Planet Money

Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world. Jobs that seem dull and safe in most countries have become incredibly dangerous professions in Honduras. For example: Driving a bus. On today's show: what it's like to live and work in the most dangerous country in the world.

How customers use a piece of technology can change what the product is. And what the product is can change the business model for the company. It's a constant dance between the customers and the sellers. Today on the show, three short stories about this dance. For more: http://n.pr/1yR6BPh

There's an idea that dates back at least to biblical times. There should be a moment when debts are forgiven. Its called a jubilee. The jubilee has not gotten a lot of traction in the modern world. You may remember after the financial crisis, some of the Occupy Wall Street protesters were calling for a jubilee. But it basically ended there. Today on the show: the story about a country that is actually trying a jubilee. Iceland.

It's called "Iceland" for a reason. Polar bears sometimes wind up there floating by on chunks of ice. In the winter, there are only a few hours of daylight each day.  Reykjavik feels like you took a European city — coffee shops, fancy cars, orderly streets — and put it on the moon.  Which raises a question: How did a barren, icy island become a thriving, modern economy?  The short answer: Fish, energy and books.  The long answer starts back in the year 1075, with our Icelandic intern's great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandfather.  For more: http://n.pr/1rYf8tC

We tend to get obsessed with things that get more expensive over time — college tuition, say, or health care. But lots of things have actually gotten cheaper in real terms. Things made by machines. Things like consumer electronics.  Some new gadget comes out with a $1,000 price tag. Two years later it costs $500. There's no law of nature that says this must be so. And yet it happens year after year.  Today on the show, we visit a company called Monoprice. And we go into a room where people sit all day and try to make stuff get cheaper.

Today on the show, the story of the Dread Pirate Roberts of the internet age. A man who dreamed of setting up a utopian marketplace, a place where you could buy and sell almost anything in secret. The pirate created a market with no contracts, no regulations, and really no government interference. The Dread Pirate believed in total economic freedom, but in order to make his market work, he had to do some very bad things.

Today on the show, the story of the Dread Pirate Roberts of the internet age. A man who dreamed of setting up a utopian marketplace, a place where you could buy and sell almost anything in secret. The pirate created a market with no contracts, no regulations, and really no government interference. The Dread Pirate believed in total economic freedom, but in order to make his market work, he had to do some very bad things.

Note: Today's show is a rerun. It originally ran in July 2013. U.S. citizens who want to buy stuff from North Korea have to write a letter to the U.S. government asking for special permission. As regular listeners know, we're sort of obsessed with North Korea. So we decided to try to get those letters. We filed a Freedom of Information Act request. And we got a stack of heavily redacted letters. On today's show: we try to figure out who sent the letters, why they wanted to do business with North Korea, and what that tells us about the North Korean economy.

Nike is a smart multi-billion dollar company, but some sneaker fans have figured out how they can get a better price for Nike sneakers than Nike can. Some pairs trade like stocks — selling for double, quadruple, 12 times their retail price after they leave the store. Even used sneakers.  Josh Luber, of sneakerhead data company, Campless, estimates that Nike let resellers walk away with 230 million dollars in profits last year — that's money that did not go to Nike.  Today on the show, why would a multi-billion dollar company give up its profits to some scrappy guys on the street?  For more: http://n.pr/1quQ7uT

On September 9th, BJ Holloway's life savings were stolen. His 6 cows were taken in the dead of the night from his land in Spencer, Oklahoma. BJ looked everywhere for his stolen cattle. He asked his neighbors. He filed a police report. But out in Oklahoma, when cows are stolen, it's hard to find the thief. The cows all look alike, and the evidence disappears when they're turned into steaks. Luckily for BJ, there's a cattle cop on his case, Jerry Flowers. Flowers is a special agent in charge of the law enforcement section for the Oklahoma Department of Argiculture, and he's determined to find the outlaws who took BJ's cattle. Today on the show, Jerry Flowers chases the bad guys.

In west Africa right now, there are two kinds of countries: Those that have Ebola and those that do not. Liberia for instance, has reported more than 6,000 cases of Ebola and 2,697 people have died. Right next door, in the country of Ivory Coast, there have been zero cases. Zero. Ivory Coast would desperately like to stay in that zero category.  The solution that Ivory Coast has come up with to stay Ebola free is simple. Ivory Coast will shut down its border. It will stop trade with Liberia, stop commerce and stop people from coming in.  On a map, a border is a simple thing: A clear thick line. On the ground, its anything but simple. On the ground in Ivory Coast, there are vast parts of the border with no signs, no guards, and only a secret path through the forest.  Today on the show, we go to a tiny tiny town on the border between Ivory Coast and Liberia. On one side of the line, Ebola is raging. The other side is Ebola-free so far. We ask: How do you close a border? And can you really?

There's a term in economics, arbitrage, that basically means free money. It's finding a difference in price, a pricing mistake, you can exploit to make money. Arbitrage is a risk-free way to buy low and sell high. Everyday there are loads of people and sophisticated computer algorithms searching for an arbitrage opportunity, but true arbitrages are almost impossible to find. Today on the show, we meet two guys who say they've found one, and we visit the storage locker in Utah where they keep their secret. 

A gallon of gas is selling at some pumps for less than $3 right now. The price has been falling since early summer, and local TV news reporters are out at gas stations asking people 'how happy do you feel?'  Today on the show, two stories from the other side of the pump. Stories about the people who get the oil out of the ground. We meet a producer that you never hear from. And tell the story of an organization so powerful that it ruled the global economy. Or people thought it did.  For more: http://n.pr/1shpEMo

In big-time college football or basketball, money is everywhere. From giant TV contracts, to million-dollar coaches' salaries, to deals with shoe companies. But it's against NCAA rules for colleges to pay athletes. On today's show, we ask: Is the NCAA's ban on paying athletes legal?

In Nigeria, millions of gallons of oil are stolen all the time. There are advertisements for stolen oil on the Nigerian version of Craigslist, and not JUST small containers. The advertisements are for giant tankers full of oil.   Today on the show, how to steal hundreds of thousands of oil every single day. To steal oil takes an entire global system. Lots of people are in on it. Small time crooks and criminal bosses, the owners of oil tankers and corrupt officials. We'll show you how they get away with it.   For more: http://n.pr/1wdEoB4