Marketplace

By Marketplace

Business

What's Marketplace about?

Marketplace® is the leading business news program in the nation. Host Kai Ryssdal and our team of reporters bring you clear explorations of how economic news affects you, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Airing each weekday evening on your local public radio station or on-demand anytime, Marketplace is your liaison between economics and life. Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal is part of the Marketplace portfolio of public radio programs broadcasting nationwide, which additionally includes Marketplace Morning Report®, Marketplace Weekend®, and Marketplace Tech®. Visit marketplace.org for more. From American Public Media. Twitter: @Marketplace

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LAST EPISODE

“China is the Wakanda of on...

11.14.2019

From the BBC World Service… Germany narrowly avoids recession. China is light years ahead of Google when it comes to online payments. Plus, Sweden sets an example when it comes to closing the gender pay gap.

Marketplace episodes:

11.13.2019 Are states ready for a recession? The unemployment rate is at near-record lows, but if that changes, it will mostly fall to states to pay unemployment benefits. That’s what happened in the Great Recession, but many states had to borrow to make up the gap. Plus: ...
11.11.2019 Rebuilding Paradise The town of Paradise, California, is still trying to recover from the deadly and destructive Camp Fire that broke out in November 2018, killing 85 people and destroying more than 13,000 homes. In the days and weeks after the fire, ...
11.11.2019 Is Apple’s credit card all about the patriarchy? Apple’s credit card is accused denying approval to women while giving it to their less credit-worthy male partners. Troubles in Hong Kong are making investors nervous. Plus, the opportunity the fall of the Berlin Wall gave a young girl from ...
11.09.2019 WeWork-ers are trying to organize without a union Former WeWork head Adam Neumann walked away with a $1.7 billion payout when he was forced out of the company. Now, ahead of the planned layoffs of thousands of workers, WeWork employees are organizing to make demands of management. It’s ...
11.08.2019 The recession that wasn’t (yet) The risk of a possible recession appears to have died down. So what happened? And are regular business owners and consumers feeling any better about the economy? We look into it. Then, what you need to know about Xerox’s offer ...
11.06.2019 Working hard or hardly working? Productivity was down 0.3% last quarter, which isn’t a seismic change, but it’s part of a downward trend. Americans are working hard, so why are they working in the slow lane? We look into it. Plus: how climate change is ...
11.06.2019 Feeling the trade war on the farm We’re taking the macro and micro angles on the trade war today. First, looking at the factors that caused the U.S. trade deficit to fall more than 4% to $52.5 billion. Then zooming in to look at how farmers in ...
11.04.2019 ‘Tis the season (for open enrollment) Halloween’s over, so you know what that means … it’s open enrollment! And this year, the marketplace has more “skinny” health care plans. But one person’s cheap, streamlined coverage package is another person’s “crappy insurance.” Plus: Why the government is ...
11.01.2019 Deadspin’s death spiral Once upon a time, Deadspin was a go-to website for sports, culture and news. Then a private equity company bought it. After being told to “stick to sports,” staff protested by quitting en masse. The disaster says a lot about ...
10.31.2019 Segregation’s legacy lingers Chrishelle Palay never expected to be living in Kashmere Gardens, a historically black neighborhood in Houston that’s still struggling with the legacy of segregation and neglect. Then her great-aunt died and left her house to the family. On today’s installment ...
10.30.2019 What we buy — and why Retail may be changing, but so are consumers. That’s why we’re launching “How We Shop,” a new series looking at how, what and why we buy. To kick it off, we follow a shopper who takes frugality to the next ...
10.29.2019 Who’s setting expectations on Wall Street? Every earnings season, when companies announce how well a quarter went for them, you’ll see a pretty common headline: whether or not a given company beat or missed Wall Street’s expectations. But what exactly are “expectations,” and who makes them? ...
10.28.2019 Who pays for California’s wildfires? The governor of California declared a state of emergency yesterday after wildfire forced nearly 200,000 people to evacuate. Wildfire season across the entire western part of the country is becoming more intense and more expensive every year — the federal ...
10.25.2019 Shanghai’s mountain of trash How does a city of 24 million do its recycling? Shanghai began requiring its households, companies and public institutions to sort recyclables out of the 33,000 tons of refuse they generate each day. On today’s show, we’ll look at how ...
10.24.2019 Literal and figurative headwinds The word “headwinds” showed up in no less than 18 companies’ quarterly earnings reports released today. So let’s talk about what that word, and “tailwinds” really means for companies. Plus: why the Boeing 737 Max is weighing down Southwest, and ...
10.23.2019 Rural America is an internet desert Many, many rural Americans lack access to affordable broadband internet access, and it’s a real drag on the economy. State and federal governments spend hundreds of millions every year to address the problem, but it’s not always clear where the ...
10.22.2019 What those scam robocalls actually do Have you received a Chinese-language robocall lately? Or a hundred of them? Federal authorities say these computer-generated scams, which began targeting American phone lines two years ago, are on the rise again. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to ...
10.21.2019 What does a “Thanks …” email mean?? Whether because they want to or because they need to, more Americans are working past 65 and even 75 years old, which means we now have the most age-diverse workforce we’ve ever had. There are four, sometimes even five distinct ...
10.18.2019 Gas prices, explained After a drone strike hit the Aramco oil facility in Saudi Arabia in September, the price for a barrel of oil surged by nearly 20%. You may have noticed a spike for gasoline, too. But what exactly determines the price ...
10.17.2019 The GM strike could be almost over United Auto Workers presidents from around the country are meeting in Detroit today to vote on a deal that could end the monthlong General Motors strike. But even if that vote passes, rank-and-file workers need to approve it, too. We ...
10.16.2019 Inside an Amazon fulfillment center Amazon’s massive warehouses have a reputation for being hard places to work. Today we’re taking a tour, and it’s not an exclusive or an investigation — Amazon wants the public to come in. We tell you why and what we ...
10.15.2019 How much can one school provide? For years, Oyler School has been trying to provide for students’ basic needs in one of Cincinnati’s poorest neighborhoods. Now, leaders are looking outside the school and trying to improve the local job market. Plus: The International Monetary Fund projects ...
10.14.2019 How much can a school remake the neighborhood it’s in? Cincinnati’s Oyler School serves one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. Community leaders have used public and private money to add a food pantry, health clinics and more so students could focus on learning. Graduation rates have been steadily ticking up, ...
10.11.2019 The nest is full According to Census Bureau data, about 37% of Californians age 18 to 34 still live with a parent. In more expensive parts of the state, that number is much higher. Today, we look at the factors making living at home ...
10.11.2019 What it’s like to be a foster parent during the opioid crisis We talked a bit yesterday about West Virginia, which has the highest rate of children in foster care in the nation, thanks largely to the opioid crisis. Today, we’re continuing that story by looking at some of the challenges facing ...
10.09.2019 In West Virginia, the opioid crisis is straining the foster care system As many American parents struggle with opioid addiction, the number of children put into foster care in the U.S. is steadily increasing. West Virginia has been hit particularly hard: 70% more children entered foster care there in six years, and ...
10.08.2019 What’s your data worth? If a service is free, the saying goes, then you’re the product. Most of us have come to accept that when you’re using social media or a free email client, you’re giving up some data in exchange. But what if ...
10.07.2019 Remember pensions? General Electric will freeze pensions for 20,000 workers and offer pension buyouts to another 100,000 former employees. Today, we trace the decline of the once-common benefit. But first: We check in on the state of the trade war and the ...
10.04.2019 There’s no such thing as a free oyster … usually they’re a dollar, but you get the idea. Today: the economics of happy hour, particularly discounted seafood. But first, let’s take apart that new jobs report.
10.03.2019 What we talk about when we talk about jobs We talk about the federal government’s jobs report every month. But determining how many Americans are unemployed, how many jobs the economy created and in which sectors is a tricky business. Ahead of tomorrow’s new numbers, we’ll dig into how ...
10.02.2019 Maybe it’s not a recession after all Economists and market watchers have spent the past few months trying to figure out if we’re headed toward, or maybe already in, a recession. But there’s a growing chorus wondering if the U.S. economy is just headed toward a period ...
10.02.2019 October will have you seeing pink Oct. 1 is the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and that means you’ll be seeing pink all over: at NFL games, at charity walks and on virtually any consumer good you could buy. Today, we dig into the economics ...
09.30.2019 The stock market is not the economy … so what is it? It’s an interesting time in the American capital markets. Specifically, for stocks. The major indexes have been at or near record highs after trending up for more than a decade. But as we’ve said before, and we’ll surely say again: ...
09.27.2019 You should be watching the bond market We say it over and over: Keep an eye on the bond market. But it can be hard to know what the “10-year T-note” even is, much less what it tells us about the economy. So in today’s installment of ...
09.26.2019 Inequality is at a 50-year high New data from the U.S. Census Bureau says inequality is the highest it’s been since the measure began in the 1960s. Today, we dig into why. Plus: Health care spending is breaking records, too, and consumer confidence, explained.
09.25.2019 How IPOs work Home fitness company Peloton is expected to go public tomorrow. It’ll be the latest in a series of high-profile tech IPOs, some of which haven’t gone so smoothly. Today, we’ll look at how companies are valued, how that process has ...
09.24.2019 What debt does to the economy Americans owe $13.86 trillion in household debt. That’s slightly higher than the total amount right before the 2008 financial crisis, and it’s rising. Today, we’re gonna dig into debt a bit: Who owes whom, what it does to the economy ...
09.23.2019 The art of the organic tortilla Some might think that the best part of a taco is what’s inside. But Rick Ortega and Omar Ahmed, founders of Kernel of Truth Organics, disagree. They’re champions of soft corn tortillas and pride themselves on being the only known ...
09.20.2019 The GM strike marches on General Motors workers have been striking since midnight on Sunday after contract negotiations broke down. The company’s use of temp workers is one of the main reasons for the strike. Temps make less money, don’t get benefits and can take ...
09.19.2019 How an oil company pivots to video games Sometimes businesses make hard left turns. YouTube was a dating site. Shopify sold snowboard equipment. Then there’s Black Ridge: It recently got out of oil and gas and into the fast-growing world of competitive gaming. How’s a company go from ...
09.18.2019 When regulations meet market forces President Donald Trump plans to revoke California’s ability to set its own fuel efficiency standards. But what happens when many consumers want lower emissions? Plus: What you need to know about the rate cut and an update on the GM ...
09.17.2019 What is the DEAL with all these old episodes of “Seinfeld”? As the war of streaming TV services heats up, tech and media giants like Comcast, WarnerMedia and Disney are racing to build their libraries. That means dropping hundreds of millions of dollars for the rights to old shows like “Seinfeld” ...
09.16.2019 Juul needs research on vaping, but scientists aren’t sure With new reports of people getting sick and politicians vowing to crack down on electronic cigarettes, the industry leader, Juul, is looking for new research on the health effects of its products. But the vaping giant has had difficulty finding ...
09.13.2019 Meet me at the mall, it’s goin’ down Forever 21 is expected to close 100 stores as part of a bankruptcy filing. Big anchor stores like Sears have been struggling for a long time, so what’s left? The American mall looks pretty different these days. Plus: The federal ...
09.12.2019 Negative interest rates, explained The European Central Bank cut interest rates to -0.5 percent. President Trump praised the decision, as he’s been pushing the Federal Reserve to do the same. Today, we compare the economic situation in the U.S. and abroad and explore how ...
09.11.2019 Reclassifying employees won’t just affect Uber A California bill that would reclassify many independent contract workers as employees is on track to becoming law. It would affect hundreds of thousands of people in the gig economy — not just those who deliver food and give rides, ...
09.10.2019 Who makes money off your political donations? There’s another Democratic presidential debate on Thursday, and hopefuls that reach the stage will have done so by meeting polling and donation requirements. It’s just one reason why candidates spend a lot of time and energy hitting you up for ...
09.09.2019 You shouldn’t make trades based on Trump’s tweets … But those tweets do affect markets, and JPMorgan is launching a new index to track the impact of a presidential tweet. Plus: dispatches from the supposed “worst place to live in America,” and is bigger still better for American ...
09.06.2019 Embrace your inner child A growing number of adults are willing to pay to do kid stuff: smashing their faces into cake, watching Saturday morning cartoons, doing scavenger hunts. Today, we dive into the big money of feeling little again. Plus, we recap the ...
09.05.2019 How much do WeWork, really? The unemployment rate has been historically low for months now. But even in a tight labor market, not everyone who needs a job has one. Today we’ll meet some job hunters and run through some of the fundamentals of this ...

Older episodes

Marketplace

What's Marketplace about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Marketplace episodes:

Are states ready for a recession?

Rebuilding Paradise

Is Apple’s credit card all about the patriarchy?

WeWork-ers are trying to organize without a union

The recession that wasn’t (yet)

Working hard or hardly working?

Feeling the trade war on the farm

‘Tis the season (for open enrollment)

Deadspin’s death spiral

Segregation’s legacy lingers

What we buy — and why

Who’s setting expectations on Wall Street?

Who pays for California’s wildfires?

Shanghai’s mountain of trash

Literal and figurative headwinds

Rural America is an internet desert

What those scam robocalls actually do

What does a “Thanks …” email mean??

Gas prices, explained

The GM strike could be almost over

Inside an Amazon fulfillment center

How much can one school provide?

How much can a school remake the neighborhood it’s in?

The nest is full

What it’s like to be a foster parent during the opioid crisis

In West Virginia, the opioid crisis is straining the foster care system

What’s your data worth?

Remember pensions?

There’s no such thing as a free oyster

What we talk about when we talk about jobs

Maybe it’s not a recession after all

October will have you seeing pink

The stock market is not the economy … so what is it?

You should be watching the bond market

Inequality is at a 50-year high

How IPOs work

What debt does to the economy

The art of the organic tortilla

The GM strike marches on

How an oil company pivots to video games

When regulations meet market forces

What is the DEAL with all these old episodes of “Seinfeld”?

Juul needs research on vaping, but scientists aren’t sure

Meet me at the mall, it’s goin’ down

Negative interest rates, explained

Reclassifying employees won’t just affect Uber

Who makes money off your political donations?

You shouldn’t make trades based on Trump’s tweets

Embrace your inner child

How much do WeWork, really?

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