Despite national and global efforts to discourage money laundering, there were recent reports from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network suggest suspicious transactions and funding during the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. This podcast further discusses some of the failures of banks to report suspicious activities in a timely manner. Matthew Collins from the Brookings Institute states that if our government really wants to hammer down on money laundering and other financial crimes, it is crucial to invest more funds into regulatory bodies such as FinCen.
Learn what inspired AudioEcon.com, hear how Dr. Rebecca Moryl uses Social Media to teach economics, and get some inspiration for the semester ahead. Dr. Abdullah Al Bahrani interviewed Dr. Moryl to kick off the second season of ‘Coffee with Dr. A.’ Check out the engaging conversation between two passionate economic educators.
The United States used to lead the world in their percentage of college graduates. Today, the U.S is lagging behind countries like Japan and South Korea. Dr. Monge-Naranjo from the Federal Reserve Bank discusses how this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and how the United States can benefit from the ideas and technologies being produced elsewhere.
Original Air Date: August 31 2020
Length: 3 minutes 13 seconds
Discussion Prompt: What other ways can this idea benefit the United States? What ways could this be harmful to the United States? Is there any significance or advantage to being “number 1” in terms of college educated workers?
Rajagopalan, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center discusses the progress of India’s economy over the years. She compares the size of India’s economy compared the countries such as the U.S. and China, as well as how previous reforms have affected their economy and further reforms in their economy that could improve its development.
The economy in Barbados is heavily reliant on tourism and has been struggling due to travel restrictions. To combat the effects of the lack of tourism, Barbados created a program called “Welcome Stamp”, where individuals can receive a visa to work remotely while living in Barbados for a year.
In the year 1000 Vikings were the first individuals from Europe to discover North America. Eventually, they discovered that indigenous individuals were already there and began exchanging goods with them. This is the first known example of a good from one area in the world was able to be traded for a good in another region. There is even evidence of some form of coin being exchanged between the two groups.
The Planet Money Indicator team explores the choices facing restaurants around the U.S. as the pandemic winter approaches. Includes an interview with a restaurant in Idaho that has implemented new strategies in the 2020 economic reality.
Assignment prompt: How does this podcast illustrate the short-run shutdown decision for firms? Use specific economic concepts from your reading and this podcast to explain the decision making process in general and specifically for firms in a crisis, such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
This podcast discusses how many groundbreaking ideas were discovered at bars and how they could potentially foster innovation. Individuals like Mike Andrews have researched this through studying the number of patents filed during Prohibition. Andrews found that innovation is mainly sparked through connections made with other individuals. As seen with the Covid-19 pandemic, individuals are still finding remote ways to foster innovation through technologies like Zoom.
About 100,000 businesses have had to shut down due to Covid-19, and the ones who have survived have had to change many aspects of product promotion. This is in part due to the changes we have seen in consumer behavior because of the pandemic. One way companies are adapting is by starting to sell for holidays now to combat the economic blow they have suffered because of Covid-19 and to make sure there are no shortages of products once the holidays arrive.
Original Air Date: October 12, 2020
Length: 28 minutes, 22 seconds
Discussion Prompt 1: What other ways have you seen businesses adapt to the impacts of Covid-19?
Discussion Prompt 2: Do you think Covid-19 will permanently alter the way consumers behave? If so, how? What about businesses?
This podcast connects the Covid-19 pandemic and the existing racial inequalities that have been exposed throughout the pandemic. Sridhar discusses the disproportionate effect Covid-19 has had on minority communities and the unconscious biases that have allowed this to occur. She also discusses the need to eradicate the virus, rather than living with it, after seeing new clusters of cases emerge in countries such as England, China, and South Korea.
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