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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Coronavirus has shed light on centuries of racial economic inequality. NPR's podcast The Indicator from Planet Money looks at how COVID-19 and the recession are hitting black Americans hard.
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Hospitals lost millions of dollars preparing for a surge of COVID-19 patients. Some were swamped, but others only saw a handful of coronavirus cases. Now many are struggling to survive.
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Demand for goods and services spikes, as businesses reopen across the country. It may offset some of the damage the U.S. economy has suffered during coronavirus shutdowns.
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U.S. supermarket shelves are empty, and food banks across the country are besieged. So why are farmers dumping, destroying and giving away food?
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Rural hospitals already walk a scalpel's edge between solvency and collapse. The coronavirus outbreak threatens to push many of them over the brink.
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Most of the world's major economies are on lockdown to combat the coronavirus. But the Swedish government has kept the country open — claiming it is better for the economy and for public health.
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Faced with the prospect of closing up shop because of the coronavirus, some companies are retooling and pivoting to keep their doors open, and their workers employed.
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China's government is beginning to lift restrictions that were in place during the height of the coronavirus outbreak. So how do residents feel as life slowly starts to return to normal?
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The coronavirus has given stock markets and the global economy a whack. Some businesses are feeling pain, while others are seeing gains. And a handful of companies are experiencing both.
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Netflix had to become a content producer to compete with other streaming services. To raise the money to pay for all that content, the company turned to junk bonds.