Planet Money show

Planet Money

Summary: Money makes the world go around, faster and faster every day. On NPR's Planet Money, you'll meet high rollers, brainy economists and regular folks -- all trying to make sense of our rapidly changing global economy.

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Podcasts:

 #702: Nigeria, You Win! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 979

One night, Lariat Alhassan heard an ad on the radio. It said the Nigerian government was offering millions of dollars to people with business ideas, practically no strings attached. She gave it a go.

 #366: How To Make It In The Food Truck Business | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 772

In New York City, more than 5,000 food trucks and carts compete for the business of hungry office workers. And finding the right spot to set up shop can mean the difference between fortune and ruin.

 #701: A Bank Without Interest | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1059

To serve Muslim customers, a bank in Michigan tried to comply with both U.S. regulations and Islamic law. One problem: Islamic law prohibits charging interest.

 #430: Black Market Pharmacies And The Spam Empire Behind Them | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1072

On today's show, we open up some of those annoying pharmaceutical spam emails and find out who's clicking to buy herbal viagra? Also, what happens when they do?

 #700: Peanuts and Cracker Jack | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1291

Beer. Water. Pretzels. It takes effort, strategy, and some serious lungs to sell expensive junk food at a baseball game. Meet the hot dog vending legend of Fenway Park.

 #699: Why Did The Job Cross The Road? | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1211

To get to the other side... where there are millions of dollars in tax breaks.

 #698: The Long Way Home | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 973

Housing subsidies are often given out through a lottery. But why do we let random chance decide who gets help with the rent? We don't do that for food stamps or health care, so why housing?

 #417: Lance Armstrong and The Business of Doping | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1105

In this episode, we consider a world where everybody cheats, and where you can't win unless you game the regulators: Professional cycling.

 #697: Help Wanted | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1171

When you're an employer looking at a giant stack of resumes, you have to find some way to quickly narrow the field. How do you do that fairly? And what happens when your good intentions backfire?

 #468: Kid Rock Vs. The Scalpers | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1096

We talk to Kid Rock about how he tried to cut scalpers out of the business — and still sell cheap tickets to his shows.

 #696: Class Action | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1241

The modern class action was created on a typewriter in the back of a car. (Sort of.) Now, thousands of these lawsuits are filed every year. How did we get here? Is this really a good way to do things?

 #695: Put A Chip On It | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1088

Credit cards with chips in them have been around for four decades. So why is America only getting them now? And now that they are here, why are so few places using them?

 #694: The Gun That Wouldn't Shoot | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1173

Imagine a safer kind of gun. Imagine a company with a plan to build it. Imagine customers ready to buy it. Imagine what could go wrong. A whole lot.

 #562: A Mall Divided | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 803

A California mall straddles the border between two cities — and the minimum wage is higher on one side.

 #693: Unpayable | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1162

Puerto Rico is part of the United States, but not one of the United States. And this limbo status has brought a world of economic trouble.

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