Alex Blumberg
Alex Blumberg is a contributing editor for NPR's Planet Money. He is also a producer for the public radio program This American Life, and an adjunct professor of journalism at Columbia University. He has done radio documentaries on the U.S. Navy, people who do impersonations of their mothers and teenage Steve Forbes supporters. He won first place at the 2002 Third Coast International Audio Festival for his story "Yes, There is a Baby." His story on clinical medical ethicists won the 1999 Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI) award for best radio documentary.
In 2008, Blumberg collaborated with NPR economics correspondent Adam Davidson on a special This American Life episode about the housing crisis. Called "the greatest explainer ever heard" by noted journalism professor Jay Rosen, the Giant Pool of Money became the inspiration for NPR's Planet Money.
Blumberg has a B.A. from Oberlin College.
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All this week, All Things Considered and Morning Edition has aired stories about the global journey a T-shirt makes from seed to finished product. Over the months NPR's Planet Money team spent reporting the series, they tackled questions about trade, work and clothes play in the global economy. -
Wonks from across the political spectrum look at the upside of the cliff.
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By the time our children get to be our age, there will be fewer working people for each retiree. So they'll have to pay a bigger share of our retirement costs. -
The question is more contentious than it sounds. A new study may finally provide an answer. -
If you own a home in the U.S., if you have a mortgage, you can deduct the interest you pay on that mortgage from your taxes. It's a popular, well-entrenched policy. But according to one policy adviser in Washington, "the mortgage-interest deduction ... makes no sense." -
"...the fundraiser has 35,000 bucks in checks sitting in her pocket right now. And we're going to talk about public policy while we take the checks." -
We imagine the lobbyist stalking the halls of Congress trying to use cash to influence important people. But often, the Congressman is stalking the lobbyist, asking for money. -
Lawmakers have two jobs: making laws, and raising money. "I think most Americans would be shocked ... if they knew how much time a United States Senator spends raising money," says Sen. Dick Durbin. -
What do you do if you're a lobbyist and you need to get in the door to talk to a hostile senator? Start rounding up checks. -
For every dollar spent on lobbying for a 2004 corporate tax bill, companies benefited $220, a new study says. That's a return of 22,000 percent.
