Category: Series

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The Indicator from Planet Money - How mortgage interest rates work (and why they’re currently out of whack)

Even with falling interest rates in recent weeks, mortgage rates are still higher than you'd expect.

Mortgage interest rates are usually a little less than two percentage points higher than what you would get on a 10-year Treasury bond. But for the last couple of years that difference has been noticeably higher: 2.6% at the moment. New borrowers have been paying potentially thousands of dollars extra each year on their mortgages.

Today on the show, how mortgage interest rates work and why they're currently out of whack ... with new borrowers footing the bill.

Related Episodes:
Are both rents AND interest rates too dang high?
How mortgage rates get made
The rat under the Fed's hat
AP Macro gets a makeover

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The Indicator from Planet Money - How China became solar royalty

When Shi Zhengrong started making solar panels at the turn of the century, there was basically no solar industry in China. But in the decades that followed, the nation started heavily investing in renewables. Today, we dig into how China became a leader in solar power while following the story of one man: the Sun King.

Related episodes:
Rooftop solar's dark side (Apple / Spotify)
The debate at the heart of new electricity transmission (Apple / Spotify)

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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The Indicator from Planet Money - A food fight over free school lunch

The ascendance of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has made the topic of free school lunch a political flashpoint. Over the past several years, several states—including Walz's home state of Minnesota—have created free school lunch programs, to the dismay of some House Republicans who believe government subsidies should go only to needy students.

Today on the show, we break down the economics of school lunch and explore whether universal programs are more effective than targeted programs.

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

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Cato Daily Podcast - Police and Prosecutor Misconduct Protections and A Possible Path Forward

At Cato University earlier this month, journalist Radley Balko discussed a range of ways that public sector officials, particularly police and prosecutors, are largely able to escape accountability for misconduct. He offers at least one way to evaluate certain incidents to prevent tragic outcomes for Americans going forward.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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More or Less: Behind the Stats - Do we eat a credit card’s worth of microplastic each week?

The claim we all swallow 5.5 grams of microplastic each week ? the same as the weight of a credit card ? has been repeated by charities, newspapers and the World Economic Forum.

But when you understand how this number was calculated, and the range of possible answers for the amount of plastic you eat, you might not want to repeat it yourself.

Professor Jamie Woodward from the University of Manchester explains what?s what.

Presenter: Kate Lamble Producer: Beth Ashmead Latham Researcher: Ajai Singh Series producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison Sound mix: Giles Aspen Editor: Richard Vadon