NPR: Planet Money Podcast
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.
Tags: [add tags]
10 Episodes of this Podcast:
#114 Planet Money: Shopping For An MRI
Published: 2009-11-07 03:50:17How can one hospital charge $800 for an MRI while the stand alone clinic down the street charges $450? We visit two MRI centers in Pensacola, Florida to find out.
...MORE
#113 Planet Money: Paying Doctors
Published: 2009-11-04 22:55:28When the government created the Medicare system in 1965, they were so desperate to get doctors into it that they allowed them set their own fees. The fee for service system was good for doctors, who now got paid for giving health care to the poor and elderly, but bad for the government. The crushing weight of doctors fees soon sent government budgets out of control. Ten years later, President Ford thought he had the solution, cap the fees paid to doctors. Unfortunately capping fees just caused another problem, overtreatment. It wasn't until the late 1980's that an economist from Harvard, Professor William Hsiao, finally came up with method to determine competitive prices for doctor's care — the relative value scale. Though this scale is used today, the problem of over paying doctors still exists. Hsiao, says that's because special interests have gotten a hold of his scale distorted it.
...MORE
#112 Planet Money: A Marshall Plan For Africa
Published: 2009-11-03 03:19:28The world's governments have given a trillion dollars in aid developing nations since WWII, and yet in some countries, particularly in Africa, the economic situation is just as bad or worse than it's ever been. Columbia economist and former economic adviser to the Bush administration, Glenn Hubbard, says it's time to change the way we give aid to Africa. Hubbard, co-author of The Aid Trap: Hard Truths About Ending Poverty, advocates a modern day Marshall plan, which would give money directly to local businesses instead of government.
...MORE
#111 Planet Money: In The Classroom
Published: 2009-10-30 19:38:42Economics teacher Heather Hanemann has developed a curriculum based on several of the Planet Money podcasts. We visited her classroom here in Manhattan to see what the kids thought about the show and hear how the financial crisis has played out in their lives.
...MORE
#110 Planet Money: GMAC?s Hail Mary Pass
Published: 2009-10-28 20:26:14GMAC is on the way to achieving the special distinction of three federal bailouts. The financial institution has already received $12.5 billion in assistance, for which the government has taken a stake of nearly 35 percent in the company. Columbia economist Charles Calomiris says the GMAC case is a textbook example of the dangers that come with taxpayer bailouts. Calomiris says the government ends up giving money to keep a foundering bank afloat. The bank takes what's known as "resurrection risk," the economic equivalent of football's Hail Mary pass. There's more. Senior Vice President Paul Merski of the Independent Community Bankers of America says that with government backing in place, GMAC is getting an unfair competitive advantage.
...MORE
#109 Planet Money: Can GM Ever Pay Us Back?
Published: 2009-10-26 20:28:28Since the start of the financial crisis, the U.S. government has put $50 billion into General Motors. After GM emerged from bankruptcy this year, the public owned 61 percent of the stock of the newly reconstituted company. How much of that $50 billion will the American taxpayer get back? CEO Fritz Henderson says business at GM is getting better, which is at least a hopeful sign for repayment. But the situation at GM is so complicated, Henderson says, that he can't say yet how much money GM will be able to return to the public coffers. Longtime auto analyst John Casesa has crunched the numbers we have. He says GM would have to do everything right, in a strong economy, to pay back what it owes. Meanwhile, a Congressional Oversight Panel report says the public will get back less than half the money it used to bail out GM and Chrysler.
...MORE
#108 Planet Money: Elinor Ostrom Checks In
Published: 2009-10-23 18:01:40This month, Indiana University professor Elinor Ostrom became the first woman to win the Nobel prize for economics. Ostrom explains her groundbreaking research into the public management of natural resources. The political scientist argues that people should be empowered to organize themselves in small ways that scale up to a global network. Government can be helpful in doing that, but people shouldn't rely on it alone.
...MORE
#107 Planet Money: Economics for Monkeys
Published: 2009-10-21 20:59:10Human beings aren't the only creatures who make economic decisions. It turns out that monkeys do it, too. Scientists have observed our primate kin exchanging goods and services and adjusting prices. Ronald Noe, a professor of primate ethnology at the University of Strasbourg, says the vervet monkey of southern and eastern Africa uses grooming as a kind of currency. Vervets determine the value of food providers and divide their attention according to the law of supply and demand.
...MORE
#106 Planet Money: The Paradox Of Oil
Published: 2009-10-19 22:02:07Gregory Schiedler works for a foreign oil company in Angola's capital Luanda. He lives in a gated community, gets driven to work everyday and is responsible for spending one billion dollars in the next year. Gregory has very little interaction with Angolans except for one, the teenager who sells him chewing gum. Minguito works on the streets of Angola selling cigarettes, shoe shines and gum to foreigners like Gregory and anyone else who wants to buy them. He's tired of working on the street and running from the police, but he says he feels like he has no choice. Retired U.S. diplomat Herman Cohen explains why billions of dollars of oil money flowing into Angola have done little to help the people who live there.
...MORE
#105 Planet Money: Insurance For A Hedgehog
Published: 2009-10-16 20:39:32On today's Planet Money: We give a sneak preview of our upcoming This American Life special on health insurance. How much would you pay to protect someone or something you love? Kristin Zorbini Bongard and her husband love their pet hedgehog, Harriet, so much that they spend about $80 a year on health insurance for her. Even with the coverage, they shelled out $1,911.20 for the hedgehog's cancer treatment. Economist Tim Harford, the Financial Times' Undercover Economist, who admits to not being a pet person, says the problem with pet insurance is not that it's for pets. It's that it causes waste, because you're spending someone else's money.
...MORE
Copyright info: 2008 National Public Radio
All syndicated content presented here is property of the original publisher
Now Playing: #114 Planet Money: Shopping For An MRI
This Feed Exists in These User(s) Folders
