Planet Money

If you've felt, say, in the last nine months or so that people who work on Wall Street make too much money, we've got a guest for you. Ariell Resheff, an economics professor at the University of Virginia, says you're right, and he can prove it. And we got a message on our apology line from a mortgage industry veteran who says he's at least a little bit responsible for the financial crisis. And he's not sorry.

Congratulations, Americans, you're on the road to car company ownership. General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection today, in a deal that calls for the U.S. government to own 60 percent of the automaker. That works out to something like $192 per taxpayer. NPR's Frank Langfitt says two big questions remain: When will GM make money again, and how much will the United States lose?

When you arrive as a tourist in North Korea — yes, it's been done — they don't tell you the news, says Curtis Melvin. They tell you the state of the economy. And yes, they do have one. Melvin knows because it tracks it on his blog, North Korean Economy Watch. One of his biggest boosts comes from Google Earth, which lets him watch what passes for economic development. And a look at the "efficient market" hypothesis, which helps to explain why, in the long haul, Jim Cramer and company fare as well as anyone else on Wall Street.

Chrysler went to bankruptcy court in New York City today. At issue was the question of whether Chrysler can sell a significant portion of itself to the Italian automaker Fiat. As Frank Langfitt tells us, there's much more at stake, not just for Chrysler, but for GM and the future of American capitalism. Plus: A mother and son find common ground in savings.

Shipping executive Per Gullestrup wanted to rescue a crew of sailors from pirates demanding $7 million ransom. He ended up forging an unlikely business relationship with the negotiator, marked by mutual respect and the gift of three camel calves. Plus: A refinancing success and a haiku medley.

Imagine this whole darned economic crisis, or at least a major strand of it, started at a pink hotel in Boca Raton. A bunch of bankers from JP Morgan met there in 1994 to consider the future, and decided credit derivatives were it. Gillian Tett, the Financial Times writer and author of Fool's Gold, says the rest is history, miserable history. Plus: A mom tells about being forced to choose between giving up a job and living part of the week away from home.

Three months ago, Jeff Neilsen sat in his Salt Lake City living room and listened to President Obama announce a new program for homeowners who need to rework their mortgages. He applied to his lender, Wells Fargo, and heard almost nothing. Julia Gordon of the Center for Responsible Lending says his experience is all too typical. She suggests the system is plainly broken. Neilsen is one of 6 million U.S. homeowners are flirting with foreclosure. NPR's Chris Arnold reports that in half those cases, foreclosure appears to benefit no one involved — not the families and not the banks. With Alex Blumberg, he visits one loan servicer, Ocwen, that reworks 75 percent of its troubled mortgages, as opposed to the industry average of 10 percent. (Chris and Alex produced a segment about this for This American Life.) Plus: From the suburbs of Chicago, a firefighter reports a remarkable change since the recession began.

Credit card companies have decided to become your pal, before it's too late. If they chat you up instead of sounding threatening when you call, they figure, you might pay them back first. That's the message from New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg, who just published What Does Your Credit Card Company Know About You? While they're getting friendly with you, credit card companies have managed to learn a thing or two about exactly your ways. For starters, they're never happier than when customers buy premium bird seed, or put their kids' pictures on their credit cards. But if they hang out at Sharx, an upscale pool hall in Montreal? That's bad news. With a special guest appearance by Sharx regular Laura Roberts.

What happens when you take giant international corporations and try to give them a single regulator? Mike Roster, a bank regulatory lawyer, says you get a whole lot of folks being overly polite. Part of the problem, Roster says, is that people too quickly forget the disasters of the past. Plus: Before there was Bernie Madoff, there was Ivar Krueger. In his new book, The Match King: The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals, Frank Partnoy reveals a riot of scandal that we'd all do well to remember.

One set of not very popular folks is now suing another. It's bond insurer MBIA versus financial giant Merrill Lynch. At issue: whether the latter misled the former into selling insurance way too cheaply. Securities lawyer Zachary Rosenbaum decodes the briefs. Plus: Listener Renee Rico responds to the Elizabeth Warren interview.

We're going to file this one among very few others for Very Intense Planet Money Interviews. Bailout monitor and Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren sat down with Adam Davidson this week and went at least 15 rounds over what's really wrong with the economy and what should be done to fix it. Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, says the problem is as much a credit crisis as a slide in conditions for average American families. Plus: An office indicator you might recognize.

In the best tradition of The Bachelor, financial institutions get to choose from a small flock of regulators. Those regulators collect fees for their work, so they're hot to woo potential companies. The Planet Money Players, with special guest Dina Temple Raston, show you how it's done as they vie for the affections of one Adam Isaac Gavidson, better known as AIG. Bonus: A listener indicator from the office.

Figuring a little cushion couldn't hurt, West Virginia's Centra Bank got involved in the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Then CEO Douglas Leech decided the restrictions weren't worth the hassle and moved to repay the money. Getting out cost the healthy bank $750,000, for complicated reasons. Now David Kestenbaum has the chance to live his radio dream: Stopping his NPR story midway so he can explain it for the rest of us. And clown Mandy Dalton says it's tough out there, buying $300 funky shoes in the middle of a deep recession and a swine flu panic.

Chrysler headed for bankruptcy today, pushed there by President Obama in the latest twist in the surreal saga of the American automobile industry. NPR's Frank Langfitt checks in from his rounds of UAW union halls, where we hear from a Chrysler worker who says the cars his company makes just aren't good enough. Another worker says he's surprised a UAW health care trust fund ended up as a majority owner of the company, since he sat through days of votes on wage concessions without hearing a word about it. Plus: We asked whether you bore any blame for wrecking the global economy, and whether you were up for apologizing on our Planet Money apology line. You were. We're leaving the line open.

This week Nassim Taleb, the economist who lives by the Black Swan Theory, joined Ian Bremmer of Eurasia Group and The Fat Tail in our studios. Taleb's message to the world goes like this: Never mind math to manage risk. End the bond industry. And render Wall Street as we know it illegal. Plus: Laid-off from Microsoft, dad gets job.