Electricity prices are up 6.9% year over year — much higher than overall inflation — and costs are expected to go up even more in the future. So, how are energy-hungry data centers, used to power AI, crypto, and more, impacting electric bills? That's a question that several Senate Democrats had, who opened an investigation into tech firms this week. Also on the show: TikTok ownership and real estate agents' thoughts on the market.

From the BBC World Service: The Chinese owners of TikTok have signed a deal to sell the company's ‌U.S. assets to a joint venture led by American investors. This morning, we'll parse the details of the agreement. Then, Ukraine will receive a loan of more than $100 billion from the European Union to fund its war against Russia. Plus, Morocco is staging the Africa Cup of Nations soccer tournament, but not everyone's pleased about the money being spent on it.

Building artificial intelligence tools requires a lot of graphic processing units, and those GPUs need huge amounts of ultra-fast memory to feed them data. Micron Technology is one of a handful of memory chip makers that has been selling a whole lot of memory, thanks to the AI boom.

Plus, cloud company Oracle's data center debt is coming under scrutiny. And Merriam-Webster names the word of the year for 2025: slop.

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, to learn more on this week’s Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.

November inflation data came in lower than expected, according to the latest CPI report. But we can’t compare it to the previous month, since the BLS skipped several October reports. And data collection began late thanks to the shutdown, right in the middle of retailers’ Black Friday sales. In this episode, key caveats to the November CPI. Plus: Experts cautiously predict a more balanced housing market in 2026, tech stocks take a hit as data center debt climbs, and a growing number of politicians reject economists’ expertise.

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Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.

Long-term care is expensive in the United States. With Medicaid spending cuts looming and the Trump administration’s deportation plans threatening the caregiving workforce, the system is under even more pressure. On today’s show, Allison Hoffman, health law expert at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School, joins Kimberly to unpack why the caregiving industry suffers from chronic labor shortages and how the U.S. could finance long-term care differently to make it more affordable.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• "What Role Do Immigrants Play in The Direct Long-Term Care Workforce?" from KFF
• "Trump’s deportation plans threaten 400,000 direct care jobs: Older adults and people with disabilities could lose vital in-home support" from Economic Policy Institute 
• "A brief history of Medicaid and America’s long struggle to establish a health care safety net" from The Conversation 
• "The age-old problem of long-term care" from MIT News 
• "Solving the Home Care Quandary" from The New York Times

Join us tomorrow for “Economics on Tap.” The YouTube livestream starts at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time, 6:30 p.m. Eastern.

In his 19-minute address to the nation last night, President Donald Trump argued that he inherited a mess from former President Biden; the president claimed he'd made historic improvements to the lives of Americans over the past 11 months. Today, we'll dig into the claims — from the accurate, to the misleading, and the wrong. Also on the show: how scammers are using AI-generated ads to trick shoppers.

As the year draws to a close, it's clear that the post-COVID hiring bonanza has ended, and job-hunting has gotten trickier. Experts are predicting next year to be marked by more of the same: a low-hire, low-fire labor market. Plus, the Nasdaq asks the SEC for permission to allow close to 24/7 trading, and a federal appeals court is blocking the firing of most workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

From the BBC World Service: The European Union says it's close to agreeing a trade deal with the South American economic bloc Mercosur, which represents Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The agreement covers all aspects of trade, but the most controversial area is agriculture. Farmers have been protesting because they fear a glut of cheap imports. Then, the European Commission unveiled its first-ever roadmap for tackling a Europe-wide housing affordability crisis earlier this week. We'll discuss it with the EU's housing Commissioner.

Search engines, social media, e-commerce, and mobile games all make money by selling advertising. But making ads work in AI search might not be so straight forward. Perplexity, for instance, reportedly pulled back on plans to integrate ads into their AI search engine. And internal documents showed the company made only $20,000 in ad revenue in the fourth quarter last year.

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Garrett Johnson, professor of marketing at Boston University to get a sense of why jumping into the ad business is difficult.

A U.S. blockade of Venezuelan oil tankers may sound disruptive, but global oil is plentiful, and Gulf Coast refiners remain tied to Venezuela’s heavy crude after decades of investment. If sanctions are lifted and Venezuelan oil flows again, it could benefit refiners and drivers alike. Also in this episode: why bank deposits are growing, how the Gap staged a successful turnaround, and where trade workers are experimenting with AI.

Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter.

Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.