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Planet Money Summer School Planet Money Summer School is a crash course in economics for your ears. See the world through the lens of an economist and you'll start to feel a little less overwhelmed when making financial decisions.
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Planet Money Summer School

Economics is a game you should know how to play. And once you get the fundamental concepts, you start to see it everywhere: the news, the supermarket and even your dating life. So it's time to learn the rules. Planet Money Summer School is a crash course in economics for your ears.

MBA 2: Competition and the cheaper sneaker

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Planet Money Summer School

MBA 2: Competition and the cheaper sneaker

For episode 2 of Planet Money Summer School, we are talking strategy. You have your million dollar business idea, and maybe some money in your pocket to get it up and running. But now you enter into a crowded market. You have to deal with competition.

MBA 2: Competition and the cheaper sneaker

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MBA 3: Accounting and the Last Supper

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Planet Money Summer School

MBA 3: Accounting and the Last Supper

Usually, the first class that an MBA student takes is accounting. That involves, yes, equations and counting widgets...but it's more than that. Inside the simple act of accounting is a revolutionary way of thinking not just about a business, but about the world. A universe where all the forces are in balance. Accounting gives you a sixth sense–one that can help you determine whether your business will survive or fail.

MBA 3: Accounting and the Last Supper

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MBA 4: Marketing and the Ultimate Hose Nozzle
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Planet Money Summer School

MBA 4: Marketing and the Ultimate Hose Nozzle

In this session of Planet Money Summer School, we are getting the word out about your brand. How do you convince consumers to buy your product, even if they are only just hearing about it? It's time for sales and marketing!

MBA 4: Marketing and the Ultimate Hose Nozzle

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MBA 5: Tech and the innovator's dilemma
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Planet Money Summer School

MBA 5: Tech and the innovator's dilemma

For anyone running a business, technology is both threat and opportunity. Today, we run through techniques entrepreneurs can use to take advantage of new tech or defend against the dangers. It's not just about the product you're selling. It's about consumer psychology, and ethics, and taking calculated risks to navigate uncertainty.

MBA 5: Tech and the innovator's dilemma

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MBA 6: Operations and 25,000 roses
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Planet Money Summer School

MBA 6: Operations and 25,000 roses

"It's difficult to control everything," says our guest professor for this week, Santiago Gallino. "What is not difficult is to plan for everything." Today we venture into the sphere of business that masters the planning, and backup planning: operations management.

MBA 6: Operations and 25,000 roses

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MBA 7: Negotiating and the empathetic nibble
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Planet Money Summer School

MBA 7: Negotiating and the empathetic nibble

How do you get the best deal? How do you know you're getting the best deal? Whether you're talking down the price of a car or talking up your salary, you don't have to be a jerk to get what you want. Negotiations can be win-win – if you know what to ask for and how to grow the pie.

MBA 7: Negotiating and the empathetic nibble

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Macroeconomics 1: Recessions & Rap Battles

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Planet Money Summer School

Macroeconomics 1: Recessions & Rap Battles

Season 3 of summer school is here asking the biggest economic questions about what makes an entire economy grow or contract. Episode 1 begins with the rise of macroeconomics as a field, with one of the great economic debates of the 20th century: what causes booms and busts, and what can the government do about it? How free should a free market be? It's a debate (over beats and with an actual rap battle) between John Maynard Keynes and F.A. Hayek. Watch this Tik Tok to learn more and listen to our Spotify playlist. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Macroeconomics 1: Recessions & Rap Battles

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Macroeconomics 2: GDP & What Counts

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Planet Money Summer School

Macroeconomics 2: GDP & What Counts

What even is "the economy"? And how do you measure it? Our path out of the economic darkness and into the light has been guided in large part by one single statistic: GDP. This week: the origins, history, and problems with the economic indicator to rule them all. | At this Summer School, phones ARE allowed during class... Check out this week's PM TikTok! | Listen to past seasons of Summer School here.

Macroeconomics 2: GDP & What Counts

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Macroeconomics 3: Booms, Busts & Us
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Planet Money Summer School

Macroeconomics 3: Booms, Busts & Us

Life has its ups and downs. Same for the economy. Today we ask, can the business cycle be tamed? Two stories of recession and techniques for moderating the ferocity of booms and busts. Plus, how bankruptcy is a secret weapon of the American economy. | Subscribe to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. | At this Summer School, phones ARE allowed during class... Check out this week's PM TikTok! | Listen to past seasons of Summer School here.

Macroeconomics 3: Booms, Busts & Us

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Macroeconomics 4: Inflation & Drinking Buddies
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Planet Money Summer School

Macroeconomics 4: Inflation & Drinking Buddies

Inflation can be one of the scariest forces in the economy. As prices rise and your dollar doesn't go as far, you feel poorer, and it's all out of your control. To better understand inflation, we turn to the story of Brazil, where, in the 90s, hyperinflation threatened to derail the whole economy until the country turned to a group of unlikely heroes: four drinking buddies. | Subscribe to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. |At this Summer School, phones ARE allowed during class... Check out this week's PM TikTok! | Listen to past seasons of Summer School here.

Macroeconomics 4: Inflation & Drinking Buddies

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Macroeconomics 5: Car Parts, Celery & The Labor Market

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Planet Money Summer School

Macroeconomics 5: Car Parts, Celery & The Labor Market

You can learn a lot about a person from their job. The same can be said of an economy. The market for jobs can us a lot about how the economy is doing, but more importantly, it is where we look to see who the economy is working for, and who is left behind. In today's lesson we'll visit two workplaces each facing a different labor puzzle. At one end, there's the question of when to replace a worker with a robot, and what it is like to be that worker waiting for the robots to come. We'll also visit a farm where raising wages aren't enough to attract the workers needed to do the work. How wages are set, and who gets the raises on this session of Summer School. | Subscribe to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. |At this Summer School, phones ARE allowed during class... Check out this week's PM TikTok! | Listen to past seasons of Summer School here.

Macroeconomics 5: Car Parts, Celery & The Labor Market

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Macroeconomics 6: Trade & The Better Life
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Planet Money Summer School

Macroeconomics 6: Trade & The Better Life

International trade is the web of cross-border relationships that binds economies together. Because of trade we have access to cheaper, higher-quality goods, and we get to benefit from other countries' cultures. Economics tells us trade makes society, overall on average, better off, but that doesn't mean everyone wins. Today, the good and bad of trade through the eyes of workers in developing economies who make the things sold around the world. We follow them as they navigate the ever-shifting international trade environment. |At this Summer School, phones ARE allowed during class... Check out this week's PM TikTok! | Listen to past seasons of Summer School here.

Macroeconomics 6: Trade & The Better Life

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Macroeconomics 7: The Fed & Volcker's Socks
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Planet Money Summer School

Macroeconomics 7: The Fed & Volcker's Socks

The Federal Reserve plays a very important role in the economy. When things start to look uncertain, the central bank is tasked with stepping in to restore people's confidence in the economy. But how do they do it? On today's episode we dive deep on monetary policy and the role of the fed. |At this Summer School, phones ARE allowed during class... Check out this week's PM TikTok! | Listen to past seasons of Summer School here.

Macroeconomics 7: The Fed & Volcker's Socks

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Macroeconomics 8: Productivity & Getting Lit

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Planet Money Summer School

Macroeconomics 8: Productivity & Getting Lit

Productivity is our economic measure for how far our work goes, as individuals and as a society over all. It plays an important role in determining our quality of life, the prices of our goods and services, and, to some extent, the amount of free time we have. Today, we explore how thousands of years of productivity advancements transformed something now so standard that we take it for granted: light. | At this Summer School, phones ARE allowed during class... Check out this week's PM TikTok! | Listen to past seasons of Summer School here.

Macroeconomics 8: Productivity & Getting Lit

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Planet Money Summer School 1: The Stock Market
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Planet Money

Planet Money Summer School 1: The Stock Market

The first class of Planet Money Summer School starts off with a field trip. With the help of a cow, two economists, and three cute animals, we learn what a stock is and how stocks are priced, and we begin to see the psychological forces that make prices move up and down on the stock market. Keep an eye out throughout for our big theme for the course this summer: risk and reward. | Watch this Tik Tok to learn more and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Planet Money Summer School 1: The Stock Market

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Planet Money Summer School 2: Index Funds & The Bet
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Planet Money

Planet Money Summer School 2: Index Funds & The Bet

In 2006, Warren Buffett bet a million dollars that the most brainless, boring investment around would do better than the researched, handpicked investments of some of the smartest hedge fund managers in the world. The second class of Summer School looks at how that bet played out, the origins of the index fund, and why it's so hard to beat the market. Returning to the underlying theme of risk and reward, we also discuss how diversification reduces risk. | Watch this Tik Tok to learn more and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Planet Money Summer School 2: Index Funds & The Bet

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Planet Money Summer School 3: Smooth Spending & The 401(k)
Suharu Ogawa for NPR

Planet Money

Planet Money Summer School 3: Smooth Spending & The 401(k)

Even if you don't own stocks, there are a lot of reasons to care about investing. We meet some of the folks left out of the stock market who deploy sophisticated economic thinking, even creating their own alternate financial systems. Our professors help us understand how consumption smoothing and life-cycle hypothesis apply to personal finance. And we meet the creator of the 401(k). | Watch this Tik Tok to learn more and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Planet Money Summer School 3: Smooth Spending & The 401(k)

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