Hear: News Of Their Demise
Feeling it in Kansas City. JL Johnson hide caption
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.
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Matt Mendola writes:
I just listened to the April 24 podcast and thought I would write in to describe an example of the "denomination effect" I experienced yesterday.
I went down to the local Big Apple gas station to buy a pint of Ben & Jerry's and noticed a sign taped to the counter asking customers to buy rolls of quarters. This gas station does a lot of business selling cigarettes, soda and cheap beer, High Gravity Lager in particular. It didn't register why they'd have so many quarters on hand, but the guy behind me, who was, in fact, about to buy three or four pints of High Gravity, immediately knew what it was, and commented about the economy, and how people are going through their couch cushions and such, scrounging up loose change for their day to day purchases.
I bought a roll, just to have quarters stockpiled for laundry. I felt a little guilty handing the cashier a twenty, even though he thanked me profusely.