I have been listening to Planet Money since it first started, several years ago. While the quality and freshness has dropped off somewhat in the last year or s

I have been listening to Planet Money since it first started, several years ago. While the quality and freshness has dropped off somewhat in the last year or so, it remains a great source of insight and reporting into economics. I don't think that the reporters on this piece were trying to give us any sort of message, other than that China realized that communism -- that is, government ownership and regulation of production, and equal pay no matter how hard you work -- was a failure, and that they had to somehow escape from that system and move toward a more capitalistic one. How that happened is an interesting story, and an important one. If you think that Planet Money is against communism and in favor of capitalism, then that's probably a safe assumption. But if you think that they're all rah-rah-USA! in their opinions, then you need to listen to the podcast more regularly. They've done some excellent shows on Denmark (and particularly, now Danes are generally OK with taxes that are beyond the pale for all but the most extreme Americans) and education (and how the US isn't attacking that problem, particularly at the preschool level, an intelligent way). Oh, and their reporting on the American banking system, and the ways in which the US housing crisis occurred, were very well done. It's something of a cliche to say that reporters tend to be left-of-center, but I definitely get the feeling that this is where the Planet Money is located on the political-economic spectrum. But they're also generally trying to explore topics in greater depth than you'll get elsewhere, and from angles that I definitely don't hear in other places. For that, and for their clear explanations (and willingness to be silly and funny), I give them a huge amount of credit.