The secret meeting that launched OPEC
5/13/202628 min
Recently, a listener wrote in with a question about OPEC and oil prices. She was prepping for a camping trip… thinking about how much it costs to fill up her diesel-guzzling camper van at the pump.
“It would be so awesome if you guys could do an episode explaining OPEC to us,” she emailed us. She wanted to know: why does OPEC exist? Why does it limit the supply of oil? And now that the United Arab Emirates has dropped out, what will happen to gas prices?
We love when our listeners write in (and send us voice notes!). The simplest questions can reveal how the complicated web of the economy works.
On our latest: we answer our listener’s questions… and the questions behind those questions!
Related episodes:
• Chevron, Venezuela and the Paradox of Plenty
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This episode of Planet Money was produced by James Sneed with help from Willa Rubin. It was edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
This message comes from U.S. Bank. Simplify how you do business with Business Essentials, a powerful combination of no monthly maintenance fee checking and card payment processing. Deposit products are offered by U.S. Bank National Association, member FDIC.
Speaker 10:15
This is Planet Money from NPR.
Nick Fountain· Host0:18
We here at Planet Money are firm believers in the saying there's no such thing as a dumb question, because even the most simple questions can lead to incredibly intricate answers that reveal how the economy works. So we get especially excited when y'all come to us with questions that you feel like you should already know the answers to. Like the other day, we got a question from a listener named Valerie Brekke, who at first didn't even want us mentioning her name.
Valerie Brekke0:52
Uh, [laughs] I have a lot of friends that listen to NPR, specifically Planet Money, and I think it's embarrassing when you don't know the answer to what should be a basic question every American should know, in my opinion.
Nick Fountain· Host1:06
That is not true at all. [laughs] That's like my whole job is to not know the answers to questions- [laughs] ... and then figure them out.
Valerie Brekke1:16
[laughs] I don't know.
Nick Fountain· Host1:18
Luckily, Valerie got over it. She told us she thought of her question while prepping for a camping trip. She has a diesel-guzzling camper van and had a question related to how much it cost to fill up