Economy

Volkswagen announced Thursday a fourth engineer has been suspended as it continues to investigate the decision to install emissions cheating software on 11 million vehicles. Company officials have suggested only a small number of people knew about the deception. It's a claim many observers find hard to believe.

We've come to expect a steady stream of flashy new gadgets from the booming tech sector, but another area of innovation in Silicon Valley is how we work, mainly the structure of our offices and companies. Planet Money tells the story of a company that has no employees, doesn't pay any salaries, but has hundreds of extremely talented workers nonetheless.

China's economic growth is slowing and misallocation of resources is making things worse. In one city in recession, the new airport is mostly empty and plans for a giant liquor factory have stalled.

As states consider allowing employers to completely opt out of workers' compensation plans, NPR and ProPublica take a look at how the concept has worked in Texas.

New federally mandated rules for mortgages go into effect at the end of this week. The goal: to keep people from getting pressured into signing bad loans or getting bait-and-switched when they go to close on their home loan.

The NPR/ProPublica investigation examining workers' compensation continues with a look at an emerging trend: employers opting out of workers' comp altogether.