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
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
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
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
Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/08/03/128960709/the-tuesday-podcast
Summary: As part of a quest to prove whether President Roosevelt drank Moonshine at the White House, the Planet Money team discusses the history and economics of prohibition.
Original Air Date: August 3, 2010
Length 18:05
Main story content begins: 1:31
Discussion Prompt: Using what you know about elasticity and what you learned from this podcast, what would be your ‘economic expert’ opinion on a proposal to implement a tax specifically on the purchase of marijuana (similar to a tax specifically on alcohol) in the sates where marijuana sales are legal? Connect your economic opinion to details from the podcast. If you use outside information, provide at minimum links for citations.
Follow-up Prompt: A question to expand your application of elasticity ideas: If marijuana were legalized (and taxed), what other markets might be impacted (related goods)? How might the legalization impact what goods consumers consider to be substitutes for marijuana? Do you think it would change?
