Beschikbare afleveringen

• When Chicago pawned its parking meters

  In 2008, Chicago’s budget was in a bad place. The city needed money. One way to raise money was to increase property taxes, but what politician wants to do that? So instead, Mayor Richard M. Daley’s administration looked around at the...

  13 dec 2025 1856 sec.

• Strange threadfellows: How the U.S. military shaped what we all wear

  From nuclear fission to GPS to the internet, it’s common knowledge that many of the most resource intensive technologies of the last century got their start as military R&D projects in government-funded labs. But as Avery Trufelman...

  10 dec 2025 2170 sec.

• How hurricanes became a hot investment

  A few years ago, the Jamaican government started making an unusual financial bet. It went to investors around the world asking if they'd like to wager on the chances a major hurricane would hit the island in the next couple of years. In...

  6 dec 2025 1857 sec.

• Is AI slopifying the job market? (Two Indicators)

  Vote for us in NPR’s People’s Choice Awards: npr.org/peopleschoice   AI is already reshaping how people find work. Fewer entry-level jobs, robot recruiters, and ever-changing new skill requirements all add up to a new, daunting...

  3 dec 2025 1136 sec.

• Capitalism (Taylor's Version) (25-minute Podcast Version)

  Taylor Swift reaches new heights with her latest album, which is both divisive and record-breaking. And it’s fueled by an elaborate series of business choices that propel profits but also chart numbers. Today’s episode comes from our...

  28 nov 2025 1470 sec.

• Saving lives with fewer dollars

  Givewell is a nonprofit organization that gives money to “save or improve the most lives per dollar.” Part of their whole thing is a rigorous research process with copious and specific datapoints. So, in the chaotic wake of USAID’s...

  27 nov 2025 1957 sec.

• The Consumer Sentiment vs. Consumer Spending Puzzle

  Wherever consumer sentiment goes, consumer spending usually goes too. They’re like buddies that do everything together. Consumer sentiment wants a hair cut, its buddy consumer spending does too.But lately, these friends are drifting...

  21 nov 2025 1198 sec.

• Days of our Tariffs

  Tariffs. They’ve been announced, unannounced, re-announced, raised and lowered. It’s an on-going saga with billions at stake! On today’s episode, we run full-on at the twisty, turny drama of life with broad-based tariffs and tackle...

  19 nov 2025 1803 sec.

• The obscure pool of money the US used to bail out Argentina

  Last month, during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the United States had offered to functionally loan Argentina $20 billion. Despite the sums involved, this bailout...

  15 nov 2025 1757 sec.

• Buy now, pay dearly? (update)

  (Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2022.)Every time you shop online and make it to the checkout screen, you see those colorful pastel buttons at the bottom. Affirm. Klarna. Afterpay. Asking: Do you want to split your...

  12 nov 2025 1509 sec.

• A new experiment in remote work … from the inside

  When people in Maine prisons started getting laptops to use in their cells for online classes and homework, it sparked this new idea. Could they have laptops in their cells to work remotely for real outside world jobs, too??? And get...

  7 nov 2025 1696 sec.

• Everything’s more expensive!! Pet care!! Concert tickets!! (Two Indicators)

  People in the U.S. are feeling the financial squeeze, in part because of rising inflation, higher consumer prices and slowing job growth. The Indicator from Planet Money is tackling a special series on the rising cost of living. Today,...

  5 nov 2025 1059 sec.