I stumbled across this section of the Marketplace.org website that is simply titled “I’ve Always Wondered…”  Here are some short articles/audio resources that I thought you and your students might find interesting:

• Why do we no longer use $1,000 bills? 
  • This one got my attention because I was lucky enough to be the Federal Reserve SF last week for an Education Advisory Group meeting and while touring their Currency collection discovered that $100 bills are the largest currency in production. I wanted the answer to the same question…
  • One of the reasons is the cost to produce $1,000 bills and as for the other reason, you’ll have to read to figure that one out!

• How do bands decide which cities to tour?
  • Which bands had highest grossing tours in 2015? Check out the link to learn more!

• Who writes the tax code?
  • “…Rick remembered his lessons well. It’s Congress, not the IRS, that writes the law, which is the official tax code. But what’s commonly referred to as the tax code includes interpretations of the law by the IRS and Treasury Department, said Eugene Steuerle, a tax policy expert at the Urban Institute.

• How do casinos decide where to put slot machines? 
  • “Because while it’s really hard to get casinos to talk about this, former casino workers and academics on the subject tell me the bottom line is this: Casinos are in the entertainment business. They want slot machines that are entertaining, so they attract lots of players. “The casino is just like any other business,” says Greg Joslin, who worked at a casino in Mississippi for 17 years. “You have to have something that people want to come in and buy.” He says state laws only allow casinos to keep a certain portion of every dollar fed into a slot machine. And while each spin is random, the casinos’ total take is controlled by a computer chip. But if people aren’t playing a machine, it’s not taking in any money, and a casino will think about getting rid of it or moving it.”

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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