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Wanna see a trick? Give us any topic and we can tie it back to the economy. At Planet Money, we explore the forces that shape our lives and bring you along for the ride. Don't just understand the economy – understand the world.

Wanna go deeper? Subscribe to Planet Money+ and get sponsor-free episodes of Planet Money, The Indicator, and Planet Money Summer School. Plus access to bonus content. It's a new way to support the show you love. Learn more at plus.npr.org/planetmoney

Most Recent Episodes

The great German land lottery

Every ten years, a group of German farmers gather in the communal farm fields of the Osing for the Osingverlosung, a land lottery dating back centuries. Erika Beras/NPR hide caption

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Erika Beras/NPR

The great German land lottery

Every ten years, a group of German farmers gather in the communal farm fields of the Osing for the Osingverlosung, a ritual dating back centuries. Osing refers to the area. And verlosung means "lottery," as in a land lottery. All of the land in this communal land is randomly reassigned to farmers who commit to farming it for the next decade.

The great German land lottery

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The strange way the world's fastest microchips are made
Jeff Guo/NPR

The strange way the world's fastest microchips are made

This is the story behind one of the most valuable — and perhaps, most improbable — technologies humanity has ever created. It's a breakthrough called extreme ultraviolet lithography, and it's how the most advanced microchips in the world are made. The kind of chips powering the latest AI models. The kind of chips that the U.S. is desperately trying to keep out of the hands of China.

The strange way the world's fastest microchips are made

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What markets bet President Trump will do
Chip Somodevilla/Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

What markets bet President Trump will do

On the day after the election, Wall Street responded in a dramatic way. Some stocks went way up, others went way down. By reading those signals — by breaking down what people were buying and what they were selling — you can learn a lot about where the economy might be headed. Or at least, where people are willing to bet the economy is headed.

What markets bet President Trump will do

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Moving to the American dream? (update)
Alastair Pike/AFP via Getty Images

Moving to the American dream? (update)

Back in the 90s, the federal government ran a bold experiment, giving people vouchers to move out of high-poverty neighborhoods into low-poverty ones. They wanted to test if housing policy could be hope – whether an address change alone could improve jobs, earnings and education.

Moving to the American dream? (update)

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The veteran loan calamity

The US Department of Veterans Affairs building is seen in Washington, DC, on July 22, 2019. Alastair Pike/Getty Images hide caption

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Alastair Pike/Getty Images

The veteran loan calamity

Ray and Becky Queen live in rural Oklahoma with their kids (and chickens). The Queens were able to buy that home with a VA loan because of Ray's service in the Army. During COVID, the Queens – like millions of other Americans – needed help from emergency forbearance. They were told they could pause home payments for up to a year and then pick up again making affordable mortgage payments with no problems.

The veteran loan calamity

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So your data was stolen in a data breach
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

So your data was stolen in a data breach

If you... exist in the world, it's likely that you have gotten a letter or email at some point informing you that your data was stolen. This happened recently to potentially hundreds of millions of people in a hack that targeted companies like Ticketmaster, AT&T, Advance Auto Parts and others that use the data cloud company Snowflake.

So your data was stolen in a data breach

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Why do hospitals keep running out of generic drugs?
MarsBars/Getty Images

Why do hospitals keep running out of generic drugs?

There's something strange going on in hospitals. Cheap, common drugs that nurses use every day seem to be constantly hit by shortages. These are often generic drugs that don't seem super complicated to make, things like dextrose and saline (aka sugar water and salt water).

Why do hospitals keep running out of generic drugs?

Listen · 26:27
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Romance on the screen and on the page: Two Indicators
Kaitlin Brito for NPR

Romance on the screen and on the page: Two Indicators

On today's show, we have two stories from The Indicator, Planet Money's daily podcast. They just launched Love Week, a weeklong series exploring the business and economic side of romance.

Romance on the screen and on the page: Two Indicators

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The Subscription Trap

Subscriptions can make users feel trapped, much like Admiral Ackbar, who got to the second Death Star and discovered its shields still fully operational and several Star Destroyers poised to ambush. Lucasfilm hide caption

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Lucasfilm

The Subscription Trap

Over the past two decades, there's been a sort of tectonic economic shift happening under our feet. More and more companies have switched from selling goods one by one to selling services, available as a subscription. These days everything from razor blades to meal kits to car washes have become subscriptions. But all that convenience has also come with a dark side – some companies have designed their offerings to be as easy as possible to sign up for and also as difficult as possible to cancel. Many consumers are now paying for way more subscriptions than they even know about.

The Subscription Trap

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