The Indicator from Planet Money

This week’s indicators: Inflation is disturbing, workers are getting their stolen wages back, and NVIDIA ex-CEO’s alleged affairs become a $465 billion business expense. (Woof!) Fact-checking by Tyler Jones. Your Next Listen  – The tower of NVIDIA –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App Connect with The Indicator from Planet Money – The Indicator newsletter — a weekly roundup of news, i...

We take you inside an AP personal finance class in Alabama where students are learning about Roth IRAs and compound interest. As states add personal finance classes, should business be more woven into the liberal arts?  Fact checking by Sierra Juarez . Your Next Listen  – New college degrees designed to job-proof graduates   –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App Connect with The Indic...

The old adage “the stock market is not the economy” used to hold more weight, but lately, financial markets are reflecting the overall economy a lot more. Today, we look at what Walmart’s stock and AI companies might be telling us about weaknesses in the economy.  Read Jim Paulsen's post on the Walmart Recession Signal . Read the report by the Open Markets Institute and Americans for Financial Ref...

Comedy writer and producer Mike Schur ("The Good Place," "Parks and Recreation") breaks down how streaming killed the classic sitcom — and what comedy is doing to survive. Fact checking by Leyla Doss. Your Next Listen  – What the movies teach us about recessions, memestocks and gold –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App Connect with The Indicator from Planet Money – The Indicator news...

After last week's midterm elections, there are quite a few economic indicators to watch – from data centers to California billionaires. Who won, who lost, and why it matters. Fact checking by Leyla Doss. Your Next Listen  – How taxing the wealthy could work –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App Connect with The Indicator from Planet Money – The Indicator newsletter — a weekly roundup...

An increasing number of men are dropping out of the workforce.  What’s behind this trend and can anything be done about it? Fact checking by Leyla Doss. Your Next Listen  – What's going on with men's labor force participation? –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App Connect with The Indicator from Planet Money – The Indicator newsletter — a weekly roundup of news, ideas and staff picks....

Anthropic released its financials to the public as the AI juggernaut prepares for its highly anticipated IPO. So what do these numbers reveal about the future of the AI economy?  Fact checking by Leyla Doss. Your Next Listen  – Why Oracle's debt load could be your problem –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App Connect with The Indicator from Planet Money – The Indicator newsletter — a...

Are AI job losses showing up in the job numbers? What does a pro-worker approach to AI development look like? What advice do you have for college students? It’s our latest “Ask an Economist” segment, where listeners get to pose questions directly to economists about hot topics in the news.  Daron Acemoglu, a Nobel Prize-winning professor at MIT, and Erik Brynjolfsson, a professor at Stanford and d...

High mortgage rates are nudging some aspiring homeowners to consider adjustable-rate mortgages over the standard 30-year fixed-rate option. Are ARMs the better choice in today’s economy? Fact checking by Sierra Juarez . Your Next Listen  – When mortgage rates are too low to give up –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App Connect with The Indicator from Planet Money – The Indicator newsl...

Pakistan in recent years has taken a U-turn on cryptocurrency, opting to regulate digital assets instead of outright banning them. On today’s show, what the country’s crypto boosters hope to gain for their efforts and why religious scholars are still skeptical of its value.  Fact checking by Leyla Doss.  Your Next Listen  – How stable is stablecoin?   –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR...

On a very spooktacular Indicators of the EEK!: How America’s top corporations are ghosting their taxes; why more meal deals are an ominous sign; and terrifying Halloween candy prices! Fact checking by Corey Bridges Your Next Listen  – A finance fright fest –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App Connect with The Indicator from Planet Money – The Indicator newsletter — a weekly roundup o...

The landmark supreme source case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission opened the floodgates for massive corporate spending in elections. Today, can a Montana ballot initiative pave the way for getting corporate money out of American elections?   Fact checking by Sierra Juarez . Your Next Listen  – Can a "moneyball" system work for campaign funding? –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on...

Does business school fix the world? Or does it just churn out consultants, bankers and tech workers? A professor and a dean debate the value of the modern-day MBA. Fact checking by Sierra Juarez . Your Next Listen  –– Are small town colleges going extinct? ––Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App Connect with The Indicator from Planet Money – The Indicator newsletter — a weekly roundup...

Meta’s new AI agent Muse is one of the fastest-growing apps ever. It’s a big bet from a company spending billions to win the AI race. But what is the real cost of using this powerful, free AI product?  Fact checking by Sierra Juarez . Your Next Listen  – SNAP strains, youth baseball's class divide, and Meta's bug bounty –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App Connect with The Indicator...

There are now more bots than humans online. What does that mean for how we experience the internet? Can bots and humans peacefully coexist online?   Fact checking by Sierra Juarez . Your Next Listen  – Can the internet survive AI summaries?   –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App Connect with The Indicator from Planet Money – The Indicator newsletter — a weekly roundup of news, ideas...

This week’s notable indicators: A distressing credit warning for CoreWeave, a Pokémon heist, and depleted maple syrup reserves in Canada.   Fact checking by Cooper Katz McKim.  Your Next Listen  – Why Pokemon cards are growing faster than your retirement account –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App Connect with The Indicator from Planet Money – The Indicator newsletter — a weekly rou...

Elections are more expensive than ever, but are campaign donations going to the races where they’ll make the most impact? Today, we talk to the startup co-founder of Oath who believes there’s a smarter way to allocate individual donations. Fact checking by Sierra Juarez . Your Next Listen  – How did political campaigns get so expensive? –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App Connect wi...

Should money and class figure more prominently in how we identify ourselves? Pulitzer Prize-winning data journalist Mona Chalabi thinks yes. Today on the show, a conversation with Mona, author of the forthcoming book Ten Lives: How What We Have Shapes Who We Are . Fact checking by Sierra Juarez .  Your Next Listen  – Chasing the American Dream at Outback Steakhouse –Over 2,000 episodes in our arch...

The United States national debt is running at more than $40 trillion dollars. It’s a potential crisis in the making, but President Donald Trump suggested it can all be solved just by inflating the debt away. Today, we dig into the nitty gritty on how and when inflating the national debt could work. Fact checking by Sierra Juarez . Your Next Listen  – Is the federal debt REALLY that bad? –Over 2,00...

Oracle, the multinational tech giant has taken on a lot of loans to build up its AI capacity. But Oracle’s investors are not happy with this piling debt load. We explain why Oracle is such a pivotal player — and potentially weak link — in the AI-fueled economy. Fact checking by Sierra Juarez . Your Next Listen  – How the bond market is handling AI risk? –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the N...

Is AI coming for our jobs? Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei believes AI could wipe out many white-collar jobs in the next few years. While Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang argues AI will reshape existing roles and create even more jobs than we have now. So which future are we really facing: a job-pocalypse or a jobs transformation? For answers, join The Indicator 's Adrian Ma for "Ask An Economist.” This is a vi...

This week’s indicators: Why is inflation so super (derogatory)? How did Bumble go from dating app doldrums to a stock market sweetheart?; And oh, bother! Could Winnie the Pooh be moving home to England from New York City? Fact checking by Leyla Doss. Your Next Listen  – Retiree benefits bump, credit repayment slump, and a dating app in the dumps –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App C...

The 2026 midterm elections are fast approaching, and it’s gearing up to be the most expensive election in American history. So how did we get here, where every election feels more expensive than the last?  Today on the show, we’re exploring what’s causing the flood of money into our politics.  Fact checking by Sierra Juarez . Your Next Listen  – Bad economics, smart politics –Over 2,000 episodes i...

A labyrinthine rebate process. Shrinking cereal boxes. Mystery rental car charges. Cockroaches?! We share listener tales of Consumer Rage and unpack the economic forces driving that ANGER. Fact checking by Sierra Juarez . Your Next Listen  – Consumers are mad as hell and aren't gonna take it anymore –Over 2,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App Connect with The Indicator from Planet Money – T...

This year's Nobel Prize for Economics went to American economists Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford! Their research focused on macroeconomic models and economic shocks. But … How did we get a Nobel Prize in economics, or as it’s actually called, the more long-winded “Swedish Central Bank Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel”? And why did nearly 70 years pass between the first Nob...