Where we're at with tariffs and inflation

This podcast is supported by Odoo. Some say Odoo business management software is like fertilizer for businesses because the simple efficient software promotes growth. Others say Odoo is like a magic beanstalk because it scales with you and is magically affordable. And some describe Odoo's programs for manufacturing, accounting, and more as building blocks for creating a custom software suite. So Odoo is fertilizer, magic beanstalk building blocks for business. Odoo, exactly what businesses need. Sign up at odoo.com. That's odoo.com. Well, there's a deal, we think. Let's see what the economy thinks, shall we? From American public media, this is Marketplace. I'm Kyle Risdale. Monday, November 10. Today, good as always to have you along, everybody. Whether there does turn out to be a deal to end the government shutdown as it now appears or whether it falls apart, the government data drought is gonna continue through this week, which means we are gonna miss a couple of key inflation reports that are due in coming days, the consumer and the producer price indexes. So there is that. But we are gonna hear from a handful of people over the next couple of days whose job it is to run this economy. Among them, Mary Daly, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, who wrote this morning that despite the president's tariffs, she figures inflation expectations, what we consumers think is gonna happen with prices, are still, and this is her quote, relatively well anchored around the Fed's 2% target. So we are gonna take our cue from her today and have marketplace Justin Ho explain some of the things that seem to be keeping inflation in check. Earlier in the year, it seemed like a safe bet that the president's tariffs would cause inflation to pick up. You know, somebody has to absorb the cost. Jennifer Lee is senior economist with BMO Capital Markets. There are plenty of categories where tariffs have led to higher prices. For instance, imported goods, including apparel and furniture. But Li says recent trade agreements could prevent inflation from getting worse, including the one year truce with China. Assuming that it does stick, you know, that I think is very good news for the consumer. Plus imported goods just aren't what people spend most of their money on. Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo, says consumers spend the bulk of their money on services, and that kind of inflation has been cooling off. Things like travel related prices, medical care also slowly but surely coming down, and then also a lot of the discretionary services. So things like recreation, going out to, sports games or or the movies. House says that's because the price of those services is affected less by tariffs and more by the labor market. That was a big source of cost pressures for for companies. But now we've seen the jobs market cool off pretty noticeably. And so I think some of those wage pressures …