Charles Ponzi's scheme (plus a new scam)
Charles Ponzi was down on his luck. In 1919, the Italian immigrant had spent a decade and a half in the U.S. He was looking for a way to...
0:00–:––
Episodes
10 / 416 episodes visible
Where all those weird new drinks are coming from
It's getting pretty wild in the beverage aisle these days — from the rainbow wall of seltzers, to the increasingly strange flavors of...
0:00–:––
Who’s gonna pay for your Social Security?
Very soon, Social Security may not have enough money to make full payments to retirees. Very soon. Like by 2032, just six years from now....
0:00–:––
Middlegarchs are the new Oligarchs
Wanna know who is really in the top 1%? And how they use their influence? It may not be who you think.Look beyond Silicon Valley. Look...
0:00–:––
Is our national debt finally too much? (update)
(Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2024.)$40,000,000,000,000. Four commas. Thirteen zeroes. It’s an eye-popping, almost...
0:00–:––
The Domino’s Pizza Tracker Theory of Everything
Did a pizza restaurant’s humble status page change how we wait forever? When you order a Lyft or Uber, you get texts every few minutes...
0:00–:––
How investing is getting riskier (Two Indicators)
Margin borrowing and sports gambling “investments” are both on the rise! Today on the show, two stories from Planet Money’s daily podcast...
0:00–:––
The loan at the heart of a new foreclosure crisis
There is a new type of loan that is sweeping through the country right now. It’s advertised as a super quick and super easy way to get a...
0:00–:––
Cost-cutting, quiet guilt and the inflation generation
In this economy it is boom times and doom times all at once. The statistics aren’t really capturing it. K-shaped only goes so far as a...
0:00–:––
Trump drinks Venezuela’s milkshake
One week ago, President Trump announced a deal that would give the “U.S. control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in...
0:00–:––