

Summer School 8: Graduation LIVE!
35 snips Aug 27, 2025
Celebrate graduation with a lively ceremony and a fun trivia showdown on economic concepts. Discover the political implications behind employment figures and the critical role data collectors play in policymaking. Witness the competition for valedictorian, complete with honorary degrees for influential figures. Dive into quirky economic histories like Argentina's BlackBerry venture and examine how taxes shape consumer behavior. Join in the humor as a fictional valedictorian reflects on truth and the absurdity of their journey.
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Fed Independence Is Crucial
- Federal Reserve independence matters because political pressure on Fed appointments can alter monetary policy credibility.
- Planet Money highlights past episodes and recent attempts to influence the Fed as dangerous precedents.
Counting Lettuce And Shirts In The Name Of Data
- Planet Money followed BLS field worker George Mincinello pricing romaine and shirts to show how granular data collection is.
- The episode illustrated that those thousands of small checks build major economic statistics like inflation and jobs.
The Human Side Of Jobs Data Collection
- Reporter Darian Woods and Waylon Wong recorded BLS caller Erica Hennion phoning businesses each month to collect jobs data.
- Erica described building rapport with respondents and sometimes being yelled at then later apologized to.