Accessibility links
A laid-off worker; her landlord; the multi-trillion-dollar mortgage market. : Planet Money We follow the distress from a laid-off worker, to her landlord, to the multi-trillion-dollar mortgage market. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Planet Money

What If No One Pays Rent?

What If No One Pays Rent?

Listen · 21:59
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/830237502/854881426" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
A dusting of snow covers block after block of row houses, which stand behind the restaurant which originated the Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich. (Photo by © Ted Spiegel/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
Enlarge this image
Ted Spiegel/Corbis via Getty Images
A dusting of snow covers block after block of row houses, which stand behind the restaurant which originated the Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich. (Photo by © Ted Spiegel/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
Ted Spiegel/Corbis via Getty Images

As a result of this crisis, millions of people have lost their jobs, but their bills haven't stopped coming in. Now they're making hard choices about whether to pay the rent, or the mortgage.

In this episode, we follow the chain from a laid-off worker who can no longer afford her rent, to her landlord, and all the way to the multi-trillion-dollar global mortgage market.

Music: "Smoothie," "Theme From A Dream Sequence," and "Strelitzia Number 5."

Find us: Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts and NPR One.

For more economic news made bite-sized, subscribe to our Newsletter.