Planet Money

Jerome Powell and the Future of Fed Independence

If you have a credit card, hope to buy a house, or just want stable grocery prices – let’s talk about the future of Fed independence! It’s impossibly important for the Federal Reserve to steer monetary policy without political interference – an ideal pushed to its brink during Jerome Powell’s time as Fed Chair. Powell’s Fed faced a once-in-a-century pandemic, oversaw the economy as inflation spiked to about 9 percent … went back down to nearly 2 percent … and has started to go back up as the U.S. has gone to war and continued to try and implement the most comprehensive tariffs since the early 1900s. But perhaps Powell will be best remembered as a target – of angry tweets, speeches, and ultimately a criminal investigation, by the very president who nominated him in the first place. On Powell’s last day as chair, we ask where his story fits into the sweep of history. We’ll hear from someone who was on the Fed Board when Powell was appointed … and when President Trump started to pressure Powell. Plus, we learn what to watch for to see if Fed Independence is crumbling – or holding – as a new Fed Chair nominated by President Trump takes office. Recommend Listening: - Happy Fed Independence Day [https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/03/01/699546781/episode-898-happy-fed-independence-day] - The case for Fed independence in the Nixon tapes [https://www.npr.org/2025/01/10/1223918033/richard-nixon-arthur-burns-fed-independence] - A primer on the Federal Reserve's independence [https://www.npr.org/2025/04/23/1246593555/federal-reserve-independence] - Trump's unprecedented attack on the Fed [https://www.npr.org/2025/08/26/nx-s1-5518335/trumps-unprecedented-attack-on-the-fed] - Should presidents have more of a say in interest rates? [https://www.npr.org/2024/08/14/1197968126/should-presidents-have-more-of-a-say-in-interest-rates] - Lisa Cook and the fight for the Fed [https://www.npr.org/2025/08/29/nx-s1-5522330/lisa-cook-trump-lawsuit-federal-reserve-independence] - What happens to central banks under pressure? [https://www.npr.org/2025/09/05/nx-s1-5532144/central-bank-independence-federal-reserve] Book info. [https://www.planetmoneybook.com] / Subscribe to Planet Money+ [https://n.pr/3HlREPz] Listen free: Apple Podcasts [http://n.pr/PM-digital], Spotify [https://n.pr/3gTkQlR], the NPR app [https://n.pr/3Bkb17W] or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook [https://n.pr/3h92GwS] / Instagram [https://n.pr/3FqLuws] / TikTok [https://n.pr/3sGZdrq] / Our weekly Newsletter [https://n.pr/3zrFvUB]. This episode was hosted by Kenny Malone and Erika Beras. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Robert Rodriguez and Cena Loffredo. Planet Money’s executive producer is Alex Goldmark.  See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

The secret meeting that launched OPEC

Recently, a listener wrote in with a question about OPEC and oil prices. She was prepping for a camping trip… thinking about how much it costs to fill up her diesel-guzzling camper van at the pump.  “It would be so awesome if you guys could do an episode explaining OPEC to us,” she emailed us. She wanted to know: why does OPEC exist? Why does it limit the supply of oil? And now that the United Arab Emirates has dropped out, what will happen to gas prices?   We love when our listeners write in (and send us voice notes!). The simplest questions can reveal how the complicated web of the economy works. On our latest: we answer our listener’s questions… and the questions behind those questions!  Related episodes: • Chevron, Venezuela and the Paradox of Plenty [https://www.npr.org/2026/01/16/nx-s1-5680400/chevron-venezuela-oil-industry-petrostate]   Book info. [https://www.planetmoneybook.com] / Subscribe to Planet Money+ [https://n.pr/3HlREPz] Listen free: Apple Podcasts [http://n.pr/PM-digital], Spotify [https://n.pr/3gTkQlR], the NPR app [https://n.pr/3Bkb17W] or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook [https://n.pr/3h92GwS] / Instagram [https://n.pr/3FqLuws] / TikTok [https://n.pr/3sGZdrq] / Our weekly Newsletter [https://n.pr/3zrFvUB]. This episode of Planet Money was produced by James Sneed with help from Willa Rubin. It was edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.  See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

Diary of a WNBA negotiator

Today the WNBA season tips off, but Dallas Wings veteran forward Alysha Clark has already won a high-stakes competition. She – and a Nobel Prize winning economist – were on the team that negotiated a ground-breaking contract for the players. And Alysha wrote all about it in her journal. Alysha is the oldest player in the league – and when she started she was making a yearly salary of about $36,400. The players flew economy, the rookies in middle seats. They doubled up in hotel rooms. The league was just starting out, wasn’t bringing in money, and, as Alysha says, “That's just what you got.” Jump forward to 2025 and fans are crowding into stadiums, games are on primetime TV, and the WNBA has a 3.1 billion dollar media rights deal.   So when the players’ contract came up for renewal, they had a once in a generation opportunity to change the future for all of women’s basketball. Maybe all of women's sports. Today on the show, we hear Alysha’s minute by minute account of what it’s like to be a rookie doing high-stakes bargaining. It came right down to the buzzer.  Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life [https://www.planetmoneybook.com/] is in stores now.  Subscribe to Planet Money+ [https://n.pr/3HlREPz] Listen free: Apple Podcasts [http://n.pr/PM-digital], Spotify [https://n.pr/3gTkQlR], the NPR app [https://n.pr/3Bkb17W] or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook [https://n.pr/3h92GwS] / Instagram [https://n.pr/3FqLuws] / TikTok [https://n.pr/3sGZdrq] / Our weekly Newsletter [https://n.pr/3zrFvUB]. This episode was produced by Emma Peaslee and Willa Rubin. It was edited by Marianne McCune. It was fact-checked by Vito Emanuel and engineered by Jimmy Keeley and James Willets. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. Music: NPR Source Audio - "Nights Like This," "Funk Dive," and "Tropical Heat" See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

How we got free agents in baseball

Curt Flood was the best center fielder in baseball and one of the game’s highest paid players. He took the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series three times. Then he got traded to the Phillies. He didn’t want to go. But baseball’s rules said he had no say in the decision. He could either go to Philly or quit the sport. Instead, Flood took Major League Baseball to court. Flood argued that the league should act like any other business and let workers sell their labor to whichever team they liked. But for decades, courts had ruled in favor of the team owners. Curt’s fight would destroy his career and change the sport forever. If you want to learn more about Curt Flood’s story, check out Business History’s original episode [https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/business-history/the-man-who-sued-major-league-baseball-rather-than-go-to-philly].  Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life [https://www.planetmoneybook.com/] is in stores now.  Support: Planet Money+ [https://n.pr/3HlREPz] Listen free: Apple Podcasts [http://n.pr/PM-digital], Spotify [https://n.pr/3gTkQlR], the NPR app [https://n.pr/3Bkb17W] or anywhere you get podcasts. Find us on Socials: Facebook [https://n.pr/3h92GwS] / Instagram [https://n.pr/3FqLuws] / TikTok [https://n.pr/3sGZdrq]  Our weekly Newsletter [https://n.pr/3zrFvUB]. This episode was hosted by Jacob Goldstein, Robert Smith and Keith Romer. It was produced and fact-checked by Emma Peaslee. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. Thanks to Gabriel Hunter Chang and Ryan Dilley at Business History. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

How to make a BOOK into a bestseller

In the world of commercial publishing, there are few crowning achievements more coveted than a place on the New York Times Best Seller List. But how does a book actually end up there? There is, of course, a playbook that publishers and authors use to try to gin up enough sales at the beginning of a new book’s life to launch it onto the list. But there is also a world of more shadowy techniques – a whole history of hacking shenanigans going back nearly a century. Today on the show, the fourth episode in our series [https://www.npr.org/series/g-s1-112661/planet-money-makes-a-book]: Planet Money sets out to make the Planet Money book [https://www.planetmoneybook.com/] a best seller, and along the way, we uncover all the outlandish strategies that people have tried to hack their way onto the New York Times Best Seller List. There will be mass hallucinations, legal exorcisms, shady book launderers, and scarlet daggers. And we learn the hard way how trying to engineer your way onto the list, just might be the thing that keeps you from getting there. Related: - “Night People's Hoax On Day People Makes Hit With Book Folks [https://shepquest.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/wsjournal-ilibertine.jpg]”  - New York Times: “Jacqueline Susann Dead at 53; Novelist Wrote 'Valley of Dolls' [https://www.nytimes.com/1974/09/23/archives/jacqueline-susann-dead-at-53-novelist-wrote-valley-of-dolls-book.html]” - New York Times: “Blatty Sue Times On Best-Seller List [https://www.nytimes.com/1983/08/29/arts/blatty-sue-times-on-best-seller-list.html]” - New York Times: “Court Bars A Suit Over Books List [https://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/30/us/court-bars-a-suit-over-books-list.html]” - Bloomberg Businessweek: “Did Dirty Tricks Create A Best Seller? [https://web.archive.org/web/20120525115045/http://www.businessweek.com/stories/1995-08-06/did-dirty-tricks-create-a-best-seller]”  - Episode 1: Inside a BOOK auction [https://www.npr.org/2026/03/20/nx-s1-5751177/book-deal-proposal-auction-publishing] - Episode 2: Our BOOK vs. the global supply chain [https://www.npr.org/2026/03/25/nx-s1-5751213/planet-money-book-factory-printing-press]  - Episode 3: BOOKstore Economics [https://www.npr.org/2026/04/10/nx-s1-5751214/how-books-get-to-bookstores] - Series: Planet Money makes a book [https://www.npr.org/series/g-s1-112661/planet-money-makes-a-book] - Laura McGrath’s new book: Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction [https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691256160/middlemen?srsltid=AfmBOooMaoJdOKrrKI4TV1VanbrkOTYbiBcY6faaK2DCV0yGPxD0p6pW] Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life [https://www.planetmoneybook.com/] is in stores now.  Support: Planet Money+ [https://n.pr/3HlREPz] Listen free: Apple Podcasts [http://n.pr/PM-digital], Spotify [https://n.pr/3gTkQlR], the NPR app [https://n.pr/3Bkb17W] or anywhere you get podcasts. Find us on Socials: Facebook [https://n.pr/3h92GwS] / Instagram [https://n.pr/3FqLuws] / TikTok [https://n.pr/3sGZdrq]. Our weekly Newsletter [https://n.pr/3zrFvUB]. This episode was produced by Willa Rubin. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Robert Rodriguez and Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.  Music: NPR Source Audio - "Quirky Episodes," “Dramedy Scheme,” "Unforeseen Consequences,” and “Impractical Jokes.”  See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]