Category: News

When an insurance company can't cover all of its claims, it actually has its own insurance. This is called "reinsurance." How does that work and why do reinsurers look at their risk pool differently than say home or auto insurers?

Related episodes:
Why is insurance so expensive right now? And more listener questions (Apple / Spotify)
When insurers can't get insurance (Apple / Spotify)

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Anti-vaccine activists, far-right groups and some religious conservatives convened in Las Vegas this spring to discuss the creation of a parallel economy. These are groups who believe their speech is threatened by big banks and big tech. On today's show, what is a "freedom economy," and how would it work?

Related episodes:
A Supreme Court case that could reshape social media (Apple / Spotify)

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We are back to answer your listener questions. On today's show, we explain reverse mortgages and their risks, why insurance has gotten so expensive, and whether there's a catch to charitable donations at the store.

If you have a question you'd like us to answer, email us at indicator@npr.org.

Related episodes:
When insurers can't get insurance (Apple / Spotify)

Are we counting jobs right? We answer your listener questions (Apple / Spotify)

When mortgage rates are too low to give up (Apple / Spotify)

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In this edition of Indicators of the Week: the new incentive for speed in cash prizes for Olympic track and field, growing iPhone assembly in India and the curious inflation puzzle of the foot-long cookies at Subway.

Related episodes:
Can India become the next high-tech hub? (Apple / Spotify)

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With tax season upon us, many people are paying someone or a software to get their tax returns done. A small group of people, however, are filing online directly with ... the IRS. For free. Today on the show: how the IRS's tax filing experiment came to be, how it's been working so far, and who doesn't like it.

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Europe wants clean energy, but it's struggling to compete with the low cost of China's green technology. The E.U. just announced it's investigating the subsidies received by Chinese wind turbine suppliers, which play a part in those low costs.

On today's episode, we speak with Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, about how the E.U. is trying to build and maintain a competitive green tech industry in the face of low-price Chinese imports. And we ask how the U.S.'s climate industrial policy fits into all this action.

Related Episodes:
The surprising leader in EVs (Apple / Spotify)
Industrial policy, the debate! (Apple / Spotify)
Why offshore wind is facing headwinds (Apple / Spotify)

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You've heard of the British royal family, but what about the "working royals?" Today on the show, an expert on the royals explains what the job is like — how they measure productivity, how they get paid, and how this tiny, specialized workforce of 11 people might cope with the health crises of King Charles III and Kate Middleton.

Subscribe to journalist Elizabeth Holmes' newsletter on the British royal family.

Related episodes:
The U.K.'s most famous family firm in crisis

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General Electric has been staggering along for years as a conglomerate. But recently, it's turned to a popular strategy to unlock new value: spinning off. Just last week, GE spun off its clean energy business into a new company: GE Vernova. On today's show, we explore what a spin off is and why companies do them.

Related Episodes:
What happened to GE?

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The U.S. labor market continues its hot streak, adding 303,000 jobs last month — more than expected. Many of these jobs will require a four-year degree despite a push among some employers to eliminate these requirements. On today's show, we look at the state of the job market for people without a four-year college degree.

Related episodes:
The lopsided market for higher ed
Enough with bachelor's degrees
The cost of student debt
Failing college

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"Shadow fleet" refers to the collective of ships used by countries that have sanctions against them, like Russia, to transport commodities around the world. These ships pose threats to global and environmental security because they skirt international maritime law. So what can be done about them?

Today on the show, we explain what exactly makes the shadow fleet so dangerous and why there are surprisingly limited options for how to deal with these problem ships.

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