Category: News

In the not-so-distant past, serving as someone's job reference meant answering a few questions over the phone. Nowadays, that process is often more involved, with prospective employers asking references for written responses or to fill out a form online. What's behind this shift? On today's show, we check in on reference checks, and ask whether they still matter.

Related episodes:
Ghost jobs (Apple / Spotify)

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President-elect Donald Trump's administration picks are shaping up to be a very affluent bunch. If all are confirmed, Trump's incoming administration would be the wealthiest in the nation's history with a combined net worth upwards of $300 billion.

Today on the show, we talk to a few experts about how massive amounts of wealth in high levels of government can impact policy.

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The Economist's Simon Rabinovitch argues the U.S. economy has a set of structural advantages that have allowed it to perform remarkably well in the last couple of years compared to other developed countries. But could President-elect Donald Trump's second term in office put that edge at risk? Adrian Ma spoke with Rabinovitch for a recent episode of The Indicator. This episode is an extended cut of their conversation, previously released for Planet Money+ supporters.

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It's the most wonderful time of year, er, week, because it's that time when we look at the most fascinating economic numbers from the news.

On today's Indicators of the Week: A messy grocery store breakup, a quantum leap in subatomic computing and an unexpected change to the Christmas tree market.

Happy holidays!

Related Episodes:
The Efficient Christmas: Why Economists Hate Gifts
We buy a lot of Christmas trees
Can an old law bring down grocery prices?

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In 2012, Karam Shaar had to leave his home country of Syria due to the civil war. But he still wanted to make a difference. Through his economic analysis, he uncovered concerning patterns about how the Assad regime and its cronies were siphoning money from humanitarian aid. Today on the show, the story of how one Syrian exile contributed to the resistance while on the other side of the world.

Related episodes:
The cost of a dollar in Ukraine (Apple / Spotify)

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The Federal Reserve's last Beige Book of 2024 is like Spotify Wrapped but for the economy. There's a little bit of everything inside — labor markets, inflation and even natural disasters. On today's show, we spotlight Western North Carolina's challenging recovery after Hurricane Helene, and check in with an Asheville malt manufacturer on the impact to local businesses.

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Back in 2016, the economy of Mozambique tipped into crisis. The culprit was a government corruption scandal linked to more than $1 billion that officials borrowed in secret.

This was a high-profile example of hidden debt, but it's far from the only example. In fact, this kind of secret borrowing is a large and common problem among countries.

Today on the show, a pair of economists share their new research on hidden debt and how it affects everyday people.

Related Episodes:
Why a debt tsunami is coming for the global economy
What looks like a bond and acts like a bond but isn't a bond?

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Influence. The ability to persuade, motivate, or connect with other people. It's one of these skills that's hard to measure, but incredibly important in the office. However, some would argue that we often misunderstand how influence works.

Today on the show, we talk to Steve Martin, Faculty Director of Behavioral Science at Columbia Business School, about the unspoken rules of influence in the workplace.

Steve is author of a recently published book titled, "Influence at Work".

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Many men in America don't feel like they're doing as well as their fathers. But what does the data say? Today on the show, we speak to Richard Reeves from the American Institute for Boys and Men about what's really going on with men's wages and what potential solutions could look like.

Related episodes:
Jobs Friday: Why apprenticeships could make a comeback
Getting more men into so-called pink-collar jobs

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SpaceX is capping off a busy 2024, with more than 100 rocket launches, including its vaunted Starship. NPR Science Correspondent Geoff Brumfiel attended the November launch of Starship alongside SpaceX founder Elon Musk and president-elect Donald Trump. He spoke with NPR's Short Wave about the environmental impact of these launches in south Texas — and what a second Trump administration could mean for the company.

Related episode:
Elon's giant rocket

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