Category: News

The movie Coyote vs. Acme was set to release this summer featuring characters from the iconic Looney Tunes cartoons. The studio behind the film, Warner Bros. Pictures, had some other ideas. Instead of releasing the completed film, the studio canceled Coyote vs. Acme, with no intention of ever releasing it.

Today on the show, we explain the Hollywood economics behind why Warner Bros. Discovery might not want to release movies that its own studio spent years putting together.

Related Episodes:
​​Why platforms like HBO Max are removing streaming TV shows (Apple Podcasts / Spotify)

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For decades, states have prosecuted and imprisoned people for selling weed. Today, recreational marijuana is legal in almost half of U.S. states, and many want to give individuals who were impacted by marijuana enforcement a chance to sell it legally. But as the roughly $30 billion cannabis industry grows, are these so-called social equity programs living up to their promise?

Today on the show, why many would-be cannabis entrepreneurs find themselves hitting a 'grass ceiling'.

Related
So you want to sell marijuana across state lines (Apple Podcasts/Spotify)

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By many measures, 2023 was a decent year for the U.S. economy, but that's not how people necessarily felt. So what economic story best defined the year? Soft landings? Hard feelings about the economy? An inhospitable housing market? Our hosts from Planet Money and The Indicator battle it out over which economic story best illustrates the year.

Tell us who won by submitting your vote via Planet Money's Instagram or email us with "Family Feud" in the subject line.

Related episodes:
Taking the temperature of the US consumer (Apple / Spotify)
A treacherous descent, what will the Fed do next? (Apple / Spotify)
When mortgage rates are too low to give up (Apple / Spotify)
Which economic indicator defined 2022?

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Women lag behind men when it comes to investing. Combine this with the fact that women tend to earn less than their male peers and live longer, and it can create a waterfall of awful long-term consequences for half of America's population. Today, we speak to an author of an investing study who says he's found a solution.

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In the world of science there are laws—rules that describe how the universe works. The Federal Reserve has its own set of rules, except its rules are more like guidelines to help the Fed decide where interest rates should be. Today on the show, we explain inertial and non-inertial rules in the world of monetary policy, and what they tell us about potential rate cuts in the year ahead.

Related episodes:
The rat under the Fed's hat (Apple / Spotify)
The fed decides to wait and see (Apple / Spotify)

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How often are you shopping online and think to yourself, is that shirt/dress/jeans in my shopping cart ... even real? That is a question some shoppers are asking themselves as AI-generated products increasingly infiltrate the world of e-commerce.

Today on the show, we talk to an expert in digital forensics about how AI-generated merchandise is only likely to become more common, and what ought to be done to help prevent unethical sellers from abusing the technology.

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Since the end of November, diplomats, scientists, activists and lobbyists from nearly every country on Earth have come together for COP 28, the United Nations climate negotiating talks. One of the goals of this gathering is for countries to agree on the best path forward to address human-driven climate change. Stakes are high as average global temperatures continue to approach a key threshold of 1.5 degree Celsius (or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times — the level climate scientists say we must stay under to stave off severe climate disruptions that could contribute to flooding, drought, hunger, and conflict.

As it comes to a close, Nathan Rott with NPR's climate desk helps us navigate the take-aways from the pivotal conference.

Related Episodes:
Gambling, literally, on climate change (Apple Podcasts/Spotify)

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We often talk about the jobs lost due to artificial intelligence. But what about the ones created or even transformed? From the gig work of training AI on good and bad answers through to designing new AI models, AI jobs are popping up like mushrooms.

Today on the Indicator, we talk to people in these new roles and consider what the bots mean for the labor market.

Related Episodes:
Is AI a job-killer or an up-skiller? (Apple Podcasts/Spotify)

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"Don't reinvent the wheel" is a common phrase, but structural engineer Roma Agrawal doesn't buy it.

Roma has a new book out, Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way). And in it, she argues that the re-interpretation of the wheel has been critical to modernizing the economy from a pottery wheel in ancient Mesopotamia to the gyroscope on the International Space Station.

Today, how this constant reinvention fuels economic progress.

Related Episodes:
What nails can tell us about the economy

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In 2021, the most popular term on Investopedia was "capital gains tax." In 2022, it was "poison pill." These top terms help capture the economic zeitgeist of their year. So... what was it in 2023?

Today, Investopedia's editor-in-chief — and a poet — help us make sense of what the website's top ten terms of the year tell us about our collective economic psyche.

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The inverted yield curve is screaming RECESSION (Apple Podcasts/Spotify)

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