This is Planet Money from NPR.
Welcome back, everyone, to Planet Money Summer School, Government Edition.
The only economics degree you can get at 1.7 times normal speed.
Very efficient.
Saves a ton of time.
Today we boldly go into the arena of competition known as the market.
In economics, a market is a place, even virtual,
where buyers and sellers interact to exchange goods or services.
And economists love markets.
It's like all of our supply and demand graphs have come to life.
People buying, people selling, shouting out prices.
Wherever humans have congregated, markets have formed.
Thousands of years ago, it was trading wheat and shells and copper.
Hundreds of years ago, stock markets formed.
Everything you buy goes through some sort of marketplace.
Your cup of coffee came from trading in the bean markets.
Your spouse might have come from the dating marketplace on the apps.
Even kids will tell you one Snickers is worth at least two Twix.
It's a law of nature.
But sometimes, as we'll see today, markets can go terribly wrong.