Marketplace
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Marketplace
Every weekday, host Kai Ryssdal helps you make sense of the day's business and economic news — no econ degree or finance background required. "Marketplace" takes you beyond the numbers, bringing you context. Our team of reporters all over the world speak with CEOs, policymakers and regular people ju...
Recent Episodes
301 episodes
Refineries brace for crude drought
President Trump’s war with Iran continues to provoke economic consequences. With the Strait of Hormuz closed, Middle East crude oil will be blocked fr...
CPI, demystified
The Februrary consumer price index report is out, and it’s got some new data points that can tell us what’s going on in the broader economy — even tho...
Jet fuel prices soar as war continues
As war in the Middle East pushes oil prices up, the price of jet fuel rises too. And that means air travel could get more expensive. The catch? Airlin...
Consumers were pessimistic before the war. Now what?
Consumer sentiment was already trending negative before the war in Iran started, a war that so far has precipitated climbing oil prices and geopolitic...
Job numbers fall short of expectations
The latest jobs report showed a loss of 92,000 jobs in February. After months of slightly easing, unemployment crept up too, to 4.4%. Even the health...
Why manufacturing employment continues to fall
The February jobs report isn’t out until Friday. Still, experts are all but certain the manufacturing sector will have lost jobs compared to last year...
"The Pitt" is the ultimate workplace drama
R. Scott Gemmill swore he’d never make another medical drama after “ER.” Good news: We’d argue his hit HBO Max series “The Pitt” is really a workplace...
War sends cargo to the skies
Military conflict, like the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran, can wreck carefully planned cargo routes. While some ships were sent around the Horn of A...
Overnight, a wartime economy
It’s too early to know how long the U.S. and Israel war against Iran will last. One certainty? All-out war comes at a cost. Already, Qatar has cut nat...
Fast-casual meal deals are upon us
When you hear "meal deal" you probably think of fast-food chains, like McDonald’s. But as daily life grows more unaffordable, a new tier of chain rest...
A private credit market boom
The private credit market has grown fivefold since 2008 — it’s somewhere near the $2 trillion-mark globally. In this episode, we explain why policies...
Expect and you shall recieve
Consumer surveys show us Americans think inflation will climb in the coming years. That belief could be one reason inflation actually does climb. See,...
"We're trying to control what we can control": A Fed president reflects
Raphael Bostic, president of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank since 2017, will step down from his post this week. “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal spoke...
Let's talk about the new Trump tariff
In response to the SCOTUS decision overturning most of President Trump’s tariffs, the White House announced a new, sweeping tariff of 15% worldwide ov...
How to dodge tariffs on Chinese goods
The Supreme Court struck down many of President Trump’s tariffs today. We’ll discuss how the decision might affect businesses and consumers. Also in t...
The price is never right anymore
Consumers have gotten worse at guessing how much goods cost, research shows. Call that literal sticker shock? Accelerated price growth might be to bla...
Immigration and job growth are linked, Fed says
Areas that recently experienced the largest slowdowns in unauthorized immigration also saw the largest slowdowns in employment growth, according to da...
Why would the Fed loosen mortgage regulations?
After the 2008 housing market crash, new rules required banks hold capital reserves proportional to the home loans they issued. In response, banks iss...
What if Trump does roll back steel and aluminum tariffs?
The White House may roll back steel and aluminum tariffs, according to the Financial Times. Sure, President Donald Trump has announced or enacted tari...
Inside the "biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history"
On Thursday, Feb. 12, the Environmental Protection Agency announced the revocation of the “endangerment finding,” a federal determination that planet-...
More K-shaped spending
When high earners ramp up their spending while low earners pull back, that’s a symptom of a "k-shaped" economy. But what about middle-income household...
Here's what we learned from the January jobs report
The January jobs report came out Wednesday, and on the surface, it was better than expected. The economy added more jobs than it has in months and the...
Holiday spending slowdown
New data show retail sales were flat in December, despite high expectations for the holiday season. So did shoppers spend less? Or did they just front...
Less-than-great expectations for upcoming jobs data
The January jobs report and consumer price index come out this week, and experts expect both employment and inflation to hold relatively steady. But t...
Consumer mood sours
On the whole, consumers are feeling 20% worse about the economy than they were a year ago, according to the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumer...
There are more unemployed people than job openings right now
The latest JOLTS report is bleaker than expected. There were 6.5 million job openings across the U.S. economy in December, down nearly 400,000 from th...
Cargo theft ramps up
“Retail theft” often conjures Hollywood-esque heist scenes or sleight of hand at self-checkout. But 2025 was likely the biggest year on record for ano...
Heavy on celebrity, light on social commentary
It's a big week for major televised events: The Winter Olympics kick off Wednesday and Super Bowl Sunday is nigh. Brands used to save their biggest, s...
Why higher productivity doesn't equal wage growth
Productivity — the rate at which companies make what they make, or do what they do — has been a reliably bright spot in this economy. But wage growth...
How small businesses navigated the ICE strike
Activists called for a nationwide shutdown of economic activity Friday, Jan. 30, following another killing by immigration officials. But in this unfor...
Energy bill burdens grow
Electricity prices have increased by approximately 40% since 2021, far outpacing inflation. Despite AI data centers making headlines as energy-suckers...
Does the EU even want a strong euro?
We keep hearing how the U.S. dollar has been “weakening.” Put another way, the euro is getting stronger: It hit $1.20 earlier this week. But the langu...
Let's tour the growing AI economy
Artificial intelligence companies raised enormous amounts of money in 2025, and made major investments in development and infrastructure. What’s next?...
As AI expands, Americans have doubts
Artificial intelligence is one of a handful of industries propelling this economy forward. But as the sector explodes, not everyone is on board. Ameri...
Your car company also wants to be your bank
The FDIC has approved proposals by GM and Ford to launch their own banking units. That means the automakers will be able to provide their own auto loa...
Here's what kept GDP climbing last summer
Revised GDP data for this past summer shows the U.S. economy grew faster than we initially thought. A few key parts of the private services sector pro...
The EU owns $8 trillion in Treasurys
The EU owns $8 trillion in Treasurys. Sure, Eurozone governments probably won’t use ‘em as leverage in the Trump-Greenland situation — and even if the...
The global trade status quo is shifting. Will the U.S. be left out?
After decades of globalization, the U.S. may be paying a political price: International leaders are forging new trade agreements independent of Americ...
U.S.-EU relationship status: It's complicated
President Trump has announced new tariffs on European Union countries, aimed at forcing a deal for the U.S. to acquire Greenland. But the EU could res...
Skilled labor scarcity
An AI-driven construction boom is coming, some hope. But to build all that infrastructure, the U.S. is going to need a lot more construction workers,...