Private equity funds are groups of investors that flip companies for a profit. It’s the technique they use that makes them special, as senior producer Paddy Hirsch explains.

Junk. Not a nice word. And when it comes to bonds, not a particularly accurate word, either. Junk is something useless, right? Well, "junk" bonds are definitely not useless. In fact they're extremely useful. Sometimes. Marketplace Senior Producer Paddy Hirsch explains what a junk bond really is.

There's been a lot of talk recently about the need to ring-fence certain economies in Europe. These aren't the economies that have defaulted or been bailed out; these are the economies that are too big to fail. Italy is the most glaring example.