Show Notes
Let’s call it the luxury of restraint. This is what enabled Norway to avoid the fate of so many other countries when they discovered oil and it changed the mix of their economy overnight.
Norway! It’s expensive, wealthy, and abundant in resources. We’re going to compare two of them in particular today: deep reservoirs of oil and icy waters full of salmon. While one resource was heavily in demand, the country had an oversupply of the other.
In this episode, we learn how Norway built its wealth by carefully avoiding the pitfalls of discovering oil that have plagued countries in the past and how it creatively created demand for its raw fish abroad.
How do you dodge the dreaded resource curse? What clever ways can you benefit from oversupply? And lastly, how do you get rich and stay that way?
Featured Episodes: Norway Has Advice For Libya (2011) The Salmon Taboo (2015)
Featured Terms: Resource curse / Dutch disease / paradox of plenty Coordination problem Free-rider problem
Support: NPR+
Read: Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life (Audiobook here) Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter Our weekly Indicator link round-up newsletter
Follow: Instagram TikTok YouTube Facebook
This episode of Planet Money Summer School is hosted by Robert Smith. It was produced by Sophia Paliza-Carre and edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Cena Loffredo with help from Annlie Huang and Robert Rodriguez.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
More from Planet Money Summer School
This episode is packed with your best economic ideas from around the world and a penguin interview. It all comes together in this final session of Summer School 2026.
This week’s stop on our world tour - Korea. A country divided into two very different power structures since the end of WWII. Today South Korea is the maker of some of the world’s favorite exports – from Samsung TV’s to BTS. But 75 years ago it was a much different story. How the textile industry and a partnership with Bangladesh lifted the country out of poverty and paved the way for rapid economic growth.
Just about everyone in Argentina is an expert in inflation and whether they like it or not, economic flexibility. Can we learn from them?
Imagine a nation where, for the residents, land is for the claiming. You walk down the street, pick out a nice looking plot of land, and just plop down a marker. No rent, no taxes, no deed – just free land. That’s the communal system of property rights that governed a small Caribbean island for over a century.
Let’s head to a small town in Kenya that’s become globally famous for helping economists answer some of the biggest questions facing humanity.