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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 Vicky Ho. Don't you remember me?"
Many people ignore them. But Zeke responded. He wanted to get scammed. This led him on a journey halfway around the world to find out who is sending him random wrong number texts and why. After you hear this story, you'll never look at these messages the same way again.
To hear the full episode check out Search Engine's website.
Search Engine was created by P.J. Vogt and Sruthi Pinnamaneni. This episode was produced by Garrott Graham and Noah John. It was fact-checked by Sean Merchant. Theme, original composition, and mixing by Armin Bazarian. Search Engine's executive producers are Jenna Weiss-Berman and Leah Reis-Dennis.
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Lately we've noticed that something we think about all the time here at Planet Money is having a viral moment: recession indicators!
From the more practical (like sales for lipstick going up and men's underwear going down) to the absurd and nonsensical (like babysitter buns coming back into style?) — people are posting to social media every little sign they see that a recession is coming. And we LOVE it. Because between the trade war and the tariffs and the stock market, there has been a lot of economic uncertainty over the last few months and we want to talk about it, too.
Today on the show — we dig into the slightly wonkier indicators that economists look at when they're trying to answer the question behind the viral internet trend: Is a recession coming?
This episode of Planet Money was produced by James Sneed. It was edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sarah McClure, and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
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Music: Source Audio - "The Shirt Still Fits," "Chameleon Panther Style," and "Nighthawk."
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Even though the 145% tariff on Chinese imports only lasted a month, it already inflicted its scars on the economy. Global trade is just not something you can turn off and on like that.
Some companies got really unlucky. Like those whose goods arrived at U.S. ports before the pause. If a medium size company had a million dollars worth of goods imported, they had to pay an extra million and a half dollars on top of that – just for the tariff.
Today we are bringing you a portrait of this unfathomably high tariff. What a month of 145% tariffs looked like and felt like for three people in the global economy whose lives were all affected and still will be. The ones who got lucky and the ones who got really unlucky.
This episode of Planet Money was produced by Emma Peaslee and edited by Jess Jiang. It was engineered by Jimmy Keeley and fact-checked by Willa Rubin. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
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The U.S. exports billions of dollars worth of agricultural products each year — things like soybeans, corn and pork. And over the last month, these exports have been caught up in a trade war.
U.S. farmers have been collateral damage in a trade war before. In 2018, President Trump put tariffs on a bunch of Chinese products including flatscreen TVs, medical devices and batteries. But China matched those tariffs with their own retaliatory tariffs. They put tariffs on a lot of U.S. agricultural products they'd been buying, like soybeans, sorghum, and livestock. That choice looked strategic. Hitting these products with tariffs hurt Trump's voter base and might help China in a negotiation. And in some cases, China could find affordable alternative options from other countries.
Today on the show: what happened in 2018, how the government prevented some U.S. farms from going bankrupt, and what was lost even after the trade war ended.
This episode was produced by Sylvie Douglis and edited by Jess Jiang. It was engineered by Robert Rodriguez and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
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For decades, dollars have been the world's common financial language. Central banks everywhere hold dollars as a way to safely store their wealth. Countries, businesses, and people use it to trade; around 90% of all foreign exchange transactions involve dollars. It's the world's money, the world's "reserve currency."
But what if that is changing? What if the world stops seeing the dollar as safe?
Today on the show, what is a "reserve currency"? Why is it the dollar? And if the dollar falls from favor, what will replace it?
This episode of Planet Money was produced by Emma Peaslee with help from James Sneed. It was edited by Marianne McCune with fact checking help from Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Kwesi Lee. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
The Dollar Trap by Eswar Prasad
Exorbitant Privilege by Barry Eichengreen
Our Dollar. Your Problem by Ken Rogoff
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Virtually every product brought into the United States must have a so-called "country of origin." Think of it as the official place it comes from. And this is the country that counts for calculating tariffs.
But what does it really mean when something is a "Product of China"? How much of it actually comes from China? And how do customs officials draw the line?
Here in the U.S., the rules are delightfully counterintuitive. A product's country of origin is not necessarily where that product got on the container ship to come here. It's not necessarily where most of its ingredients are from or even where most of the manufacturing happened.
Our system is much stranger. The answers can be surprisingly philosophical — and at times, even poetic.
This episode of Planet Money was produced by James Sneed with help from Sylvie Douglis. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Kwesi Lee. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
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Why is it so hard to find a bathroom when you need one?
In the U.S., we used to have lots of publicly accessible toilets. But many had locks on the doors and you had to put in a coin to use them. Pay toilets created a system of haves and have nots when it came to bathroom access. So in the 60s, movements sprung up to ban pay toilets.
Problem is: when the pay toilets went away, so too did many free public toilets.
Today on the show, how toilets exist in a legal and economic netherworld; they're not quite a public good, not quite a problem the free market can solve.
Why we're stuck, needing to go, with nowhere to go.
This episode was produced by Willa Rubin with help from James Sneed. It was edited by Marianne McCune and engineered by Cena Loffredo. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
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Music: Audio Network - "Smoke Rings," "Can't Walk Away" and "Bright Crystals."
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On today's show: we're ... venting.
We at Planet Money are an ensemble show – each with different curiosities and styles. But we recently realized many of us have something in common: We're annoyed consumers.
So we're going to get ranty ... but then try to understand the people annoying us. Like stingy coffee shops, manufacturers that don't design things for repair ... and stores that send way to many emails every day.
Along the way, we learn a very sad thing about satisfaction and the future of skilled labor in the U.S.
(Also, we should all just stop using umbrellas. They have negative consumption externalities. Come on people.)
This episode was produced by James Sneed. It was edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by James Willetts. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
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Reporter Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi's Aunt Vovi signed up for 23andMe back in 2017, hoping to learn more about the genetic makeup of her ancestors. Vovi was one of over 15 million 23andMe customers who sent their saliva off to be analyzed by the company.
But last month, 23andMe filed for bankruptcy, and it announced it would be selling off that massive genetic database. Today on the show, what might happen to Vovi's genetic data as 23andMe works its way through the bankruptcy process, how the bankruptcy system has treated consumer data privacy in the past, and what this case reveals about the data that all of us willingly hand over to companies every single day.
This episode was produced by Sylvie Douglis and edited by Jess Jiang. It was engineered by Harry Paul and Neal Rauch and fact-checked by Tyler Jones. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
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President Donald Trump has been loudly critical of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for years now. Since January, the President has accused him of playing politics by keeping interest rates high. Trump has also threatened to oust Powell — which would mark an extraordinary shift away from the independence of the central bank.
Today on the show, three Indicators: a short history of the Federal Reserve and why it's insulated from day-to-day politics; how the Fed amassed a ton of power in recent years; and a Trump executive order that took some of that power away.
The original episodes from the Indicator were produced by Corey Bridges, Brittany Cronin, and Julia Ritchey. They were engineered by Cena Loffredo, James Willetts, and Gilly Moon, and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Kate Concannon is the editor of the Indicator. Follow us wherever you get your podcasts.
This episode of Planet Money was produced by James Sneed and edited by Marianne McCune & Mary Childs. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
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