Economy

Back in 2021, the meme stock frenzy was at its peak: Roaring Kitty AKA Keith Gill, and young day traders gleefully upended financial markets. Roaring Kitty disappeared for a bit before returning just a couple months ago.

His disciples that followed him into the markets, however, never left. That's according to Nathaniel Popper in his new book, The Trolls of Wall Street: How the Outcasts and Insurgents are Hacking the Markets.

Today on the show, why Nathaniel believes these day traders are here to stay and where they're putting their money now.

Related Episodes:
GameStop and the Short Squeeze
The tower of Nvidia

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Should you merge your finances with your significant other? Keep them separate? Or something in between? NPR's Life Kit breaks down different ways to handle finances with your partner.

U.S. employers added 206,000 jobs in June — a modest slowdown from the previous month. The unemployment rate inched up to 4.1%.

We often hear that air travel is worse than it's ever been. Gone are the days when airplanes touted piano bars and meat carving stations — or even free meals. Instead we're crammed into tiny seats and fighting for overhead space.

How did we get here? Most of the inconveniences we think about when we fly can be traced back to the period of time just after the federal government deregulated the airlines.

When commercial air travel took off in the 1940s, the government regulated how many national airlines were allowed to exist, where they were allowed to fly, and how much they could charge for tickets. But the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 swept all these restrictions aside – and stopped providing subsidies for the air carriers. Airlines had to compete on ticket prices. That competition led to a more bare-bones flying experience, but it also made air travel a lot more affordable.

In this episode, we trace the evolution of air travel over the past century to discover whether flying really is worse today — or if it's actually better than ever. We'll board a plane from the "golden age" of air travel, hear the history of one of the original budget airlines and meet feuding airline CEOs. Along the way, we'll see how economic forces have shaped the airline industry into what it is today, and what role we, as consumers, have played.

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U.S. job growth cooled this month. But one job is hot to the touch: AI prompt engineer. The role can command a six figure salary, but ... what is it? Today, we speak to an AI prompt engineer to figure out what they actually do and how long the job could remain hot.

Related:
AI creates, transforms and destroys ... jobs (Apple / Spotify)
If AI is so good, why are there still so many jobs for translators?
Applying for a job? Make sure your resume is AI-Friendly (Apple / Spotify)

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At the core of most of the electronics we use today are some very tiny, very powerful chips. Semiconductor chips. And they are mighty: they help power our phones, laptops, and cars. They enable advances in healthcare, military systems, transportation, and clean energy. And they're also critical for artificial intelligence, providing the hardware needed to train complex machine learning.

On today's episode, we're bringing you two stories from our daily show The Indicator, diving into the two most important semiconductor chip companies, which have transformed the industry over the past 40 years.

First, we trace NVIDIA's journey from making niche graphics cards for gaming to making the most advanced chips in the world — and briefly becoming the world's biggest company. Next, we see how the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's decision to manufacture chips for its competition instead of itself flipped the entire industry on its head, and moved the vast majority of the world's advanced chip production to Taiwan.

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Last week, Vladimir Putin vowed to make new nuclear weapons and consider placing them close to NATO countries. Meanwhile, here in the US, the government boosted its nuclear weapon spending by 18% between 2022 and 2023.

The world is closer to nuclear war than it's been in at least forty years.

Today on the show: The game theory of nuclear war. When can mathematical models help us, and when can they lead us astray ... even to the brink of destruction?

Guest Kelly Clancy's book is Playing With Reality: How Games Have Shaped Our World.

Related Episodes:
How to get Russia to pay Ukraine
Congressional game theory

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Europe is expecting a wave of victories from far-right candidates in upcoming national elections. Voters are showing they're worried about income inequality, immigration and the effects of participating in a global economy. Today, we take a look at what the swing to the right means for Europe's economy and the European stance on globalization.

Related Episodes:
Can Europe fund its defense ambitions (Apple / Spotify)
Why the EU is investigating China's wind turbines (Apple / Spotify)
How vikings launched globalization 1.0

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.