Jacob Goldstein
Jacob Goldstein is an NPR correspondent and co-host of the Planet Money podcast. He is the author of the book Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing.
Goldstein's interest in technology and the changing nature of work has led him to stories on UPS, the Luddites and the history of light. His aversion to paying retail has led him to stories on Costco, Spirit Airlines and index funds.
He also contributed to the Planet Money T-shirt and oil projects, and to an episode of This American Life that asked: What is money? Ira Glass called it "the most stoner question" ever posed on the show.
Before coming to NPR, Goldstein was a staff writer at the Wall Street Journal, the Miami Herald, and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. He has also written for the New York Times Magazine. He has a bachelor's degree in English from Stanford and a master's in journalism from Columbia.
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A typical UPS truck now has hundreds of sensors on it. That's changing the way UPS drivers work — and it foreshadows changes coming for workers throughout the economy. -
The creation of America's central bank includes a bunch of bankers locked in a private library and a secret trip to a place called Jekyll Island. -
Over the past 50 years, both the way the federal government spends money and what the government spends money on has changed a lot.
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The book lists the tax that importers have to pay on approximately every single thing in the universe — and raises a key question about the Planet Money T-shirt.
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Three economists won the Nobel for their work on the prices of stocks and other assets. Two of the winners have very different views about bubbles. -
Making fake dollars is big business in Peru, where counterfeiters hire people to finish each bill by hand. -
Most charities get money from donors and spend it on things they think will help people — schools, medicine, farm animals. GiveDirectly just gives money away. And that poses a challenge to the more traditional charities.
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There are no strings attached. People can spend the money on whatever they want, and they never have to pay it back. -
See average hourly wages and how many jobs have been lost (or gained) in health care, manufacturing and other big industries.
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A brief history of America, as seen through energy sources — from wood to nuclear power, and beyond.
