Archive for the ‘Efficiency’ Category
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/11/07/362060876/episode-581-free-money
Summary: This podcast discusses arbitrage (free money), using the example of used textbooks. Arbitrage (free money) is a risk-free way to buy low and sell high. You can find one thing that’s selling for two different prices, and exploit the mistake.
Original Air Date: November 7, 2014
Length: 14 minutes 29 seconds
Prompt: Imagine you find an opportunity like the one discussed in the podcast. Write an outline of how you would go about this discovery, and what your plan of action would be.
Discussion Question: A woman in the podcast said their practice was immoral. Do you agree or disagree? Is what these two men are doing wrong? Use economic thinking in your discussion.
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/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
Link: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/your-money/get-rich-giving-lattes-not-so-fast
Summary: There’s a theory in the personal finance industry known as the Latte Factor, which says give up the coffee drink and invest the money instead, and you’ll have enough to retire on. However, that theory doesn’t factor into the equation inflation and taxes, and is now being proven wrong.
Original Air Date: October 10, 2014
Length: 2 minutes 19 seconds
Link: http://freakonomics.com/2014/04/10/if-mayors-ruled-the-world-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/
Summary: Stepher Dubner from Freakonomics Radio interviews Benjamin Barber, author of If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfanctional Nations, Rising Cities, who outlines why good governance is more efficient in cities compared to nation states.
Original Air Date: April 10, 2014
Length: 32 min
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/12/31/258687278/a-bet-five-metals-and-the-future-of-the-planet
Summary: A bet between a biologist and an economist over population growth. This Planet Money Podcast reports on a wager between biologist Paul Ehrlich and economist Julian Simon on the affect of population boom to our environment.
Original Air Date: January 2, 2014
Length: 7 minutes
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/03/15/134432054/a-shrinking-city-knocks-down-neighborhoods
Summary: How do you shrink down a city? In the past decade, the people of Youngstown, Ohio have experienced an 18% decrease in their population. Realizing that conventional economic development and city planning are not bringing efficient production, Youngstown has decided that expansion is not part of their agenda.
Original Air Date: March 15, 2011
Length: 4 min
audioecon 