Stacey Vanek Smith
Stacey Vanek Smith is the co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money. She's also a correspondent for Planet Money, where she covers business and economics. In this role, Smith has followed economic stories down the muddy back roads of Oklahoma to buy 100 barrels of oil; she's traveled to Pune, India, to track down the man who pitched the country's dramatic currency devaluation to the prime minister; and she's spoken with a North Korean woman who made a small fortune smuggling artificial sweetener in from China.
Prior to coming to NPR, Smith worked for Marketplace, where she was a correspondent and fill-in host. While there, Smith was part of a collaboration with The New York Times, where she explored the relationship between money and marriage. She was also part of Marketplace's live shows, where she produced a series of pieces on getting her data mined.
Smith is a native of Idaho and grew up working on her parents' cattle ranch. She is a graduate of Princeton University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in comparative literature and creative writing. She also holds a master's in broadcast journalism from Columbia University.
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Women pay more than men for many consumer products. Today on the show: Why some economists still think that's a good thing. -
The 401(k) turns 40 this week. What started off as a small provision in the Revenue Act of 1978 to supplement defined benefit plans has become the primary retirement saving vehicle of many Americans.
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The 401(k) retirement plan turned 40 this week! Today on the show, we chronicle the rise of the 401(k), the fall of the pension, and talk to the man who started it all. -
How one bank gave a whole new meaning to the term "mobile banking." -
You may not know it, but companies are silently scoring you... and using that score to figure out how to treat you. -
We answer questions from our listeners and issue a couple of mea culpas. -
Taxes get a bad reputation, but they were central to the formation of representative government, says financial historian William N. Goetzmann. -
Wage growth has (finally) been accelerating, but what else are companies doing to bid for workers? -
One of our youngest listeners asked us why Ecuador changed its currency to U.S. dollars, so we found out! -
China is piloting a new social credit system, calculated from financial transactions and daily behavior. NPR's The Indicator learns what it's like to be on the country's list of untrustworthy people.
