Planet Money
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Planet Money is an economics Podcast hosted by NPR. Unlike most economic shows, it is more of an Edutainment Show, trying to be informative in a fun and interesting way. It began publishing during the 2008 economic crisis. It has continued through the 2010s and 2020s, making it a Long Runner by podcast standards.
Catch it online here on the NPR website.
Tropes used in Planet Money include:
- 419 Scam: Has a whole episode dedicated to Nigerian Prince email scams.
- Command and Conquer Economy: Played with in Episode 404: Even with total control over the worlds economy in a model simulation, where the hosts manually alter regional economic factors to see the result, they aren’t able to correct unemployment to a desired level within four years. Amusingly in real life, the unemployment did drop below their target of 5% in 2016.
- Down in the Dumps: Jon's time working in the San Francisco dump is discussed in the episode The Junkyard Economist.
- Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: Becky with the good yield, a junk bond for company assisting with offshore fossil fuels, is imagined as a pink dinosaur.
- The Infiltration: The episode How the FBI's fake cell phone company put criminals into real jail cells covers the unique economic challenges of the FBI doing this to criminal organizations via a fake company.
- Intimidating Revenue Service: Discussed in Episode 390 when the hosts set up the off short company Unbelizable. The IRS isn’t able to pressure the company directly since it’s in Belize, but it is mentioned they could get the American government to lean on the Government of Belize, and they could take action.
- Intrepid Reporter: One reporter visits Marvel Comics in person after they don’t get a response to more traditional requests to discuss Door Man.
- No Budget: A lack of funding leads the hosts to buy one of the cheapest and riskiest junk bonds they could find, rather than a less risky asset.
- Pentagon Prices: Discussed in a collaboration with All Things Considered here, including the history of this activity and laws that incentivize blowing the whistle on it.
- Public Domain Character: Micro-Face is selected as their comic book character in part due to being in the public domain, after failing to buy the rights to Door Man from Marvel Comics.
- Punny Name: The shell company Unbelizable.
- Shout-Out: Becky with the good yield is one to Becky with the good hair.
- Swiss Bank Account: The hosts discuss this as an option with their contacts in Belize in episode 390.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: Discussed in episode 390 when going through shell company names, most notably finding one that was "Zurine". "It’s spelled like urine, but with a Z".