Planet Money

Summer camp is a classic rite of passage in the U.S. It's a place of self-discovery, where kids come to make new friends and take on new challenges. But what if it were ALSO a place where children came to learn how to survive in a free market economy? That's part of the idea behind a summer camp at JA BizTown, in Portland, Oregon. Kids at the camp run tiny fake businesses in a tiny fake town. There are retail stores and restaurants, insurance companies and power utilities. As camp begins, a gaggle of child CEOs take out business loans from their peers in the tiny fake banking industry – and they spend the day racing to run their businesses profitably enough to get out of debt before pickup time. On today's show, Planet Money takes a romp through capitalism summer camp. Will the children of BizTown be able to make ends meet and pay back their loans to the banks? Or will a string of defaults send this dollhouse economy into financial collapse? It's Shark Tank meets Lord of the Flies. This episode was hosted by Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi and Sally Helm. It was produced by James Sneed, and edited by Jess Jiang. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Gilly Moon. Planet Money's executive producer is Alex Goldmark. Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts [http://n.pr/PM-digital] or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney [https://n.pr/3HlREPz]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices] NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

Campaigns can be a jargony slog. And this year, we are seeing a lot of economic terms being thrown around, many of which... aren't entirely straightforward. In this episode, we try to make the mess of words that accompany a presidential campaign into something a little less exhausting: A game of bingo. Follow along as we dig into five terms that we expect to hear in the upcoming presidential debate, along with some others we hope to hear. You can play along, too, at npr.org/bingo [http://npr.org/bingo]. Play online or print cards to play with friends on debate night! This episode was hosted by Nick Fountain and Erika Beras. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler with help from Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Meg Cramer. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts [http://n.pr/PM-digital] or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney [https://n.pr/3HlREPz]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices] NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

When Cody Fischer decided to get into real estate development, he had a vision. He wanted to build affordable, energy efficient apartments in Minneapolis, not far from where he grew up. His vision was well-timed because, in 2019, Minneapolis's city council passed one of the most ambitious housing plans in the nation. One aim of that plan was to alleviate the city's housing shortage by encouraging developers like Cody to build, build, build. But when Cody tried to build, he ran into problems. The kinds of problems that arise all over the country when cities confront a short supply of housing, and try to build their way out. Today on the show, NIMBYism, YIMBYism and why it's so hard to fix the housing shortage. Told through the story of two apartment buildings in Minneapolis. This episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Kenny Malone. It was produced by Emma Peaslee and Sofia Shchukina, and edited by Molly Messick. It was engineered by James Willets and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer. Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts [http://n.pr/PM-digital] or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney [https://n.pr/3HlREPz]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices] NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

Take the 2024 Planet Money Summer School Quiz here to earn your personalized diploma! [http://npr.org/g-s1-19625] Find all the episodes from this season of Summer School here [https://open.spotify.com/show/2naS9Y5nWSli9vi9bOvGxp]. And past seasons here [https://www.npr.org/series/1015448333/planet-money-summer-school]. And follow along on TikTok here for video Summer School [https://www.tiktok.com/@planetmoney/video/7390045174518254891]. We are assembled here on the lawn of Planet Money University for the greatest graduation in history – because it features the greatest economic minds in history. We'll hear from Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and some surprising guests as they teach us a little bit more economics, and offer a lot of life advice. But first, we have to wrap up our (somewhat) complete economic history of the world. We'll catch up on the last fifty years or so of human achievement and ask ourselves, has economics made life better for us all? This series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Audrey Dilling. Our project manager is Devin Mellor. This episode was edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark and fact-checked by Sofia Shchukina. Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts [http://n.pr/PM-digital] or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney [https://n.pr/3HlREPz]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices] NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

When David Rashid took over US autoparts maker Plews and Edelmann, the company was losing business to its Chinese rival, Qingdao Sunsong. Both companies make power steering hoses, but Sunsong was offering its hoses to retailers at a much lower price. Then, in 2018, the Trump administration threw companies like Rashid's a lifeline, by announcing tariffs on a range of Chinese goods, including some autoparts. Rashid thought the tariffs would finally force Sunsong to raise its prices, but, somehow, the company never did. It was a mystery. And it led Rashid to take on a new role – amateur trade fraud investigator. How could his competitor, Sunsong, absorb that 25% tax without changing its prices? And why had all of Sunsong's steering hoses stopped coming from China and started coming from Thailand? On today's episode, the wide gulf between how tariffs work in theory... and how they actually work in practice. And David Rashid's quest to figure out what, if anything, he could do about it. It's a quest that will involve international detectives, forensic chemists, and a friendship founded on a shared love for hummus. This episode was hosted by Keith Romer and Jeff Guo. It was produced by Emma Peaslee and edited by Molly Messick. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Ko Takasugi-Czernowin. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts [http://n.pr/PM-digital] or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney [https://n.pr/3HlREPz]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices] NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]