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Episode's summary
There is a long-standing tradition of different immigrant groups arriving in the U.S. and specializing in one particular type of business. Think, nail salons run by people from Vietnam or Gujarati Indians owning motels and hotels. Yemenis are another immigrant community that has largely clustered around one industry, in their case, bodegas and small grocery stores. There are thousands of these shops all over the country, despite Yemeni-Americans only making up around one-fortieth of one percent of the U.S. population, according to the last census. In the past 9 years, a new business success story has been built on top of that foundation: Yemeni coffee houses. Today on the show, why some immigrant groups concentrate in a single industry, while others spread out to work in all sorts of jobs. And what it’s like for the next generation to try to expand on their parents’ success. Read: - Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life - Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter - Our…
There is a long-standing tradition of different immigrant groups arriving in the U.S. and specializing in one particular type of business. Think, nail salons run by people from Vietnam or Gujarati Indians owning motels and hotels. Yemenis are another immigrant community that has largely clustered around one industry, in their case, bodegas and small grocery stores. There are thousands of these shops all over the country, despite Yemeni-Americans only making up around one-fortieth of one percent of the U.S. population, according to the last census. In the past 9 years, a new business success story has been built on top of that foundation: Yemeni coffee houses. Today on the show, why some immigrant groups concentrate in a single industry, while others spread out to work in all sorts of jobs. And what it’s like for the next generation to try to expand on their parents’ success. Read: - Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life - Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter - Our…
Episodes
1894-
How bodegas led to the Yemeni coffeehouse explosion
ListenedThere is a long-standing tradition of different immigrant groups arriving in the U.S. and specializing in one particular type of business. Think, nail salons run by people from Vietnam or Gujarati Indians owning motels and hotels. Yemenis are another immigrant community that has largely clustered around one industry, in their case, bodegas and small grocery stores. There are thousands of these shops all over the country, despite Yemeni-Americans only making up around one-fortieth of one percent of the U.S. population, according to the last census. In the past 9 years, a new business success story has been built on top of that foundation: Yemeni coffee houses. Today on the show, why some immigrant groups concentrate in a single industry, while others spread out to work in all sorts of jobs. And what it’s like for the next generation to try to expand on their parents’ success. Read: - Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life - Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter - Our…
1893-
Inside the insurance industry’s destruction lab
ListenedWhen you think of someone burning down a house for insurance purposes, you don’t imagine it would ever be the insurance company itself lighting the match. But that’s essentially what’s happening inside a giant destruction laboratory, funded by the insurance industry, in the woods of South Carolina. Scientists and engineers there build household structures — from decks to sheds to single family homes — and subject them to literal trials by fire, hail, and hurricane force wind. It’s all in hopes of determining which building materials and techniques will make communities across the country more resilient to natural disasters and make those natural disasters less expensive for insurance companies. Today on the show, Planet Money goes inside the destruction lab to see that high octane experimentation in action and to learn about how the insurance industry has been quietly shaping the world around us for over a century. For more about how natural disasters are changing the insurance industry: Video of IBHS…
1892-
The history of light (classic)
ListenedHow do you measure human progress? Light is the answer. For thousands of years, getting light was a huge hassle. You had to make candles from scratch. This is not as romantic as it sounds. You had to get a cow, raise the cow, feed the cow, kill the cow, get the fat out of the cow, cook the fat, dip wicks into the fat. All that — for not very much light. Now, if we want to light a whole room, we just flip a switch. Nobel-winning economist Bill Nordhaus passed away last week. He was known for his work on the economics of climate change, but he also came up with this idea that the history of light explains reveals why the world today is the way it is. It explains why we aren't all subsistence farmers, and why we can afford to have artists and massage therapists and plumbers. (And, yes, people who make podcasts about the history of light.) The history of light is the history of economic growth — of things getting faster, cheaper, and more efficient. It shows us the pie can get bigger, sometimes, there can be a…
1891-
Is this how the great international borrowing spree ends?
ListenedIn recent months, there have been serious whispers about an outrageous possibility: that one day soon, France — the seventh largest economy in the world — might not be able to pay back its debts. Right now, protesters in France are complaining about crumbling schools, the lack of teachers, and the overall high cost of living. But the government is struggling to find the money to address all the country’s problems. France is in a lot of debt. It has been borrowing record amounts of money. So have many other countries including the U.S., the U.K., Italy, Canada. For more than a decade, there has been an international borrowing spree going on. Now, as interest rates climb, that borrowing spree might have to come to an end. And the consequences could get ugly. Live Show: Planet Money Live at Kilkenomics. Kilkenny, Ireland Nov. 6th - 7th Read: Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter Our weekly Indicator round-up newsletter Follow:…
1890-
Politicians are afraid to fix taxes. So 100 citizens tried.
ListenedConnecticut’s property tax system has been broken for decades and the politicians have failed to fix the problem. So now, they’re trying something new: a citizens assembly. (Citizens assemblies are also old. They go back to Ancient Greece, when lawmakers were chosen not through elections, but through random lotteries.) Today on the show, Connecticut’s citizens assembly. It's like jury duty, but for taxes. About hundred random people from all around Connecticut come together to try to solve the state’s property tax problem. They wrestle with whether they should raise taxes, cut spending, find efficiencies, or a mix of everything. Will this alternative attempt to solve the unsolvable succeed, or will it be politics as usual? It’s a modern case study of what happens when politicians step aside to let citizens decide what’s best. Come along as we talk to the professor who helped put this assembly together, learn from the citizens involved how this experiment changed them, and meet the politician who agreed to…
