Archive for the ‘Taxes’ Category

Link: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/why-ibm-paying-15-billion-lose-business
Summary: IBM has fell 7 percent off its stock price this week. IBM is selling its chip making company to GlobalFoundries for $1.5 billion over the next three years. It would sound unconventional, except when looking to the future. IBM will be receiving chips for the next ten years from GlobalFoundries. Deals like this are exceedingly rare, but IBM has realized truth: it would be more costly to shut down than to sell, and they may be saving money in the end.
Original Air Date: October 20, 2014
Length: 2 minutes 22 seconds
Prompt / Discussion: Discuss how this type of deal differs from collusion.

Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/12/06/247361423/the-giant-book-that-creates-and-destroys-entire-industries
Summary: In this podcast tariffs are examined, showing both their positive and negative affects on economies. Also mentioned is the Harmonized Tariff Schedule which gages how much each import is to be taxed
Original Air Date: December 12, 2013
Length: 5 minutes 20 seconds
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://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/12/13/250747279/episode-503-adding-up-the-cost-of-the-planet-money-t-shirt
Summary: A detailed review of the costs that went into producing the Planet Money t-shirt.
Original Air Date: December 13, 2013
Length: 21 min
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/07/12/201502003/episode-472-the-one-page-plan-to-fix-global-warming
Summary: Economist, Henry Jacoby, explains how an economist might introduce a carbon tax in the United States to address climate change. Includes a discussion of the conflicts of economics vs. politics.
Length: 19:51 min
Original air date: July 12, 2013
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/05/24/186477854/episode-217-the-art-of-living-at-the-poverty-line
Summary: Discusses an immigrant woman’s ability to live below the poverty line while also utilizing all the resources available to her to provide the best life to her young son. Discusses whether transfer payments are good or bad investments.
Length: 22:17 min
Original air date: May 24, 2013
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/04/24/151224338/were-headed-for-a-fiscal-cliff-should-we-jump

Summary: The team outlines the fiscal policies slated to be enacted in January after the presidential election. Simon Johnson, an economist and professor at MIT, explains the harsh realities of the “fiscal cliff” which the year 2013 will bring for the U.S. economy.
Original air date: April 24, 2012
Length: 21:20 min
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/08/20/129328075/the-tuesday-podcast-allowance-economics

Summary: Interview with Economist Joshua Gans, author of Parentonomics, on the use of incentives for children and the lessons for economic policy
Original air date: August 20, 2010
Length: 18:09
Main story content begins: 2:42
Discussion Prompt: Why do you think it was difficult at first to determine the right reward to give to provide an incentive for the kids to use the potty? How do you think this discussion of incentives helps us understand the economic idea that “incentives and economic systems impact choice in predictable ways”?
Follow-up Prompt: The podcast also talked about the idea of ‘budget constraint’ through Bea’s allowance and about the concept of ‘leakage’ in an economic system. What do budget constraint and linkage mean and how are they demonstrated here? How do they help us understand the behavior of the children in this podcast? Can you think of any other examples of leakage associated with incentives, perhaps at the government level?
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/07/hear_bloody_miserable_medieval.html

Summary: Discussion of the economics of a French village in the middle ages.
Original air date: July 27, 2009
Length: 21:55
Main story content begins: 3:18
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/03/23/149235180/the-friday-podcast-the-surprisingly-entertaining-history-of-the-income-tax
Summary: A discussion of the origins and history of the income tax in the U.S.
Original Air Date: March 23, 2012
Length 19:20
Main story content begins: 3:12