Adam Davidson
Adam Davidson is a contributor to Planet Money, a co-production of NPR and This American Life. He also writes the weekly "It's the Economy" column for the New York Times Magazine.
His work has won several major awards including the Peabody, DuPont-Columbia, and the Polk. His radio documentary on the housing crisis, "The Giant Pool of Money," which he co-reported and produced with Alex Blumberg, was named one of the top ten works of journalism of the decade by the Arthur L. Carter of Journalism Institute at New York University. It was widely recognized as the clearest and most entertaining explanation of the roots of the financial crisis in any media.
Davidson and Blumberg took the lessons they learned crafting "The Giant Pool of Money" to create Planet Money. In two weekly podcasts, a blog, and regular features on Morning Edition, All Things Considered and This American Life, Planet Money helps listeners understand how dramatic economic change is impacting their lives. Planet Money also proves, every day, that substantive, intelligent economic reporting can be funny, engaging, and accessible to the non-expert.
Before Planet Money, Davidson was International Business and Economics Correspondent for NPR. He traveled around the world to cover the global economy and pitched in during crises, such as reporting from Indonesia's Banda Aceh just after the tsunami, New Orleans post-Katrina, and Paris during the youth riots.
Prior to coming to NPR, Davidson was Middle East correspondent for PRI's Marketplace. He spent a year in Baghdad, Iraq, from 2003 to 2004, producing award-winning reports on corruption in the US occupation.
Davidson has also written for The Atlantic, Harper's, GQ, Rolling Stone, and many other magazines. He has a degree in the history of religion from the University of Chicago.
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The Commerce Department says the U.S. gross domestic product grew at just 0.6 percent in the final quarter of 2007. That is the weakest growth rate in five years for the GDP.
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A day after the U.S. Federal Reserve slashed a key interest rate, world markets were calmer. A steep two-day slide was triggered by fears of a U.S. recession, but it's unclear that a nationwide downturn is a certainty.
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Robert Frank often wonders such things as: Why are milk cartons square? He solves the conundrums in everyday life using basic economics. Some of the findings are in his new book The Economic Naturalist.
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Mattel issues a recall affecting more than 9 million toys made in China, citing magnets that could be swallowed and possible problems with lead paint. The company's Fisher-Price division recalled 1.5 million preschool toys from a different Chinese supplier earlier this month.
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The federal minimum wage goes up 70 cents to $5.85 an hour. More than a million workers will make around $1,500 a year more than they would have without the increase. It is the first increase in a decade.
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President Bush named Robert Zoellick as the next president of the World Bank. Zoellick was President Bush's first Trade Representative and then the No. 2 official at the State Department. He will replace Paul Wolfowitz, who resigned two weeks ago after a bitter battle over charges of ethical lapses. Zoellick will have to heal a World Bank sharply divided over Wolfowitz's leadership.
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High level Chinese officials are set to meet this week in Washington with their American counterparts. The two sides will try to seek solutions to major trade problems. The U.S. wants concessions from China while the Chinese are concerned about a bullying tone from the U.S.
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Oil industry services company Halliburton is moving its CEO and other corporate leadership to new headquarters in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
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Six months ago, Dubai Ports World reached an agreement with Congress to sell its North American operations to a U.S.-based firm within four to six months. Six months later, the company still owns those ports, but says it will sell soon. Democrats say they will make it a campaign issue if a sale isn’t completed before the November elections.
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The New York Stock Exchange is merging with the European stock market Euronext. The deal would create an international stock trading network, with outposts in the U.S. and across Europe. The move is the biggest so far in a trend toward cross-border stock trading.