Category: 3-EconSometimeCommentary

When we stumbled upon Milk.com, we were mystified. It appears to be someone’s personal website. But memorable domain names can be worth a million dollars or more. So, why is someone using this valuable internet real estate to post their resume and favorite recipes?  

Back in the internet’s early days, it was easy to get a domain name. They were cheap or even free. The first people to grab them may now be holding onto assets that can sell for millions of dollars. These potential profits have attracted a unique breed of investor who buys and sells domain names, gambling on the value of everyday words.  

On our latest show: What is a domain really worth? And we ask the owner of milk.com why he’s not selling — and if there’s a price that might change his mind.

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This episode was hosted by Alex Mayyasi and Jeff Guo. It was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Jess Jiang. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by James Willetts. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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On this episode, Peter Boettke chats with political theorist Chandran Kukathas on his latest book, Dialogues on Immigration and the Open Society

(Routledge, 2025), which addresses the most important ethical and political questions about immigration and aims to teach by questioning rather than preaching. He urges conceptual clarity about terms like “civilization,” “state,” and “immigration,” and argues that framing debates strictly as “justice” disputes is unhelpful amid deep moral disagreement. Building on his book, Immigration and Freedom, he warns that immigration control often curtails citizens’ freedoms and highlights how restrictive policies can create a hostile climate toward migrants even where overall public support for immigration remains strong.

Dr. Chandran Kukathas is Lee Kong Chian Chair Professor of Political Science at School of Social Sciences at Singapore Management University and a Distinguished Affiliated Fellow at the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center. He is the author of Immigration and Freedom (Princeton University Press, 2021) and The Liberal Archipelago: A Theory of Diversity and Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2007).

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How do you turn an empty house into a buyer’s dream home? Zachary Crockett pulls back the curtain.

 

• SOURCES:
  • Meredith Baer, founder of Meridith Baer Home.
  • Cindy Lin, founder and lead instructor at Staged4more School of Home Staging.
  • Karen Prince, author and home staging consultant.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • "How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing the Real Estate Game," by Kate Dubinski (C.B.C. News, 2023).
  • "Will Virtual Staging Replace Traditionally Staged Rooms?" by Barbara Ballinger (Realtor Magazine, 2022).
  • "Open Houses and Sticky Fingers," by Alix Strauss (The New York Times, 2022).
  • "Profile of Home Staging," by the National Association of Realtors Research Group (2021).
  • Secrets of Home Staging: The Essential Guide to Getting Higher Offers Faster, by Karen Prince (2021).
  • "How Meridith Baer Runs Her $100 Million Home Staging Business," by Jenna Wang (Forbes, 2019).
  • "Designer Meridith Baer’s Home-Staging Empire Began With a Plant Storage Dilemma," by Arielle Paul (Los Angeles Times, 2019).
  • "The Twilight Zone of Home Staging," by Peter Haldeman (The New York Times, 2016).
  • "The Story Seller," by Mark Oppenheimer (The New York Times Magazine, 2009).
  • Home Staging: The Winning Way to Sell Your House for More Money, by Barb Schwarz (2006).

 

English professor and Moby-Dick aficionado Hester Blum dives deep into whaling. To get subscriber-only episodes, sign up for SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

The post The Appeal of the Open Seas appeared first on Freakonomics.

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The Federal Reserve has been under intense pressure from President Donald Trump as he pushes for more control over the historically independent agency. The Fed is tasked with keeping inflation and unemployment under control, and it’s supposed to be insulated from politics so it can do whatever is necessary for the economy. But Trump has been openly saying he wants interest rates to be lower. A lot lower.

And on Monday, Trump posted a bombshell. He said that he was removing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, “for cause.” Lisa Cook has told NPR she intends to remain in office, and is now suing Trump. 

On today’s show: inside the Fed Board of Governors. How realistic is a plan to control monetary policy through loyalists on the Board? We hear from former Board governors to understand what the job is, and what we might be in for. 

Further listening on the Fed and Fed independence:

- A primer on the Federal Reserve's independence
- Happy Fed Independence Day
- The case for Fed independence in the Nixon tapes
- A Locked Door, A Secret Meeting And The Birth Of The Fed
- Trump's unprecedented attack on the Fed
- Turkey's runaway inflation problem 
- Should presidents have more of a say in interest rates?

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Patrick Deneen, a political philosopher at Notre Dame, says yes. He was a Democrat for years, and has now come to be seen as an “ideological guru” of the Trump administration. But that only tells half the story…

The post Has America Lost Its Appetite for the Common Good? appeared first on Freakonomics.

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Get your own personalized summer school diploma here. 

Today on our final episode of Summer School 2025, we will test your knowledge. We will salute the unsung heroes of government service. And we will pick our valedictorian from among you of the class of 2025. 

Editorial Note:

President Trump attempted to fire Lisa Cook, a Biden appointee to the Federal Reserve Board. Our daily podcast, The Indicator, has coverage on their feed. We’ll have an episode in the Planet Money feed soon, in the meantime, here’s some background listening on why this is so important. 

Years before she joined the Fed, we profiled the work of Lisa Cook. Listen here.

Also these: 

• Happy Fed Independence Day

• A primer on the Federal Reserve's independence

• The case for Fed independence in the Nixon tapes

• Turkey's runaway inflation problem 

• Arthur Burns: shorthand for Fed failure? 

• Should presidents have more of a say in interest rates?

• Can the Federal Reserve stay independent? 

• It's hard out there for a Fed chair 

The series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Eric Mennel. Our project manager is Devin Mellor. This episode was edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark and fact-checked by Emily Crawford.

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Bjørn Andersen has killed hundreds of minke whales. He tells us how he does it, why he does it, and what he thinks would happen if whale-hunting ever stopped. (This bonus episode is a follow-up to our series “Everything You Never Knew About Whaling.”)

The post A Modern Whaler Speaks Up (Update) appeared first on Freakonomics.

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They expose fraud, catch cheating spouses, and track down missing assets — but they don’t come cheap. Zachary Crockett takes the case.

 

• SOURCES:
  • Ashley Wardlow, chief operating officer at Nathans Investigations, owner of Wardlow Consulting.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • "Eugène-François Vidocq and the Birth of the Detective," by Daisy Sainsbury (The Public Domain Review, 2024).
  • "The Pinkerton Story - Chapter 1," (The Pinkerton Foundation, 2017).
  • "Expectation of Privacy," (Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute).
  • "Evidence & Private Investigators," (Dugas Law Firm).

 

• EXTRAS:
  • "Private Investigation Equipment (Detective Store)."

 

In the past couple years, demand has gone wild for drugs like Ozempic – and its cousins, Zepbound, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. For people who had never been able to lose weight before, suddenly the numbers on the scale were plummeting. And everybody wanted to get their hands on them. 

Now, in most industries, if a product goes viral like this, it’s a golden ticket. And thanks to government-granted monopolies designed to encourage innovation, the big drug companies behind these blockbuster injections are currently the only ones allowed to make them.

In theory, anyway. 

But, what if that explosive demand backfired, opening the door to legal knock-offs? You’ve maybe seen them - copycats advertised as the same thing as Ozempic. So, what’s the difference? And just how legal are they? On today’s show - a drug that’s changing peoples lives is also challenging the traditional way we buy and sell medicine.

This episode was hosted by Sydney Lupkin and Jeff Guo. It was produced by James Sneed. It was edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Gilly Moon and Debbie Daughtry. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.

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Music: Source Audio - “Subtly Silly Thug,” “Got The Moves,” and “Vive le Punk”

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