It’s Indicators of the Week! 

On today’s episode: The inner workings of Mamdani’s marts; how much Americans gamble; and Gen-Z aren’t the sober generation we’ve been led to believe! 

Fact checking by Corey Bridges. 

Your Next Listen 
— Is gambling the reason we have pro sports?

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Fact checking by Corey Bridges

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President Trump’s social media company, Truth Social, wants to sell investors early access to its posts. When Trump announces tariffs or new strikes on Iran, those milliseconds matter in the market. Is this corruption? Is this legal? And what does corruption mean for the U.S. economy? 

Ray Fisman’s book with Miriam A. Golden is Corruption: What Everyone Needs to Know.

Fact checking by Tyler Jones.

Your Next Listen 
— Did Trump enable insider trading?
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For decades, consumer tech like laptops and gaming systems got better AND cheaper. Memory shortages caused by the AI boom are making those lower prices a thing of the past.

Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.

Your Next Listen 
— SK Hynix to the moon, Gen-Z to their rooms, and Connecticut tax reform looms

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The U.S. housing market is pretty weird right now. Whether you’re a buyer, seller or a renter, it leads to all kinds of questions, like: How did we end up with a housing shortage? Is housing still a good investment? What policies might unlock the housing inventory held by baby boomers? So we called up someone with answers: Redfin’s chief economist, Daryl Fairweather. 

On today’s show, your housing questions, answered. This is an excerpt of a live virtual event we held last week for our NPR+ and other qualifying supporters.

To hear the entire event, make sure you’re signed up for NPR+. We’ll be publishing it as a bonus episode in the Planet Money feed next week!    

Fact checking by Vito Emanuel.

Your Next Listen 
— Two Cities. Two chip plants. One affordability crisis.

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We have some grievances. Economic ones. And we’re airing them out. 

On today’s show: Redeeming fast food rewards points in airports, not knowing the full price of your meal upfront, and the pen-and-paper restaurant bill slowdown. 

Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.  

Your Next Listen 

— Three beefs: U.S. and Brazil, Taco Bell and liability, Waymo and trial lawyers

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It’s Indicators of the Week! 

Today on the show: Brazil’s fast payments system that’s got the Trump administration huffy, why Taco Bell might be liable for their role in cyclospora infections and why some lawyers are lobbying against driverless cars. 

Fact checking by Emma Ferrara and Corey Bridges. 

Your Next Listen 
— Can I get my tariff money back now?

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Paramount’s $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery has a few hurdles ahead of it. One of them is an FCC approval. But a recent investigation shows that Paramount and the FCC have a dubious relationship, one with potential conflicts of interest.

Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.

Your Next Listen 
— Why Paramount went looney tunes for Warner Bros.

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Biz-friendly Texas is opening a stock exchange, built and based in the state. Can it become—or best—Wall Street? And how has politics influenced the birth of Y’all Street?

Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.

Your Next Listen 
— ESG bans cost Texas

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The formerly sleepy economies of suburban Austin, Texas and Syracuse, NY are getting two new semiconductor chip plants. They’re bringing thousands of jobs and dollars to the area but while Austin’s housing market seems to be handling the change well, Syracuse is in the midst of an affordability crisis. On today’s show, why?

Fact checking by Sierra Juarez. 

Your Next Listen 
— A solution to the housing shortage?

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Why has the Food and Drug Administration taken so long to approve new sunscreens? Unlike the rest of the world, the FDA only just approved its first new ingredient in nearly three decades. We learn about a proposal to speed up drug and sunscreen innovation, and a skincare influencer who lobbied for change. 

Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.  

Your Next Listen 
— The sneaky way companies get new chemicals into our food

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