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Planet Money Summer School Planet Money Summer School is a crash course in economics for your ears. See the world through the lens of an economist and you'll start to feel a little less overwhelmed when making financial decisions.
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Planet Money Summer School

Economics is a game you should know how to play. And once you get the fundamental concepts, you start to see it everywhere: the news, the supermarket and even your dating life. So it's time to learn the rules. Planet Money Summer School is a crash course in economics for your ears. See the world through the lens of an economist and you'll start to feel a little less overwhelmed when making financial decisions. And if you're in front of the classroom? Teachers, this is made for you, too. Let us be your breezy and fun companion to assigned readings. We'll even assign the homework (and spare you the groans). Go beyond summer school and stay up-to-date on the economy with the latest episodes of the Planet Money podcast.

SUMMER SCHOOL 1: Recessions & Rap Battles

A student discovers macroeconomics in the darkness of the Great Depression. James Yang for NPR hide caption

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James Yang for NPR

Planet Money Summer School

SUMMER SCHOOL 1: Recessions & Rap Battles

Season 3 of summer school is here asking the biggest economic questions about what makes an entire economy grow or contract.

SUMMER SCHOOL 1: Recessions & Rap Battles

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Planet Money Summer School 2: GDP & What Counts
James Yang for NPR

Planet Money

Planet Money Summer School 2: GDP & What Counts

What even is "the economy"? And how do you measure it? Our path out of the economic darkness and into the light has been guided in large part by one single statistic: GDP. This week: the origins, history, and problems with the economic indicator to rule them all. | At this Summer School, phones ARE allowed during class... Check out this week's PM TikTok! | Listen to past seasons of Summer School here.

Planet Money Summer School 2: GDP & What Counts

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Planet Money Summer School 3: Booms, Busts & Us
James Yang for NPR

Planet Money

Planet Money Summer School 3: Booms, Busts & Us

Life has its ups and downs. Same for the economy. Today we ask, can the business cycle be tamed? Two stories of recession and techniques for moderating the ferocity of booms and busts. Plus, how bankruptcy is a secret weapon of the American economy. | Subscribe to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. | At this Summer School, phones ARE allowed during class... Check out this week's PM TikTok! | Listen to past seasons of Summer School here.

Planet Money Summer School 3: Booms, Busts & Us

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Planet Money Summer School 4: Inflation & Drinking Buddies
James Yang for NPR

Planet Money

Planet Money Summer School 4: Inflation & Drinking Buddies

Inflation can be one of the scariest forces in the economy. As prices rise and your dollar doesn't go as far, you feel poorer, and it's all out of your control. To better understand inflation, we turn to the story of Brazil, where, in the 90s, hyperinflation threatened to derail the whole economy until the country turned to a group of unlikely heroes: four drinking buddies. | Subscribe to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. |At this Summer School, phones ARE allowed during class... Check out this week's PM TikTok! | Listen to past seasons of Summer School here.

Planet Money Summer School 4: Inflation & Drinking Buddies

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Planet Money Summer School 5: Car Parts, Celery & The Labor Market
James Yang for NPR

Planet Money

Planet Money Summer School 5: Car Parts, Celery & The Labor Market

You can learn a lot about a person from their job. The same can be said of an economy. The market for jobs can us a lot about how the economy is doing, but more importantly, it is where we look to see who the economy is working for, and who is left behind. In today's lesson we'll visit two workplaces each facing a different labor puzzle. At one end, there's the question of when to replace a worker with a robot, and what it is like to be that worker waiting for the robots to come. We'll also visit a farm where raising wages aren't enough to attract the workers needed to do the work. How wages are set, and who gets the raises on this session of Summer School. | Subscribe to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. |At this Summer School, phones ARE allowed during class... Check out this week's PM TikTok! | Listen to past seasons of Summer School here.

Planet Money Summer School 5: Car Parts, Celery & The Labor Market

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Planet Money Summer School 1: The Stock Market
Suharu Ogawa for NPR

Planet Money

Planet Money Summer School 1: The Stock Market

The first class of Planet Money Summer School starts off with a field trip. With the help of a cow, two economists, and three cute animals, we learn what a stock is and how stocks are priced, and we begin to see the psychological forces that make prices move up and down on the stock market. Keep an eye out throughout for our big theme for the course this summer: risk and reward. | Watch this Tik Tok to learn more and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Planet Money Summer School 1: The Stock Market

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Planet Money Summer School 2: Index Funds & The Bet
Suharu Ogawa for NPR

Planet Money

Planet Money Summer School 2: Index Funds & The Bet

In 2006, Warren Buffett bet a million dollars that the most brainless, boring investment around would do better than the researched, handpicked investments of some of the smartest hedge fund managers in the world. The second class of Summer School looks at how that bet played out, the origins of the index fund, and why it's so hard to beat the market. Returning to the underlying theme of risk and reward, we also discuss how diversification reduces risk. | Watch this Tik Tok to learn more and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Planet Money Summer School 2: Index Funds & The Bet

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Planet Money Summer School 3: Smooth Spending & The 401(k)
Suharu Ogawa for NPR

Planet Money

Planet Money Summer School 3: Smooth Spending & The 401(k)

Even if you don't own stocks, there are a lot of reasons to care about investing. We meet some of the folks left out of the stock market who deploy sophisticated economic thinking, even creating their own alternate financial systems. Our professors help us understand how consumption smoothing and life-cycle hypothesis apply to personal finance. And we meet the creator of the 401(k). | Watch this Tik Tok to learn more and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Planet Money Summer School 3: Smooth Spending & The 401(k)

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Planet Money Summer School 4: Bonds & Becky With The Good Yield
Suharu Ogawa for NPR

Planet Money

Planet Money Summer School 4: Bonds & Becky With The Good Yield

A few years back, Cardiff asked for an unusual Christmas present: a junk bond... Parallel to the stock market, the bond market offers different levels of risk and reward. In this class, what is a bond, how do they differ from stocks, and how do they help companies grow? | Watch this Tik Tok to learn more and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Planet Money Summer School 4: Bonds & Becky With The Good Yield

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Planet Money Summer School 5: Bubbles, Bikes & Biases

A profession nervously approaches a bike, while students experience the affects of a bubble. Suharu Ogawa for NPR hide caption

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Suharu Ogawa for NPR

Planet Money

Planet Money Summer School 5: Bubbles, Bikes & Biases

Investing during a bubble can leave you bust. But how to tell the difference between a bubble before it bursts and an investing rocket ship taking off? We'll run through a historical example and look inside our own thinking to find the mental biases that can contribute or exacerbate bad bubble thinking. | Watch this Tik Tok to learn more and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Planet Money Summer School 5: Bubbles, Bikes & Biases

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Planet Money Summer School 6: Crypto & Commencement

Another graduating class heads out into the world, ready to invest. Suharu Ogawa for NPR hide caption

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Planet Money

Planet Money Summer School 6: Crypto & Commencement

In the last class of Planet Money Summer School Season 2, we cover one more important market — cryptocurrency. If you're thinking about investing in crypto, do you know exactly what it is that you're buying? Or how it should (if at all) fit alongside the rest of your investments? | Watch this Tik Tok to learn more and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here. | Don't forget to take the Summer School Final Quiz.

Planet Money Summer School 6: Crypto & Commencement

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SUMMER SCHOOL 1: Choices & Dating

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Planet Money

SUMMER SCHOOL 1: Choices & Dating

First lesson: Economics is not about money. It's a lens of great power and beauty. In this episode, we meet our teachers and learn the first four fundamental concepts of economic thinking, and watch them applied to things like dating and hailing a cab. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

SUMMER SCHOOL 1: Choices & Dating

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SUMMER SCHOOL 2: Markets & Pickles

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Planet Money

SUMMER SCHOOL 2: Markets & Pickles

In our second class, we meet our old friends supply and demand and do graphs using only the power of the human voice. Then, we show you how markets can be created anywhere by telling the story of a food bank that had too many pickles and not enough pancake syrup. It's economics to the rescue. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

SUMMER SCHOOL 2: Markets & Pickles

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SUMMER SCHOOL 3: Profit & Cocaine

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Planet Money

SUMMER SCHOOL 3: Profit & Cocaine

In our third class, we take all that we've learned about decisions and markets and bring it to a former drug kingpin. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

SUMMER SCHOOL 3: Profit & Cocaine

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SUMMER SCHOOL 4: Scarcity & Pistachios

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Planet Money

SUMMER SCHOOL 4: Scarcity & Pistachios

Class 4 brings us an economic conundrum: how do you efficiently share a scarce resource? | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

SUMMER SCHOOL 4: Scarcity & Pistachios

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SUMMER SCHOOL 5: Trade & Santa

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Planet Money

SUMMER SCHOOL 5: Trade & Santa

The economics of free trade and what happens when governments get involved. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

SUMMER SCHOOL 5: Trade & Santa

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SUMMER SCHOOL 6: Taxes & Donald Duck

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SUMMER SCHOOL 6: Taxes & Donald Duck

The surprisingly entertaining history of the income tax. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

SUMMER SCHOOL 6: Taxes & Donald Duck

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SUMMER SCHOOL 8: Risk & Disaster

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Therrious Davis

Planet Money

SUMMER SCHOOL 8: Risk & Disaster

Inside one insurance policy is a world of incentives and bad behaviors. Take the final exam and get your diploma here.

SUMMER SCHOOL 8: Risk & Disaster

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SUMMER SCHOOL: Graduation!

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Planet Money

SUMMER SCHOOL: Graduation!

Summer School graduates take the stage to show us how we can all see our everyday world through the beautiful lens of economics. | Take the final exam and get your diploma here.

SUMMER SCHOOL: Graduation!

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