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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.

  • The Treasury Department prepares to issue its semi-annual report that identifies countries involved in manipulating the value of their currencies. The focus this time around is on China, which is accused by many of keeping the value of the yuan artificially low.
  • Bolivia's President Evo Morales has nationalized the country's natural-gas industry. Foreign energy companies have six months to agree to new contracts for operating in the country. Some analysts say Morales may have miscalculated their willingness to remain in Bolivia.
  • More and more Chinese companies are beginning to do advanced computer programming. And China has the human resources to compete with the United States in the computer programming industry -- the country graduates more than 100,000 programmers a year.
  • Israeli and U.S. citizen Robert J. Aumann and American Thomas C. Schelling win the 2005 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their work on game theories that help explain economic conflicts, including trade and price wars.
  • After being closed for two weeks, the Port of New Orleans reopens for limited operations. The port did not suffer heavy damage, but there hasn't been any electricity and many port workers no longer have homes.
  • The Chinese oil company CNOOC says it has abandoned its controversial attempt to buy Unocal, a California-based oil producer. CNOOC says a hostile political environment doomed its bid. Chevron is expected to purchase Unocal next week.
  • China bows to international pressure and announces it will revalue its currency. The yuan will be revalued by 2.1 percent, less than what the United States wanted and perhaps not enough to satisfy congressional critics who want protectionist measures to stem the flow of Chinese imports. The Yuan will now be pegged to a basket of international currencies.
  • Thursday's bombings in London came as the Group of Eight industrialized nations began its annual meeting. The G8 leaders agreed Friday to increase aid to Africa by $50 billion. That increase will take place by 2010, and is a doubling of foreign aid for some countries, including the United States.
  • Treasury Secretary John Snow issues a strongly worded report that urges China to revalue its currency, the yuan. For 10 years, the Chinese currency has been kept at a fixed rate, making it cheaper to export items -- and more difficult for U.S. manufacturers to compete.
  • Foreign ministers and officials from the World Bank and IMF fail to reach an agreement on debt relief. But outgoing World Bank President James Wolfensohn is hopeful that ministers laid the groundwork for a future breakthrough during a series of meetings in Washington this weekend.