Category: 3-EconSometimeCommentary

It's Groundhog Day, and the eyes of the nation have turned to a small town in western Pennsylvania. And, just like last year, all anyone can talk about is Punxsutawney Phil! It is impossible to find a news story that is not about one furry prognosticator.

Well, almost impossible...

Once again, our Planet Money hosts find themselves trapped in the endless Groundhog Day news cycle, and their only way out is to discover an economics story from Groundhog Day itself interesting enough to appease the capricious Groundhog Gods!

So rise and shine campers (and don't forget your booties) as hosts Kenny Malone and Amanda Aronczyk scour the news of February 2nds past, to try to find the perfect story.

This episode was hosted by Kenny Malone and Amanda Aronczyk. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Keith Romer, and engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez. It was fact-checked by James Sneed. Our executive producer is Alex Goldmark.

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Note: This episode originally ran in 2015.

German families in the 60s loved tasty, cheap American-raised chicken that was suddenly coming in after the war. And Americans were loving fun, cheap Volkswagen Beetles. This arrangement was too good to last.

Today on the show, how a trade dispute over frozen chicken parts changed the American auto industry as we know it.

This episode was reported by Robert Smith and Sonari Glinton. It was produced by Frances Harlow.

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Our friends at NPR's news quiz Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! recently had a very Planet Money guest on their show: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. They asked her about smoking pot, her extremely high scores in Candy Crush, and when to expect the Harriet Tubman $20 bill.

Today, we're sharing an excerpt of that episode with you, along with some exclusive questions just for Planet Money listeners.

You can listen to the full show and subscribe to Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! wherever you find your podcasts.

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Those low-priced staples on grocery-store shelves — where do they come from? Zachary Crockett finds out at a national convention for private-label manufacturers.

 

• SOURCES:
  • Kusum Ailawadi, professor of marketing at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
  • Eric Beringause, C.E.O. of Winland Foods.
  • Ryan Boyle, vice president of sales at Kitchen Innovations.
  • Samantha Burd, co-owner of Lady Burd Cosmetics.
  • Dean Erstad, senior vice president of sales at Seneca.
  • Harry Overly, president and C.E.O. of Flagstone Foods.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • "The Backlash to Price Hikes Is Building," by Julia Waldow (Modern Retail, 2024).
  • "For U.S. Consumers, It’s a Matter of ‘And’ — Not ‘Or,'" by Kari Alldredge and Warren Teichner (McKinsey & Company, 2023).
  • "Those Doritos Too Expensive? More Stores Offer Their Own Alternatives," by Julie Creswell (The New York Times, 2023).
  • "Why Private Label Brands Are Having Their Moment," by Errol Schweizer (Forbes, 2022).
  • "The Hidden Makers of Costco’s Kirkland Signature and Trader Joe’s O’s," by Nathaniel Meyersohn (CNN Business, 2022).
  • "Pursuing the Value-Conscious Consumer: Store Brands versus National Brand Promotions," by Kusum Ailawadi, Scott A. Neslin, and Karen Gedenk (Journal of Marketing, 2001).
  • "The Effect of Generic Products on Consumer Perceptions and Brand Choice," by John J. Wheatley (NA - Advances in Consumer Research, 1981).

 

• EXTRAS:
  • "Should America Be Run by … Trader Joe’s?" by Freakonomics Radio (2018).
  • "How to Save $1 Billion Without Even Trying," by Freakonomics Radio (2014).

At around 1 a.m. on the morning of November 15, 1994, Captain Prentice "Skip" Strong III woke to a distress call. Skip was the new captain of an oil tanker called the Cherry Valley. He and his crew had been making their way up the coast of Florida that evening when a tropical storm had descended. It had been a rough night of 15 foot waves and 50 mile per hour winds.

The distress call was coming from a tugboat whose engines were failing in the storm. Now adrift, the tugboat was on a dangerous collision course with the shore. The only ship close enough to mount a rescue was the Cherry Valley.

Skip faced a difficult decision. A fully loaded, 688-foot oil tanker is hardly anyone's first choice of a rescue vessel. It is as maneuverable as a school bus on ice. And the Cherry Valley was carrying ten million gallons of heavy fuel oil. A rescue attempt would put them in dangerously shallow water. One wrong move, and they would have an ecological disaster on the order of the Exxon Valdez.

What happened next that night would be dissected and debated for years to come. The actions of Skip and his crew would lead to a surprising discovery, a record-setting lawsuit, and one of the strangest legal battles in maritime history. At the center of it all, an impossible question: How do you put a price tag on doing the right thing?

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On this episode, we’ll hear a book panel discussion on Christopher J. Coyne’s book,In Search of Monsters to Destroy: The Folly of American Empire and the Paths to Peace (Independent Institute, 2023). In his comments, Coyne challenges the notion that the US military is necessary for global order, explaining that without the US as the global police force chaos will not overtake the world, and questions the efficacy and morality of a militaristic, top-down approach to global conflict. Coyne breaks down the history of the American empires into three phases: continental expansion, overseas imperialism, and global hegemony, and describes the features of the present-day American empire and the interventionist mindset. He argues that foreign intervention and the effort to export democracy to other nations by illiberal means can only lead to illiberal ends. A liberal empire is ultimately illiberal. He calls for reimagining our understanding of peace as a community-driven process, emphasizing the role of human imagination in peacemaking. The panel is moderated by Stefanie Haeffele, and they are joined on the panel by:

• William Easterly, Professor of Economics at New York University, Co-director of the NYU Development Research Institute, and author of three books including The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (2006)
• Ginny Choi, Senior Program Director of Academic & Student Programs, Senior Fellow with the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and co-author of Do Markets Corrupt Our Morals? (2019)
• Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, PGT Programme Leader and a Reader in Politics and International Relations at Loughborough University, and author or co-editor of five books including Tolstoy's Political Thought: Christian Anarcho-Pacifist Iconoclasm Then and Now (2021)

Christopher Coyne is associate director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and F. A. Harper Professor of Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He is also a Professor of Economics at George Mason University.

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 season two, releasing now!

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CC Music: Twisterium

On today's episode, we have three big economic ideas for your consideration – ideas that could potentially improve the economy and make us more efficient.

First, what if we ban left turns on roads? Then, what if we gave every new baby ... a trust fund? And lastly, what if we completely got rid of U.S. congressional districts?

That's all on today's episode.

This show was hosted by Sarah Gonzalez. It was produced by Willa Rubin and Emma Peaslee with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Dave Blanchard and engineered by Robert Rodriguez. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Behind these steamy sequences, there are body doubles, pubic wigs, legal documents, and dedicated choreographers who make sure everyone is comfortable. Zachary Crockett fast-forwards straight to the good parts. 

 

• SOURCES:
  • Alicia Rodis, intimacy coordinator.
  • Matthew Swanlund, founder and principal attorney at Aesthetic Legal.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • "Romance or Nomance? Adolescents Prefer to See Less Sex, More Friendships, Platonic Relationships on Screen," by Elizabeth Kivowitz (UCLA Newsroom, 2023).
  • "You're Not Seeing Things —'Nudity Creep' in Streaming TV Reveals More of Its Stars," by Neda Ulaby (All Things Considered, 2023).
  • "Jennifer Aniston Rejected Offer for an Intimacy Coordinator in Sex Scenes with 'Gentleman' Jon Hamm," by Esther Kang (People, 2023).
  • "How the Sausage Gets Made: Inside Hollywood's Prosthetic Penis Craze," by Emma Fraser (Thrillist, 2022).
  • "The Disturbing Story Behind the Rape Scene in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris, Explained," by Anna North (Vox, 2018).
  • "Two James Francos. Porn. 1970s New York. The Deuce Could Go So Wrong — but It Doesn't," by Emily St. James (Vox, 2017).
  • "Shooting Film and TV Sex Scenes: What Really Goes On," by Melena Ryzik (The New York Times, 2015).
  • "Sexually Explicit Casting Contract for HBO’s ‘Westworld’ Extras Has SAG-AFTRA Concerned," by Jonathan Handel (The Hollywood Reporter, 2015).

 

• EXTRAS:
  • "Why is Everyone Having Less Sex?" by No Stupid Questions (2023).

After very high inflation, the United States is finally feeling some relief in the form of "disinflation." But, why exactly has inflation slowed down?

Three Planet Money hosts try to answer that question while competing to be the winner of our very own reporting challenge: Econ Battle Zone!

It's economics journalism meets high-stakes reality TV competition! Will our contestants be able to impress our celebrity judges? How will they manage to incorporate their mystery ingredients? Who will take home the championship belt? Tune in for the inaugural episode of...Econ Battle Zone!

This episode was hosted by Keith Romer, Amanda Aronczyk, Erika Beras, and Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. James Sneed produced this episode with help from Emma Peaslee. The show was edited by Molly Messick, engineered by Cena Loffredo, and fact checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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On today's show, we look at two indicators of the economic disruptions of the war in Gaza and try to trace how far they will reach.

We start in the Red Sea, a crucial link in the global supply chain connecting to the Suez Canal, with around 15% of the world's shipping passing through it. This includes oil tankers and massive container ships transporting everything from microchips to furniture. With Houthi rebels attacking container ships in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, shipping lines are re-routing, adding time and cost to delivery. We look at how ocean shipping is a web more than a chain of links, and try to see which parts of the web can take up more strain as the Red Sea and the Suez Canal become too dangerous to pass.

Then, we'll consider what escalation could mean for the region's most important export: oil. Five steps of escalation each mean a ratcheting up of costs that knock on to other industries, like food. Some prices are likely to rise faster than others, though.

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