Accessibility links
Your Money NPR coverage of personal finance, money, investing, taxes, retirement, mortgages and housing markets, wealth management, and stock market news. Download NPR podcasts and RSS feeds.

Your Money

Paying at the Pump

A Future Full of Pumped-Up Gas Prices?

How will our lives change if gas prices continue to rise? Don Gonyea and Robert Cervero, head of the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California Berkeley, peer into the future.

A Future Full of Pumped-Up Gas Prices?

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5372124/5372125" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Paying at the Pump

What Constitutes Price-Gouging in the Oil Industry?

With gas prices passing $3 a gallon, accusations of price-gouging are common. But what exactly is price-gouging? How is it defined? And are the oil companies guilty of it?

What Constitutes Price-Gouging in the Oil Industry?

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5372121/5372122" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Health Care

Washington Haggles over Drug Plan Changes

The push is on around the country to get seniors to enroll in the new Medicare drug plan, with just two weeks to go before the May 15 deadline. Congress and the Bush administration are fighting over what kind of changes, if any, need to be made to the program.

Washington Haggles over Drug Plan Changes

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5368219/5368220" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Paying at the Pump

Gas Prices Drive Some to Reconsider Habits

As gas prices soar to $3 per gallon, many Americans are beginning to examine their driving habits and make minor adjustments. Many drivers say they may be forced to make more drastic changes to how they work and play if prices go higher.

Gas Prices Drive Some to Reconsider Habits

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5368210/5368211" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Paying at the Pump

Fuming Over Gas: Where the Pennies Go

With a gallon of gasoline costing $3 in much of America, many consumers wonder how the price is broken down, from oil fields, refineries, suppliers and the pump. Robert Siegel talks with Jim Haddock, vice president for retail sales of Gas America, which owns about 80 service stations and is based in Greenfield, Ind. Haddock talks about how much money the service stations are making as gas prices continue to rise.

Fuming Over Gas: Where the Pennies Go

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5367096/5367097" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Paying at the Pump

Paying for it at the Pump: Deconstructing Gas Prices

Consumers are paying more than $3 a gallon for gas in many areas of the country. On Tuesday, President Bush announced a four-point plan to lower the cost of a fill-up. Guests discuss how gas prices are determined.

Paying for it at the Pump: Deconstructing Gas Prices

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5366660/5366661" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Is Web-Surfing a Job Hazard?

A judge has recommended that a New York City worker be reprimanded, but not fired, after he ignored warnings to stop surfing the Internet at work. The judge said that trolling the Web at work is equivalent to making a personal phone call, or reading a newspaper. But experts say roaming the Internet at work can still put your job at risk.

Is Web-Surfing a Job Hazard?

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5363506/5363507" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Economy

Michigan to Make Overtime Available to More Workers

Tens of thousands of Michigan workers will become eligible for overtime pay if a new Michigan minimum-wage law takes effect in October. Michigan Public Radio's Rick Pluta reports that some of those affected -- including car salesmen, truck drivers, and commercial fishermen -- already earn high wages.

Michigan to Make Overtime Available to More Workers

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5363503/5363504" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Opinion

Paying at the Pump

Which Is Greener: Hybrids or Compacts?

Robert Siegel talks about new, smaller cars with Jamie Kitman, New York bureau chief for Automobile magazine. Kitman wrote an op-ed in The New York Times about how small cars with better gas-mileage are in many ways better for the environment than some hybrids.

Which Is Greener: Hybrids or Compacts?

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5362373/5362374" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Opinion

The Color of Money

Getting a Cell Phone for Your 'Tween

Wireless carriers are targeting a new group of consumers: parents of kids from the ages of 10 to 15. But should your preteen have a cell phone, and can you afford it? Personal finance guru Michelle Singletary joins Madeleine Brand to discuss the high cost of 'tween talking.

Getting a Cell Phone for Your 'Tween

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5361850/5361851" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Paying at the Pump

Bush Halts Oil Deliveries to U.S. Strategic Reserves

President Bush stops the purchase of crude oil this summer for the government's emergency reserve, making more available for public consumption. He is also suspending and easing some environmental rules in hope of increasing refining capacity.

Bush Halts Oil Deliveries to U.S. Strategic Reserves

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5361581/5361582" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Paying at the Pump

E-Mail Suggests Boycott to Lower Gas Prices

An e-mail chain letter floating around the Internet urges people to boycott Exxon Mobil in an attempt to bring down gas prices. Renee Montagne talks to Tim Haab, associate professor of agricultural, environmental and development economics at The Ohio State University, about the idea. He says it wouldn't work.

E-Mail Suggests Boycott to Lower Gas Prices

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5361088/5361089" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Paying at the Pump

Gas Prices Have Politicians Talking in Washington

On Capitol Hill, members of Congress are blaming oil companies for high gas prices. Politicians want an investigation into price gouging, or a possible windfall profits tax. But whatever Congress does, it's unlikely to lower prices at the pump.

Gas Prices Have Politicians Talking in Washington

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5361085/5361086" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Fighting Poverty in America

5356754

Some organizations have found a way for low-income people to save money, then build on those savings over time. One such program in Tulsa, Okla., has brought life-changing financial security to local residents.

Programs Teach Savings to Ease Poverty

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5356754/5356781" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript