Business
How Do Interchange Fees Work, and Who Actually Pays
Your rewards are a share of a fee the shop paid. Debit interchange is capped by regulation, credit is not, and the difference is invisible at the terminal.
Topic
Regulation
10 stories
World
How Does Extradition Work, and Who Actually Decides
A court deciding somebody is extraditable does not order anyone handed over. The statute gives the surrender decision to the Secretary of State, and the word it uses is may.
Technology
Why Do Blackouts Happen, and Why a Grid Protects Itself
The picture of a grid running out of electricity is wrong. There is no tank, frequency is the live readout of the balance, and a cascade is the protection working.
Travel
How Are Plane Crashes Investigated, and Why Nobody Is Blamed
The most authoritative account of a crash is barred from the lawsuits over it. That exclusion is deliberate, and it is the reason the reports can be so direct.
World
How Does Diplomatic Immunity Work, and Where It Stops
Immunity is not one thing but four grades of it, and the remedies are political rather than judicial — which is why they look like an absence of consequences.
Health
How Are Medical Devices Approved, and Why Most Are Not
Cleared and approved are different words with different meanings. Most devices reach hospitals by resembling something already on the market, with no clinical trial at any point.
Business
How Does FDIC Insurance Work, and Who Pays for It
The limit everyone quotes has a third clause almost nobody reads, and the fund behind it comes from the banks rather than the federal budget.
Sports
Who Pays for Stadiums, and Why the Rules Backfired
A federal rule written to end stadium subsidies guaranteed them instead. To keep the tax break, at least 90% of the debt must be repaid from something other than the stadium.
Travel
How Airline Overbooking Works, and Who Gets Bumped
The gate auction is not a courtesy — it is a legal requirement, and it exists so the airline never has to pay the regulated amount. What the rules actually owe you.
Health
How Clinical Trials Work, and Why Most Drugs Fail
Roughly six in every hundred drugs that enter human testing come out the far end. The phases, the arithmetic between them, and what to check when a trial makes the news.