Planet Money

Today on the show we have three radio stories for you about the strange ways people think about their the future. In the first Ashley Milne-Tyte talks to two graduates Seeking A Fortune Through Search Funds. Then David Kestenbaum tells us How One State Convinced Its 'Young Invincibles' To Get Health Insurance. And in the last story Jacob Goldstein explains Why Inflation Is So Low.

Today on the show: The penny. And the strange spot it occupies in our economy. It's worth almost nothing, but not quite. We have three stories on the penny. First, we go on an expedition through the streets of Manhattan to find something, anything, we can buy for one cent. Next, we talk to a guy who's betting on the government killing the penny. And finally, we visit a place where people dream of how pennies could change everything: the internet.

Note: Today's show is a re-run. It originally ran in January 2012. In 1978, a group of farmers in a Chinese village called Xiaogang wrote a secret contract and hid it in the roof of a mud hut. They were afraid the document might get them executed. Instead, it wound up completely transforming the Chinese economy. On today's show, we travel to Xiaogang, and hear the farmers' story.

A trumpet is more or less a trumpet. A clarinet is a clarinet. But violin or a viola... they are different. More like living breathing things. Hand crafted from wood, from a tree. Every one is different. And, you know the story. Antonio Stradivari, was the master. Some say the greatest violin maker to ever live. The Stradivarius is one of the most powerful and expensive brands in the world. And certainly, the guy made really nice instruments. But how nice exactly. This is a question that comes up all the time with all kinds of products: coffee, clothes, dish washing detergent, jeans and shoes. How much of a brand is real? And how much is in our heads? Of course you could do a test with a stradivarius to answer this exact question. And In fact, in 2010, researchers did just that.  

If you thought Daft Punk was saying something about a Mexican monkey when they were actually singing "up all night to get lucky" — you're not alone. There are more than five million searches for lyrics on Google every day.* And there is a big fight going on over who should make money off those searches: is it the websites who put the lyrics up? Or the songwriters, who put the words together? From George Washington to Rick Ross, this country has been trying for hundreds of years to figure out — what's the difference between fair use and stealing? *Source: LyricFind*

In a lot of ways, the job looks the same as ever — the brown truck, the dogs, the lady coming out to apologize about the dogs. Underneath the surface, though, Bill Earle's job as a driver for UPS, has changed a lot. When Bill started back in the '90s, he was a guy out there by himself, alone in a truck on an empty road. UPS was a trucking company. Today, it's a technology company. Every step Bill takes, every mile he drives, is tracked. His truck is a rolling computer. From the time he punches in in the morning until he gets back to base at night, the company is trying to figure out how Bill can do his job quicker, more efficiently. Technology means that no matter what kind of job you have — whether you're alone in a truck on an empty road or sitting in a cubicle in front of a computer — your company can now track everything you do.

When a famine swept through Somalia in 2011, it was hard for aid workers to get food distributed. Most of the country was too dangerous for non-Somalis to do the work. Instead, the United Nations looked at satellite images of camps filling up with tents and dispatched locals to deliver the food. A local industry around distributing aid and sheltering the poor sprung up. On today's show, we visit a country with almost no government, but a lot of entrepreneurs. And we see what happens when locals decide to make money by becoming humanitarians for profit.

On today's show: How we got from dim little candles made out of cow fat, to as much light as we want at the flick of a switch. The history of light explains why the world today is what it is. It explains why we aren't all subsistence farmers, and why we can afford to have artists and massage therapists and plumbers. (And, yes, people who do radio stories about the history of light.) The history of light is the history of economic growth — of things getting faster, cheaper, and more efficient.

Note: Today's show is a re-run. It originally ran in March, 2013. Sometimes your success depends on how your competitors behave. People judge you not just by your product, but by the product that your rival down the street makes. This is a problem for Lou Caracciolo. He's trying to make high-quality wine, from grapes he grows in New Jersey. But Jersey wine already has a reputation — and fancy isn't it. On today's show: Can New Jersey become the next Napa? For more, see Adam Davidson's latest NYT Magazine column, Bottle Bing.  

When a car is sold in the United States, the safety features on that car — the airbags, the bumper — they are built to US safety standards. There is a different set of standards in Europe. To sell a Jeep Wrangler in Europe, Chrysler has to redesign and replace a bunch of seemingly random parts of the car. The Europeans have the same issue. The new Volkswagen Golf R is driving on the autobahns in Berlin, but not yet in the US. Before the car can come to the US, the German company has to manufacture the car for a completely different set of safety regulations. Today on the show: why can’t you build a car that can be driven anywhere in the world?

There are over 100 million websites ending in .com. But new options for website names are becoming available. Not only is there .com and .gov .edu, but now .ninja has been added. Also .bike, .plumbing and .cool. In all, over 1000 new ‘top-level domains’ as they are called will be added.   Today on the show, what happens when you just create a whole bunch of real estate out of nowhere? We meet some of the new land barons with big dreams. And a guy who worries, it’s just going to be a big mess. For more, check out these web sites: Here's a list of new top-level domains that currently exist. Here's a list of top-level domains that have been applied for. Namestat and nTLDStats are websites that track how well each one is doing – how many web sites have registered with each.

Millions of tax cheats never get caught. And the IRS seems powerless to stop them.  This isn’t just a problem in the U.S. American taxpayers are Dudley Do-Rights compared to people in some other countries. On today's show, we head to some of the cheating-est places on earth to bring you tales from some of the roughest, toughest tax collectors around. These guys have tricks, tax collector mind-games, that they play to get people to do the right thing.

After today's show, you'll be ready to design a tax on marijuana, pick a law school, and explain centuries of inequality — and the hottest book in economics — without having to read a page. For more on these stories, see: * What's The Best Way To Tax Marijuana? It Depends On What You Want * Comparing Law School Rankings? Read The Fine Print * Mystery Of Mounting Inequality Might Find Answer In Brand-New Tome

People love to complain about their internet service, but the thing that seems to make people the craziest is they can't switch. No matter how slow. No matter how bad the customer service. There isn't much choice. But, this isn't true for people in lots of other countries. In Europe, in parts of Asia, there is a real choice of who brings your internet to you. Today on the show: Why do Americans have so few options when buying internet service? Where's my internet jetpack?

Note: Today's show is a re-run. It originally ran in February, 2013. For the first time in a while, there's political momentum building to change the U.S. immigration system. On today's show, we ask three economists: What would the perfect system look like? If we could scrap the mess of a system that we currently have and replace it with anything, what would it look like? Among the answers: Let in lots more doctors and engineers Auction off immigration slots to the highest bidders Open the gates, and let everyone in