Planet Money

Planet Money

The Economy Explained
food truck promo
Lam Thuy Vo/NPR

Podcast

Episode 366: How To Make It In The Food Truck Business

In New York City, more than 5,000 food trucks and carts compete for the business of hungry office workers. And finding the right spot to set up shop can mean the difference between fortune and ruin.

Episode 366: How To Make It In The Food Truck Business
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What happens when you follow that spam link to buy cheap online pharmaceuticals?
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Podcast

Episode 430: Black Market Pharmacies And The Spam Empire Behind Them

On today's show, we open up some of those annoying pharmaceutical spam emails and find out who's clicking to buy herbal viagra? Also, what happens when they do?

Episode 430: Black Market Pharmacies And The Spam Empire Behind Them
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Jose Magrass, hot dog selling machine.

Jose Magrass, hot dog selling machine. Nick Fountain/NPR hide caption

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Podcast

Episode 700: Peanuts and Cracker Jack

Beer. Water. Pretzels. It takes effort, strategy, and some serious lungs to sell expensive junk food at a baseball game. Meet the hot dog vending legend of Fenway Park.

Episode 700: Peanuts and Cracker Jack
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Shanay Manson recently entered the West Hartford lottery for a Section 8 Tenant-Based Housing Choice Voucher.
Keith Romer

Podcast

Episode 698: The Long Way Home

Housing subsidies are often given out through a lottery. But why do we let random chance decide who gets help with the rent? We don't do that for food stamps or health care, so why housing?

Episode 698: The Long Way Home
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Lance Armstrong reacts as he crosses the finish line to win the 17th stage of the Tour de France in 2004.

Lance Armstrong reacts as he crosses the finish line to win the 17th stage of the Tour de France in 2004. Laurent Rebours/AP hide caption

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Podcast

Episode 417: Lance Armstrong and The Business of Doping

In this episode, we consider a world where everybody cheats, and where you can't win unless you game the regulators: Professional cycling.

Episode 417: Lance Armstrong and The Business of Doping
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Employers have to find some way to narrow the field of job applicants. But how do you do that fairly?
Gary Waters/Getty Images/Ikon Images

Podcast

Episode 697: Help Wanted

When you're an employer looking at a giant stack of resumes, you have to find some way to quickly narrow the field. How do you do that fairly? And what happens when your good intentions backfire?

Episode 697: Help Wanted
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Can you spot the difference between the two tins? It's the basis of a class action.
Cameron Robert/NPR

Podcast

Episode 696: Class Action

The modern class action was created on a typewriter in the back of a car. (Sort of.) Now, thousands of these lawsuits are filed every year. How did we get here? Is this really a good way to do things?

Episode 696: Class Action
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Not a smart gun.

Not a smart gun. LA Johnson/NPR hide caption

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Podcast

Episode 694: The Gun That Wouldn't Shoot

Imagine a safer kind of gun. Imagine a company with a plan to build it. Imagine customers ready to buy it. Imagine what could go wrong. A whole lot.

Episode 694: The Gun That Wouldn't Shoot
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A man in a local bar watches Puerto Rico's governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla on television delivering an address on the state of the island's finances, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Monday, June 29, 2015. The governor said the island couldn't repay its $72 billion in public debt.

A man in a local bar watches Puerto Rico's governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla on television delivering an address on the state of the island's finances, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Monday, June 29, 2015. The governor said the island couldn't repay its $72 billion in public debt. Ricardo Arduengo/AP hide caption

toggle caption Ricardo Arduengo/AP

Podcast

Episode 693: Unpayable

Puerto Rico is part of the United States, but not one of the United States. And this limbo status has brought a world of economic trouble.

Episode 693: Unpayable
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U.S. Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service 1040 Individual Income Tax forms for the 2015 tax year.

U.S. Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service 1040 Individual Income Tax forms for the 2015 tax year. Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

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Podcast

Episode 692: The Secret Life Of Line 24

On today's show, we tell the stories of a few mysterious lines on IRS form 1040 — the basic tax form. In its own, maddening way, the 1040 is a great American document.

Episode 692: The Secret Life Of Line 24
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When it comes to cable TV, more and more people are cutting the cord.
Gavin Schaefer/Flickr

Podcast

Episode 691: The Great Unbundling

There's a revolution underway in the world of cable TV--more and more people are getting rid of it. And there are some unforeseen consequences when we cut the cord and go our separate ways.

Episode 691: The Great Unbundling
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An aerial view of Caye Caulker, Belize. Belize was the home of one of Planet Money's offshore shell companies, "Unbelizeable Inc."
Droneplcr/Flickr

Podcast

Episode 390: We Set Up An Offshore Company In A Tax Haven

In this show, we dive deep into the world of hiding money. We look for the easiest place to shelter a bank account and set up our own shell company in an offshore tax haven. Good times.

Episode 390: We Set Up An Offshore Company In A Tax Haven
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Argentina's three-masted navy training tall ship ARA Libertad, which was seized as collateral for unpaid bonds dating from Argentina's economic crisis a decade ago. (AP Photo/Gabriela Barnuevo)
Gabriela Barnuevo/AP

Podcast

Episode 689: A Hedge Fund, A Country, And A Big Sailboat

Argentina decided that it could take on the world. They had a bunch of debt and said, 'we're not paying.' Then a group of hedge funds took the entire country to court.

Episode 689: A Hedge Fund, A Country, And A Big Sailboat
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Special agents celebrate their fake offshore bank with apple juice.
Bill Bruton

Government

Episode 418: How The Government Set Up A Fake Bank To Launder Drug Money

One day in the early 1990s, a man walked into the U.S. embassy in Ecuador. He said he had information on how to go after some of most powerful drug traffickers in the world.

Episode 418: How The Government Set Up A Fake Bank To Launder Drug Money
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