Category: 3-EconSometimeCommentary

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If something is going wrong in your workplace, there's probably a law that explains why. Meetings always seem long, and never end early? There’s Parkinson’s Law, which says work expands to the time allotted, or, restated: meetings will always take up all the time blocked on Outlook calendars. Is your boss bad at managing? Check the Peter Principle, which says people are promoted to their level of incompetence. A good worker does not a good manager make. And yet … here we are. Once you hear these laws, and a few others, you start to spot them everywhere. 

Today on the show, we picked a few of the most famous and powerful ‘laws of the office’ and tested them out on each other. 

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This episode was hosted by Kenny Malone, Sarah Gonzalez, and Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. It was produced by Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. Bryant Urstadt edited this show. Planet Money’s executive producer is Alex Goldmark.

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More people than ever before are getting tattoos — but social media has flipped the trade’s business model on its head. Zachary Crockett dips into the ink. This episode was originally published on October 3rd, 2023.

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What do we want from sports? The very best athletes competing as hard as they know how, putting all their effort and training and natural ability to the test against their opponents. But this time of year, that’s not the product the NBA is putting on the court. Instead, teams at the bottom of the league are competing … to lose, because it could help them get a top pick in next year’s draft. It’s called tanking — it’s bad for fans, and it’s bad for the league.

Tanking has gotten especially egregious this year. Even NBA Adam Silver has called out teams for tanking. He recently announced that league bigwigs are considering “every possible remedy” to “align incentives.”

Today on the show — Planet Money fixes the NBA’s tanking problem by … fixing the NBA draft. We get solutions from Hockey Hall of Famer Jayna Hefford, World Cup Champion Sam Mewis, and long-time NBA analyst Zach Lowe. 

Handles for the NBA fans in the episode: thevoiceofevan, fullcourtblitz, ashleynevel, igotnxtpodcast, finesse.wes, basketballsavant, and mikedaddino__.

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This episode was hosted by Keith Romer and Erika Beras. It was produced by James Sneed with an assist from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Jess Jiang and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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There’s more than meets the eye to the box that stores the pie. Zachary Crockett cracks the lid. This episode was originally published on October 1st, 2023.

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Heated Rivalry, the steamy hockey romance show, was made for about $2 million per episode.  That is remarkably cheap for an hour-long drama.

Today on the show, a conversation with Heated Rivalry creators Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady about their television miracle on ice.

It’s not just that the show was made efficiently and cleverly. Heated Rivalry comes from a Canadian economic system of making TV and movies that is completely different from how we do things in the US.

In this episode of Planet Money, in partnership with the Pivot podcast co-hosted by Kara Swisher, we hear about a Canadian production model for making TV and movies and how it’s different from the U.S. model. And we learn what the experience of making Heated Rivalry teaches us about the current state of both industries.

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The original Pivot episode from New York Magazine and The Vox Media Podcast Network was hosted by Kara Swisher, produced by Lara Naman, Zoë Marcus and Taylor Griffin and engineered by Brandon McFarland. Nishat Kurwa is Vox Media's Executive Producer of podcasts. This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Kenny Malone, produced by James Sneed, edited by Jess Jiang and fact-checked by Lara Naman. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke speaks with historian David T. Beito about his new biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt. They discuss FDR’s record on civil liberties, including government surveillance and efforts to police speech; the administration’s approach to refugees and antisemitism; and early-career episodes like the Newport Sex Scandal. The conversation also covers how progressive-era ideas shaped FDR’s political instincts, how New Deal programs like the NRA and AAA cartelized industries, and why key wartime choices, such as unconditional surrender and “rescue through victory,” may have prolonged World War II. They close with lessons for today: the dangers of malleable legal categories and the need for durable institutional guardrails against executive abuse.

Dr. David T. Beito is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor Emeritus at the University of Alabama. He is the author of many books, including FDR: A New Political Life (Carus Books, 2025), The New Deal’s War on the Bill of Rights: The Untold Story of FDR’s Concentration Camps, Censorship, and Mass Surveillance (Independent Institute, 2025), and T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, and Civil Rights Pioneer (Independent Institute, 2018), coauthored with Linda Royster Beito.

**This episode was recorded December 8, 2025.

Show Notes:

• Presidential Greatness Project

• Thomas C. Loenard’s book, Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era (Princeton University Press, 2016)

• Herbert Croly’s book, The Promise of American Life: Updated Edition (Princeton University Press, 2014)

• Murray Rothbard’s book, America’s Great Depression (Mises Institute, 2000)

• David Michaelis’ book, Eleanor (Simon & Schuster, 2021)

• Daniel T. Rodgers’ book, Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age (Harvard University Press, 2000)

• David Hackett Fischer’s book, Liberty and Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2004)

• George Selgin’s book, False Dawn: The New Deal and the Promise of Recovery, 1933–1947 (University of Chicago Press, 2025)

If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Check out our other podcast from the Hayek Program! Virtual Sentiments is a podcast in which political theorist Kristen Collins interviews scholars and practitioners grappling with pressing problems in political economy with an eye to the past. Subscribe today!

Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgram

Follow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatus

CC Music: Twisterium

They’ve long been associated with crime and blight. Now, the investors are moving in. Zachary Crockett follows the trail. This episode was originally published on September 17th, 2023.

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The world of science has been stuck in an existential crisis over whether we actually know the things we thought we knew. Re-running an old study today doesn't always yield the same result. Same with re-enacting old experiments. Collectively, this is known as the “replication crisis.” 

Economist Abel Brodeur has come up with one way to help fix this crisis: he’s invented an internationally crowdsourced surveillance system, designed to keep social scientists honest. He calls it the “Replication Games.” 

Further Listening:

• Fabricated data in research about honesty. You can't make this stuff up. Or, can you? 
• The Experiment Experiment 
• How Much Should We Trust Economics?

This episode was hosted by Mary Childs and Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. It was produced by James Sneed and Emma Peaslee, with help from Willa Rubin. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, and engineered by Ko Takasugi-Czernowin. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer. 

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It takes fungi-sniffing dogs, back-room deals, and a guy named “The Kingpin” for the world’s most coveted morsel to end up on your plate. Zachary Crockett picks up the scent. This episode was originally published on September 10th, 2023.

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ICE is scaling up, with rapid new hiring. So we ask, has training new officers changed? At what cost? 


Also, the Trump administration has plans to pour billions of dollars into warehouses for mass immigrant detention centers, which can totally change the economy of some areas. We hear from a rural town in Georgia that wants an ICE facility in its own backyard. 


These episodes were originally published on Planet Money’s sister daily podcast The Indicator.


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Listen to the Indicator from Planet Money

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The episodes of The Indicator were produced by Julia Ritchey, with engineering by Jimmy Keeley. They were fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Kate Concannon is our show's editor.


This episode of Planet Money was produced by Luis Gallo, with help from James Sneed. It was edited by Planet Money’s Executive Producer, Alex Goldmark.

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