Today on Planet Money:
-- Justin Ritchie of Charlotte, North Carolina, bought the living room set pictured above from a Craiglist ad. The seller, he says, was a Bank of America employee who decided now would be a good time to return to India.
-- When Super Bowl 43 is finished, the host city of Tampa can expect to count up a $150 million boost to its economy. But economist Philip Porter of the University of South Florida tells Mike Pesca there's no way that's true.
-- President Barack Obama says that only government can pull America out of a recession this severe. Obama calls his plan for stimulus spending of well more than $800 million a new idea, but Adam Davidson and Alex Blumberg say this kind of public spending relies on an old theory. John Maynard Keynes wrote it up in 1936 — and this recession marks its first real-world test.
Bonus: Results of our Name the Crisis poll, after the jump.
The name of the crisis is:
PONZICONOMY!!!!!
True confession: I voted for Economageddon, but wanted Great Recession to win.
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