4.5 million households in the U.S. have solar panels on their homes. Most of those customers are happy with it - their electricity bills have just about disappeared, and it's great for the planet. But thousands and thousands of people are really disappointed with what they've been sold. Their panels are more expensive than they should be, and they say it is hard to get someone to come fix them when they break.
It turns out this sometimes crummy customer experience is no accident. It ties back to how big, national solar companies built their businesses in the first place. To entice people to install expensive solar panels, companies developed new financing models which cut upfront costs for customers. And they deployed lots and lots of salespeople to grow their businesses. But in the drive to get more households installing solar panels, consumer costs went up and the focus seemed to shift away from making sure those panels actually worked. All of this left some consumers feeling like they've been sold a lie.
On today's episode, we look into how the residential solar business model has turned some people sour on solar. And we'll try to figure out where the industry could go from here.
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Planet Money - Summer School 1: An Economic History of the World
Planet Money Summer School is back for eight weeks. Join as we travel back in time to find the origins of our economic way of life. Today we ask surprisingly hard question: What is money? And where did it come from? We travel to a remote island in the Pacific Ocean for the answer. Then we'll visit France in the year 1714, where a man on the lam tries to revolutionize the country's entire monetary system, and comes impressively close to the modern economy we have today, before it all falls apart. Check out our Summer School video cheat sheet on the origins of money at the Planet Money TikTok.
The series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Audrey Dilling. Our project manager is Devin Mellor. This episode was edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark and fact-checked by Sofia Shchukina.
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The series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Audrey Dilling. Our project manager is Devin Mellor. This episode was edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark and fact-checked by Sofia Shchukina.
Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Hayek Program Podcast - Peter Boettke & Chris Coyne on How to Run Wars
On this episode of the podcast, Peter Boettke interviews Chris Coyne on his latest book, How to Run Wars: A Confidential Playbook for the National Security Elite, co-authored with Abigail R. Hall. How to Run Wars provides a satirical take on the logistics and ethical considerations involved in conducting wars, drawing inspiration from Bruce Winton Knight's How to Run a War. Chris discusses his motivations for writing the book, its contents, and his research agenda.
To learn more about Chris’s research that aims to better understand stable peace and conflict, check out his Initiative for the Study of a Stable Peace (ISSP).
Christopher Coyne is a Professor of Economics at George Mason University, the associate director of the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and Director of the Initiative for the Study of a Stable Peace (ISSP) through the Hayek Program.
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.
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The Economics of Everyday Things - 55. Direct-to-Consumer Mattresses
Online companies promised to bring transparency to the mattress-buying experience. Did that work out? Zachary Crockett takes a look under the sheets.
- SOURCES:
- Derek Hales, founder and editor-in-chief of NapLab.com.
- Joe Megibow, C.E.O. of Casper Sleep.
- RESOURCES:
- "Drake Has a $400,000 Bed − We Asked Why and Where You Can Buy It," by Emilia Hitching (Homes & Gardens, 2024).
- "Casper Tests a New Store Design as It Rethinks Its Retail Strategy," by Anna Hensel (Modern Retail, 2024).
- "Is The Direct-To-Consumer Bedding Business Turning Into A Bad Dream?" by Warren Shoulberg (Forbes, 2019).
- EXTRAS:
- "Are We in a Mattress-Store Bubble?" by Freakonomics Radio (2016).
Planet Money - How flying got so bad (or did it?)
We often hear that air travel is worse than it's ever been. Gone are the days when airplanes touted piano bars and meat carving stations — or even free meals. Instead we're crammed into tiny seats and fighting for overhead space.
How did we get here? Most of the inconveniences we think about when we fly can be traced back to the period of time just after the federal government deregulated the airlines.
When commercial air travel took off in the 1940s, the government regulated how many national airlines were allowed to exist, where they were allowed to fly, and how much they could charge for tickets. But the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 swept all these restrictions aside – and stopped providing subsidies for the air carriers. Airlines had to compete on ticket prices. That competition led to a more bare-bones flying experience, but it also made air travel a lot more affordable.
In this episode, we trace the evolution of air travel over the past century to discover whether flying really is worse today — or if it's actually better than ever. We'll board a plane from the "golden age" of air travel, hear the history of one of the original budget airlines and meet feuding airline CEOs. Along the way, we'll see how economic forces have shaped the airline industry into what it is today, and what role we, as consumers, have played.
Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
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How did we get here? Most of the inconveniences we think about when we fly can be traced back to the period of time just after the federal government deregulated the airlines.
When commercial air travel took off in the 1940s, the government regulated how many national airlines were allowed to exist, where they were allowed to fly, and how much they could charge for tickets. But the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 swept all these restrictions aside – and stopped providing subsidies for the air carriers. Airlines had to compete on ticket prices. That competition led to a more bare-bones flying experience, but it also made air travel a lot more affordable.
In this episode, we trace the evolution of air travel over the past century to discover whether flying really is worse today — or if it's actually better than ever. We'll board a plane from the "golden age" of air travel, hear the history of one of the original budget airlines and meet feuding airline CEOs. Along the way, we'll see how economic forces have shaped the airline industry into what it is today, and what role we, as consumers, have played.
Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Planet Money - The two companies driving the modern economy
At the core of most of the electronics we use today are some very tiny, very powerful chips. Semiconductor chips. And they are mighty: they help power our phones, laptops, and cars. They enable advances in healthcare, military systems, transportation, and clean energy. And they're also critical for artificial intelligence, providing the hardware needed to train complex machine learning.
On today's episode, we're bringing you two stories from our daily show The Indicator, diving into the two most important semiconductor chip companies, which have transformed the industry over the past 40 years.
First, we trace NVIDIA's journey from making niche graphics cards for gaming to making the most advanced chips in the world — and briefly becoming the world's biggest company. Next, we see how the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's decision to manufacture chips for its competition instead of itself flipped the entire industry on its head, and moved the vast majority of the world's advanced chip production to Taiwan.
Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episode about NVIDIA by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
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On today's episode, we're bringing you two stories from our daily show The Indicator, diving into the two most important semiconductor chip companies, which have transformed the industry over the past 40 years.
First, we trace NVIDIA's journey from making niche graphics cards for gaming to making the most advanced chips in the world — and briefly becoming the world's biggest company. Next, we see how the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's decision to manufacture chips for its competition instead of itself flipped the entire industry on its head, and moved the vast majority of the world's advanced chip production to Taiwan.
Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episode about NVIDIA by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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The Economics of Everyday Things - 54. Ghostwriters
Channeling the voices of celebrities can be a lucrative career — one that requires empathy and discretion as well as literary chops. Zachary Crockett checks the acknowledgements.
- SOURCES:
- Valerie Frankel, ghostwriter.
- Madeleine Morel, President and Lead Agent of 2M Communications.
- Daniel Paisner, ghostwriter.
- RESOURCES:
- "Ghostwriting History: Churchill, Kennedy and the Authenticity of Authorship," by Andrew Mumford (The International History Review, 2024).
- "Column: How many ways can a political memoir backfire? Ask Kristi Noem," by Robin Abcarian (Los Angeles Times, 2024).
- "Notes from Prince Harry’s Ghostwriter," by J. R. Moehringer (The New Yorker, 2023).
- "Confessions of a Celebrity Ghostwriter," by Dina Gachman (Texas Monthly, 2022).
Planet Money - Do immigrants really take jobs and lower wages?
We wade into the heated debate over immigrants' impact on the labor market. When the number of workers in a city increases, does that take away jobs from the people who already live and work there? Does a surge of immigration hurt their wages?
The debate within the field of economics often centers on Nobel-prize winner David Card's ground-breaking paper, "The Impact of the Mariel Boatlift on the Miami Labor Market." Today on the show: the fight over that paper, and what it tells us about the debate over immigration.
More Listening:
- When The Boats Arrive
- The Men on the Roof
This episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Jeff Guo. It was produced by Willa Rubin, edited by Annie Brown, and engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.
Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
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The debate within the field of economics often centers on Nobel-prize winner David Card's ground-breaking paper, "The Impact of the Mariel Boatlift on the Miami Labor Market." Today on the show: the fight over that paper, and what it tells us about the debate over immigration.
More Listening:
- When The Boats Arrive
- The Men on the Roof
This episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Jeff Guo. It was produced by Willa Rubin, edited by Annie Brown, and engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.
Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Planet Money - The Carriage Tax (Update)
(Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2019.)
In 1794, George Washington decided to raise money for the federal government by taxing the rich. He did it by putting a tax on horse-drawn carriages.
The carriage tax could be considered the first federal wealth tax of the United States. It led to a huge fight over the power to tax in the U.S. Constitution, a fight that continues today.
Listen back to our 2019 episode: "Could A Wealth Tax Work?"
Listen to The Indicator's 2023 episode: "Could SCOTUS outlaw wealth taxes?"
This episode was hosted by Greg Rosalsky and Bryant Urstadt. It was originally produced by Nick Fountain and Liza Yeager, with help from Sarah Gonzalez. Today's update was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Molly Messick and our executive producer, Alex Goldmark.
Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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In 1794, George Washington decided to raise money for the federal government by taxing the rich. He did it by putting a tax on horse-drawn carriages.
The carriage tax could be considered the first federal wealth tax of the United States. It led to a huge fight over the power to tax in the U.S. Constitution, a fight that continues today.
Listen back to our 2019 episode: "Could A Wealth Tax Work?"
Listen to The Indicator's 2023 episode: "Could SCOTUS outlaw wealth taxes?"
This episode was hosted by Greg Rosalsky and Bryant Urstadt. It was originally produced by Nick Fountain and Liza Yeager, with help from Sarah Gonzalez. Today's update was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Molly Messick and our executive producer, Alex Goldmark.
Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Hayek Program Podcast - Entangled Political Economy — David Hebert on Public Finance and Political Parties
This is the second episode of a three-part miniseries on entangled political economy (EPE), hosted by Mikayla Novak. Entangled political economy is a sub-discipline of political economy that explicitly views individuals and the private and public sectors as being intertwined in overlapping exchange relationships along competitive and collaborative dimensions.
On this episode, Mikayla Novak is joined by David Hebert who details his time working with Richard Wagner, discusses his work on public finance and political parties viewed through the lens of entangled political economy, and explains his view of the future direction of EPE research.
David Hebert is a Senior Research Fellow with the American Institute for Economic Research and an Associate Director of EPERN. Previously, he was the chair of the Department of Economics and an Associate Professor of Economics at Aquinas College.
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.
Virtual Sentiments, our new podcast series from the Hayek Program is now streaming! Subscribe today and listen to seasons one and two!
Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgram
Learn more about Academic & Student Programs
Follow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatus
CC Music: Twisterium