Category: Series

Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week:

US President Donald Trump claims he has ended seven “unendable” wars. Is that true?

Chancellor Rachel Reeves says the UK was the fastest growing economy in the G7 for the first six months of 2025. What do you need to know about that stat?

The Daily Mail has described a recent scientific paper as describing a global cancer “explosion”. Is that the whole story?

And why have Oxford and Cambridge dropped down a university league table?

If you’ve seen a number you think we should take a look at, email the team: moreorless@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Tim Harford Producers: Nathan Gower and Lizzy McNeill Series producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound mix: Gareth Jones Editor: Richard Vadon

Gold is on fire right now with some gold ETFs outperforming the major stock indexes over the past 12 months. Gold is supposed to be boring, an inflation hedge. But right now, it's responding to something else. Today on the show, we talk to a finance professor about what’s behind the current gold rush and if gold’s hot streak is built to last. 

Understanding Gold by Claud B. Erb and Campbell R. Harvey

Related episodes: 

A new-ish gold rush and other indicators

Gold Rush 2.0

A secret weapon to fight inflation

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.  

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By trying to protect dairy farmers and raise their incomes, the government created a massive cheese surplus, then gave it away, thus harming the farmers they were trying to support.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/wheels-government-cheese

Created to assure that newly-freed slaves would receive equal legal protection, the Fourteenth Amendment has come to dominate federal jurisprudence. This is not a good thing.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-fourteenth-amendment-empowers-judicial-activism

Individual voters have little reason to become informed. Politicians have strong incentives to pander rather than persuade. Partisans are rewarded for tribal loyalty rather than epistemic integrity.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/when-political-violence-becomes-signal

Will congressional inaction lead to a government shut down? Do shutdowns halt the government in its tracks, and if not, who decides what stays and what goes? What does it mean for President Trump -- or the rest of us?

 

Cato's VP for Government Affairs, Chad Davis, in conversation with Patrick Eddington, senior fellow in homeland security and civil liberties at the Cato Institute.

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Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitioners. Today on the show, we talk to an economist about how much H-1B visa holders have contributed to US growth, their effects on American-born workers, and why the United States’ competitors are taking advantage of this moment. 


Related episodes: 

How much international students matter to the economy 

The precarity of the H-1B work visa 

Could foreign workers unlock America's tight labor market? 

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.  

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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