Planet Money: Big Government Cheese

Planet Money: Big Government Cheese

Author: Professor Daniel Ludwinski August 27, 2025 Duration: 20:14
From Planet Money:
In 1976, Jimmy Carter made a campaign promise: I'm giving dairy farmers a break. And after he won, he set out to raise the price of milk. But that's easier said than done. The government couldn't just buy milk. They had to buy something storable that used a lot of milk. So the government started buying up as much cheese as people wanted to sell at the new price.

The government wound up spending a lot of cheddar on a lot of cheddar, billions of dollars. Eventually, they bought so much cheese, they had to rent caves to store it all. And when they started giving it away, they unintentionally created a cultural phenomenon: ""Government cheese"" shows up in comedy sketches, songs, even a cooking show by Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg.

Today on the show, how a well-intentioned program to help out farmers turned into a slow-moving economic trainwreck... and some pretty tasty cheese.

Professor Daniel Ludwinski guides his students through the real-world echoes of economic theory with Oxford College Principles of Microeconomics Course. Rather than a standard lecture series, this audio collection pulls from a wide spectrum of existing conversations and analyses, all curated to illuminate the principles discussed in class. You'll hear how foundational concepts like supply, demand, and market structures play out in current events, policy debates, and everyday life. The selected episodes serve as a bridge, connecting textbook models to the nuanced discussions happening in the broader world. This podcast is designed specifically for learners, offering a complementary audio syllabus that deepens understanding by placing economics in context. Tuning in provides a richer, more applied perspective on the course material, hearing expert voices explore the economic forces shaping our communities and choices. Each chosen episode acts as a case study, prompting listeners to think critically about the incentives and trade-offs that define our interconnected systems.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 14

Oxford College Principles of Microeconomics Course
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