Summary: In this podcast, Brancaccio describes a term called “hyperbolic discounting” in which people look for instant gratification that in turn clouds their financial decisions.
Original Air Date: March 25, 2015
Length: 3 minutes and 58 seconds
Author Archive
David Brancaccio wants you to consult your future self Leave a comment
Should We Kill The $100 Bill? Leave a comment
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/08/14/340356790/should-we-kill-the-100-bill
Summary: The Planet Money team investigates the $100 bill and found that over two-thirds of the bills are overseas. Additionally, they assume the bills are used for illegal activities due to their convenience.
Original Air Date: August 14, 2014
Length: 6 minutes 10 seconds
Does Raising The Minimum Wage Kill Jobs? Leave a comment
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/03/06/286861541/does-raising-the-minimum-wage-kill-jobs
Summary: Minimum wage is a hot topic in the economic realm. In this podcast the same study is done three times resulting in different outcomes on the pros and cons of raising the minimum wage.
Original Air Date: March 6, 2014
Length: 4 minutes 32 seconds
How Solar Got Cheap Leave a comment
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2015/04/10/398811199/episode-616-how-solar-got-cheap
Summary: Solar power is becoming increasingly popular. The main reason is not due to environmental awareness but because of a market glut and a need to clear inventory.
Original Air Date: April 10, 2015
Length: 16 minutes
How College Students Battled Textbook Publishers To A Draw, In 3 Graphs Leave a comment
Summary: This podcast examines the extraordinary rise in textbook prices and how the situation is worsening due to students looking for alternatives ways of obtaining books. Supply and demand is featured.
Original Air Date: October 9, 2014
Length: 4 minutes 27 seconds
The Company Where Everyone Knows Everyone Else’s Salary Leave a comment
Summary: The Planet Money team investigates the pros and cons of pay transparency in the work place and the problems it is solving.
Original Air Date: July 2, 2014
Length: 4 minutes 59 seconds
The Invention Of ‘The Economy’ Leave a comment
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/02/28/283477546/the-invention-of-the-economy
Summary: ‘The Economy’ is ever-present in today’s conversations but it was not always this way. This podcast describes the emergence of the phrase ‘The Economy’ and Gross Domestic Product.
Original Air Date: February 28, 2014
Length: 4 minutes 29 seconds
Don’t Believe The Hype 1 comment
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2015/03/25/395099177/episode-443-dont-believe-the-hype
Summary: The Planet Money team investigates the Dow Jones industrial average and its relevancy to both the stock market and the real economy, exposing its major flaws.
Original Air Date: March 25, 2015
Length: 18 minutes 15 seconds
What Happens When Stores Let Customers Return Whatever They Want? Leave a comment
Summary: This podcast examines the pros and cons to a lenient return policies for businesses and the affect it has on their brand. Some companies see it as a loss of business while others view it as cheap marketing.
Original Air Date: September 25, 2013
Length: 4 minutes 23 seconds
When A $65 Cab Ride Costs $192 Leave a comment
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/01/24/265396928/when-a-65-cab-ride-costs-192
Summary: This podcast sheds light on supply and demand as well as elasticity using the well know car service Uber.
Original Air Date: January 24, 2014
Length: 4 minutes 9 seconds Note there is a longer version that addresses issues of fairness, rationing by time v. money, different profit maximizing strategies by firms
Discussion Prompt (1) for short or long version: Think about yourself as a consumer of Uber/Lyft services– how elastic is your demand for uber? How do you know? What factors do you think make your demand for an Uber ride more or less elastic? You can think about specific times, or you can think about comparing yourself to other people whose elasticity of demand might be different.
Discussion Prompt (2) for short or long version: This podcast focuses on the topic of ‘surge pricing’: how does this relate to price elasticity of supply? Is the supply of Uber drivers price elastic or inelastic? What factors might impact that?
Discussion Prompt (1) for long version: Planet Money asks this question: If this is how markets generally work (ex. Stock market, copper market), why is what Uber’s doing considered so strange? This podcast is from 2014 (useful to us because it explains Uber in detail because it was new). In the time that has passed, do you think people have come around to this ‘economic way of thinking’ about surge pricing? Why, why not?
Discussion Prompt (2) for long version: The podcast compares the pricing strategy of Home Depot with ‘ice salt/melt,’ where they don’t change the price but they do run out, to the strategy of Uber where they raise the price rather than ‘run out’. Economist Richard Thaler notes that these choices represent different profit maximizing strategies by firms focusing on long-run vs. short-run strategies. What does he mean here? How do these actions represent different profit-maximizing strategies by these firms? Do you think one is ‘more fair’?
Written Prompt: Read this related article: Cohen, P., Hahn, R., Hall, J., Levitt, S., & Metcalfe, R. (2016). Using big data to estimate consumer surplus: The case of uber (No. w22627). National Bureau of Economic Research. Part of what makes this article innovative, is that it provided a ‘real-life’ consumer surplus estimate drawn from actual consumer data. Why do you think that it might have been hard to determine consumer surplus in real life before Uber (and similar apps/services)? Can you make any other links between this article and the podcast?
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