Paddy Hirsch is the Senior Producer, Personal Finance at Marketplace. He oversees the production of content related to personal finance for all of the Marketplace shows and for Marketplace.org. He is the author of the book Man vs Markets, Economics Explained, Pure and Simple, and he is the creator and host of Marketplace Whiteboard, a video explainer of financial and economic terms.

Hirsch joined Marketplace in 2007 just as the credit crunch that preceded the 2008 financial crisis began to take hold.  He was an editor of the New York Bureau and the entrepreneurship desk throughout the crisis and he spearheaded Marketplace’s financial markets coverage as the economy slipped into recession. He was awarded a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University in 2010, and he returned to Marketplace in July of 2011. He published his first book, Man vs Markets, in August 2012.

Hirsch got his start in journalism with an internship at the BBC in Glasgow, Scotland. He became a field producer for CNBC in Hong Kong and later was a consultant to the Open Broadcast Network in Bosnia. He has been an editor for Direct Capital Markets, Institutional Investor Newsletters, Standard & Poor’s, and the Vietnam Economic Times.

Hirsch attended Campbell College in Belfast and received a bachelor’s degree in French and International Studies from the University of Warwick. He is a Knight Fellow and was a Webby honoree in 2009.

Hirsch was born in Weymouth, England, raised in Ireland and currently resides in Los Angeles.  During his free time, he is a runner, mountaineer, surfer and consumer of East and Southeast Asian cuisine.

Features By Paddy Hirsch

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Fiat money: It has nothing to do with the car

Your dollar bill isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Why? Because it's a fiat currency. Sr. Producer Paddy Hirsch explains.
Posted In: Fiat, inflation, Money, dollar bill, currency
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Turning public radio on its head

Changing the public radio production process by making listeners the focus and subject of the show.
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Why inflation can be a good thing

"A little bit of inflation is our friend, not our enemy," says Prof. David Blanchflower
Posted In: inflation
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Is a 529 college savings account right for you?

Many parents are opting for 529 savings plans -- college savings accounts that aren’t subject to any tax as long as the money’s used for tuition. Are they right for you?
Posted In: college, higher education, 529 plans
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How does the falling price of gold affect you?

Gold prices are down again this morning, after falling by more than 10 percent since Friday. Oil prices are also lower. But how do these drops in commodity prices affect your wallet?
Posted In: gold, commodities
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4 tips to avoid an audit this tax season

Tax day is less than two weeks away. As you prepare for this year's returns, Marketplace's Senior Producer of Personal Finance Paddy Hirsch brings you tips to avoid an audit.
Posted In: Taxes, audit
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How a firm's goodwill is more like soft snow than a hard asset

Goodwill reads like an afterthought in a company's annual report. But it's often the most important component of a company's operation, as Sr. Producer Paddy Hirsch explains.
Posted In: goodwill
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What just happened in Cyprus? An explainer

The moral of the story of the near collapse of Cyprus' banking system is that when a saving rate looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Posted In: cyprus, bailout, Europe debt crisis
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The pros and cons of credit unions

Should you bank at a credit union? Marketplace senior producer of personal finance Paddy Hirsch discusses the upsides and the downsides.
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Why a currency war could hurt you

A currency war sounds weirdly abstract, like a game played by rival politicians -- but it can have devastating effects in the real world. And it’s not all that different from a rivalry of different kind – a hypothetical sibling rivalry.
Posted In: Global Currency War, currency

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