NPR’s New Pet: A Toxic Asset

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You’ve got to hand it to the reporters over at NPR’s Planet Money—they’re always cooking up clever new ways to report on the big business and economic issues of the day. For their latest feature, two Planet Money reporters sought to better explain what a “toxic asset” was, one of the jargony words you hear bandied about but never simply defined. (I’d try to lay it out for you here, but their cuddly, toxic-asset, Where-the-Wild-Things-Are creature is unbeatable.) So those reporters put together $1,000 between themselves and bought a toxic asset. Their plan is to track the health of their asset over time as a way of describing what a toxic asset actually is. Their opening video is below:

 

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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