Planet Money show

Planet Money

Summary: Money makes the world go around, faster and faster every day. On NPR's Planet Money, you'll meet high rollers, brainy economists and regular folks -- all trying to make sense of our rapidly changing global economy.

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Podcasts:

 #06 Planet Money: Pay Up — Or Else | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

You're kidding me, thought Simon Johnson of Baseline Scenario, after reading an analyst's call for the U.S. to pay top dollar for toxic assets — or else. Johnson and Adam Davidson call up the person who wrote it, Joseph LaVorgna of Deutsche Bank. Plus: Adam put himself through a viewing of The International, a supposed thriller. For real edge-of-your-seat cinema, he says, listen to this tale from John Moscow.

 #05 Planet Money: How To Save A Bank | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

When the previous Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, announced his plans for saving the economy, professor Jeremy Siegel of Wharton gave him an F-. We asked Siegel to grade the performance of the new Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner. Plus: Adam Davidson and Alex Blumberg pick apart the Geithner plan, starting with the question of what it really takes to rescue a bank.

 #04 Planet Money: Get Tougher, Please | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

On Tuesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is expected to unveil the government's latest plan for helping troubled banks. Early reports say it's something of a public/private partnership. Economist Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute says the big problem is that American leaders still are getting tough enough on banks. Plus: A Vermont selectman says his townspeople have been hypnotized by the promise of a stimulus check.

 Planet Money #3: Pajama Party | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

A rule designed to protect the U.S. textile industry from Chinese exports just expired. The big loser, says Rachel Lousie Snyder, author of Fugitive Denim, may be the makers of pajamas - in Cambodia. Plus: Simon Johnson talks national debt, and a San Francisco radio host says he was stunned by the number of calls from listeners on a special segment about looking for work.

 Planet Money #2: Meet Bailout Bill | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

Lately, we're hearing from economists that they don't much like the nearly $900 billion stimulus bill now before Congress. Kent Smetters of Wharton puts the smackdown on the Congressional Budget Office. Then Steve Fazzari of Washington University calls it a disappointing, if standard, grab bag of programs. Plus: People line up in Times Square for free money from "Bailout Bill."

 Planet Money: Japan's Lost Lesson | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

Japan spent the 1990s slogging through the economic doldrums, complete with soup kitchens and homeless camps. Economist Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute says the misery could have been cut to three years if policymakers had acted boldly. Posen, author of Japan's Financial Crisis and Its Parallels to U.S. Experience, says the Obama administration needs to get more aggressive with banks, and in a hurry. Plus: The $800 billion stimulus bill now before Congress contains a little money for oversight of the spending — a perhaps very little, reports Adam Davidson. And a Finnish Facebook group fights a message to spend, not save.

 Planet Money: Obama Tests Keynes on U.S. | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

President Barack Obama says that only government can pull America out of a recession this severe. Obama calls his plan for stimulus spending of well more than $800 million a new idea, but Adam Davidson and Alex Blumberg say this kind of public spending relies on an old theory. John Maynard Keynes wrote it up in 1936 — and this recession marks its first real-world test. Plus: Questioning the economics of the Super Bowl, people ditching furniture on Craigslist, and naming the economic crisis.

 Planet Money: Bad as They Want to Be | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

The latest idea for saving U.S. financial institutions is to have one big bank mop up all the toxic assets and figure out a way to sell them. Economist Larry Ausubel says it's doable. Plus: Felix Salmon of Portfolio hates on ex-Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, and a listener rations sawdust - for a very good reason.

 Planet Money: Don't Call It a Crisis | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

Russians have gotten almost accustomed to an economy that grew rapidly, until this year, that is. Now, as David Kestenbaum reports, people there are struggling with what to call the new economic climate. Andrei Illarianov, former adviser to President Vladimir Putin and now of the Cato Institute, says neither media nor the government wants to call it a crisis. Plus: Iceland's government became the second to fall as a direct result of the economic crisis. Icelandic National Broadcasting's Bjorn Malmquist reports on what some are calling a revolution.

 Planet Money: A Forced Vacation | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

Which would you rather have happen to you — a layoff, a pay cut or a furlough? As companies look for ways to slash costs without canning workers, more of you are reporting that you're being asked to take short periods off without pay. Listeners Elizabeth Call, Daniel Cross, and Sarah Yarrito wonder what will happen next, and economist Howard Rosen worries. Plus: A newly laid-off Microsoft worker gets advice from his kids.

 Planet Money: A Forced Vacation | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

Which would you rather have happen to you — a layoff, a pay cut or a furlough? As companies look for ways to slash costs without canning workers, more of you are reporting that you're being asked to take short periods off without pay. Listeners Elizabeth Call and Daniel Cross wonder what will happen next, and economist Howard Rosen worries. Plus: A newly laid-off Microsoft worker gets advice from his kids.

 Planet Money: Banks Need More | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

The U.S. government has thrown hundreds of billions of dollars at banks, but the banks say they're still in trouble. What will it take to save them? Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, says about about $1.5 trillion, maybe — whatever it costs for Plan A plus Plan B. Plus: a bank lobbyist can't rule out nationalization, and a report on Treasury Secretary-designate Tim Geithner's confirmation hearing.

 Planet Money: The First 100 Days | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

As President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office, historian Eric Rauchway looks back at the lessons of FDR's first 100 days. And a listener from North Dakota says he is seeing the opposite of gloom and doom in his local economy.

 Planet Money: The LIBOR Dance | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

John Ewan of the British Bankers Association leads a TED spread party by telling us all about LIBOR — it's fun, really. David Kestenbaum wonders just how global this global recession really is — hey, Liberia's growing. And a Florida man reveals his latest strategy for finding a job.

 Planet Money: The News Today, Oh, Boy | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

A number of listeners have asked us to look at what's happening inside our own industry — media. Magazines have been shutting down, newspapers are canceling home delivery and furloughing staff, publications are moving online, radio networks are laying off workers. Which is just the half of it, really. Economist Anita McGahan, author of How Industries Evolve, studies what's known as punctuated change. She says the line between shifting and dying is not always apparent, at the time. But the first company to figure out what comes next wins. Bonus: A newspaper carrier says the print edition he delivers is now too light for him to throw it onto porches properly. --

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