It is Friday. And Indicators of the Week is back — Plastics Edition. Today, we dig into how fraudsters have used Walmart gift cards to scam consumers out of more than $1 billion. We also find out why recycled plastic is actually more expensive now than newly produced plastic. And we learn how overdraft fees might be going way down.
Related Articles
ProPublica - How Walmart's Financial Services Became a Fraud Magnet
Financial Times - Petrochemical glut makes new plastic cheaper than recycled
Related episodes
Overdraft fees: From perk to penalty
The problem with banning plastic bags
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
The Indicator from Planet Money - Five tips for understanding political polls this election season
Election season is upon us, and so is the barrage of election polls. What differentiates a good poll from a bad one? How can we be smarter poll consumers? Today on the show, a couple of polling experts give us their top tips.
Related episodes:
Planet Money tries election polling
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Related episodes:
Planet Money tries election polling
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Cato Daily Podcast - Will China’s Military Dysfunction Buy Taiwan Time to Build Its Defenses?
Taiwan should arm up according to Cato's Eric Gomez. Corruption and other problems in China's military could give them the time to do so.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Curious City - Bumper-to-Bumper With Some Questions About Chicago Traffic
There’s never a shortage of complaints about Chicago traffic, but experts swear it could be worse. We investigate the science behind lane closures and red lights, and then take a look at the chaos of creating a traffic report.
The Indicator from Planet Money - The surprising leader in EVs
The number one producer of electric vehicles in the world is ... BYD? On today's show, we look at how the Chinese EV manufacturer rose from a battery company to global dominance. It took a mix of obsessive attention to detail, scale, government support and ... guitar-string-related quirks. Plus, we consider whether BYD can crack the U.S. market.
Related Episodes:
How electric vehicles got their juice (Apple / Spotify)
How the South is trying to win the EV race (Apple / Spotify)
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Related Episodes:
How electric vehicles got their juice (Apple / Spotify)
How the South is trying to win the EV race (Apple / Spotify)
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
More or Less: Behind the Stats - Life expectancy, inheritance tax and the NHS vs winter
We report on the state of the NHS as it struggles through a double wave of Covid and flu infections.
We report on the state of the NHS as it struggles through a double wave of Covid and flu infections.
Do only 4% of people pay inheritance tax? Paul Lewis sets out the figures.
And what do the latest life expectancy figures tell us about how long we?re going to live?
Presenter: Tim Harford Reporter: Kate Lamble Producers: Nathan Gower and Debbie Richford Series producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown Sound mix: Graham Puddifoot Editor: Richard Vadon
60 Songs That Explain the '90s - “Believe”—Cher
Rob takes a trip down memory lane and once again back to his days of watching ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’ before stopping at his memory of the time Beavis and Butt-Head met a woman. That woman was Cher. Cher’s influence in the world of auto-tune is also discussed along the way. Later, Rob is joined by DJ Louie XIV to discuss the impact of Cher’s “Believe.”
Host: Rob Harvilla
Guest: DJ Louie XIV
Producers: Jonathan Kermah and Justin Sayles
Additional Production Support: Chloe Clark
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Indicator from Planet Money - How the world economy could react to escalation in the Middle East
The conflict between Israel and Hamas has been going on for more than three months, and is now beginning to spill into other parts of the Middle East. That includes attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, rocket attacks by Hezbollah and U.S. airstrikes in Yemen. On today's show, we'll consider what escalation could mean for global trade and the region's most important export: oil.
Related episodes:
Red Sea tensions spell trouble for global supply chains (Apple / Spotify)
Oil prices and the Israel-Hamas war (Apple / Spotify)
What could convince Egypt to take in Gaza's refugees (Apple / Spotify)
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Related episodes:
Red Sea tensions spell trouble for global supply chains (Apple / Spotify)
Oil prices and the Israel-Hamas war (Apple / Spotify)
What could convince Egypt to take in Gaza's refugees (Apple / Spotify)
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Cato Daily Podcast - National Rifle Association v. Vullo
When a New York regulatory agency tried to get groups doing business with the NRA to end those business relationships, it may have run afoul of the First Amendment. Cato's Walter Olson and Andrew Grossman comment on National Rifle Association v. Vullo.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More or Less: Behind the Stats - Do we see 10,000 adverts per day?
How many adverts does the average person see in a day? If you search for this question online, the surprising answer is that we might see thousands ? up to 10,000.
However, the idea that we see thousands of adverts is a strange and confusing one, without any good research behind it. We investigate the long history of these odd numbers, with the help of Sam Anderson from The Drum and J Walker Smith from Kantar.
Presenter: Tim Harford Series producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown Sound Mix: James Beard Editor: Richard Vadon