Planet Money

The price of tickets for lots of things — baseball games, many Broadway musicals, plane trips — rises and falls based on how much demand there is. But when you go to the movies, a ticket to the empty theater playing a bomb is exactly the same price as a ticket to the sold-out blockbuster. On today's the show, we try to find out why.

Tesla, the electric car company, recently decided to, basically, give up its patents. Anybody who wants to is now free to steal the company's ideas. Elon Musk, the company's CEO said he isn't really into patents — and, he said, he thinks giving them up is best for everybody. On today's show, we talk to two guys who say we should get rid of patents altogether. If someone has an idea, anyone else is free to steal it.

Note: Today's show is a rerun. It originally ran on July 2013. On today's show, we talk to commodities traders to answer one of the most important questions in finance: What actually happens at the end of Trading Places? We know something crazy happens on the trading floor. We know that Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd get rich and the Duke brothers lose everything. But how does it all happen? And could it happen in the real world? Also on the show: The "Eddie Murphy Rule" that wound up in the the big financial overhaul law Congress passed in 2010. Today's special guest co-host is Roman Mars, host of 99% Invisible. (Check out their episode on the design of U.S. currency.)

In most workplaces, salaries are secret. But what if they weren't? What if everybody knew what everyone else made? On today's show, we visit a company in New York that practices pay transparency — and we hear how it changes the dynamic between employees and the boss.

The dream of socialist North Korea was that the government would control every part of the economy. No need for private businesses or stores - the state would give you everything. People were not supposed to sell to each other. Ever. On today's show: how markets sprung up anyway.

Note: Today's show is a rerun. It originally ran on May 11th, 2012. You can find more recent data on college costs here. On today's show, we visit beautiful Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Price of one year at Lafayette: $55,688. Up 63 percent from the price a decade ago. At least, that's the sticker price — the price you get if you add up tuition, room and board, and all the fees listed on the school's website. But there's a huge gap between the sticker price and what the average student actually pays after figuring in grants and scholarships. That's true at private colleges around the country. Nationwide, the average sticker price is more than twice as high as the price students actually pay, and the gap is getting wider. It turns out, it makes economic sense to have a high sticker price and offer lots of discounts. On the show today, we explain why.

Planet Money's Steve Henn wanted to know how much someone could learn about him by just sitting back and watching his internet traffic flow by. So he invited a couple computer guys to bug his internet connection for a week. On today's show: What they discovered, and what that tells us about security, smartphones and free WiFi.

One of the biggest banks in the world, BNP Paribas, is about to be punished. The financial cops are in the middle of deciding what they are going to do. They're trying to figure out how to punish a bank in a way that actually makes it change. There are some standard ways to punish a bad bank. Fines are the first thing every regulator and judge tries. There's also getting the bank to admit guilt. Now they might try something never done before. Today on the show: how to punish a bank.

Today on the show: Stories about bored traders, a bank that charges customers to deposit money, and a pawn shop for the rich.

Certain things are just hard to improve on. The classic example: the mousetrap. Also: the paperclip. And, the super-size version: the pallet. In its way, the pallet is perfect. A few pieces of cheap lumber nailed together, without an extra nail or board. It keeps things a few inches off the floor and works with a forklift. Amazing. This perfect system of moving stuff around on pallets has been around for a long time. And for basically 50 years, no one really improved on it in this country. Until they did. Today on the show: yes you can build a better pallet.

The other day we noticed something strange: a pack of Milk Chocolate M&M's weighs 1.69 ounces, but a pack of Peanut Butter M&M's weigh a tiny tiny bit less, 1.63 ounces. The two packs are same price, but you get slightly less of the Peanut Butter M&Ms! 0.06 ounces less! It turns out there is a whole weird world living down there at the third decimal place. When you pull on that little thread, lots of things start to unravel. After today's show, you will never pop a piece of candy in your mouth and think about it the same way again.

Note: Today's show is a re-run. It originally ran in July 2013. Climate change seems like this complicated, intractable problem. But maybe it doesn't have to be. On today's show, we talk to a couple economists about a very simple idea that could solve the climate-change problem: tax carbon emissions. A carbon tax could be paired with cuts in the income tax. And it would drive down emissions without picking winners or losers, and without creating complicated regulations.

There's this big idea floating around right now. It sounds crazy and fringey, but it turns out some non-crazy, non-fringey people are into it. The idea is this: let's get rid of the banks. Don't make them safer. Don't make them smaller. Just get rid of them. On today's show: A world without banks.

When we talk about European economy, we usually focus on the screw ups – the sunny South, with the big deficits. But the strangest report recently came out of Brussels—saying how well Germany's economy is doing. And how that's a big problem for the rest of the countries in the Eurozone. Today on the show: How when you're in a group, doing extremely well can be a problem.

Tons of entrepreneurs have come up with clever ways to make money using little drones: farmers, who want to spot aphids on their soybean plants; ranchers trying to find lost cows; crews wanting to film shiny cars cruising on windy roads. There's just this one little problem – according to the Federal Aviation Administration – all these people- they are breaking the law. Today on the show: drones are proliferating, but who owns the air? If you buy a house, you know you own the ground. But what about the space above it? Who exactly, owns that?