This is Planet Money from npr.
A little while back, I bought something online that frankly seemed too good to be true.
And after seeing this thing with my own eyes, I knew I had to share it with somebody.
My Planet Money colleague, Sarah Gonzalez.
It's like a white envelope.
I had mailed this thing to her as a kind of proposal to,
you know, co host this episode about this very strange economic mystery.
And then more bubble wrap.
This package had come from the Chinese e commerce website, Alibaba.
Alibaba is the kind of place where you can buy,
like, two dozen lawnmowers straight from the factory.
You gotta pop the bubbles.
But what I had bought, it's a lot smaller.
Oh, so satisfying.
And a lot shinier.
Jeff, what is this?
Is it a fake diamond or a real diamond?
Sarah, this is not a real diamond.
According to the website that I bought it off of, that is a real diamond.
What?