The U.S. now owns a big chunk of Intel. That’s a huge deal.
Last month, President Donald Trump announced an unusual deal. Intel, the biggest microchip maker in America, had agreed to give the United States a 10 percent stake in its business. That means the U.S. government is now Intel's largest shareholder — and a major American company is now a partially state-owned enterprise. This deal has raised a lot of eyebrows. The U.S. government almost never gets tangled up with businesses like this. Some have accused the president of taking a step toward, well, socialism.But the Intel deal didn’t come out of nowhere. It's actually the latest chapter in one of the most aggressive economic experiments the United States has ever attempted. An experiment that Trump is now taking in a surprising new direction. On today's show, we unpack the Intel deal. Where did it come from, and what does it say about President Trump’s unconventional approach to managing the economy. For more: - The President's Golden Share in U.S. Steel - Bringing a tariff to a graphite fight - A controversial idea at the heart of BidenomicsSubscribe to Planet Money+Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.This episode was hosted by Jeff Guo and Keith Romer. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Jess Jiang and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Engineering by Jimmy Keeley with help from Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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Asking for a friend … which jobs are safe from AI?
There’s one question we seem to be hearing everywhere: “Is my job safe from AI?” Dozens of you, our listeners, have written to us about this. Saying things like, “Maybe my yoga teacher side gig is actually my safest bet now,” and “My parents were in real estate, and I never thought I’d say it ... but maybe that’s what I should do?” If only there were a list that could tell you which jobs are safe from AI. We go looking for that list … and find that the AI future is going to be even weirder than we’d imagined.Today on the show: We talk to two researchers who have come up with some first drafts of the future. We learned more about the machines that might be coming for our jobs, and also, more about what it actually means to be human.Further Reading: - GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs - The EPOCH of AI: Human-Machine Complementarities at WorkSubscribe to Planet Money+Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.Today’s episode was produced by Eric Mennel and edited by Marianne McCune. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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28:51
What happens to central banks under pressure?
President Donald Trump has been pressuring the Federal Reserve from a few angles. So we wanted to look at other examples of political pressure on central banks, to see what it might mean for us and for the economy. Enter the watchers. The people who’ve had their eyes trained on central banks all over the world, for years, notebooks out, scribbling down their observations. They’ve been trying to gauge just how independent of political pressure central banks actually are – and what happens when a central bank loses that independence. Today on the show, we sidle up next to three of the leading central bank watchers, to watch what they’re watching.Further reading:- Carolina Garriga’s: Revisiting Central Bank Independence in the World: An Extended Dataset- Lev Menand’s: A New Measure of Central Bank Independence- Carola Binder’s: Political Pressure on Central BanksFurther listening:- Lisa Cook and the fight for the Fed- A primer on the Federal Reserve's independence- The case for Fed independence in the Nixon tapes- A Locked Door, A Secret Meeting And The Birth Of The FedSubscribe to Planet Money+Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.This episode was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Marianne McCune and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Engineering by Robert Rodriguez and Maggie Luthar. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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25:36
The million dollar mystery behind Milk.com
When we stumbled upon Milk.com, we were mystified. It appears to be someone’s personal website. But memorable domain names can be worth a million dollars or more. So, why is someone using this valuable internet real estate to post their resume and favorite recipes? Back in the internet’s early days, it was easy to get a domain name. They were cheap or even free. The first people to grab them may now be holding onto assets that can sell for millions of dollars. These potential profits have attracted a unique breed of investor who buys and sells domain names, gambling on the value of everyday words. On our latest show: What is a domain really worth? And we ask the owner of milk.com why he’s not selling — and if there’s a price that might change his mind.Planet Money is writing a book! Sign up for updates about pre-sale special gifts and for book tour events.Subscribe to Planet Money+Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.This episode was hosted by Alex Mayyasi and Jeff Guo. It was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Jess Jiang. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by James Willetts. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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20:41
Lisa Cook and the fight for the Fed
The Federal Reserve has been under intense pressure from President Donald Trump as he pushes for more control over the historically independent agency. The Fed is tasked with keeping inflation and unemployment under control, and it’s supposed to be insulated from politics so it can do whatever is necessary for the economy. But Trump has been openly saying he wants interest rates to be lower. A lot lower.And on Monday, Trump posted a bombshell. He said that he was removing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, “for cause.” Lisa Cook has told NPR she intends to remain in office, and is now suing Trump. On today’s show: inside the Fed Board of Governors. How realistic is a plan to control monetary policy through loyalists on the Board? We hear from former Board governors to understand what the job is, and what we might be in for. Further listening on the Fed and Fed independence: - A primer on the Federal Reserve's independence - Happy Fed Independence Day - The case for Fed independence in the Nixon tapes - A Locked Door, A Secret Meeting And The Birth Of The Fed - Trump's unprecedented attack on the Fed - Turkey's runaway inflation problem - Should presidents have more of a say in interest rates?Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.Find more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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