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Economic Insecurity

LARS HAGBERG
/
AFP/Getty Images

Economic insecurity doesn't get captured by the broader macroeconomic indicators. But if you suddenly get sick, can you afford to go to the doctor? Do you ever worry that you'll run out of money to feed your kids before your next paycheck? Is your paycheck steady enough that you can plan and budget for future expenses? And if you needed to fix your car, would you still have enough money left over to afford that month's rent? These are questions that even people with jobs — maybe even better jobs than they had last year — still struggle to answer. Today on the show, we look at some indicators that shed light on economic insecurity in the U.S.

And a special thanks to Matt Klein and Noah Smith for their recent articles on economic insecurity, to which we referred for this episode.

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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.
Cardiff Garcia is a co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money podcast, along with Stacey Vanek Smith. He joined NPR in November 2017.