Marketplace

Nearly half of all Americans have a family member who’s spent time in jail or prison — the economic effects of which are far-reaching. In this episode, we’ll hear from sociologist Reuben Jonathan Miller, who studies what he calls the “afterlife” of incarceration, about how we can better support formerly incarcerated individuals and why he’s focusing on those charged with violent crimes. Plus, it’s getting harder to identify ghost jobs, and “little change” is good news for the job market.

2023 was full of uncertainty. What will 2024 bring? We asked some experts how the year could go, economically speaking. Spoiler alert: There wasn’t much consensus. In this episode, how geopolitical tension may affect financial markets in the new year. Plus, artificial intelligence tools give people with disabilities new avenues for communication, manufacturers weigh borrowing decisions ahead of potential rate cuts and a decline in temporary employment spells good news for the labor market.

Almost 10 million Americans just got a raise. More than 20 states are ringing in the new year with a higher minimum wage than they left 2023 with. In this episode, who will benefit most and how far we still have to go for a living wage to be the norm. Plus, the Permian Basin region attracts resource-rich oil investors, and landlords report rent payments to credit bureaus with mixed consequences for tenants.

One in seven Medicare beneficiaries surveyed reported not filling a prescription due to high cost. The Inflation Reduction Act was meant to change this by allowing Medicare to negotiate the prices of 10 medications beginning in 2024. It’ll be a balancing act — bring prices down enough that they’re affordable, but not so low that drug companies exit the Medicare market. Also in this episode: French wineries suffer as red wine consumption drops, and new OSHA rules bring more transparency to on-the-job accidents at 50,000 workplaces.

The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft for allegedly using the newspaper’s content to train ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot. The outcome may answer some pressing questions about copyright law and the fair use doctrine. In this episode, we’ll break down data scraping — the content-copying practice at the heart of lawsuits like this one. Plus, credit unions profit big time from overdraft fees, Black Americans move south in a reverse Great Migration to flee pollution, and student loan borrowers aren’t back in the swing of things months after repayment restarted.

A new report predicts that the 2023-24 U.S. election cycle will be the most expensive ever, with more than $10 billion spent across platforms. We’ll dig into who’s providing those funds and how the financial race might unfold. Plus, a word of caution for retailers that hope to extend the holiday shopping season and New Year’s predictions for streaming services. Plus, will the housing market get slightly less terrible in 2024?

After the past couple of inflationary years, some consumers have come to accept that things cost more these days. But now that the inflation rate has come down, when will everything stop being inflation’s fault? In this episode, how still-high prices affect consumers psychologically. Plus, China’s property market impacts iron ore prices globally, families drown in toy clutter and next year, the car market could just chill out.

Though overall food inflation has slowed, the latest consumer price index shows the inflation rate for food away from home is higher than that of purchases from the grocery store. What mainly accounts for the gap is the cost of staff. We’ll talk to restaurant owners about rising wages and how they find a middle ground between bumping up prices and keeping customers happy. Also in this episode, more food stories: How the myth of the American diner came to be, who designs restaurant menus and why your candy canes might have cost more this year.

Some good news out of today’s personal consumption expenditures report, which tracked consumer spending in November. Disposable personal income rose, as did the personal savings rate. And some prices fell for the first time since spring 2020. Will consumer sentiment finally catch up to the improving inflation situation? Also in this episode: the wild ride NFTs have taken over the past few years and a debate between affordable housing and wetland restoration in one San Francisco Bay Area town.

With Christmas Day falling on a Monday, online shoppers are cutting it close if they haven’t ordered all their gifts yet. As consumers grow accustomed to same-day or next-day shipping from Amazon, Target and Walmart are trying to catch up. But a nationwide network of fulfillment centers isn’t built in a day. Also in this episode, the state of hunger in the U.S., the rise and fall of rentable e-scooters, and Buc-ee’s: an embodiment of American excess and efficiency.