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 three-part series on the history of competition, big business, and antitrust law, one of the most important but least-understood bodies of law in the United States.
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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.
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The Federal Reserve targets an inflation rate of 2 percent. Why 2 percent? And how close are we to the target?
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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?
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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.
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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.
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United Auto Workers has ratified a new contract with Fiat-Chrysler. It was settled across a conference table, in a time-frame agreeable to both parties. But, it hasn't always been that way.
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Poor kids who moved to neighborhoods with less poverty did much better than those who didn't move.
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Megan McArdle spent years in a doomed relationship. The reason, she says: She fell victim to a common economic fallacy. Our Planet Money team has a love story with an economic idea at its heart.
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Not all debt collectors work at banks or big, corporate agencies. Many work at small, storefront shops. At least one worked in a former karate studio.