When an insurance company can't cover all of its claims, it actually has its own insurance. This is called "reinsurance." How does that work and why do reinsurers look at their risk pool differently than say home or auto insurers?
Related episodes: Why is insurance so expensive right now? And more listener questions (Apple / Spotify) When insurers can't get insurance (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Anti-vaccine activists, far-right groups and some religious conservatives convened in Las Vegas this spring to discuss the creation of a parallel economy. These are groups who believe their speech is threatened by big banks and big tech. On today's show, what is a "freedom economy," and how would it work?
Related episodes: A Supreme Court case that could reshape social media (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport retained its title as the world's busiest airport for 2023, even as the annual list showed significant shifts from its previous rankings.
The economy is top of mind for caregiver and driver Jennifer Garner as the U.S. heads toward the November presidential election. Black voters overwhelmingly supported President Joe Biden in 2020 and were key to his win, but as many like Garner struggle to make ends meet now, there is some evidence that Black voter enthusiasm for Biden may be slipping. And Trump is hoping to capitalize on that.
We are back to answer your listener questions. On today's show, we explain reverse mortgages and their risks, why insurance has gotten so expensive, and whether there's a catch to charitable donations at the store.
If you have a question you'd like us to answer, email us at indicator@npr.org.
Related episodes: When insurers can't get insurance (Apple / Spotify)
Are we counting jobs right? We answer your listener questions (Apple / Spotify)
When mortgage rates are too low to give up (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
TikTok, and other apps like it, are filled with financial advice. Some of it is reliable, some... less so.
There are videos about running a business, having a side hustle, generating passive income. And also, there are a lot of tips and tricks, many of them questionable, about saving on your taxes.
On this show, we run some of the greatest hits of TikTok tax advice by some bonafide tax experts. We'll talk about whether you can use gambling losses to reduce your tax bill, whether your pets qualify you for tax deductions – and we'll fact check the claim that all rich people own expensive Mercedes G-Wagons... for tax purposes.
Along the way, we'll drill down on the concepts like taxable income and the standard deduction. And we'll ask why so many videos on TikTok suggest that you (fraudulently) categorize personal expenses as business expenses. Sometimes with a literal wink and a nod.
This episode was hosted by Nick Fountain. It was produced by Emma Peaslee with help from Willa Rubin, who also fact-checked this episode. It was edited by Molly Messick and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's Executive Producer.
In this edition of Indicators of the Week: the new incentive for speed in cash prizes for Olympic track and field, growing iPhone assembly in India and the curious inflation puzzle of the foot-long cookies at Subway.
Related episodes: Can India become the next high-tech hub? (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
The VA halted foreclosures after an NPR investigation found thousands of vets were facing foreclosure and it wasn't their fault. Now the VA's unveiling a rescue plan that leaves some out in the cold.
With tax season upon us, many people are paying someone or a software to get their tax returns done. A small group of people, however, are filing online directly with ... the IRS. For free. Today on the show: how the IRS's tax filing experiment came to be, how it's been working so far, and who doesn't like it.
April 15th, the deadline to file your income taxes, is just around the corner. Filings so far this year are on track with last year's, while the average refund is slightly larger.
Europe wants clean energy, but it's struggling to compete with the low cost of China's green technology. The E.U. just announced it's investigating the subsidies received by Chinese wind turbine suppliers, which play a part in those low costs.
On today's episode, we speak with Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, about how the E.U. is trying to build and maintain a competitive green tech industry in the face of low-price Chinese imports. And we ask how the U.S.'s climate industrial policy fits into all this action.
Related Episodes: The surprising leader in EVs (Apple / Spotify) Industrial policy, the debate! (Apple / Spotify) Why offshore wind is facing headwinds (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
About one hundred years ago, a scientist and statistician named Francis Galston came upon an opportunity to test how well regular people were at answering a question. He was at a fair where lots of people were guessing the weight of an ox, so he decided to take the average of all their guesses and compare it to the correct answer.
What he found shocked him. The average of their guesses was almost exactly accurate. The crowd was off by just one pound.
This eerie phenomenon—this idea that the crowd is right—drives everything from the stock market to the price of orange juice.
So, we decided to test it for ourselves. We asked Planet Money listeners to guess the weight of a cow.
This episode was hosted by David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein. It was produced by Nadia Wilson and edited by Bryant Urstadt. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.
You've heard of the British royal family, but what about the "working royals?" Today on the show, an expert on the royals explains what the job is like — how they measure productivity, how they get paid, and how this tiny, specialized workforce of 11 people might cope with the health crises of King Charles III and Kate Middleton.
General Electric has been staggering along for years as a conglomerate. But recently, it's turned to a popular strategy to unlock new value: spinning off. Just last week, GE spun off its clean energy business into a new company: GE Vernova. On today's show, we explore what a spin off is and why companies do them.
