Planet Money

In New York City, roughly 3,000 food trucks compete for the business of hungry office workers. Being in the right spot means the difference between fortune and ruin.There are many rules to finding that perfect parking space. Here are six of them:On today's show Robert Smith rides along in the Rickshaw Dumpling truck, driving from deep within Brooklyn to the heart of Manhattan in search of hungry customers.

Like most central bank chiefs, Ben Bernanke tends toward understatement. But when he testified before Congress earlier this year, Bernanke went big."On January 1, 2013," he said, "there's going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases."One of the biggest parts of the fiscal cliff is the expiration of the tax cuts passed by President Bush and extended by President Obama. If Congress doesn't act before the end of the year, taxes will go up for most Americans.Simon Johnson, our guest on today's show, thinks that would be a good thing."Our critics say we are proposing a large, middle-class tax increase," Johnson says. "To which the answer is, yes. We are."He argues that a tax hike is necessary to pay for Social Security and Medicare, programs which are projected to become significantly more expensive in the coming decade.Johnson teaches economics at MIT and co-wrote the new book White House Burning.

Legislation in Congress would get rid of dollar bills and replace them with coins. Proponents say coins are easier to use and save the country money in the long run. The bill people say none of this is true.Should we kill the dollar bill?On today's show we go deep into the nature of money itself, and we find a clear answer to this question.We haul in a giant box of coins, talk to the guy who actually makes dollar bills, and watch a Senator try to use a vending machine.

Traditionally, when we think about bad behavior, we think about character.But psychologists who study bad behavior — who study, say, fraud in the business world — have found that that character doesn't explain everything. They've found that a lot of unethical behavior can be explained by cognitive errors — errors that affect almost everyone.On today's show, we talk to a man who started out as an upstanding businessman, and went on to commit bank fraud involving millions of dollars. It drove several companies out of business and resulted in the loss of around a hundred jobs.We try to figure out why he did it, and what it means for the rest of us.

Iceland has about as many people as Staten Island. It also has its own currency, the krona. This raises a question: Does it make sense to have a currency that's only used by 300,000 people?After the country's economy blew up in the financial crisis, the government put the krona on lock down. Now, they're trying to decide whether to stay with the krona, or abandon it, and use someone else's currency.Today's show features special guest host Baldur Hedinsson, a former Planet Money intern who recently moved back to Iceland. We also hear from his sister, who is working in a town where people walk around with rifles to ward off polar bears. And we talk to Robert Mundell, who won a Nobel for working on questions like the one Iceland is facing.

How do you make money manufacturing a dry, bland cracker that a tiny percentage of the population eats just one week a year?On today's show, we go inside the matzo business.A rabbi at a matzo factory  explains why matzo is supposed to be hard to make. A Manischewitz exec tells us why all the rules for making kosher matzo are a boon to the company. And, perhaps inevitably, we explain what all this has to do with the 21st century economy.

On today's show, we eat artisanal beef jerky, sort through the wreckage of the financial crisis, watch Nancy Pelosi raise money, and meet high priced nannies.It's is a collection of our recent radio stories. Here's more: A Revival In American Manufacturing, Led By Brooklyn Foodies Wisconsin School Districts Saved After Bad Investment On Tour With Nancy Pelosi, Fundraising Rock Star The $200,000-A-Year Nanny

David Unkovic is a thoughtful, mild-mannered guy who was appointed to save Harrisburg, Pa. The city had gone broke, and it was Unkovic's job to figure out how to fix things.We visited Harrisburg a few weeks back. We talked to Unkovic. We talked to some of the people in Harrisburg who were suing him. And we visited the incinerator, a boondoggle that drove the city to bankruptcy.Then, last week, Unkovic quit. "I find myself in an untenable position in the political and ethical crosswinds," his handwritten resignation letter says. "I wish the citizens of Harrisburg well in their ongoing quest for fiscal stability and good government, both of which they truly deserve."Since resigning, Unkovic has gone missing. And he hasn't returned our calls or emails.

If you serve in Congress, you have two jobs: Making laws, and raising money to run for re-election.It turns out, that second job — raising money to run for re-election — is a lot easier if you serve on certain Congressional committees.On today's show, we reveal which committees are a fundraising goldmine. And which committees actually make it harder for Congressmen to raise money.The show is a preview of our hour long special this weekend on This American Life — Take The Money And Run For Office.

On today's show, we hear the story of a 16th century German weavers' guild. They were savvy political operators, who knew how to push their competitors out of the market. They set up a system of fines, wage ceilings, and public rebukes that would be the envy of a modern cartel. It's a tale of economic monopoly and discrimination. Of inequality and conflict. And it's a story of how businesses can stifle innovation even today. Our guest is Sheilagh Ogilvie, an economic historian at Cambridge.

The U.S. has a really conflicted history with the income tax. For most of American history, there was no income tax at all. At one point it was ruled unconstitutional.Today, income tax is the federal government's main source of revenue. That raises a question: How did something that was once so strange to us become so central?The answer includes a few wars, a Supreme Court justice on his deathbed, and Donald Duck.

Willow Tufano is a 14-year-old girl who recently bought a house in Florida for $12,000.Willow and her mom split the cost of the house, which they're now renting out. Willow saved up money by selling stuff from foreclosed homes on Craigslist; she plans to buy out her mom's share in the next few years.We did a radio story about Willow earlier this month. The story took off. Since it aired, Willow has been on Ellen, CNN and ABC News.On today's podcast, we hear the original radio story. And we hear more from the neighborhood where Willow lives. It's a place where people who bought at the top of the bubble — including Willow's family — live next to people who bought identical homes at a fraction of the price.And we discuss whether a 14-year-old girl buying a house is a sign that that housing market has finally bottomed.

On today's show, we talk with a former manager at Countrywide Financial. Cynder Niemela describes what life was like inside the giant mortgage lender back in 2006. It's not pretty.Mike Hudson, an investigative reporter with the Center For Public Integrity, is our special guest host for the show. He picked through the wreckage of the housing crisis and talked to dozens of people at big mortgage companies to find out what the mortgage industry was like back then.

Today's show, in three bullet points: How the European Central Bank finally used its super power. What that has to do with a guy who owns a bar on the coast of Spain. And why this may not be the end of Europe's debt saga.

On today's show, we visit Fulper Farms, a family-run dairy in New Jersey. It's a bucolic setting — white farmhouse, rolling hills, etc. But behind that peaceful image lies all the roiling tension, rising inequality and economic volatility of the 21st-century economy.We meet Claudia, the prized, high-tech cow. We meet Claudia's less-accomplished neighbor, Cow #6. And we learn why even a barn full of Claudias wouldn't be enough to keep a family-run dairy afloat.