The Indicator from Planet Money

A few years ago, bike enthusiast Bryan Hance got a tip. A whole bunch of expensive bikes that were stolen in the Bay Area had suddenly turned up ... for sale on a Facebook page in Mexico. The revelation started Bryan down a years-long investigation where he would uncover an intricate, large-scale criminal operation out of Jalisco, Mexico.

In today's episode, we talk to freelance reporter Christopher Solomon who wrote about Hance's journey in WIRED Magazine.

Related episodes:
Is retail theft getting worse? (Apple / Spotify)
The economics of stealing bikes

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For a moment last week, semiconductor chip designer NVIDIA eclipsed Microsoft to become the world's most valuable company. How did it get there?

Today on the show, David Rosenthal, one half of the tech podcast Acquired, explains how NVIDIA's founder Jensen Huang laid the groundwork for the company's meteoric rise, and why there may be obstacles ahead.

Related episodes:
The life and death spirals of social media networks (Apple / Spotify)
The semiconductor founding father

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Indicators of the Week are back! We are here, as always, to bring you the most fascinating snapshots from the week of economic news.

On today's show, we're digging into the embattled aerospace company, Boeing. We look at how paying your rent with a Wells Fargo credit card is costing the bank millions of dollars a month. And we learn how much richer the Planet Money coffers are after we invested in the funds that track stock trading by congresspeople and their families on both sides of the aisle.

Related Episodes:
Invest like a Congress member
Help Wanted at Boeing

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When Diane Lewis' son, Jovaan, was sentenced to prison, she told him to call her every day. What he didn't know at the time is that those collect calls often meant Diane was unable to pay her other bills. Today on the show, how prison phone calls got so expensive, and the movement to make them free.

Related listening:
The Uncounted Workforce
From Prison to the Workforce
The Prisoner's Solution

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There are some new funds that track stock trading by members of Congress and their family. So we thought, why don't we get in on that? Today on the show, we crack open the Planet Money Investment Jar to learn more about how our political leaders play the market, investing in funds tracking Democratic and Republican stock trades.

Whether Congressional stock trading should be limited is a hotly debated matter. So to test whether lawmakers are beating the market, Dartmouth College economist Bruce Sacerdote and his co-authors pitted lawmakers' stock picks against reindeer at a Christmas-styled theme park.

Trust us for this ride! It'll all make sense with some intriguing results.

Related listening:
Stock traders are trying to beat the market — by copying lawmakers
WTF is a Bitcoin ETF? (Apple / Spotify)
Planet Money's Toxic Asset
Planet Money Summer School: Investing

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The federal government classifies potatoes (whether they be baked, waffled, curly, fried) as a vegetable.

Recently some nutritional scientists were questioning that logic as the feds updated their dietary guidelines for 2025.

On today's episode, why potatoes have such sway on Capitol Hill and the real financial stakes spuds have in staying a veggie.

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Indicators of the Week is back! This week, we've got indicators about oil gluts, big bucks for Ukraine and fewer bucks at Starbucks. (Apologies for the slurping.)

Related episodes:
How to get Russia to pay Ukraine
An oil boom, a property slump and dental deflation

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There are many anecdotal complaints about Google search not being what it used to be. A German computer scientist and his colleagues put this theory to the test recently focusing on product reviews. Today on the show, we bring their findings to Google's chief search scientist.

Related episodes:
How Fortnite brought Google to its knees (Apple / Spotify)
Microsoft vs. Google: Whose AI Is better? (Apple / Spotify)

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The Federal Reserve introduced a visual tool called the "dot plot" in 2012 to communicate where officials think interest rates should be in the coming years. The dot plot is eagerly dissected by Fed watchers looking for insight on future policy, but others think that the dot plot has become a visual example of just how little the Fed can predict where the economy is going.

Today on the show, we decode the dot plot and hear why some think that the Federal Reserve's artistic exercise should be scrapped altogether.

The Federal Reserve's latest dot plot (page 4)

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Politicians on both sides of the aisle call the surge at the US Southern Border a "border crisis."

One camp says we need to focus on addressing the conditions in other countries that cause people to leave. The other says we have to focus on deterrence and enforcement.

But...what if both camps are actually ignoring a major piece of the picture? Today on the show, an overlooked cause and potential solution to the situation at our southern border that has nothing to do with the border at all.

Related episodes:
Why Venezuela is no longer in freefall
Welcome to the USA! Now get to work.

ICYMI, preorder our new Indicator t-shirt at the NPR shop. For more ways to support our show, sign up for Planet Money+ where you'll get sponsor-free listening, bonus episodes, and access to even more Indicator merch.

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We are back to answer your questions that you, our listeners, have been sending. On today's show, is chicken actually getting cheaper? Why doesn't the Federal Reserve use different interest rates around the country? And: is election spending an indicator of economic health?

If you have a question you'd like us to answer, email us at indicator@npr.org.

Related episodes:
Can an old law bring down grocery prices? (Apple / Spotify)
How political campaigns raise millions through unwitting donors
How mortgage rates get made
The rat under the Feds hat (Apple / Spotify)
The interest-ing world of interest rates (Apple / Spotify)

ICYMI, preorder our new Indicator t-shirt at the NPR shop. For more ways to support our show, sign up for Planet Money+ where you'll get sponsor-free listening, bonus episodes, and access to even more Indicator merch!

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Today's jobs report shows a slight rise in unemployment to 4%. And some frustrated job seekers are growing tired of applying for job after job with no replies, sometimes asking whether the listings are even real. And this isn't just vexing for applicants. It's also haunting economists when trying to figure out how much slack there is in the labor market, and whether interest rates should be raised or lowered. Today on the show: the rise of ghost jobs. Where they're happening and why.

Related episodes:
Not too hot, not too cold: a 'Goldilocks' jobs report
The Beigie Awards: From Ghosting to Coasting

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99.5 percent of megaprojects are either over time, over budget or have lower benefits than expected. What's going wrong? Today, we look at case studies from California's high speed rail project to the Sydney Opera House to consider the do's and don'ts of ambitious projects.

Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner's book on megaprojects is How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors that Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between.

Related episodes:
Why building public transit in the US costs so much (Apple / Spotify)
Planes, trains and bad bridges (Apple / Spotify)

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The United States has been a supporter of Israel since the nation's establishment in 1948. With the civilian death toll rising in the Israel-Hamas war, growing scrutiny is mounting over just how much the U.S. should support Israel's military. Today, a historical explanation for why the United States tied itself so closely to support for Israel.

Related episodes:
Protesters want schools to divest from Israel. How would that work? (Apple / Spotify)

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Maybe you've heard these things on social media, in the news, and take them as fact: More than half of the adults in the US live paycheck to paycheck, the trade deficit is always bad, and making the super wealthy pay their fair share will fix everything.
Well, the truth isn't so simple. Today on the show: economic mythbusting. We take three factoids about the American economy and run them through the fact checkers.
Related episodes:
Is the federal debt REALLY that bad? (Apple/Spotify)
Is the financial media making us miserable about the economy? (Apple/Spotify)
ICYMI, preorder our new Indicator t-shirt at the NPR shop. For more ways to support our show, sign up for Planet Money+ where you'll get sponsor-free listening, bonus episodes, and access to even more Indicator merch!
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
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MERCH! You asked for it. We got it. After rebranding our podcast earlier this year, we decided it was time to create our own merch. On today's show, a brief oral history of early merch, how to score an Indicator t-shirt, and the winning name of our new mascot.

• Preorder the t-shirt now at shopnpr.org/indicator
• Sign up for Planet Money+ to access more Indicator merch

Related episodes:
Name our mascot. No, really (Apple / Spotify)
Planet Money Makes a T-shirt

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Indicators of the Week is back, where we dig into three economic snapshots from the global economy. This week, we are exploring consumers' ever so slightly improved perception of the economy, what's going on with carbon offsets, and why China is sending some pandas to U.S. zoos.

Related Episodes:
Actors back. Pandas gone. WeBankrupt. (Apple / Spotify)
How Red Lobster got cooked and other indicators (Apple / Spotify)
Emission Impossible (Apple / Spotify)

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It's time for The Indicator Quiz! We test you, dear listener, on your knowledge of topics that we've covered on The Indicator! Today's quiz focuses on ch-ch-changes. (That's a David Bowie reference, kids!) We're covering changes in the economy, the environment, the rental market, you get the picture. We're even tossing in a question about an AI-resurrected rapper. Play along with us and see how you do! Are you interested in being a contestant on our next Indicator Quiz? Email us your name and phone number at indicator@npr.org and put "Indicator Quiz" in the subject line.

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Eight times a year, we award regional Federal Reserve Banks with our coveted Beigie Award. While the anecdotes within the Beige Book offer us fascinating looks into the economy, to others, it can be difficult to make anything of the stories they tell. That's why we're giving out a special Beigie award today to some economists who found a way to use anecdotes to peer into our economic future.

Regional Economic Sentiment: Constructing Quantitative Estimates from the Beige Book and Testing Their Ability to Forecast Recessions

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Dental therapists have been practicing in other parts of the world for decades, but in the U.S. they are relatively few and far between. Like a hygienist, dental therapists can do cleanings as well as some procedures usually reserved for dentists, like simple extractions. They could also be the solution to getting underserved, rural communities better oral care. Today on the show, new momentum for dental therapy and why the American Dental Association is pushing back.

Related episodes:
The value of good teeth

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