Economy

Volcker Rule Aims To Rein In Banks' Risky Trades

12:11pm December 10, 2013

American bank regulators unveiled the final version of the so-called Volcker Rule, which prohibits banks from trading stocks, bonds and derivatives for their own accounts. For more, Steve Inskeep speaks to NPR's Jim Zarroli.

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Economy

Ignite High Point: City Re-Invents Itself

11:46am December 10, 2013

The City of High Point is in the process of re-inventing itself.

PLANET MONEY MAKES A T-SHIRT: The world behind a simple shirt, in five chapters

The Afterlife Of American Clothes

10:45am December 10, 2013

by Gregory Warner

The U.S. exports a billion pounds of used clothes every year. Much of that winds up in used clothing markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Joey Cappuccitti, who works at a Maximus call center, talks with a person looking for help with New York's insurance exchange.

New York's Insurance Exchange Readies For Holiday Rush

10:55am December 09, 2013

by Fred Mogul

As a Dec. 23 enrollment deadline for health insurance that starts Jan. 1 looms, New York state is staffing up its call center and smoothing out the rough spots on its application to meet growing demand. As time runs down, the state is trying to fix technical and design issues that came up when the site debuted in October.

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Economy

Fabric Market Draws Hundreds of Companies to High Point

7:44pm December 08, 2013

by Keri Brown

High Point is buzzing with excitement this week. The semi-annual Showtime fabric market kicked off on Sunday.

PLANET MONEY MAKES A T-SHIRT: How to send a shirt around the world for pennies

The Giant Book That Creates And Destroys Entire Industries

10:49am December 06, 2013

by Jacob Goldstein

The book lists the tax that importers have to pay on approximately every single thing in the universe — and raises a key question about the Planet Money T-shirt.

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Economy

Entrepreneurs Join Artists on Crowdfunding Sites

7:20am December 06, 2013

Kickstarter launched in 2009 and quickly created a buzz among artists, musicians and filmmakers looking for alternative ways to fund and distrib

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People line up outside a government unemployment office in Madrid on Oct. 5. Spain has an unemployment rate of 26 percent.

Help-Wanted Ad Shows Depths Of Spain's Unemployment Problem

4:05pm December 05, 2013

by Lauren Frayer

Having trouble wrapping your head around southern Europe's staggering unemployment problem? This week, Ikea advertised for 400 jobs in a new megastore on Spain's Mediterranean coast. It got more than 20,000 online applicants in 48 hours, before the retailer's computer servers crashed.

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Federal regulators are setting new rules for banks that offer deposit advances.

Economy

Banks Come Under Fire For Filling In The Payday Loan Gap

4:05pm December 05, 2013

by Robert Benincasa

Federal regulators are cracking down on banks that are offering services called deposit advances. Many argue that the service is the same as payday loans and could lead consumers into a cycle of debt.

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PLANET MONEY MAKES A T-SHIRT: The Lives Of The Workers Who Made Our Shirt

'Our Industry Follows Poverty': Success Threatens A T-Shirt Business

6:26pm December 04, 2013

by Marianne McCune

Colombia's economy has been growing, and wages have been rising. That's good for the country as a whole, but it may wind up driving away the T-shirt industry.

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