Planet Money

Gary Loveman used to be an economics professor at Harvard Business School. He studied things like the development of the private sector in Poland.Now he runs Ceasars Entertainment Corporation, a giant gambling company. But he still thinks like an academic. He likes to say there are three things that can get you fired from Caesars: Stealing, sexual harassment and running an experiment without a control group.On today's show, he tells us how he got from Harvard to Caesars, and explains the surprising results of some of his real-world experiments.

Nevada's an economic disaster zone, with the nation's highest rate of both unemployment and foreclosures. But a few towns strung along I-80 in the middle of nowhere are doing great.The reason: They're in the middle of Nevada's gold mining country, which has boomed as the price of gold has risen.On today's show, we visit one of those towns. Elko, Nevada is indeed a happy place. But there's an undercurrent of anxiety.When you get to the edge of town, you can see why: There are all these ghost towns nearby that boomed when the mines were running, then faded to nothing when the gold ran out.

On today's show, we talk to a guy named Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise. He's a British CEO, and he's offering a $400,000 prize to the person who comes up with the best plan for countries to leave the euro.Also: The story of another European currency union that fell apart a century ago, and the lessons it holds for the euro.

Today on the podcast, the story of one of the most destructive and mysterious food shortages in recent memory. The most mysterious thing about this shortage of rice: There was more than enough to go around.It is the epic story of a shortage that wasn't.In this global caper of good intentions gone wrong, there are shadowy trade deals, corrupt government officials, and warehouses full of rice in a country that didn't want it.

On today's show, we go inside the rooms in Washington where the daily grind of campaign finance — Congressmen, lobbyists, money — takes place. At least, we try to go inside the rooms. Several times.And we talk to Jimmy Williams, a former lobbyist now working on campaign finance reform. He describes what it's like to meet with a Congressman when you're a lobbyist and your PAC hasn't been donating to the Congressman.

On today's show, we hear the story of a steel-cage match between two economists. The fight has been going on for most of a century now, and it's never been more relevant: Keynes versus Hayek.It's a Deep Read interview with Nicholas Wapshott, the author of the new book Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics.

Economists love economic growth. It's an essential driver of rising living standards.But on today's show, we wrestle with a question we've heard a lot from our listeners: Is economic growth bad for the planet?We talk to one economist, Herman Daly, who argues that economic growth is in fact environmentally unsustainable.And we hear from a second, Robert Mendelsohn who says economic growth and a healthy environment can co-exist — but who argues we should include the effects of pollution in the price of electricity.

We got our hands on a secret government report outlining what once looked like a potential crisis: The possibility that the U.S. government might pay off its entire debt.It sounds ridiculous today. But not so long ago, the prospect of a debt-free U.S. was seen as a real possibility with the potential to upset the global financial system.Today on the show, we hear from the economist who wrote the report. And we look at how things turned out so, so differently.

Germany and France are a couple tied together by fate.In the beginning, they were always at each others' throats. At last, they realized they weren't so different. So they stopped fighting and tied themselves together through — what else? — money.On today's show, the story of France and Germany — the relationship on which the fate of Europe depends.

It seems unlikely that Greece will be able to avoid defaulting on its loans. The real question is how the default will happen — will it be clean and organized or messy and catastrophic.The nightmare scenario Greece most wants to avoid is what happened in Argentina. A deep recession and doomed dollar peg forced Argentina to suspend payments on its debt, leaving its lenders high and dry.Today on the podcast, a cautionary tale for Greece.

On today's show, we talk to Daniel Yergin, one of the world's most influential thinkers about energy.We talk about the future of energy in America, and about Yergin's new book, The Quest.Yergin's previous book, The Prize, looked at the businessmen and politicians who fought to control oil around the world. The Quest looks beyond oil to alternative energy. The heroes are the engineers and scientists of the energy world — the geeks, in other words.

We went downtown this week to talk to the protesters at Occupy Wall Street.We asked people why they were there. We heard lots of different answers.We went to the big nightly meeting, which lasts for hours. Everybody has something to say. Along the lines of:Should we buy some sleeping bags? Why does that guy get to run the meeting? What if we just buy fabric and make our own sleeping bags?This kind of back and forth, people told us, is the whole point of Occupy Wall Street. It's not a movement; it's a venue. Standing around, talking about what everybody wants — this is a model of how the protesters want society to be.This being Planet Money, we immediately wondered: Can an entire economy run on group participation? How could that work? It turns out, there's an economist named Robin Hahnel who's been working on this problem for 40 years. And he has a proposal that he thinks would be perfect.He calls it participatory economics.

On today's show, we visit a place where global economic forces converge: Colo, Iowa.The price of farmland in Iowa has doubled in the past few years. People rush to outbid each other at real-estate auctions, and land owners become millionaires in a matter of minutes.We look visit an auction, look at the broader economic picture, and ask an unavoidable question: Is it a bubble?

In the 1980s, Satyajit Das worked for a finance company that owned a large stake in an airline.Das got the airline to start making speculative bets on the price of oil. That decision was good for the bottom line: One year, the company made more money from trading than it did from selling tickets on its planes.But in the long run, Das says on today's show, this was part of a much larger shift in the global economy — and that shift turned out to be a disaster.

For today's show, we've collected four Planet Money radio stories that never made it to the podcast.A Slow Motion Bank Run In Europe: Fear can wreck a banking system and cause havoc in an economy. That's why the recent worries about big French banks are so important, and so scary.The Twist, Explained: Chubby Checker and the Fed's latest effort to push down interest rates.A Shrinking City Knocks Down Neighborhoods: Youngstown, Ohio, gave up on the idea that a city needs to grow. Now, the city is trying to figure out how to shrink.The Indie-Rock Club Behind Omaha's $100 Million Boom: A couple college friends decided Omaha needed a music venue. The community they created led developers to remake a whole neighborhood.