The Indicator from Planet Money - A new gold rush and other indicators

Indicators of the Week is back! This time, we dig into why gold prices are spiking, why the Biden administration has only spent a small portion of money pledged to infrastructure projects, and what the spurt of streaming consolidations means for you.

Related episodes:
Gold Rush 2.0
The semiconductor shortage (still) (Apple Podcasts / Spotify)
The secret entrance that sidesteps Hollywood picket lines (Apple Podcasts / Spotify)

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The Indicator from Planet Money - Iceberg ahead for Social Security

According to a government report released this week, Congress has until 2033 to fix Social Security before retirees receive an automatic benefit cut of about 21%. This is a more optimistic estimate from a previous report that stated the Social Security Trust Fund would run dry sooner, but it still paints a grim picture for a program that millions of retirees rely on.

Today, NPR's Chief Economics Correspondent joins the show to explain what exactly lawmakers can do to fix Social Security and why proposed solutions might be easier said than done.

Related episodes:
What would it take to fix retirement? (Apple / Spotify)

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The Indicator from Planet Money - Why Venezuela is no longer in freefall

Back in 2019, The Indicator started checking in on with a Venezuelan economist Gabriela Saade. The economy was in freefall. The country was suffering from hyperinflation and a huge jump in poverty. Today, the U.S. faces a spike in migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, many from Venezuela. So we check back in with Gabriela. Venezuela is due to go to the polls in July. We ask Gabriela and two other Venezuelans: what are economic conditions like at the moment? How has life changed since the pandemic? Some of the answers surprised us.

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The Indicator from Planet Money - Hazard maps: The curse of knowledge

What happens when small town politics collide with the climate crisis? And how do hazard maps—maps that show which homes in your neighborhood are at risk of getting destroyed or damaged by a natural disaster—come into play? On today's episode, how some people—from Indiana to Oregon to Alaska—are facing some very real concerns about insurance and the ability to sell their houses.

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The Indicator from Planet Money - How Colorado towns are trying to get some water certainty

In Western Colorado, towns and farms are banding together to pay a hundred million dollars for water they don't intend to use. Today on the show, how scarcity, climate change and a first-dibs system of water management is forcing towns, farms and rural residents to get spendy.

Related episodes:
A watershed moment in the West? (Apple / Spotify)
The Amazon, the Colorado River and a price on nature
Water in the West: Bankrupt?

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The Indicator from Planet Money - Not too hot, not too cold: a ‘Goldilocks’ jobs report

It's Jobs Friday and the jobs report is in! There's more jobs! ... but not as many as expected. And there's a teensy bit more unemployment and slower wage growth. But there's an upside ... Plus, healthcare is growing like gangbusters and how immigrants affect American-born workers.

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The Indicator from Planet Money - Protesters want schools to divest from Israel. How would that work?

College campuses nationwide are erupting with protests against Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza. A consistent theme among these actions: a call for university endowment "divestment."

Today, we unpack what that means and how divestment would work. Plus, we hear from an expert who explains why divestment might not have the effect that many believe.

Related episodes:
Why Israel uses diaspora bonds (Apple / Spotify)
How much of your tax dollars are going to Israel and Ukraine (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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