NPR: Planet Money
Money makes the world go around, faster and faster every day. On NPR's Planet Money, you'll meet high rollers, brainy economists and regular folks -- all trying to make sense of our rapidly changing global economy.
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#583: Cow Noir
On September 9th, BJ Holloway's life savings were stolen. His ...
On September 9th, BJ Holloway's life savings were stolen. His 6 cows were taken in the dead of the night from his land in Spencer, Oklahoma. BJ looked everywhere for his stolen cattle. He asked his neighbors. He filed a police report. But out in Oklahoma, when cows are stolen, it's hard to find the thief. The cows all look alike, and the evidence disappears when they're turned into steaks. Luckily for BJ, there's a cattle cop on his case, Jerry Flowers. Flowers is a special agent in charge of the law enforcement section for the Oklahoma Department of Argiculture, and he's determined to find the outlaws who took BJ's cattle. Today on the show, Jerry Flowers chases the bad guys.
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#582: Guarding The Secret Path
In west Africa right now, there are two kinds of ...
In west Africa right now, there are two kinds of countries: Those that have Ebola and those that do not. Liberia for instance, has reported more than 6,000 cases of Ebola and 2,697 people have died. Right next door, in the country of Ivory Coast, there have been zero cases. Zero. Ivory Coast would desperately like to stay in that zero category. The solution that Ivory Coast has come up with to stay Ebola free is simple. Ivory Coast will shut down its border. It will stop trade with Liberia, stop commerce and stop people from coming in. On a map, a border is a simple thing: A clear thick line. On the ground, its anything but simple. On the ground in Ivory Coast, there are vast parts of the border with no signs, no guards, and only a secret path through the forest. Today on the show, we go to a tiny tiny town on the border between Ivory Coast and Liberia. On one side of the line, Ebola is raging. The other side is Ebola-free so far. We ask: How do you close a border? And can you really?
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#581: Free Money
There's a term in economics, arbitrage, that basically means free ...
There's a term in economics, arbitrage, that basically means free money. It's finding a difference in price, a pricing mistake, you can exploit to make money. Arbitrage is a risk-free way to buy low and sell high. Everyday there are loads of people and sophisticated computer algorithms searching for an arbitrage opportunity, but true arbitrages are almost impossible to find.Today on the show, we meet two guys who say they've found one, and we visit the storage locker in Utah where they keep their secret.
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#580: The Other Side Of The Pump
A gallon of gas is selling at some pumps for ...
A gallon of gas is selling at some pumps for less than $3 right now. The price has been falling since early summer, and local TV news reporters are out at gas stations asking people 'how happy do you feel?' Today on the show, two stories from the other side of the pump. Stories about the people who get the oil out of the ground. We meet a producer that you never hear from. And tell the story of an organization so powerful that it ruled the global economy. Or people thought it did. For more: http://n.pr/1shpEMo
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#579: Is The NCAA An Illegal Cartel?
In big-time college football or basketball, money is everywhere. From ...
In big-time college football or basketball, money is everywhere. From giant TV contracts, to million-dollar coaches' salaries, to deals with shoe companies. But it's against NCAA rules for colleges to pay athletes. On today's show, we ask: Is the NCAA's ban on paying athletes legal?
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#578: How To Steal A Million Barrels Of Oil
In Nigeria, millions of gallons of oil are stolen all ...
In Nigeria, millions of gallons of oil are stolen all the time. There are advertisements for stolen oil on the Nigerian version of Craigslist, and not JUST small containers. The advertisements are for giant tankers full of oil. Today on the show, how to steal hundreds of thousands of oil every single day. To steal oil takes an entire global system. Lots of people are in on it. Small time crooks and criminal bosses, the owners of oil tankers and corrupt officials. We'll show you how they get away with it. For more: http://n.pr/1wdEoB4
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#400: What Two Pasta Factories Tell Us About The Italian Economy
Note: Today's show is a rerun. It originally ran in September ...
Note: Today's show is a rerun. It originally ran in September 2012. A decade ago, the Barilla pasta factory in Foggia, Italy, had a big problem with people skipping work. The absentee rate was around 10 percent. People called in sick all the time, typically on Mondays, or on days when there was a big soccer game. Foggia is in southern Italy. Barilla's big factory in northern Italy had a much lower absentee rate. This is not surprising; there's a huge economic gap between southern and northern Italy. It's like two different countries. Barilla execs told Nicola Calandrea, the manager of the Foggia plant, that they would close the factory unless he brought the absenteeism rate down. Calandrea decided that to save the factory, he had to change the culture. On today's show, we visit the factory and hear how Calandrea made it work. For more: http://n.pr/1w0OpkT
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#577: The Kansas Experiment
Today on the show, a Republican governor lives the dream. ...
Today on the show, a Republican governor lives the dream. He cuts taxes dramatically in his state, and he promises good times ahead. But the good times do not come. Now he's fighting for his political life. For more: http://n.pr/1pBNfq7
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#576: When Women Stopped Coding
Mark Zuckerberg. Bill Gates. Steve Jobs. Most of the big ...
Mark Zuckerberg. Bill Gates. Steve Jobs. Most of the big names in technology are men. But a lot of computing pioneers, the ones who programmed the first digital computers, were women. And for decades, the number of women in computer science was growing. But in 1984, something changed. The number of women in computer science flattened, and then plunged. Today on the show, what was going on in 1984 that made so many women give up on computer science? We unravel a modern mystery in the U.S. labor force.
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#381: Why It's Illegal To Braid Hair Without A License
Note: Today's show is a rerun. It originally ran in June ...
Note: Today's show is a rerun. It originally ran in June 2012. A few years ago, Jestina Clayton started a hair braiding business in her home in Centerville, Utah. The business let her stay home with her kids, and in good months, she made enough to pay for groceries. She even put an ad on a local website. Then one day she got an email from a stranger who had seen the ad. "It is illegal in the state of Utah to do any form of extensions without a valid cosmetology license," the e-mail read. "Please delete your ad, or you will be reported." To get a license, Jestina would have to spend more than a year in cosmetology school. Tuition would cost $16,000 dollars or more. On today's show: Why it was illegal to braid hair without a license in Utah. And why hundreds of licensing rules in states all around the country are a disaster for the U.S. economy. For more: http://n.pr/1Ddlj3U
