NPR: Planet Money

Today on the show: A lawsuit over a Santa suit is a window into countless hidden fights that shape the stuff we buy. It's one man's battle against the U.S. government — and, in a way, against himself.

Five reporters go to the New York Produce Show and Conference, each on a mission.

As a businessman, President Trump is known for his towering buildings. Today we tell the story of one of those skyscrapers and what it says about how and with whom Trump does business.

Why is it so hard to figure out when the economy is at full employment? And why does the Fed keep getting it wrong?

We've got a satellite. We got a rocket. We're heading to the launch pad.

The unemployment rate is really low, but wages are barely rising. What's going on?

We found a satellite. We tried to figure out what it would do. Now we need to choose our rocket.

The history of sexual harassment training videos, and the surprising insight it gives us into the current wave of sexual harassment cases.

We hitched a ride on a satellite. Now we have to figure out what we're going to do up there.

No really, we are going into low Earth orbit.

No space mission is complete without a patch. We made our own.

We really are going to space.

What did Paul Manafort do, exactly? Robert Mueller's indictment is 31 pages of hard-to-understand financial crime. We try to figure it out.

A while back, the charity Feeding America was a mess. It was sending pickles to food banks that wanted produce, and potatoes to Idaho. So they called some economists, and a free food market was born.

Walmart and Amazon are in a battle to be the store where you buy everything. But when both companies sell everything, what sets them apart? Food inventions like a bright, red pickle!

In South Sudan, there is a kind of money that works even through bank failures and unstable governments. But when war struck, it upended a whole economy: the economy of cows.

Once you've got a Birkin bag, you've made it. But to get one, you need more than just money. Birkins always seem to be mysteriously out of stock. This is no accident.

Timothy Carpenter stole cell phones. Then his phone sold him out to the Feds. Now the Supreme Court has to decide how private our cell phone data should be.

Once a year, teenagers from across the country team up and compete to run the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Once a year, teenagers from across the country team up and compete to run the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Why do smart people make dumb decisions? Figuring that out won Richard Thaler a Nobel Prize.

Why do smart people make dumb decisions? Figuring that out won Richard Thaler a Nobel Prize.

A Chinese company pays millions of dollars for a failing hotel in a small, rural town. We follow the trail of money, and it explains the world economy.

A Chinese company pays millions of dollars for a failing hotel in a small, rural town. We follow the trail of money, and it explains the world economy.

In any other industry, it's illegal for a group of companies to get together and cap wages. What makes the NCAA different?

In any other industry, it's illegal for a group of companies to get together and cap wages. What makes the NCAA different?

Today on the show: death. We have four stories about how people prepare for death and what they leave behind for the living.

Today on the show: death. We have four stories about how people prepare for death and what they leave behind for the living.

Bob Peterson claims to have found the thing people have sought for thousands of years — an investment guaranteed to double in value. He keeps it in a storage locker in Utah.

Bob Peterson claims to have found the thing people have sought for thousands of years — an investment guaranteed to double in value. He keeps it in a storage locker in Utah.

Capitalism isn't supposed to exist in North Korea. But small businesses are popping up, growing the nation's economy. And much of that money is going straight to the country's nuclear program.

Capitalism isn't supposed to exist in North Korea. But small businesses are popping up, growing the nation's economy. And much of that money is going straight to the country's nuclear program.

Republicans are proposing big changes to the corporate income tax. Trillions of dollars are at stake. Here's what it all means.

Republicans are proposing big changes to the corporate income tax. Trillions of dollars are at stake. Here's what it all means.

You won't have to get coffee. But you might have to ride a hoverboard. Apply by Sunday, Oct. 15.

For most of our lives, Equifax has been slurping up our financial data. Now the company's been hacked and our data is loose. Today, we trace this mess back to two brothers and one fateful decision.

It might just be the secret weapon of the U.S. economy.

Bill Pennington's house floods a lot: Three times in the last three years. And every time his house floods, the government pays to help him repair the damage. Is something wrong here?

The government suspended the Jones Act last week, to allow non-US ships to move fuel to victims of hurricanes in Houston and Florida. Which once again made us wonder why the act even exists.

The basic income. A flat payment to citizens, without strings. Is it a progressive fantasy, or sensible policy? We may soon find out. The Finnish Government is testing it on 2,000 unemployed citizens.

The Guinness Book of World Records had a problem: It made its money selling books, but book sales aren't what they used to be. So Guinness changed what it was selling, and who they were selling it to.

Behind almost all popular music, there is this hidden economy of music producers buying and selling sonic snippets, texting each other half-finished beats, and angling for back-end royalties.

Patty McCord helped create a workplace at Netflix that runs more like a professional sports team than a family. If you're not up to scratch, you're off the team. Is this the future of work?

Congress has neglected to do the basic work of keeping the economy running. Today, we look at three time bombs they're sitting on: The federal budget, the debt ceiling, and DREAMers.

In the early 1960s, Tom Burrell became the first black man in Chicago advertising. He went on to change the whole industry, not just the way we think about ads, but the way advertisers think about us.