Eight times a year, regional Federal Reserve Banks release a collection of anecdotes that reveal stories about the economy. These stories come together in what's known as the "Beige Book," and we award the regional bank with the best entry with our coveted Beigie Award. Today, we're highlighting an entry that gets to the heart of the contradictions we're seeing when it comes to consumer preferences and sentiment. 

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Americans don't like higher prices but they LOVE buying new things

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Back in 2019, The Indicator started checking in on with a Venezuelan economist Gabriela Saade. The economy was in freefall. The country was suffering from hyperinflation and a huge jump in poverty.  Today, the U.S. faces a spike in migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, many from Venezuela. So we check back in with Gabriela. Venezuela is due to go to the polls in July. We ask Gabriela and two other Venezuelans: what are economic conditions like at the moment? How has life changed since the pandemic? Some of the answers surprised us.

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Why Venezuela is no longer in freefall

What happens when small town politics collide with the climate crisis? And how do hazard maps—maps that show which homes in your neighborhood are at risk of getting destroyed or damaged by a natural disaster—come into play? On today's episode, how some people—from Indiana to Oregon to Alaska—are facing some very real concerns about insurance and the ability to sell their houses.

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Hazard maps: The curse of knowledge

In Western Colorado, towns and farms are banding together to pay a hundred million dollars for water they don't intend to use. Today on the show, how scarcity, climate change and a first-dibs system of water management is forcing towns, farms and rural residents to get spendy. 

Related episodes:
A watershed moment in the West? (Apple / Spotify) 
The Amazon, the Colorado River and a price on nature 
Water in the West: Bankrupt? 

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How Colorado towns are trying to get some water certainty

It's Jobs Friday and the jobs report is in! There's more jobs! ... but not as many as expected. And there's a teensy bit  more unemployment and slower wage growth. But there's an upside ... Plus, healthcare is growing like gangbusters and how immigrants affect American-born workers.

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Not too hot, not too cold: a 'Goldilocks' jobs report

College campuses nationwide are erupting with protests against Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza. A consistent theme among these actions: a call for university endowment "divestment." 

Today, we unpack what that means and how divestment would work. Plus, we hear from an expert who explains why divestment might not have the effect that many believe.

Related episodes:
Why Israel uses diaspora bonds (Apple / Spotify)  
How much of your tax dollars are going to Israel and Ukraine (Apple / Spotify)

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Americans don't like higher prices but they LOVE buying new things

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