Traders, Smugglers, and Legos
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After a two-week hiatus, the World’s Global Economy podcast is back! This week, we have what one could fairly call a “grab-bag of goodies.”
We’ll take a trip to North Dakota, the state with the lowest unemployment in the nation. What’s the trick up there? They never had the jobs to lose! (Har-Har.) Well, actually, that’s partially true. But there’s more to it than that: North Dakota’s famously risk-averse banks didn’t get caught up in the subprime mess. Also, the main industry in North Dakota is agriculture, and as they say, even in times of recession people gotta eat.
Still, last year commodity prices plunged and people across the globe stopped buying a lot of crops. That left North Dakota farmers holding the bag. Literally. Now some farmers and agriculture businesses are trying to position themselves to be less vulnerable to the swings of the world economy next time trouble arises.
And if that weren’t enough for the podcast… We’ll hear about the good economic news in Legoland, produce strikes in France, and web-based micro-lending. Also, who can resist a story about cigarette smugglers?
And guess what? The Chinese love IKEA!
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