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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The U.S. expects to be providing weaponry to Ukraine for months and even years to come. Defense officials are confident they can meet the demand, but there are real-world challenges.
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Liz Truss' resignation as Prime Minister is being blamed on a faulty economic plan. But her fate should serve as a warning to other countries that may have to grapple with an inconceivable choice. -
Liz Truss tried to push through an aggressive tax cutting policy in her first days as UK Prime Minister. With inflation soaring and markets on edge, the timing could not have been worse.
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The luxury watch market was a sleepy, shrinking industry until it got caught up in a tidal wave of market forces. -
Inflation is hitting Americans hard at home with prices soaring for electricity, groceries, rent, even breakfast. A carton of eggs is 30.5% more expensive than it was last year. -
The torrid pace of inflation shows no sign of relenting and is now hitting hard at home — as soaring food and rent costs take a bigger bite out of family budgets.
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The Federal Reserve is trying to slow down the economy just enough to get rising prices under control, but not so much that a ton of people lose their jobs. It's a tough balance.
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The woman next to me, who described herself as knowing "zero" about the economy, asked whether I thought the Federal Reserve would continue raising interest rates. I felt an acute sense of dread. -
Job market swings over the past few years have dampened the motivation of many workers and led to a decline in the fuel of the U.S. economy — productivity. -
Productivity is probably the most important economic indicator for the health of an economy, and in the U.S. it's falling. (Story aired on All Things Considered on Oct. 5, 2022.)
