Planet Money Turned Everyday Annoyances Into an Economics Book
4/17/202639 min
There are a lot of things to be annoyed about in modern life. The high cost of food and housing and childcare. Dating apps that don't seem to work. The fear of AI replacing you at your job. These are all common complaints and concerns, and each of them can be traced to a specific economic phenomenon or market structure issue. Once you start thinking about the world in this way, you can't unsee it. In this episode, we speak with Planet Money co-host Mary Childs, and contributor to the podcast, Alex Mayassi. They've just written a book called Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life. We discuss how one of Tracy's childhood memories was a reflection of the commodity trap, what Baumol's cost disease tells us about daycare, and why -- despite all these frustrations -- there are still many reasons to be optimistic about economic progress.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMary Childs· Guest0:00
[gentle music] Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, Radio, News.
Tracy Alloway· Host0:07
[upbeat jazz music] Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway.
Joe Weisenthal· Host0:22
And I'm Joe Weisenthal.
Tracy Alloway· Host0:23
Joe, you and I have talked about doing a book at various times.
Joe Weisenthal· Host0:26
Yeah, talked about it. Uh- That's pretty much it.
Tracy Alloway· Host0:29
We talk about it, and then we get a few emails from- Yeah, yeah ... like agents and publishing houses.
Joe Weisenthal· Host0:34
It's so much, it's so much work.
Tracy Alloway· Host0:35
And then we get distracted.
Joe Weisenthal· Host0:36
And then we get distracted. But, you know, the one thing I was thinking about is maybe that idea for a recipe book that we talked- Oh, I would totally do that ... that may be one that we should consider at some point.
Tracy Alloway· Host0:46
A cookbook/supply chain.
Joe Weisenthal· Host0:48
Yeah, yeah, about the food in each one and the business of it. Yeah, maybe that one.
Tracy Alloway· Host0:51
I would totally do that.
Joe Weisenthal· Host0:52
Maybe that one.
Tracy Alloway· Host0:52
I have some good recipes too.
Joe Weisenthal· Host0:53
Yeah.
Tracy Alloway· Host0:54
All right, so we are actually gonna get our acts together- [laughs] Maybe ... and do this. Okay. Well, our guests today are people who have actually gotten their act together to publish a book while running a highly successful- Yes ... podcast. It is, of course- So we're gonna learn, we're gonna learn what to do.
Joe Weisenthal· Host1:07
We're gonna- That's right ... we're gonna take notes during this episode.
Tracy Alloway· Host1:09
That's right. Actually, someone who's written two books now, so I don't really know how she does it. But the through line in all of this is, I'm just gonna say it, we're gonna be talking to one of the Planet Money co-hosts and then a longtime contributor to Planet Money, and they've written this new book called Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces that Shape Your Life. And one of the through lines that I think we