Link: http://www.marketplace.org/2016/04/08/world/spare-parts
Summary: Several major utility companies are pooling their resources to create a company called Grid Assurance. Grid Assurance is designed to stockpile repair parts to protect against the chances of a grid disaster.
Original Air Date: April , 2016
Length: 2 minutes 6 seconds
Summary: The Justice Department is planning to investigate 4 major airlines for price collusion. Investigators will question whether the airlines restricted supply to maintain higher ticket prices.
Original Air Date: July 2, 2015
Length: 3 minutes 35 seconds
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/10/03/353300404/episode-573-why-textbook-prices-keep-climbing
Summary: Something strange is going on in the textbook market. The price has steeply increased over the past decade–and they’re only getting higher. There is a disconnect between the chooser (the professors) and the buyers (the students). Technically, the professor is the consumer, and they’re spending their students’ money. The podcast offers the opposite: high school textbooks, where costs are kept low because the books are paid for by the schools.
Original Air Date: October 3, 2014
Length: 14 minutes 56 seconds
Discussion Question/ Prompt: Propose a solution to the rising textbook price problem. (Example: a price ceiling? professor awareness of prices? incentives for lower prices?)
Summary: Describes the raisin industry in the United States and how historic events resulted in a government sanctioned raisin cartel. Includes discussion of one producer breaking from the cartel, efforts by the cartel to enforce its collective actions, and other political and economic impacts of this defection.
Length: 21:51 min
Original air date: August 9, 2013
Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4722627&ft=1&f=
Summary: Discusses case between Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel over Intel’s alleged coercive behavior in the market for computer chips. Intel has market dominance in the computer processor market.
Length: 1:58 min
Original air date: June 29, 2005
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/01/11/169150969/episode-429-the-price-of-things-we-love
Summary: Three short features highlight: (1) the impact on the publishing industry of the shift toward e-books; (2) why legos remain so popular and so expensive; and (3) the technological development and potential market implications of 3D printers.
Original air date: January 11, 2013
Length: 15:15
Summary: In the context of the 2011 bankruptcy declaration by American Airlines, a discussion of the factors driving bankruptcies in the airline industry.
Original Air Date: December 9, 2011
Length 16:56
Main story content begins: 3:24
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