Are most Americans barely holding their head above water when it comes to personal finances?
That’s what various US politicians and news outlets keep suggesting.
They can’t stop using a statistic about people living “paycheck to paycheck”.
But what does this really mean? We go behind the headlines to unpick the numbers.
Contributor:
Ben Krauss, journalist
Presenter: Charlotte McDonald
Producer: Vicky Baker and Lizzy McNeill
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Sound Engineer: Andrew Mills
Editor: Richard Vadon
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8:58
Did one in 10 Greeks die in World War Two?
When World War Two came to Greece, a period of terrible human suffering followed. There was a brutal battle with Italian and then Nazi forces, followed by an occupation in which thousands were executed and a terrible famine swept the nation. There’s an often repeated number that appears to capture the brutality of this time – that 10% of the Greek population died during the war. We investigate where this statistic comes from and whether it is true. Presenter: Charlotte McDonald
Producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Sound mix: Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon
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9:56
Can Elon Musk save the US Government $2 trillion?
President Elect Donald Trump has created a new government advisory group – the Department of Government Efficiency or ‘DOGE’ - to help cut the US budget. The world richest man, Elon Musk, will co-head the department and has pledged to cut ‘at least $2 trillion’ to ‘balance the budget’. But is this possible? We talk to Professor Linda Bilmes about what DOGE could or couldn’t do and how she balanced the budget in the 1990’s. Presenter: Charlotte McDonald
Producer: Lizzy McNeill
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Sound Mix: Andrew Mills
Editor: Richard Vadon
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8:59
Do fossil fuels get $7 trillion in subsidies?
Governments around the world have promised to fight climate change. But are they also pumping an absolutely massive amount of money into subsidies for fossil fuels?
In 2022, an IMF working paper estimated that global subsidies for fossil fuels totalled $7 trillion. But when you dig into that research, you find that this number might not mean what you think it does.
We explain how they reached that conclusion, with the help of Angela Picciariello from the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and Nate Vernon, one of the co-authors of the IMF paper.
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8:56
Did 20 million votes really go missing in the US election?
Just hours after Donald Trump claimed victory in the US presidential election, rumours started swirling that something was afoot.
A graph went viral on social media that appeared to show there were 20 million more votes cast in 2020 than in the 2024 election. Where had these supposedly “missing” votes gone?
Conspiracy theorists on both sides of the political spectrum began shouting claims of fraud.
The answer, it turns out, is rather more straightforward.
Presenter: Charlotte McDonald
Producer: Lizzy McNeill
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Sound Mix: Hal Haines
Editor: Richard Vadon
New Zealand