The economy is not doing well. Unemployment is high, homes are worth what they were in 2003, and growth is weak.

But one sector is doing great: exports. They've been growing about four times as fast as the overall economy since the beginning of 2010.

This is part of a longer-term trend. Despite the myth that the U.S. doesn't make anything anymore, U.S. exports have actually been contributing a larger and larger share of the U.S. economy since the 1970s.

What's going on?

Last month, we published a post showing what people with full-time jobs do on days when they work.

That post made us curious: What do those people do on the weekends, when they're not working?

Here's the answer.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Credit: Lam Thuy Vo

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Heroin.

Earlier this summer, we assembled five prominent economists from across the political spectrum and gave them a simple task: Identify major economic policies they could all stand behind.

They agreed on a broad economic platform. A platform that would sink any political candidate that supported it. (Here's the show we did on their platform; here's a blog post.)

Today, we talk to those economists again. This time, we hear a bunch of the ideas some of them liked but others shot down — including free heroin for addicts, a new tax on financial speculation, and $2 trillion in new deficit spending on infrastructure projects.

Download the Planet Money iPhone App. Music: Brian Keane's "To The Summit" and Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Spotify/Tumblr/Secret bonus link.

Walt Disney Pictures/The Kobal Collection

This guy lives in a computer. Can you get him a job?

The world inside Mark Zandi's computer model feels pretty familiar. It's full of people who are worried about the economy. Their homes are being foreclosed on. They're paying more for gas. Something like 13 million of them can't find jobs.

Zandi is the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, and he built his model to predict what's going to happen in the real world. When he plugs what he thinks is going to happen in the real world, his model spits out a pretty grim result: Four years from now, the unemployment rate will be 6.6 percent. That's lower than today, but still much higher than the 5 percent rate that was typical before the recession.

I recently sat down with Zandi, and gave him a challenge: Fix the economy in the world inside your computer. Try to ensure that, four years from now, the unemployment rate inside the computer will get back down to 5 percent.

Jim Watson/Getty Images

Any questions?

What people think is going to happen to the economy has a huge influence over what actually happens. If you can change peoples' expectations, you can change the world.

The Federal Reserve knows this. And, as Robert Smith pointed out this morning, Ben Bernanke and the Fed have been using the power of expectations more and more in recent years.

This afternoon, the Fed took another huge step in this direction.

Alex Brandon/AP

Give us a sign.

We think of the power of the Federal Reserve as the power of money. After all, the Fed is the one institution that can create U.S. dollars out of thin air.

But recently, Ben Bernanke has argued that the Fed has another, critical power: the power of words. And when you're the chairman of the Fed, a few words can go a long way.

In a speech last month, Bernanke said this: "The Federal Reserve will provide additional policy accommodation as needed to promote a stronger economic recovery ..."

After the speech, the TV business channels went wild, suggesting that big Fed action was coming soon.

But how does the magic work? How do a few cryptic words get everyone so worked up?

Enlarge USPTO

USPTO

The WSJ reports:

The fashion industry's latest hope for protecting its designs may hang on a slimming pair of yoga pants.

Yoga-apparel maker Lululemon Athletica Inc. is accusing fashion house Calvin Klein Inc. of infringing on design patents for its popular $98 "Astro Pant" in a legal battle that could provide new ammunition for the industry to wield against copycats while bolstering Lululemon's dominant position in high-end yoga apparel.

Lululemon, in a complaint filed in federal court in Delaware last month, claims that Calvin Klein is selling pants that "have infringed and are still infringing" on three patents, including one for a distinctive waistband featuring overlapping panels of fabric. The company was awarded one of the patents last year, and the two others in June.

A lawsuit over $98 yoga pants feels sort of ridiculous its face. But the case is actually a big deal.

After falling during the recession, the number of Americans with full-time jobs increased last year.

Enlarge Census Bureau

Census Bureau

But median earnings for full-time workers fell. (Also: The wage gap between men and women did not change.)

Enlarge Marvin Oreallana/The New York Times , iStockphoto.com, Collectspace.com, Lam Thuy Vo/NPR

Marvin Oreallana/The New York Times , iStockphoto.com, Collectspace.com, Lam Thuy Vo/NPR

A cab ride through the streets of Manhattan. A cramped room in Brooklyn where a man makes beautiful suits by hand. A company in Germany that can't hire workers fast enough. A trip to the moon and back.

On today's show, we have four short Planet Money stories.

For more:

* Does New York City Need More Taxis?

* This Man Makes Beautiful Suits, But He Can't Afford To Buy One

* Why Don't More Unemployed Spaniards Get Jobs In Germany?

* What The Apollo Astronauts Did For Life Insurance

Subscribe to the podcast. Music: Dispatch's "Circles Around the Sun." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook.

Kiichiro Sato/AP

Waiting to help the economy grow.

The iPhone 5 will give a nice boost to U.S. economic growth in the last three months of this year, according to a new note from JPMorgan.

Not surprisingly, lots of people are writing about this note. It's a prediction about the iPhone 5! And the economy!

But the prediction is based on a ridiculous assumption.

It's been four years since the U.S. launched a massive bailout of the financial system and the auto industry. While much of the bailout money has been paid back, the government still owns large shares in companies such as AIG and GM, and has yet to recoup some $200 billion in bailouts.

Here's a breakdown by industry.

Source: Paul Kiel and Dan Nguyen / ProPublica

Credit: Lam Thuy Vo / NPR