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Hello, and welcome to the chicken or the eggs edition of Slate Money, your guide to the

business and finance news of the week.

Felix Salmon of Fusion is sadly out on vacation right now.

Not sad for him, I don't think.

No, not sad for him, but deeply sad for us.

So I'll be your host.

I'm Slate with Moneybox columnist, Jordan Weissman.

And as always, I am joined by the lovely and brilliant Kathy O'Neill, the blogger at

mathbabe.org. Hi, everyone. And we have, don't worry, it's not just a duo this week. We have a

...