consumerdebt

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This week, thousands of Reddit’s most popular communities went offline to protest the company’s move to start collecting fees for access to its API or application programming interface. One listener called in to ask what all the fuss is about. We’ll get into it and answer more of your questions about how we keep track of consumer debt and the relationship between the underground economy and GDP.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “Why are Reddit communities going private?” from Marketplace

• • “Reddit goes dark” from Platformer

• • “A developer says Reddit could charge him $20 million a year to keep his app working” from The Verge

• • “Reddit Wants to Get Paid for Helping to Teach Big A.I. Systems” from The New York Times

• • “Twitter will make you pay to DM people who don’t follow you” from Mashable

• • “Federal Reserve Board – Consumer Credit from The Federal Reserve

• • “Household Debt and Credit Report” from The Federal Reserve Bank of New York

• • “Gross Domestic Product: An Economy’s All” from the International Monetary Fund

• • “Underground Economy: Definition, Statistics, Trends, and Examples” from Investopedia

Got a question about the economy, business or technology for the hosts? Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART or email us at makemesmart@marketplace.org.

The price of all sorts is going up this week - from stamps to council tax. This is Money's Rachel Rickard Straus and Lee Boyce play the lucky dip of price hikes - which involves a stop watch, chocolate eggs... and quick explanations of how bills are set to rise. Then it's on to debt - credit card, car... you name it. Is it a worry? Is it a big worry? What's going to happen next? (Spoiler alert - they think it's a worry.) The Lifetime Isa - Lisa - has just launched, so that's next on the agenda. Presenter George Frost and the This is Money team talk through whether Isas have had their day, why Lisas may or may not be a good idea, and the great whopping investing question that it's so easy to forget. And the grand finale... involves a lot of wretching. Well nearly -it would if the team weren't so well behaved. It's the Easter taste test, in which the supermarkets' not-very-finest chocolate eggs and bunnies are compared, as well as four types of hot cross bun.