Robert Smith

Economists don't look for jobs in the same way the rest of us do. They are way too rational. They have a system that looks a lot like speed dating.

We visit a job market created by economists, for economists. It's a hyper-efficient, optimized system, tested by game theorists, tweaked by a Nobel Prize winner, but it requires comfortable shoes.

Today on the show, how a New Hampshire hotel filled with boozing economists saved the global economy.

One man figured out how to reproduce the magic of an Irish pub, and ship it in a container to anywhere in the world.

NPR's Planet Money team explores why Irish bars look so similar all over the world and what happens when you take an authentic national experience and turn it into an export.

The tricks and mind games tax collectors use to get people to pay up.

Each year, millions upon millions of honey bees go on a cross country road trip to make the California almond harvest possible.

President Trump has made American manufacturing a central concern. Can a complicated approach called a border adjustment tax make it happen? Planet Money looks at how it's supposed to work.

There are two possible versions of a Trump tax plan. He hasn't confirmed which one he plans to pursue. There's a $1.5 trillion difference between the two of them over 10 years.

Venezuela has one of the worst economies in the world with food shortages and massive inflation. NPR's Planet Money team explains how it got so bad.

Planet Money digs into the complex economics of international postage. When we send a letter to a foreign country, how should the stamp money be shared with the people delivering the letter?

NPR's Planet Money team follows the oil they bought on the final part of its journey — into someone's gas tank.

NPR's "Planet Money" team embarked on a quest to buy, transport and refine crude oil. The team learns that you have to be as savvy as possible because oil prices go up — and down.

After buying 100 barrels of crude oil and delivering it to a pipeline, NPR's Planet Money team goes to a refinery to see it turned into gasoline.

NPR's Planet Money team embarked on a quest to buy, transport and refine crude oil, and met all the people who make gasoline possible.

NPR's Planet Money team embarks on a quest to buy, transport and refine crude oil. We'll meet all the people who make our gasoline possible.

The simple answer is a lack of money: no money to expand their fields or use the latest seeds and technology. But economists have a more complicated theory. Perhaps, farmers face too much risk.

One of the perks of being in the European Union is easy travel. Flights are cheap and there are no border checks between most of the countries.

What happens when a country decides to sell its water then hits a drought? Our Planet Money team takes us to a country in Africa that might have given away its most valuable resource.

We've all seen those portable plastic toilets at festivals and street fairs, but what happens when a community has to use them for more than a decade? Robert Smith from Planet Money takes us to a slum outside of Cape Town, South Africa where a temporary solution has lasted too long.