The Indicator from Planet Money

Big tech companies are borrowing billions of dollars to finance the build-out of AI data centers, and your 401(k) might be helping to fuel that. Today on the show, what AI hyperscalers are doing to the bond market.

Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.

Your Next Listen 
— Who's financing Meta's massive AI data center?

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Flock cameras promise to reduce crimes like car theft. But these automated license plate readers come with a trade-off: a wide-reaching surveillance network. Today on the show, does Flock actually make communities safer?

Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.

Your Next Listen 
— Stuck In China’s Panopticon

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It’s time for another Indicator Quiz! For today’s quiz, we’re testing the Indicator knowledge of a brilliant mathematician. Will we stump his theoretician brain? Tune in and find out! 

Interested in being a contestant on our next Indicator Quiz? Email us your name and phone number to indicator@npr.org and put "Indicator Quiz" in the subject.

Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.

Your Next Listen 
— An urban planner, infinite scroll, and … what is a public good?

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— Sign up for The Indicator’s weekly newsletter! 
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This week’s indicators: Is The U.S. Treasury Department futzing with financial markets?; Is Patagonia’s pretty picturesque setting … for data centers?; Was the summer box office actually swell? 

Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.

Your Next Listen 
— A Treasury showdown with the bond market

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Our favorite entry on the regional economy from the latest Beige Book reveals a troubling development in higher education. 

Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.

Your Next Listen 
— Community colleges are kind of underrated

Connect with The Indicator 
— Sign up for The Indicator’s weekly newsletter! 
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Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

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