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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.

  • Artisanal food makers in Brooklyn have a lesson for America's manufacturers: Focus on the picky customers who are willing to pay extra for quality products.
  • Even the guy in charge of the Dow doesn't check it every day. Yet we're constantly bombarded by news of the Dow's daily movements.
  • A few decades ago, many workers at Standard Motor were illiterate. Today, they need to learn a computer language to operate the machinery.
  • Greenville County in South Carolina is where manufacturing's past and future live side by side. In South Carolina, and throughout America, factories produce more than ever. Yet in Greenville, there are abandoned textile mills everywhere you look.
  • Large banks are repaying the bailout money they received much faster than expected. The administration says the cost of the TARP program will be about $200 billion less than estimated. Big financial firms are making profits again because the government has driven down borrowing costs for banks and safeguarded their debts.
  • A key component of President Obama's plan to overhaul the financial regulatory system is the creation of a consumer protection agency. The agency would oversee consumer financial products, which have been regulated in the past, but whose oversight was exposed as lax.
  • President Bush has said the U.S. is using a "wide range of tools" to address the chaos in the financial markets. The stock market, however, has continued its downward slide. Many finance-watchers say the credit markets are to blame. Banks are simply not lending money to one another.
  • The government announced Tuesday that it plans to buy huge amounts of short-term debts from companies. The Fed will buy "commercial paper," a short-term financing mechanism that many companies use to finance their day-to-day operations, like meeting payroll or purchasing supplies.
  • Questions have been raised about whether it is wise to let foreign governments buy up stakes in U.S. financial institutions. Now, with Lehman Brothers, the U.S. is getting to see what happens when a foreign investor walks away.
  • Two proponents of the plan to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson — testify before Congress on Tuesday to compel Congress to take action. Meantime, despite government assurances, stocks are plunging in the finance sector.
  • Co-host Robert Smith talks to NPR's Adam Davidson about how lenders, investors and buyers all contributed to the subprime mortgage crisis. Davidson says everyone at every step of the chain acted irresponsibly, "taking on way more risk than was appropriate."
  • Oil prices are hovering near $120 a barrel and people are wondering what, if anything, can be done to bring prices down. Oil is a commodity — the price of which is set in a global market. Increasingly, oil-producing countries are pointing at the weak dollar as the main factor keeping prices high.