On the other radio

Reminded by Julia Turner through the Slate Culture Gabfest endorsements, this weekend I went back to Planet Money for my ironing podcast accompaniment. In a long-running series on producing the Planet Money t-shirt, this week they were covering a topic that has long bewildered me: why does it take so long for money to be transferred between banks? 

While I was there, I saw that they were repeating an episode from three years ago on the economics of the art world - or specifically, the pricing of artworks on the primary and secondary market. This is a topic I spend a lot of time covering with non-art world friends, usually very rational people who are often left aghast as what they see as the vagaries of value when it comes to art works. When you're familiar with the system (one version of which dealer Ed Winkleman outlines, for pricing emerging artists work, on the podcast) it starts to make sense, but at first blush it's just as bewildering as money transfers. The podcast doesn't get deep into the topic, and focuses for too long on one of the aspects I find least interesting (stocks or art works?) but it's a typically stylish piece of reporting.