Category: 3-EconSometimeCommentary

Before she decided to become a poker pro, Maria Konnikova didn’t know how many cards are in a deck. But she did have a Ph.D. in psychology, a brilliant coach, and a burning desire to know whether life is driven more by skill or chance. She found some answers in poker — and she’s willing to tell us everything she learned.

The post How to Make Your Own Luck (Update) appeared first on Freakonomics.

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When security cameras and facial recognition tools fail, law enforcement investigators fall back on a witness's memory and an artist's hand. Zachary Crockett's nose was a little bigger than that.

 

• SOURCES:
  • Lois Gibson, forensic artist.
  • David Sarni, adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • "Fighting Crime With Pencil and Paper," by J. David Goodman (New York Times, 2013)
  • "Something Sketchy About Identifying Suspects," by Stephen Owsinski (National Police Association).
  • "Forensic Art Certification Scope and Role," (International Association for Identification).
  • "Forensice Art Composites," (Samantha Steinberg).

 

 

If we think about the economic effects of President Donald Trumps big taxing and spending and domestic policy bill, we can roughly sum it up in one line. It goes something like this:

We will make many big tax cuts permanent and pay for those tax cuts by cutting Medicaid and a few other things and also...by borrowing money.

A lot of money.

Even more than we've already been borrowing over the past twenty years. (And that was already a lot, too!)

Today: simple arithmetic with profound ramifications. Tax cuts, spending cuts, and whether they balance out. (Spoiler: no.)

We look under the hood to see how all this is calculated. And we ask: how will a bigger deficit play out for all of us, in our normal, regular lives?

We've covered a bunch more having to do with the big taxing and spending bill and the federal debt recently on Planet Money and our short daily show The Indicator:

- So, how's this No Tax On Tips thing gonna go?
- A thought experiment on how to fix the national debt problem
- The paperwork trap: A sneaky way to cut Medicaid in the 'One Big Beautiful Bill'?
- The debt limit, the origins of the X Date, and why it all matters
- What's a revenge tax?
- Is the federal debt REALLY that bad?

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Cory Booker on the politics of fear, the politics of hope, and how to split the difference.

The post “This Country Kicks My Ass All the Time” appeared first on Freakonomics.

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How does an industry built on roadside pop-ups make billions of dollars in two weeks of the year? Zachary Crockett gets pyrotechnical.

 

• SOURCES:
  • Alex Zoldan, vice president of Phantom Fireworks.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • Phantom Fireworks 2025 Wholesale Price List.
  • "The Explosive Growth Of The Fireworks Market," by Greg Rosalsky, Darian Woods, and Julian Ritchey (NPR, 2023).
  • "Directory of State Laws for Consumer Fireworks," (American Pyrotechnics Association).

 

There's an economic fantasy you sometimes hear in D.C. It often gets trotted out when politicians are trying to add billions or trillions to the national debt. They claim that all the new spending will be worth it in the end because we will supercharge economic growth.

This fantasy recurs again and again, because economic growth is a potent force. Over the next few decades, tiny changes in how fast our economy grows could decide the fate of the federal government — whether we can bring the massive national debt under control or whether we spiral into a fiscal crisis.

Today on the show, we talk to three economists who have been sifting through the latest evidence. They're trying to figure out what the government could actually do to make the economy grow faster. Could we even grow fast enough to outrun our national debt?

For a list of citations, check out our episode page.

This episode of Planet Money was produced by Emma Peaslee with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Jess Jiang. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Ko Takasugi-Czernowin. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

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A conversation with Golden Years author James Chappel. To get subscriber-only episodes, sign up for SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

The post The History of Old Age appeared first on Freakonomics.

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Why are these sudsy roadside stops one of the fastest growing industries in America? Zachary Crockett takes a look under the hood.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • "Private Equity Wants to Wash Your Car," by Miriam Gottfried (The Wall Street Journal, 2022).
  • "California Labor Commissioner Recovers $282,000 for Car Wash Wage Citations," State of California Department of Industrial Relations News Release (2022).
  • "Sgt. Clean’s Future Shines Bright Thanks to Subscription Model, Strong Reputation," by Vince Guerrieri (Crain's Cleveland Business, 2018).
  • "One California Drought Winner? The Local Car Wash," by Lauren Sommer (Marketplace, 2015).
  • Sonny's CarWash College.

In 2019, President Trump tweeted: "I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies." Today, the Trumps are all over crypto.

There are memecoins for Trump and the first lady. They own a stablecoin, a bitcoin mining operation, and a crypto financial services company. And, at the Bitcoin 2025 conference, Trump's media group announced they're raising 2.5 billion dollars from investors to buy bitcoin.

At that same conference, speakers included two White House advisors, two sons of the US president, the son of the U.S. Commerce Secretary, and a Trump appointee to the Securities and Exchange Commission. For a cryptocurrency built on independence from big government, this was a swerve.

So, what happens when the President of the United States showers his love on the crypto community ... while also becoming a crypto entrepreneur himself? We follow along as Trump Inc.'s Ilya Marritz and Andrea Bernstein spend three days at the Las Vegas conference center where convicts are cheered, oversight and regulation are booed, and the separation of crypto and state no longer applies.

Find more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.

Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

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In the U.S., there will soon be more people over 65 than there are under 18 — and it’s not just lifespan that’s improving, it’s “healthspan” too. Unfortunately, the American approach to aging is stuck in the 20th century. In less than an hour, we try to unstick it. (Part three of a three-part series, “Cradle to Grave.”)

The post Are You Ready for the Elder Swell? appeared first on Freakonomics.

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