanmar Wanted My Money

May 10, 2013 • Like people in other countries that have gone through economic turmoil, people in Myanmar want U.S. dollars that look like they just rolled off the presses.

Why (Almost) No One In Myanmar Wanted My Money

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Adam Davidson Talks Bitcoin With Stephen Colbert

Colbert Report

Currency

Adam Davidson Talks Bitcoin With Stephen Colbert

April 18, 2013 • Colbert wants to know: Should he buy bitcoin?

Most $100 Bills Live Outside The U.S.

An employee at a money changer counts $100 bills in Manila on October 25, 2012. NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images

Currency

Most $100 Bills Live Outside The U.S.

April 17, 2013 • The share of $100s held outside the U.S. has been rising for decades. That's good news for the U.S. economy.

Episode 450: Bitcoin Goes To The Moon

eagleapex's posterous/Flickr

Currency

Episode 450: Bitcoin Goes To The Moon

April 9, 2013 • The value of the virtual currency is skyrocketing. Is that good or bad for bitcoin's future?

Episode 450: Bitcoin Goes To The Moon

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What If You Couldn't Take Your Money To Another State?

What if this wasn't worth $1? ceoln/Flickr hide caption

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ceoln/Flickr

Currency

What If You Couldn't Take Your Money To Another State?

March 27, 2013 • You'd be free to leave the state, as long as you left your money behind. That's essentially what it's like now for people in Cyprus.

If The Fed Loses Money, It Can Just Print More

What, me worry? Wikimedia Commons hide caption

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Wikimedia Commons

Currency

If The Fed Loses Money, It Can Just Print More

January 30, 2013 • A snake-eating-its-tail thing happens when you think certain thoughts about money and the Federal Reserve.

Episode 421: The Birth Of The Dollar Bill

Museum of the City of New York

Currency

Episode 421: The Birth Of The Dollar Bill

December 7, 2012 • Before the Civil War, there were 8,000 different kinds of money in the United States. On today's show, we figure out how this world worked. And explain how the war changed everything.

Episode 421: The Birth Of The Dollar Bill

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