The Indicator from Planet Money - Invest like a Congress member (Encore)

There are some new funds that track stock trading by members of Congress and their family. So we thought, why don't we get in on that?

Today on the show, we crack open the Planet Money Investment Jar to learn more about how our political leaders play the market, investing in funds tracking Democratic and Republican stock trades.

Whether Congressional stock trading should be limited is a hotly debated matter. So to test whether lawmakers are beating the market, Dartmouth College economist Bruce Sacerdote and his co-authors pitted lawmakers' stock picks against reindeer at a Christmas-styled theme park.

Trust us for this ride! It'll all make sense with some intriguing results.

This piece originally aired June 18, 2024.

Related listening:
Stock traders are trying to beat the market — by copying lawmakers
WTF is a Bitcoin ETF?(Apple / Spotify)
Planet Money's Toxic Asset
Planet Money Summer School: Investing

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NPR's Book of the Day - Percival Everett centers a new voice in ‘James,’ a retelling of ‘Huckleberry Finn’

Percival Everett is a prolific author – his 2001 book Erasure was recently adapted into the Oscar-winning film American Fiction. But his latest book, James, expands on a story readers around the world already know: Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. In today's episode, Everett speaks with NPR's Andrew Limbong about why he wanted to reframe the classic novel from the perspective of the enslaved titular character, why he doesn't think of his new work as a direct response to Twain, and why he doesn't buy into the controversy surrounding the original.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Jimmy Carter’s Legacy

Former president Jimmy Carter died on Sunday at age 100. Carter was a born-again evangelical Christian as well as a Democrat. Those two identities existed in harmony for him—but they would diverge in American politics in the wake of his presidency.


Guest: Jim Wallis, chair in Faith and Justice and the founding director of the Georgetown University Center on Faith and Justice.


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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.

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NPR's Book of the Day - BONUS: A biography and a memoir reexamine Jimmy Carter’s extraordinary life

Former president Jimmy Carter has died. He was 100 years old. In today's episode, two books examine Carter's career in the White House and beyond. First, NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with historian Kai Bird about The Outlier, a biography that argues that Carter's deregulation of several industries, his social legislation and his foreign policy made his one-term presidency exceptionally productive. Then, a conversation from the vault between NPR's Eric Westervelt and Carter himself about his memoir, A Full Life.

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The Economics of Everyday Things - Pistachios (Replay)

How did a little green nut become a billion-dollar product, lauded by celebrities in Super Bowl ads? Zachary Crockett cracks open the story.

 

  • SOURCES:
    • Sawyer Clark, director of asset management at Gold Leaf Farming.
    • Diana Salsa, vice president of marketing for Wonderful Pistachios.

 

Up First from NPR - In Memoriam: Jimmy Carter, 1924-2024

Former President Jimmy Carter has died at his home in Plains, Georgia. He was 100 years old, a modest man with an unforgettable ear-to-ear grin. Carter was the country's 39th president, serving only one term from 1977 to 1981. His years in the White House were difficult. He faced enormous problems at home and abroad and struggled to prove that he was a strong and capable leader. But once he left office, Carter became an almost unstoppable force for peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts. In this special episode of Up First, we consider the legacy of the man widely called "America's greatest former president."

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Consider This from NPR - He left everything to flee war in Syria. What does the war’s end mean for his future?

When Syria's dictatorship fell in early December, celebrations broke out around the world - including nearly 6,000 miles away, in Toledo, Ohio.

That's where Mohammed al-Refai, a refugee from Syria, lives now. NPR has followed his story for nearly a decade.

In 2015, millions of Syrians fled the civil war in their country. al-Refai got a visa to come to the U.S. His parents and siblings, who fled to Jordan, did not. So, he moved on his own to Toledo, where built a new life for himself.

He long dreamed of visiting his family and maybe, one day, returning to Syria.

With the Syrian civil war now over, we talked to al-Refai about what comes next.

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Consider This from NPR - He left everything to flee war in Syria. What does the war’s end mean for his future?

When Syria's dictatorship fell in early December, celebrations broke out around the world - including nearly 6,000 miles away, in Toledo, Ohio.

That's where Mohammed al-Refai, a refugee from Syria, lives now. NPR has followed his story for nearly a decade.

In 2015, millions of Syrians fled the civil war in their country. al-Refai got a visa to come to the U.S. His parents and siblings, who fled to Jordan, did not. So, he moved on his own to Toledo, where built a new life for himself.

He long dreamed of visiting his family and maybe, one day, returning to Syria.

With the Syrian civil war now over, we talked to al-Refai about what comes next.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

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Consider This from NPR - He left everything to flee war in Syria. What does the war’s end mean for his future?

When Syria's dictatorship fell in early December, celebrations broke out around the world - including nearly 6,000 miles away, in Toledo, Ohio.

That's where Mohammed al-Refai, a refugee from Syria, lives now. NPR has followed his story for nearly a decade.

In 2015, millions of Syrians fled the civil war in their country. al-Refai got a visa to come to the U.S. His parents and siblings, who fled to Jordan, did not. So, he moved on his own to Toledo, where built a new life for himself.

He long dreamed of visiting his family and maybe, one day, returning to Syria.

With the Syrian civil war now over, we talked to al-Refai about what comes next.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

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