Keith Romer
Keith Romer has been a contributing reporter for Planet Money since 2015. He has reported stories on risk-pooling among poker players, whether it's legal to write a spin-off of the children's book Goodnight Moon and the time one man cornered the American market in onions. Sometimes on the show, he sings.
Romer has also worked as a producer and story editor at ESPN's 30 for 30 Podcast where he reported on WNBA players who played overseas for a former KGB spy and — more gamblers — the World Series of Poker that launched the international poker boom. His work has also appeared in The New Yorker and Rolling Stone.
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The U.S. is one of five countries that allow companies to pay blood plasma donors, supplying 2/3 of the global need for it. Collection rates fell in the pandemic, threatening the health of recipients.
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Advertising spending on the presidential election is expected to break records this year. Where the money goes says a lot about what the campaign's priorities are.
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Lower costs for trucking mean savings at the cash register for consumers. But it may also be why some truckers are being paid less and less.
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Debates about who should pay for the U.S. Postal Service go back 50 years. It's a story of the long fight about whether the Postal Service should rely on Congress for funding or pay for itself.
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At the time Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, a new social science was just taking root: economics. Dickens did not like it. NPR visits a high school performance of the play to understand the economic commentary laced throughout this holiday classic.
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As the Federal Reserve considers whether or not to raise interest rates, they have a growing complication to factor in: raising interest rates doesn't seem to have the same effect on the economy that it used to.
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When the federal government gives out social benefits such as food stamps, if you qualify, you get them. But housing vouchers are often distributed through a lottery.
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Employers often rule out applicants with felony convictions. Data show when the military made an exception and allowed people with felony convictions to enlist, they performed better than their peers.
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Not everything can be sold like a box of cereal with a price tag on the side. If something needs to be sold right away, an auction might be the right approach. For buyers, auctions can be a great chance at a bargain, but only if they are wise to the tricks of the trade. Planet Money goes to an auction to scout out techniques.
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It wasn't always illegal to bet on presidential elections. Before polling, the practice used to be so commonplace that it actually increased public engagement with elections.