Stacey Vanek Smith

For astronauts living at the International Space Station, money is practically useless. There's nowhere to spend it. Instead astronauts developed a functioning barter economy.

The latest pandemic relief package includes hundreds of billions of dollars in funding for small businesses. But for many companies, the money hasn't targeted one of their biggest overheads: rent.

The first doses of COVID-19 vaccines are being administered. Our Planet Money team delves into the dark web to learn more about the counterfeit vaccines that are being sold around the world.

The essential ingredient in the birth of the mafia wasn't the threats or the murders or the other stuff that's great for Hollywood movies. It was lemons. Our Planet Money team explains.

Of the 1.1 million people who left the job market in September, more than 860,000 were women. We examine why women are dropping out of the workforce, and what it will mean for the economy.

There's a long history of bars playing a vital role in innovation and economic growth. NPR discusses what may happen now that the coronavirus pandemic has shut down so many of them.

The coronavirus pandemic forced many people to work from home. NPR looks into what remote work from home could mean for commercial real estate.

Discontinued Lego sets can be worth a lot of money. Counterfeit Lego kits, made illegally in China, are scamming collectors.

The price of eggs skyrocketed at the start of the pandemic. That had some states crying foul — and filing suits against egg companies.

With government support programs suspended and no immediate prospect of a resolution, millions of renters in the U.S. could soon be facing evictions.

It seems everyone wants to develop a coronavirus vaccine. But vaccine development usually takes years. The White House is betting money can speed things up.

The Black Lives Matter demonstrations have brought huge protests against racism. But alongside the protests came riots — at a great cost to some Black-owned businesses.

Most of the U.S. economy is in decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but home sales are skyrocketing at a record pace. NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money discusses the boom.

Sandy Villatoro, a housekeeper who lost her job in March, doesn't know how she'll pay the bills for her family of four now that the additional $600 weekly in federal aid she was receiving has expired.

The National Hockey League has resumed its season in two "bubbles" in Edmonton and Toronto, Canada. The league says it's administered 7,000 coronavirus tests to players, with zero positive cases.

Dr. Paul Offit, who serves on the Food and Drug Administration's vaccine advisory board, says he doesn't think an effective vaccine that's undergone adequate testing can be ready this year.

Restaurants are going out of business in droves. But some are battling hard to keep their doors open.

The oil market is oversupplied, partially due to the global economic slowdown. And companies have to come up with creative ways to store excesses of oil.

Black-owned financial institutions are a shrinking part of the U.S. financial system. NPR's podcast The Indicator from Planet Money looks at what that means for America's racial disparities.

Williston, N.D., had doubled in size during the oil boom a decade ago — oil companies rushed in to drill, creating thousands of jobs. Now, oil prices have fallen, and the town is facing hard times.