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/2014/03/07/286900628/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/2013/12/20/255839292/episode-505-a-locked-door-a-secret-meeting-and-the-birth-of-the-fed
Summary: An historical retelling of the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank
Original Air Date: December 20, 2013
Length: 15 min
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/09/21/140643696/operation-twist-explained-in-4-easy-steps
Summary: How does the Fed lower interest rates? This podcast gives a quick, four step process on how the Fed can lower interest rates in order to combat unemployment.
Original Air Date: September 21, 2011
Length: 4 min
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/09/16/140464797/a-slow-motion-bank-run-in-europe
Summary: What are the potential risks and negative spillovers of “big banks” failing? This podcast outlines why big banks, for example big French banks cannot default because of the havoc that would befall in an economy.
Original Air Date: September 14, 2011
Length: 3 min
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Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/09/30/227468495/one-key-thing-no-one-knows-about-obamacare
Summary: No one really knows who will sign up for the Affordable Health Care Plan (Obamacare) once it gets introduced. One potential risk of the program is that it will enter the insurance “death spiral,” or the inability for the program to attract healthy people. This could cause insurance premiums to skyrocket causing the whole system to fall apart.
Original Air Date: September 30, 2013
Length: 3 min
Summary: What would happen if the U.S. defaults? According to experts in the field, a U.S. default would lead to the inability for the government to pay back their loans which in turn could have damaging effects to the social security program, pension accounts and foreign direct investment in treasury bonds. Also considers the impact on China, as a U.S. bondholder.
Original Air Date: October 10, 2013
Length: 4 min
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/06/21/194326482/episode-467-tires-taxes-and-the-grizz
Summary: The prices of tires have been rising over the past five years primarily due to a rise in the price of inputs such as rubber. A tariff imposed by the U.S. government on Chinese tire imports has also contributed to the increase of tire prices. Planet Money outlines the negative impacts on U.S. tire companies resulting from the tariff.
Original Air Date: June 21, 2013
Length: 14 min
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