The economics of Trading Places

A recent episode of Planet Money explores what the movie Trading Places can teach us about financial markets.

On today’s show, we talk to commodities traders to answer one of the most important questions in finance: What actually happens at the end of Trading Places?

We know something crazy happens on the trading floor. We know that Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd get rich and the Duke brothers lose everything. But how does it all happen? And could it happen in the real world?

Also on the show: The “Eddie Murphy Rule” that wound up in the the big financial overhaul law Congress passed in 2010.

One of my favorite movie moments is Eddie Murphy’s breaking of the fourth wall in this Trading Places scene:

• economics
• movies
• Trading Places