An airline, the price of oil and the financialization of the global economy. On today’s show, author and former banker Satyajit Das talks about his career and the trouble with the rise of finance.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/09/30/140954343/the-friday-podcast-how-money-got-weird
Tagged with npr planet money economics
Bitcoin is a new kind of currency. But unlike, say, the dollar or the yen, it’s not backed by any government. Also, you can’t hold it in your hand or put it in your pocket; it exists only on computers.
Bitcoin is supposed to be cash for the Internet age — anonymous money that anyone can use without using a credit card or going through a bank.
On today’s Planet Money, try to get our hands on a few bitcoins, which turns out to be harder than it sounds.
We dig into some basic questions that come up when you’re creating a new currency from scratch.
And we buy lunch.
Tagged with bitcoin economics podcast:name=planet money
When we’re in love, we do some crazy things. And that’s OK. But when we merge lanes on the highway, sign up for a credit card, or just order a book, we’re as irrational as a teenager who’s got a crush.
Find out why we’re mad in money matters, why we’re suckers for designer aspirin, are willing to believe in the paranormal, and anything but logical in traffic. It’s Skeptical Sunday, but be rational - don’t take our word for it! Guests:
* Tom Vanderbilt - Author of Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What it Says About Us)
* Dan Ariely - Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University, and author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions
* James Underdown - Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry, Los Angeles
* Phil Plait - Author of badastronomy.com
* Michael Shermer - Founder of "Skeptic Magazine" and author, most recently, of The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics
http://podcast.seti.org/episodes/Skeptical_Sunday_Bear_Right_in_a_Bull_Market
Christopher Hitchens talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about George Orwell. Drawing on his book Why Orwell Matters, Hitchens talks about Orwell’s opposition to imperialism, fascism, and Stalinism, his moral courage, and his devotion to language. Along the way, Hitchens makes the case for why Orwell matters.
EconTalk, 17 Aug 09
http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2009/08/hitchens_on_orw.html