Can Britain's power lunch power back this summer?

May 24, 2021
The City of London, the U.K. equivalent of Wall Street, is preparing for tens of thousands of executives to filter back in.
Workers line up for a restaurant in the City of London after lockdown rules  eased, and with many companies welcoming limited numbers of their staff back to the office
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Will the college admissions scandal make the process more transparent?

Mar 14, 2019
Elite schools have their choice of applicants and reveal little about how those choices are made.
The media is seen outside the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and United States Courthouse on March 13, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.  Actors Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin and designer Mossimo Giannulli are among 50 people charged in a college admission cheating scheme that involves bribery and fraud in attempts to get students recruited as athletes and help them cheat on exams.
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Wealthy families already have legal ways of gaming college admissions

Mar 13, 2019
Let's not forget the options that don't carry jail sentences.
Parents allegedly spent up to $6.5 million dollars in bribes to help get their kids into top schools.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A billion-dollar Nigerian oil bribe equals the nation’s entire health budget

Dec 20, 2017
In Italy a judge declared that two multinational oil giants — and executives — will go on trial for a major bribery case involving Nigeria. At its core, it alleges Shell and the Italian oil giant Eni paid more than a billion dollars for oil-drilling rights that were actually bribes. Click the audio player above […]

Bribes are as old as the Olympics

Aug 5, 2016
Even in ancient Greece, bribes and corruption were part of the deal.
An artist rendering of ancient Olympia.
Wikipedia/Creative Commons

Freshly re-elected Sepp Blatter leaves FIFA

Jun 2, 2015
Sepp Blatter is taking a permanent timeout from FIFA.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter holds a press conference at the headquarters of the world's football governing body in Zurich on Tuesday. Blatter resigned as president of FIFA as a mounting corruption scandal engulfed world football's governing body. 
VALERIANO DI DOMENICO/AFP/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

China accuses GSK foreign executive of bribery

May 14, 2014
Chinese police took unprecedented step of charging a foreign executive of bribery.

Have you bribed someone in the past year?

Jul 9, 2013
According to a global public opinion survey, most people in the world believe corruption has increased in the last two years.

Bribing your kids to study: Does it work?

Aug 14, 2012
Listener Geri-Ellen Dow heard our Freakonomics segment on paying kids to do better in school, and tried the experiment out on her own son.