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Last week the Federal Trade Commission made a big announcement.

It was about non-compete agreements.

These agreements that prevent workers

from leaving their jobs for competitors

or to start new rival businesses.

The FTC said, starting later this year,

the vast majority of non-compete agreements cannot be enforced anymore.

They will effectively be banned.

We reported an episode a few years ago about where non-competes came from. So we're going to play that

episode now. And later on we will give you an update about when or if that new FTC ruling

will go into effect.

This is Planet Money from NPR.

Back in the 90s, Jeff Hong's an ambitious software engineer living in Los Angeles, working for Microsoft,

living the life. His job was to find and work with Microsoft's latest clients.

So I would go off from place to place helping people build fairly large systems.

So say the Disney stores need backend software or Citibank needed to improve their online banking, Jeff would help them build those systems.

And then after a few years I convinced my corporate masters that we should open an office in Hawaii.

Don't we all want to open offices in Hawaii, but for Jeff, Hawaii is home.

I was born in Hawaii. I grew up here. My family celebrated over a hundred years of being here in Hawaii.

And moving back put him somewhat closer to another important part of his life.

...