Planet Money

Planet Money

Wanna see a trick? Give us any topic and we can tie it back to the economy. At Planet Money, we explore the forces that shape our lives and bring you along for the ride. Don't just understand the economy – understand the world.Wanna go deeper? Subscribe to Planet Money+ and get sponsor-free episodes of Planet Money, The Indicator, and Planet Money Summer School. Plus access to bonus content. It's a new way to support the show you love. Learn more at plus.npr.org/planetmoney

  1. Venezuela’s recent economic history (Update)

    49 MIN AGO

    Venezuela’s recent economic history (Update)

    We’ve been checking in on the economic conditions in Venezuela for about a decade now. In response to the U.S. strike and the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro this weekend, we’re re-surfacing this episode with an update. The original version ran in 2016, with an update in 2024. Back in 2016, things were pretty bad in Venezuela. Grocery stores didn’t have enough food. Hospitals didn’t have basic supplies, like gauze. Child mortality was spiking. Businesses were shuttering. It was one of the epic economic collapses of our time. And it was totally avoidable. Venezuela used to be a relatively rich country. It has just about all the economic advantages a country could ask for: Beautiful beaches and mountains ready for tourism, fertile land good for farming, an educated population, and oil, lots and lots of oil. But during the boom years, the Venezuelan government made some choices that add up to an economic time bomb. Today on the show, we run through the decisions that foreshadowed the collapse, and we hear from people in Venezuela in 2016 at a particularly low point for the economy, then again and in 2024 after a bounce back and a stabilization, in part due to the unlikely impact of the U.S. dollar.  Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter. This original episode was hosted by Robert Smith and Noel King. It was produced by Nick Fountain and Sally Helm. Our update in 2024 was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk, produced by Sean Saldana, fact checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Neal Rauch. Today's episode was hosted by Kenny Malone and produced by James Sneed. Alex Goldmark is our Executive Producer.  For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator and Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

    22 min
  2. Indicators of the Year, Past and Future

    4 DAYS AGO

    Indicators of the Year, Past and Future

    2025 is finally over. It was a wild year for the U.S. economy. Tariffs transformed global trading, consumer sentiment hit near-historic lows, and stocks hit dramatic new heights! So … which of these economic stories defined the year? We will square off in a family feud to make our case, debate, and decide it.  Also, as we enter 2026, we are watching the trends and planning out what next years stories are likely to be. So we’re picking  which indicators will become next years most telling.  On today’s episode, our indicators of this past year AND our top indicator predictions for 2026. Related episodes: The Indicators of this year and next (2024) This indicator hasn’t flashed this red since the dot-com bubble  What would it mean to actually refund the tariffs? What AI data centers are doing to your electric bill  What indicators will 2025 bring?  Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter. This episode of Planet Money was produced by James Sneed. The episodes of The Indicator were produced by Angel Carreras, edited by Julia Ritchey, engineered by Robert Rodrigez and Kwesi Lee, and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Kate Concannon is the editor of the Indicator. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.  For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator and Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

    18 min
  3. Why economists got free trade with China so wrong

    5 DAYS AGO

    Why economists got free trade with China so wrong

    With the year coming to a close, we're sharing our most popular Planet Money bonus episode of 2025!  As U.S. trade with China exploded in the early 2000's, American manufacturing began to shrivel. Those workers struggled to adapt and find new jobs. It ran counter to how mainstream economics at the time viewed free trade ... that it would be a clear win for the U.S. Greg Rosalsky talks with David Autor about why economists got free trade with China so wrong.  Autor, an MIT economics professor, and his colleagues published a series of eye-opening studies over the last 15 years or so that brought to light the costs of U.S. trade with China. We also hear Autor's thoughts on the role of tariffs and get an update on his research. With better, more precise data, Autor says we have a more nuanced and "bleaker" picture of what happened to these manufacturing workers.  You can read about Autor's research and sign up for The Planet Money Newsletter here.  To hear more bonus content like this and support NPR and public media, sign up for Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. Regular episodes remain free to listen! Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

    26 min
  4. The Rest of the Story, 2025

    26/12/2025

    The Rest of the Story, 2025

    Most stories keep going even after we set down our microphones and the music fades up. That's why, at the end of each year, we look back and we take stock.  We call this tradition "The Rest of the Story." And we bring you updates on the stories we've reported, and from the people we've met along the way. Today, we check in on an engineer and patent attorney who made a safer saw; we get an update on the Planet Money game; an update on money in Gaza; and we have updates on a diamond that may or may not have had a second life.  Listen to the original stories: The Subscription Trap  Planet Money buys a mystery diamond  In Gaza, money is falling apart  BOARD GAMES 1: We're making a game   How to save 10,000 fingers  This episode of Planet Money was produced by Luis Gallo, edited by Alex Goldmark, fact-checked by Vito Emanuel, and engineered by Debbie Daughtry. Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+ Play the new version of our game here. Version 4. Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.  Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

    28 min
  5. The summer I turned binge-y

    24/12/2025

    The summer I turned binge-y

    On the eve of Netflix shoveling a fourish-hour chunk of Stranger Things onto Christmas Day, we visit the past, present, and future of binge-dropped television shows.  The strategy of releasing an entire season at the same time has been key to taking Netflix from a little startup that used to lend us DVDs in the mail … to a company so big and powerful, it is maybe going to buy Warner Brothers and own Bugs Bunny and Tony Soprano and the Harry Potter movies. But even Netflix may be flirting with some slightly less binge-y models of content release. Are we entering … the end of the binge drop? On our latest: what data tells us about binge watching. Was it the greatest business decision, and who does binge watching really benefit?  Here’s some of the research.  Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter. This episode was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Meg Cramer. It was fact-checked by Dania Suleman and engineered by Maggie Luthar. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

    31 min
  6. What AI data centers are doing to your electric bill

    20/12/2025

    What AI data centers are doing to your electric bill

    As a country, we are spending more to get data centers up and running than we spent to build the entire interstate highway system. (Yes, that’s inflation-adjusted.) With tech companies spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI, data centers have kind of become the thing in the US economy.  But along with that growth have come a lot of questions. Like where is all the electricity to run these data centers supposed to come from? And how much are residential customers’ electric bills increasing as a result? On today’s episode, we go to Ohio to trace one electric bill back to its source, to see what exactly is causing the big price increases people are seeing. We take a tour of a data center hot spot, and get to the bottom of how prices are set from inside the power company. Related episodes: - Asking for a friend … which jobs are safe from AI?  - No AI data centers in my backyard!  - What $10 billion in data centers actually gets you  - Is AI overrated or underrated?  - Green energy gridlock Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter. Today's show was hosted by Keith Romer and Jeff Guo. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Jess Jiang and fact checked by Sierra Juarez and Vito Emanuel. It was engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.  Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

    32 min
  7. PM does a pop culture draft: 1999 edition

    17/12/2025

    PM does a pop culture draft: 1999 edition

    Welcome to the inaugural Planet Money Pop Culture Draft! In today's episode (a Planet Money+ episode we’re releasing into the main feed) we're gonna go back to the year 1999. Three hosts, Kenny Malone, Wailin Wong, and Jeff Guo, go head to head and each drafts a “team” of economic pop culture. So a movie, a song, and a wild card pick that best represents the Planet Money spirit! It could be a movie related to business or maybe a song about money … as long as it came out in 1999! Listen to hear each of them make the case for why their team should be crowned the winner! If you want more bonus episodes like this one and to support our work, sign up for Planet Money+. Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter. This episode was hosted by Kenny Malone, Wailin Wong, and Jeff Guo. It was produced by Viet Le and edited by Planet Money’s executive producer Alex Goldmark. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

    55 min
  8. When Chicago pawned its parking meters

    12/12/2025

    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 resources the city had, and thought, ‘Any of this worth anything?’ They opted to lease out the city’s metered parking system — to privatize all 36,000 of its parking meters.  The plan: have private companies bid on operating the meters, modernizing the system, and keeping the profits for a certain number of years. In exchange, they would give Chicago a big lump sum payment. The winning bid was $1.16 billion dollars for a 75-year lease.  Today’s episode is the story of how that bid got put together, and how it came to be hated. There are kidnapped parking meters, foot chases through City Hall, and trash bags filled with secret documents.  Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. /  Subscribe to Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter. This episode was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Luis Gallo and Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Vito Emanuel and engineered by Cena Loffredo and Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

    31 min
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Hosts & Guests

4.5
out of 5
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About

Wanna see a trick? Give us any topic and we can tie it back to the economy. At Planet Money, we explore the forces that shape our lives and bring you along for the ride. Don't just understand the economy – understand the world.Wanna go deeper? Subscribe to Planet Money+ and get sponsor-free episodes of Planet Money, The Indicator, and Planet Money Summer School. Plus access to bonus content. It's a new way to support the show you love. Learn more at plus.npr.org/planetmoney

Information

  • Channel
    Planet Money
  • Creator
    NPR
  • Years Active
    2008 - 2026
  • Episodes
    629
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2015-2021 NPR - For Personal Use Only
  • Show Website
    Planet Money

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