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Stephen Maturen/Getty Images Stephen Maturen/Getty Images It’s Indicators of the Week, our up close and personal examination of economic headlines. Today we have three indicators from President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. His budget proposals include fixes for childcare, home buying and hiking corporate taxes. Related episodes: Shopping for parental benefits around the world (Apple / […]

Reporter Darian Woods and wind turbine technician Konnor Therriault at the base of a Vestas wind turbine in Bingham, Maine. (Photo by Matthew Copeman) Matthew Copeman/Matthew Copeman hide caption toggle caption Matthew Copeman/Matthew Copeman Reporter Darian Woods and wind turbine technician Konnor Therriault at the base of a Vestas wind turbine in Bingham, Maine. (Photo […]

One estimate says 2.4 million people die in the U.S. each year, and burying them is expensive: a typical burial can cost about $10,000. That’s a lot of money, caskets, and plots filling up cemeteries. But…what if there was a cost-effective option to bury people, one that was good for the Earth and your pocket […]

TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images Super Bowl ads this year relied heavily on nostalgia and surprise –– a few tricks that turn out to embed information into our brains. Today, neuroscientist Charan Ranganath joins the show to dissect the world of marketing to its biological fundamentals and reveal […]

Capital One Financial Corporation plans to acquire Discover Financial Services in a $35 billion deal that would combine two of the largest U.S. credit card companies. Today on the show, five big questions about the deal, and the opaque system behind every swipe, tap or insertion of your credit card. Related:Planet Money’s TikTok on the […]

KAREN BLEIER/AFP via Getty Images KAREN BLEIER/AFP via Getty Images In 2023, The Federal Reserve and other banking regulators announced they were making changes to how they grade banks on servicing local communities. This all stems from a 1977 law called the Community Reinvestment Act, which was designed to encourage banks to better meet the […]

It is Friday, and Indicators of the Week is back — SUPER Edition. Today, what one New York bank’s shakiness means for the wider economy, why Mexican imports in the US are super surging, and the T. Swift effect on the Super Bowl. Related Episodes:Economics, boosternomics and Swiftnomics (Apple/Spotify)Does the U.S. have too many banks? […]

MARTIN BUREAU/AFP via Getty Images MARTIN BUREAU/AFP via Getty Images The most recent jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the United States economy exceeded expectations by adding 353,000 jobs in January. This continues the labor market’s years-long trend of resilience in the face of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes. However, digging […]