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Econ Battle Zone: Budget Showdown
Econ Battle Zone is back! On today's episode Mary Childs and Kenny Malone enter Econ Battle Stadium to throw down against reigning champion Erika Beras.
Can Mary explain what effect extending the 2017…
Published on 2 months ago
The U.S. is the world's bribery cop. Is that about to change?
The U.S. has been policing bribery all over the world for nearly half a century using a law called the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. But now, President Trump has said that this anti-corruption law i…
Published on 2 months, 1 week ago
Jay & Shai's debt ceiling adventure (Update)
Note: A version of this episode first ran in 2023.
Every year, the U.S. government spends more money than it takes in. In order to fund all that spending, the country takes on debt. Congress has the p…
Published on 2 months, 1 week ago
Why I joined DOGE
What was it like to work inside Elon Musk's DOGE? The cost-cutting initiative promised transparency, but most of its actions have been shrouded in secrecy.
For months, there were reports of software e…
Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Are Trump's tariffs legal?
When President Trump announced his sweeping new tariffs this year, many trade law experts were startled. Typically, presidents don't have the authority to impose broad tariffs with a snap of their fi…
Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago
When Chinese manufacturing met Small Town, USA
Over the past decade, politicians from both parties have courted American voters with an enticing economic prospect – the dream of bringing manufacturing and manufacturing jobs back to America. They'…
Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Trump's crypto interests (Two Indicators)
Today on the show – our crypto president. Just before President Donald Trump began his second administration in January, he and his business partners launched the $TRUMP coin. It's a memecoin that qu…
Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago
The U.S.-China trade war, according to game theory
Over the last few months U.S.-China trade relations have been pretty hard to make sense of – unless you look at what's happening through the lens of game theory. Game theory is all about how decision…
Published on 2 months, 4 weeks ago
Why does the government fund research at universities?
American universities are where people go to learn and teach. They're also where research and development happens. Over the past eight decades, universities have received billions in federal dollars …
Published on 3 months ago
The secret world behind those scammy text messages
You might have seen these texts before. The scam starts innocently enough. Maybe it's a "Long time no see" or "Hello" or "How are you." For investigative reporter Zeke Faux it was – "Hi David, I'm Vi…
Published on 3 months ago