Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/09/20/224511346/episode-487-the-trouble-with-the-poverty-line
Summary: The Planet Money team investigates the outdated qualifications for the Poverty Line in America and the need for a new formula to alleviate the suffering. This podcast includes a brief history of the Poverty Line.
Original Air Date: September 20, 2013
Length: 11 minutes 47 seconds
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
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
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/12/07/166747693/episode-421-the-birth-of-the-dollar-bill
Summary: At one point in U.S. history there was close to 8,000 different types of currency circulating. The Civil War became a bottleneck and forced innovation, thus creating one unified currency.
Original Air Date: December 7, 2012
Length: 10 minutes 37 seconds
Link: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/interstate-tax-break-battle
Summary: The Obama Administration has been cracking down on inversions–where companies avoid US taxes by getting a foreign address. Now, it is being taken down to a state level, as states hand out tax breaks to try to increase business and get out of the Great Recession.
Original Air Date: September 24, 2014
Length: 2 minutes 27 seconds
Link: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/wealth-poverty/how-tough-economy-changes-young-peoples-lives
Summary: Many people are still feeling the after-effects of the Great Recession, especially young adults. Young adults still have a higher than average unemployment rate, and are not hitting traditional milestones–such as living alone, starting careers, buying their first home–and have been described as a generation that has “failed to launch” due to the poor economy. Everything that is happening to this generation is happening later in life as they work to launch themselves as independent, self-supporting adults in the harsh economic environment.
Original Air Date: September 16, 2014
Length: 4 minutes 36 seconds
Link: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/americans-appear-ready-go-shopping-again
Summary: Consumer reports conclude Americans are ready to spend again. The market is on the rise, especially as the recession fades.
Original Air Date: September 25, 2014
Length: 1 minute 28 seconds
Link: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/new-financial-innovation-housing-market
Summary: Large investors have started buying houses–in the past few years, they have bought almost 200,000 new homes. The strategy was to buy low, and set the rent high. Interestingly enough, housing prices have appreciated, and rental prices have stayed the same, which results in not as big of a profit for the investors. This has created what they call rental-backed securities.
Original Air Date: October 13, 2014
Length: 2 minutes 52 seconds
Link: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/sustainability/boom-and-bust-story-crop-called-guar
Summary: Guar is a small bean, and it had a recent rise and fall in the marketplace. Besides being an additive to thicken many foods, it’s also used in fracking. When fracking took off, the price of guar rose. As the price increased, Texas farmers started growing a lot of it, until Pakistan and India–which grow 98% of the guar combined–caught up to the demand. As a result, oil companies stopped hoarding it, and the prices dropped. The Texas farmers were left without buyers, and caused a chain reaction of bankruptcy.
Original Air Date: October 9, 2014
Length: 2 minutes 47 seconds
Link: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/sustainability/what-could-slow-uss-surging-oil-output-low-prices
Summary: The oil the United States has been pumping has been getting less and less profitable. In North America, oil comes from fracking shale, and after the first initial output, oil companies have to drill deeper and deeper to get to the oil, causing it to be more expensive to access. However, the price of oil is dropping worldwide, and that could mean that the United States could be out of the oil industry, simply because it costs too much to produce.
Original Air Date: October 10, 2014
Length: 2 minutes
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