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Transportation agencies in Massachusetts are saddled with debt — and you may have to pay for it. This week on The Bottom Line podcast, the triple whammy: higher Turnpike tolls, higher T fares and higher gas taxes.

Plus, the recession may be changing our eating habits, for better or for worse. Host Curt Nickisch goes grocery shopping with someone who lost her job.

And a psychologist says “Type T” personalities could fare well in this economy.

This week’s Bottom Line BUZZWORD: nationalization. We explain it once and for all.

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This week on The Bottom Line podcast: As the economic stimulus package meanders through Congress, President Obama warns us the crisis could become irreversible if lawmakers don’t act now.

…Really? Co-hosts Curt Nickisch and Andrew Phelps pick apart this week’s Bottom Line Buzzword, uttered by POTUS himself: Catastrophe.

Car Talk's Ray Magliozzi, left, and his brother, Tom, in 2008. (AP)

Plus, we nominate Car Talk’s Ray Magliozzi for car czar. He’s happy with his day job at the Good News Garage, thank you very much, but he returns to the show with some advice for the next car czar: “I don’t think any stimulus or any overnight answer is going to suffice here. I think they’re going to have to start innovating.” Ray suggests the government partner with the Big 3 to build a nationwide high-speed rail network. And he renews his call for a 50-cent national gas tax.

Also on the show: If your colleagues lose their jobs but you get to keep yours, how do you feel? A workplace psychologist says a lot of people suffer survivor’s guilt at the office.

And we check in again on Dancing Deer Baking Company, a Boston cookie shop that just laid of 10 people after years of growth. There is definitely some survivor’s guilt going on there. (You can catch the whole series over here.)

Get the week’s economy news — with a Boston accent — on The Bottom Line from WBUR.

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Independent financial fraud investigator Harry Markopolos testifies on Capitol Hill in a hearing on the Madoff scandal. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

We just love those Markopolos one-liners. This week’s Bottom Line podcast roars like a lion and bites like a flea. You could fly the Bottom Line podcast to Boston, sit it in Fenway Park, and it wouldn’t be able to find first base.

This week on the show: A Massachusetts whistle blower scores one of the biggest “I-told-you-so’s” ever — after blowing the whistle on Bernard Madoff again and again and again. Harry Markopolos had scathing words for the sheepish SEC this week on Capitol Hill. We dig into the story with Bloomberg News editor Steve Geimann.

Robert Reich

And Republican Texas Congressman John Culberson says President Obama’s huge stimulus package is a “Trojan horse that liberals are using to ultimately turn America into France, because it contains massive expansion of multiple federal programs that are utterly unrelated to stimulating the economy.”

Robert Reich says baloney! We hear why he thinks a gigantic spending plan is just the first step toward building a new economy. (Read Reich’s essay in the Washington Post, hear his whole conversation with Tom Ashbrook, or read his blog.)

Plus, we profile two people who are unemployed in Massachusetts — and how hard they’re trying to get a job. And host Curt Nickisch explains how Facebook and Twitter are the new career centers in a 21st century recession. (Speaking of which, we’re on Twitter and Facebook, too.)

What are you doing in your job search? Or are you feeling lucky enough to keep one? Let us know in the comments.

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Brother, can you spare several dollars? (AP Photo)

This week on The Bottom Line podcast: It’s raining layoffs. We hear from three Americans who are “downsized,” “rebalanced,” laid off — whatever you want to call it. And we examine all the corporate euphemisms for getting fired. Plus, “On Point” host Tom Ashbrook grills the leading free-market economist of the last generation: Find out if Martin Feldstein’s worldview has changed after ushering in Reaganomics 25 years ago. And we talk about the market heating up for the Boston Red Sox, now that the New York Times Co. is selling its share. Hosted by WBUR’s Curt Nickisch.

What about you? What are some of your (least) favorite euphemisms? Have you been laid off? We want to hear from you. Maybe we’ll put you in the show next week. Sound off in the comments.

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This week on The Bottom Line podcast: The tricky transition of financial power in Washington. We talk with Harvard economist Linda Bilmes about the kind of money crisis a President Obama will face.

Host Curt Nickisch looks at how Massachusetts is lining up the “shovel-ready” projects Obama’s calling for. And where does that buzzphrase, “shovel-ready,” come from?

Plus, author Stephen Greenspan writes a book on gullibility — and then admits he got duped by Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

And WBUR’s David Boeri hooks up with newly laid off Bostonians trying to ease their worries with a “pink slip party,” which is apparently back in vogue these days.

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Ray (left) and Tom Magliozzi, circa a long time ago

This week on the Bottom Line podcast: Ray Magliozzi, on why he supports a 50-cent national gas tax: “We would want to discourage people,” Ray says, “who had no good reason to drive a pick-up truck that got 11 miles per gallon just because they wanted to commute back and forth from Home Depot just to buy plants.”

A little bit of “Car Talk” tax talk with Ray Magliozzi. Plus, WBUR’s Meghna Chakrabarti explains the pros and cons of increasing the gas tax in Massachusetts by 23 cents.

Plus, President-elect Barack Obama proposes a stimulus package as big as $800 billion. We get analysis of Obama’s first speech since the election with columnist Robert J. Samuelson of Newsweek and the Washington Post.

High-tech firm EMC, of Hopkinton, Mass., announces the layoffs of 2,400 people — even though the company boasts record profits this year. WBUR’s Fred Thys visits Hopkinton to gauge the impact on the community.

Finally, the shockwave of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme reaches the shores of tiny, tony Nantucket. It involves one of the island’s summer residents and a Bulgarian housekeeper.

Subscribe now to our podcast, and let us know what you think. We’re new and open to ideas.

Enjoy!

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This week on a jam-packed Bottom Line podcast: We look back on a not-so-merry Christmas for the U.S. economy –the worst holiday season for retailers since 1970, according to one trade group.

• » Host Curt Nickisch re-visits a Boston cookie company that believes flat is the new up.
• » WBUR’s Andrea Shea re-examines literature’s stingiest skinflint: Ebenezer Scrooge.
• » Here & Now host Robin Young asks how we calculate the unemployment rate. (Hint: It should be much higher.)
• » Curt examines the seemingly indefatigable Massachusetts hospital industry, which is showing signs of sickness.
• » And Anthony Brooks reports on a middle-class Massachusetts family that’s just getting by on $150,000 a year.

Don’t miss the first Bottom Line of 2009. And let us know what you think of our new show in the comments.

• » Bake Or Break: WBUR’s series of profiles on Dancing Deer Baking Company
• » The Vanishing Middle Class: Inside Out

The Bottom Line podcast takes a holiday break next week. We’ll return Friday, January 2, 2009. In the meantime, stay with the blog for daily updates. Enjoy your holiday!

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Bernard Madoff

This week on the new Bottom Line podcast: Bernie Madoff made off with a lot of money, and there’s plenty to sort through in the biggest Ponzi scheme ever. Here in Boston, the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Foundation lost $155 million overnight. We get the lowdown on the Madoff scandal from Wall Street Journal reporter Amir Ephrati.

And as the rich get richer, the middle class keeps getting squeezed. But what is the “middle class?” It might be defined by more than just money. We present part of WBUR’s new Inside Out documentary: “The Vanishing Middle Class.”

Plus, we get perspective on today’s financial crisis from people who lived through the Great Depression. And we continue our look at Dancing Deer, a Boston cookie company choosing to expand as the economy crumbles.

Hosted by WBUR’s Curt Nickisch.

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This week on the new Bottom Line podcast: President-elect Barack Obama says he’s disappointed about the apparent collapse of a $14 billion bailout for U.S. automakers. We speak with two big thinkers about the debate: John Paul MacDuffie, co-director of the International Motor Vehicle Program, a research consortium at MIT; and David Rothkopf, an undersecretary of commerce in the Clinton administration.

And like a lot of people in Detroit, Bishop Charles Ellis is praying for the industry’s salvation. He made headlines this week after bringing American-made SUV’s into the sanctuary for Sunday services.

Porsche Crawford, left, Terrell Byes and Lynette Clark, right, dance during hymns with a Ford Escape Hybrid, a Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid, and a Chrysler Aspen Hybrid behind them at the Greater Grace Temple, a Pentecostal church in Detroit Sunday, Dec. 7, 2008. (AP Photo)

Struggling homeowners are wondering if they’ll get a bailout. We speak to Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Corkery on what Washington is doing about the foreclosure crisis now — and what to expect once Obama takes office next month.

Meanwhile, Miami housing activist Max Rameau is putting up homeless people in foreclosed homes. It’s totally illegal, but he says people deserve houses, not banks.

Catch up on the week’s economic news with the Bottom Line podcast.

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To hear the best of WBUR’s coverage of business, the markets and your money, subscribe to our new Bottom Line podcast (iTunes, other formats), which we’re introducing today.

Every Friday, business and technology reporter Curt Nickisch presents the economic week in review. Hear hosts Bob Oakes, Tom Ashbrook and Robin Young talk with some of the brightest thinkers. Hear stories about New England and beyond from the WBUR newsroom.

This week on The Bottom Line: Infrastructure. New York Times columnist David Leonhardt says we need to get smarter about infrastructure spending to stimulate the economy. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick says the states deserves a big share of the next economic stimulus. And a transportation expert ranks the Mass Pike the most inefficient toll road in the country.