Betty Boop, Excel Olympics, Penny-isms: Our 2026 Valentines

What It Covers

Planet Money's 2024 Valentine's Day episode celebrates things the team loves: Jennifer Jenkins' annual public domain list, competitive Excel championships, Uniqlo's self-checkout technology, the US penny and its cultural phrases, and 404 Media's investigative reporting on ICE technology. The episode culminates in creating an official Planet Money Valentine featuring newly public domain Betty Boop.

Key Questions Answered

• •Public Domain Liberation: After a 20-year freeze caused by copyright extensions lobbied by Disney, works now enter public domain annually starting 2019. The 1930 Betty Boop cartoon, The Maltese Falcon book, Georgia on My Mind song, and All Quiet on the Western Front film all became free to use January 1, 2024, ending decades where nothing new entered public domain.
• •RFID Self-Checkout Economics: Uniqlo's seamless self-checkout uses RFID chips that dropped from 20 cents per tag a decade ago to 4 cents today according to McKinsey. This technology works for clothing retailers where 4 cents per item is negligible, but remains impractical for grocery stores selling low-margin items like peppers where the tag cost significantly impacts profitability.
• •Excel Competition Landscape: The Microsoft Excel Collegiate Competition held annually in Las Vegas features semifinals and finals with competitors on stage solving complex puzzles like planning trips for 500 people. Manufacturing is the industry using Excel most extensively, not finance or accounting, because the program's intuitive interface requires no advanced degree to operate effectively at scale.
• •Penny Elimination Impact: The US Mint stopped producing new pennies in 2024, saving 56 million dollars annually since each penny costs over 3 cents to manufacture. Existing pennies remain legal tender indefinitely. The decision eliminates centuries of penny-based phrases like penny wise and pound foolish, penny for your thoughts, and a penny saved is a penny earned from active cultural relevance.
• •Public Records Journalism: 404 Media demonstrates how reporters can generate investigative scoops by searching the federal procurement website at sam.gov for contracts signed by agencies like ICE. This basic accountability journalism technique reveals how tax dollars are spent, including technology contracts with companies like Palantir, requiring only public database access and systematic searching rather than insider sources or leaked documents.