Archive for the ‘Government’ Category
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/economy/stock-market-has-been-and-always-will-be-volatile
Summary: Many people are worried about the stock markets, especially with everything going on in the world (Germany’s bad news, Ebola, etc). However, the stock market is a volatile place–and, according to Quincy Crosby, a financial market strategist at Prudential Financial, it’s meant to be that way.
Original Air Date: October 10, 2014
Length: 2 minutes 11 seconds
Link: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2014/08/terry_anderson.html
Summary:Terry Anderson, distinguished Fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute talks about free-market environmentalism and property rights that can protect natural resources. One of the main points of his book Free Market Environmentalism which is currently being revised for its third addition, revolves around the idea of what makes market successful and how can the success of the free market model be applied to the protection of the environment.
Original Air Date: August 18, 2014
Length: 63 min
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/08/01/336910418/episode-558-spending-big-money-to-fight-big-money
Summary: What is the role of money in politics? What is campaign finance and what is the Super PAC? How is it that the 1% fraction of the US population have the ability to spend as much as they want in order to influence political power? Planet Money interviews Lawrence Lessing of Harvard University on his idea to create a super PAC in order to fight Super PACs.
Original Air Date: August 1, 2014
Length: 16 min
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/05/16/312732409/episode-539-whats-a-penny-worth
Summary: Planet Money explains the history of the penny through three perspectives: its worth, its potential in the internet age, and who is betting on the government killing it.
Original Air Date: May 16, 2014
Length: 19 min
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/2014/04/18/304540007/episode-533-why-cars-from-europe-and-the-us-just-can-t-get-along
Summary: An exploration of how different safety standards across countries impact the automobile industry. Discusses differences in regulations from turn signals to windshield wipers, and how that impacts production choices and costs in the industry.
Original air date: April 18, 2014
Length: 17 min
Discussion Prompt: Reflecting on what you’ve learned about international trade, production costs & the content of this podcast, discuss what impacts the differential regulations on cars in the U.S. and Europe have on (a) production decisions for the firm, and (b) international trade.
Follow-up Prompt: Using economic thinking, consider the tradeoffs between security and cost in this podcast. The governments/regulators in these countries might say it is worth it for consumers to pay more to get more security. What do you think?
Follow-up Prompt: Considering production costs in the context of firms’ desire to maximize profits, what strategies might firms employ to maximize profits under these conditions of different regulations across countries?
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/03/07/286900628/episode-523-the-fight-over-ukraines-gas-bill
Summary: The Planet Money team look at the role that Ukraine’s gas subsidies played in the 2013/2014 crisis in the country. Includes discussion of the roots of the energy interdependence of Russia and Ukraine, gas subsidies, the creation of markets as communist systems were abandoned, and the choices Ukraine faced between Europe and Russia as partners to help it out of economic crisis.
Original air date: March 7, 2014
Length: 14 min
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/01/17/263487421/episode-510-the-birth-of-the-minimum-wage
Summary: Planet Money takes us back through time to when the U.S. first set a minimum wage. Historically, the U.S. had rejected any attempts at a minimum wage law, considering them unconstitutional. But things changed after Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
Original Air Date: January 17, 2014
Length: 17 min
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/01/22/265014932/episode-511-rule-breakers
Summary: Planet Money presents three stories that revolve around the theme of ‘Rule Breaking.’ This three episode mash-up considers how people in Indonesia navigate horrendous traffic, how the U.S. illegally subsidizes cotton farmers and how banks decide to accumulate huge risks.
Original Air Date: January 22, 2014
Length: 16 min
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