Planet Money

Chevron, Venezuela and the Paradox of Plenty

Venezuela and Chevron have perhaps one of the strangest partnerships … ever? Chevron, one of the world’s most famous and profitable oil corporations, has for decades, been plugging away in Venezuela, one of the world’s most famous and infamous socialist countries.  Today on the show, the story of their intertwined histories. Before Saudi Arabia, before Iran… there was Venezuela, the first petrostate. The first country whose entire economy became dependent on oil. With the blessing of oil, an entire economic textbook of complications opened up: from the Dutch Disease, to the resource curse, to mono-economic vulnerability. And, oddly, along for that ride…Chevron.  Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. /  Subscribe to Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter. This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Erika Beras and Kenny Malone. It was produced by Luis Gallo with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

How much money President Trump and his family have made

Before President Donald Trump’s first term, he was in a “tight spot” financially, according to New Yorker writer David Kirkpatrick. At the start of his second term, David says, Trump was in an “even tighter” spot. But after just six months into his second term, Trump’s financial situation started looking really good. David has done a full accounting for what the family has been up to, and even using conservative estimates, David says Trump and his family have made almost $4 billion dollars “off of the presidency,” in just about a year. Today on the show: we look at every new business and business deal and financial transaction that David says likely would not have happened if Trump wasn’t the president of the United States. And we stop at the most innovative ways Trump and his family have made all that. Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. ??Listen to our playlist on Federal Reserve independence here. Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter. Today’s episode of Planet Money was hosted by Sarah Gonzalez and Mary Childs. It was produced by James Sneed, edited by Jess Jiang, and fact checked by Sierra Juarez. Robert Rodriguez engineered it. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

What the 'ultimatum game' can tell us about the political moment (Planet Money+)

The “ultimatum game” is a classic game in behavioral economics. A simple version… One person proposes how to split a pot of money, which another person can accept or reject. If the answer is no, they both get nothing. The game reveals a lot about human nature and decision making, and according to economist and Nobel laureate Richard Thaler, about how we should think about the way President Trump negotiates. In today’s bonus episode, Darian Woods talks with Richard, a founder of behavioral economics, about that and other insights from the field, including what it says about the psychology of saving and how “loss aversion” affects professional golfers. Richard also reflects on some of the skepticism he and his colleagues faced early in their research. Richard Thaler’s latest book, co-written with Alex Imas, is “The Winner's Curse: Behavioral Economics Anomalies, Then and Now.”