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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#429: The Price Of Things We Love
On today's show: Three short stories about the stuff we ...
On today's show: Three short stories about the stuff we buy — books, toys and clothes. 1. Are E-Books Actually Destroying Traditional Publishing? Conventional wisdom says e-books are destroying the traditional publishing business model. People pay less for e-books and that drives down price. When you talk to publishers though, you realize the story's not that simple. 2. Why Legos Are So Expensive — And So Popular Legos often cost twice as much as similar blocks from a rival toymaker. So why are Legos so much more popular than other brands? 3. 3-D Printing Is (Kind Of) A Big Deal It's miraculous to see: Press a button, make anything you want. But will it transform the economy?
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#428: Turning A Boom Town Into A Real Town
Williston, North Dakota is in the middle of an oil ...
Williston, North Dakota is in the middle of an oil boom. Thousands of workers have flooded into the town, but they're reluctant to call it home. Instead, they live in bleak rentals, often sleeping in dormitory-like rooms known as "man camps." Local officials are trying to turn Williston into a real town, where people want to bring their families. But it's a tough sell. On today's show, we visit Williston, and we learn why one guy endures a thousand-mile commute, why a one-bedroom apartment costs $2100 a month, and why the town is building an indoor lazy river.
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#427: LeBron James Is Underpaid
LeBron James, the best basketball player in the NBA, makes ...
LeBron James, the best basketball player in the NBA, makes $17.5 million a year. And he is the most underpaid professional athlete in the world today. On today's show, we explain why LeBron is getting hosed — and why that's probably a good thing for NBA fans, team owners, other pro players, and even LeBron himself.
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#297: A Big Bridge In The Wrong Place
You would never look at a map of the Hudson River, point ...
You would never look at a map of the Hudson River, point to the spot where the Tappan Zee Bridge is, and say, "Put the bridge here!"The Tappan Zee crosses one of the widest points on the Hudson — the bridge is more than three miles long. And if you go just a few miles south, the river gets much narrower.Our question for today's show: Why did they build a three-mile-long bridge when they could have built a much shorter, cheaper bridge nearby?Our search for an answer leads us to a forensic engineer, the Statue of Liberty, and a governor who wanted to be an opera singer.This episode was originally released in August, 2011.
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#426: 'The Rest Of The Story' (2012 Edition)
On today's show, we take a page from radio newscaster ...
On today's show, we take a page from radio newscaster Paul Harvey and tell you "the rest of the story." We look back at the stories we've done in 2012 and tell you what we got right, what we got wrong and how everything turned out in Belize. Plus, we try to to figure out whether that Facebook ad did anything to help Pizza Delicious.
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#238: Making Christmas More Joyful, And More Efficient
Gift-giving makes economists crazy. It's so inefficient!So we wondered: Is ...
Gift-giving makes economists crazy. It's so inefficient!So we wondered: Is there a way to make the holiday season both more efficient and more joyful?On today's Planet Money, we try to answer that question by conducting a wildly unscientific experiment. We go into a seventh-grade classroom and give a bunch of kids some small gifts — candy, raisins, fig newtons.Then we ask them how much they value what they got, and if they can think of a way to make everyone better off, without buying any more gifts. They quickly arrive at a solution: trade.Behold, the power of economics!
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#425: An FBI Hostage Negotiator Buys A Car
The fiscal cliff, for all its grand theater, really comes ...
The fiscal cliff, for all its grand theater, really comes down to people in a room trying to come to an agreement. People doing whatever it takes to get what they want from the other side. On today's show, three professional negotiators walk us through techniques that members of Congress may be using right now. They explain these techniques not with textbooks, but with examples from their everyday lives.
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#424: How Much Is A Firefighter Worth?
On today's show, we visit Fire Station Six in Contra ...
On today's show, we visit Fire Station Six in Contra Costa County, Calif.Firefighters don't go to fires as much as much as they used to. That's because, thanks to modern building codes, fires are not as common as they used to be. Yet the fire dept is still set up the same way: big trucks, lots of fire stations, and lots of firefighters who retire with lifetime pensions.Rather than close fire stations, the firefighters in Contra Costa County agreed to take a pay cut a few years back. But the county still couldn't afford the fire department.So the firefighters came up with a new plan: Ask the local citizens to support the fire department by paying higher taxes.
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#423: Just Can't Get Enough
On today's show: Three Planet Money stories that aired on ...
On today's show: Three Planet Money stories that aired on the radio but haven't yet made it into the show. Will A $1.9 Billion Settlement Change Banks' Behavior? Why The Falling Birthrate Is Bad News For My 2-Year-Old Son A Huge Pay Cut For Doctors Is Hiding In The Fiscal Cliff
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#422: Schoolhouse Rock Is A Lie (Or, How The Filibuster Ate Washington)
On our show today, we tell you everything you need ...
On our show today, we tell you everything you need to know about the filibuster, including:What Schoolhouse Rock didn't tell usWhy Aaron Burr and Jimmy Stewart are the two great villains in filibuster historyHow Senators can now filibuster bills without having to talk for hours on end
