Marketplace All-in-One

There’s been a surge of multi-unit construction going on, and we look into the reasons for it. Among them – as people moved out of cities during the thick of the pandemic era, they headed to the suburbs. That triggered higher rents and the kind of motivation to build more apartments and condos. Diane Swonk stops by to offer insight on how the inflation-fighting tactics in the U.S. could have ripple effects throughout the rest of the world. Speaking of rising prices, another issue appears from above: avian flu, which is driving up the cost of eggs.

May 1 is National College Decision Day, but as that day approaches, there’s data that shows a drop in college enrollment during the pandemic. The freshman enrollment rate last fall was 9.2% lower than prior to the pandemic in the fall of 2019, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. This is causing many counselors to rethink how they approach broaching the subject of the future with students. For more, we spoke to Steve Schneider, a school counselor at Sheboygan South High School in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The Justice Department is appealing a judge’s ruling that voided the nationwide transportation mask mandate.

From the BBC World Service: The final two candidates for France’s presidency – incumbent centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right challenger Marine Le Pen – went head-to-head in a live TV debate last night. They clashed over issues ranging from France’s place in Europe to Le Pen’s alleged proximity to Russian President Vladimir Putin. China’s president, Xi Jinping, has restated Beijing’s opposition to sanctions imposed by western countries on Russia. And a global survey has found that, in general, women are wearing less makeup to the office.

Keeping tabs on groundwater is more important than ever. Most of the western United States is suffering the most extreme drought in 12 centuries, and climate change only promises to make things worse. Underground aquifers can provide lifelines for farmers and cities, but pumping them dry causes the earth to sag, which is called subsidence. This can create sinkholes and destroy infrastructure. But groundwater is hard to monitor; it’s sometimes located thousands of feet below the surface. That’s where satellites come in. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino speaks with Kyra Kim, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where they’ve created a model to track groundwater levels using two satellite systems.

It’s Whaddya Wanna Know Wednesday, that time of the week when our hosts answer your questions! We’ll start with a couple of questions about the Fed’s interest rate policy. One listener asks why a jump in mortgage rates doesn’t seem to be in line with the central bank’s single rate hike, and another wonders why banks and credit card companies don’t raise their own interest rates instead of waiting for the Fed. We’ll also follow up with yesterday’s guest for a question about refugee placement in the United States, and explain how Elon Musk made it to the top rank of the world’s richest people.

Here’s everything we talked about on the show today:

Homeowners associations aren’t just making rules about lawn ornaments and holiday decorations. HOAs are increasingly leveraging their authority to restrict investors from buying up houses to rent. Today, we’ll dive into what that means for wannabe buyers and renters. Also on the program: Consumers stick with pricier brands (for now), inflation complicates infrastructure spending and student debt cancellation could narrow the racial wealth gap.

The Biden administration is extending a financial lifeline to nuclear power plants in danger of closing before their licenses expire. A recent report from an advocacy group has detailed the perils of gig worker life in the United States – more than 50 drivers have been killed on the job in the last five years. Susan Schmidt of Aviva Investors talks about the rising confidence of investors reflected in the market, even in the face of rising prices.

The streaming service that became a way of life for most people during the height of the pandemic just announced that it lost about 200,000 subscribers in the first three months of the year – and expects that number to be around 2 million through June. The response? A possible lower-cost, ad-supported version of the service. We check on the state of airlines, where ticket prices are rising and fuel has become even more expensive. Student loans, while burdensome, appear to equal no regrets for many people under age 40.

Today European delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway.com announced it’s looking to offload its American subsidiary Grubhub, which it purchased less than two years ago for more than $7 billion. The U.K.’s competition watchdog will get new powers to crack down on fake product reviews posted online. To crack down on overcrowding, the Italian city of Venice will require tourists who are only visiting for the day to book their slot in advance and pay an entrance fee.

The internet can be a scary place for women, from mansplaining and unwanted advances to coordinated harassment campaigns, doxxing and physical threats. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino speaks with Nina Jankowicz, author of a new book about this, “How to Be a Woman Online: Surviving Abuse and Harassment, and How to Fight Back,” which comes out Thursday. Jankowicz says women are bearing most of the burden of fighting online trolls.