Jacob Goldstein

One in three American jobs require a license. Today on the show, why those licensing rules hurt the U.S. economy.

On today's show: Snuggies, printer toner, and a banking road trip. Three stories about what happens when you actually read the fine print.

A populist president versus the most powerful banker in America.

Picture an organic farm, with thousands of free-range chickens roaming wide-open land. Now picture it from above, from the vantage of a soaring bald eagle. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Ed Thorp used math to become the first person to beat the casinos at blackjack. Then he changed the way Wall Street thinks about investing.

At 35, Neel Kashkari was in charge of the bank bailout program. He's now the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, and has a plan to make future bank bailouts much less likely.

The Federal Reserve targets an inflation rate of 2 percent. Why 2 percent? And how close are we to the target?

Free trade is taking a beating in this election year. But the man who created the free-trade world we live in now, thought free trade was the way to world peace. He even won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Members of our "Planet Money" team recently got into the oil business. They learned one of the most basic questions about the business is: who sets the price of oil? Speculators are often blamed.

Economists call it the social cost of carbon. A single number that is supposed to reflect all of the costs society incurs when people burn fossil fuels. That number is now part of federal regulations, and some industries aren't happy.

Atlanta company SoftWear is trying to create a robot that can sew. If the project succeeds, it could have a huge effect on the global economy, and clothing manufacturing could return to the U.S.

Many developed countries are issuing bonds at negative interest rates. That means people are buying them expecting to get paid back less than they invested. Why then are people buying them?

In the campaign leading up to the Brexit vote, economist Tim Harford played the role of independent fact checker. Now that it has passed, he's letting out some strong feelings.

The MacArthur Foundation wants to give away $100 million to a single project. This is part of a growing belief in the philanthropy world that piecemeal solutions aren't as effective as huge bets might be. But bigger bets can be risky.

A large spice company recently started putting less pepper in its tins — and leaving empty space at the top of the tin. There's a technical term for that empty space: "non-functional slack fill."

Our "Planet Money" team introduces us to a delightfully precise man who helped design the 1040 tax form.

Many of the lines on tax forms like the 1040 seem oddly specific. Some are for farmers, some for divorcees, some for servicemen and women. Behind each of those we can see the process that shapes our tax code. NPR looks at one line — for performing artists — and how it came to be.

Eight years ago, Warren Buffett made a $1 million bet with some hedge fund managers. We learn what the bet tells us about one of the most important questions in investing.

There was a time when heads of corporations made a lot less money. And then suddenly, average CEO pay shot up. Planet Money explores why America's CEOs got a big raise.

If Greece isn't a good place to do business anymore, then businesses will leave. When solid businesses close up or leave, then Greece becomes even worse for the remaining firms.