Planet Money

There’s a room where the fates of retail products are decided. Will they make it onto the shelves of the big box stores? Usually the rest of us can’t get inside the room where decisions are made – until now! Today on the show, we pitch the Planet Money game, Sell Me a Sasquatch, to big box retailers. We go behind the scenes to learn about how products end up on big box store shelves, what’s going on inside the minds of the deciders, and find out our board game’s fate. 

Learn more about the story of Pantone: The company that owns colors 

Support:
Planet Money+

Read: 
Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life 
Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter
Our weekly Indicator round-up newsletter

Follow: 
Instagram
TikTok
YouTube
Facebook

This episode of Planet Money was produced by Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Marianne McCune. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Robert Rodriguez and Jimmy Keeley. Planet Money’s executive producer is Alex Goldmark. 

Music: NPR Source Audio - "Silly Sevens," "Adventure Time," and "Virtual Machine"

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

This week’s stop on our world tour - Korea. A country divided into two very different power structures since the end of WWII. Today South Korea is the maker of some of the world’s favorite exports – from Samsung TV’s to BTS. But 75 years ago it was a much different story. How the textile industry and a partnership with Bangladesh lifted the country out of poverty and paved the way for rapid economic growth.

Then later in this episode – how entrepreneurial endeavors look different on the other side of the 38th parallel. We’ll follow a woman who started her own small business selling goods in North Korea. How are the Donju, members of the affluent entrepreneurial class, faring and can capitalism exist in a highly restrictive socialist society?

Featured Episodes:

Richard Nixon, Kimchi and the first clothing factory in Bangladesh (2013)
North Korea's Capitalists (2017)

Featured Terms: 

Volatility
Inflation expectations
Capital controls
Austerity

Support:

NPR+ (sponsor-free listening & bonus episodes) 
And please click “follow” in your podcast app so you don’t miss an episode.

Read: 

Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life (Audiobook here) 
Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter
Our weekly Indicator link round-up newsletter

Follow: 

Instagram
TikTok
YouTube
Facebook

This episode of Planet Money Summer School is hosted by Robert Smith. It was produced by Schuyler Swenson and Sophia Paliza-Carre and edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark. It was fact-checked by Charlotte Isidore and engineered by Annlie Huang.

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. Planet Money's perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Some of the biggest firms on Wall Street are, at this very moment, waiting for thousands of strangers to die to reap their returns. Because there’s a market for life insurance policies. And it’s legal.

You don’t have to actually die to get some of your life insurance money. Thanks to a secondary market for life insurance policies, you might be able to claw back money from beyond the grave. You just sell your policy to an investor. So when you die, the payout goes to them, instead of your family or beneficiary. 

On today’s show, how the wheels of finance transformed a desperate deal made during the AIDS crisis into a multi-billion dollar industry. 

Support:
Planet Money+
Read: 
Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life
Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter
Our weekly Indicator round-up newsletter
Follow: 
Instagram
TikTok
YouTube
Facebook
This episode was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Marianne McCune and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Just about everyone in Argentina is an expert in inflation and whether they like it or not, economic flexibility. Can we learn from them? 

Over the years, we at Planet Money have checked in on Argentina as it tried to recover from economic collapse in 2001 and 2002, and as inflation shot up and the country defaulted on its debts. This week on our Summer School World Tour, we fly to Buenos Aires, mapping the moves of their economy through the eyes of people who live there – from tango classes and shoe shopping to a Coldplay concert that sparked a special exchange rate. 

We’ll consider the different attempts from the government to staunch inflation and why they’ve led to so many unintended consequences. But the heart of this week’s trip is the resilience of everyday economic actors, regular people. When the value of your currency is so in flux, average people become monetary contortionists just to navigate work, shopping, saving and to keep small businesses afloat. This adaptability becomes a special kind of skill and wisdom. So, we’re harvesting that everyday economic insight for tips on how we can all face uncertainty a little better. And, to appreciate the high costs of volatility. 

Featured Episodes:

Messi economics (2022)
A black market, a currency crisis and a tango competition in Argentina (2023)
The high cost of a strong dollar (2022)

Featured Terms: 

Volatility
Inflation expectations
Capital controls
Austerity
Support:

NPR+ (sponsor-free listening & bonus episodes) 
And please click “follow” in your podcast app so you don’t miss an episode.

Read: 

Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life (Audiobook here) 
Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter
Our weekly Indicator link round-up newsletter

Follow: 

Instagram
TikTok
YouTube
Facebook

This episode of Planet Money Summer School is hosted by Robert Smith. It was produced by Sophia Paliza-Carre and Schuyler Swenson and edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Jimmy Keeley.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

When workers past retirement age can’t afford to retire — that’s one thing. When they can, and just don’t want to — that’s trickier.

It used to be legal to force people to retire when they hit a certain age. The trend used to be earlier and earlier retirement. Now it’s later and later retirement. And younger workers say it’s impacting their career advancement and their ability to save for their own retirement.

At the same time, older workers are living longer, Social Security and Medicare funding are less secure than ever … and many people want to keep working.

Age in the workplace is a tricky thing to talk about. But today on the show, we’re talking about it. On the latest Planet Money, a law professor who says retirement should be mandatory at age 70. And an economist who says, actually … people should delay retirement even longer. 

Show notes: 

More of Planet Money’s coverage of the lump of labor fallacy
Samuel Moyn: Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Are Hoarding Power and Wealth? And What to Do About It.
Gerhard Casper and Saunders Mac Lane: “Older Doesn’t Mean Wiser”

Read: 

Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life 
Our weekly long-form Planet Money newsletter
Our weekly Indicator round-up newsletter

Follow: 

Instagram
TikTok
YouTube
Facebook

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

This episode was reported by Sarah Gonzalez. It was produced by Willa Rubin, edited by Eric Misitzis Mennel, and fact-checked by Charlotte Isidore. It was engineered by Robert Rodriguez and Jimmy Keeley. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. 

Music: NPR Source Audio: “Don’t Cross The Line,”  “Aventure Burlesque,” and “Hollywood.”

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy