Marketplace

→ WHAT IT COVERS Marketplace examines how fuel prices ripple across the U.S. economy, covering jet fuel surging from $2.50 to $4 per gallon, diesel topping $5, GPS jamming disrupting oil shipping lanes, and new tax law changes projected to reduce total charitable giving by $5.7 billion annually. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Airline fuel exposure:** Jet fuel costs jumped 60% in weeks, from $2.50 to $4 per gallon, making fuel the single largest cost concern for airline executives.

→ WHAT IT COVERS This episode examines how rising oil prices — Brent crude crossing $100 per barrel following Middle East conflict closing the Strait of Hormuz — ripple through the US economy, affecting Federal Reserve policy, consumer spending, Texas agriculture, and oil-producing regions differently depending on their exposure. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Oil price thresholds:** Consumer demand for oil remains largely inelastic until prices reach specific breaking points.

→ WHAT IT COVERS This March 13 episode covers four converging economic pressures: pre-war baseline data losing relevance as oil prices push core PCE inflation above 3%, the Trump administration's tariff whack-a-mole strategy after Supreme Court rulings, counterfeit beauty products on third-party platforms, and the CFTC's new scrutiny of largely unregulated prediction markets. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Stagflation Risk:** Q1 2025 GDP grew at only 0.

→ WHAT IT COVERS This Marketplace episode examines how Middle Eastern oil supply disruptions are threatening California and Asian refineries, while also covering rising beef prices, slowing housing starts, the economics of ski resort mega-passes, and deteriorating conditions facing Winter Paralympic athletes competing in Italy. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Refinery vulnerability:** California refineries import heavily from Iraq and cannot switch to Western Canadian heavy crude as a substitute — they lack...

→ WHAT IT COVERS February's CPI showed 2.4% annual inflation — a five-year low — but economists at Wells Fargo, KPMG, and Rice University explain why the report is largely outdated due to the Iran conflict, rising energy costs, and tariff uncertainty reshaping the inflation outlook before March data even arrives. → KEY INSIGHTS - **CPI vs. PCE Gap:** The Fed targets the PCE deflator, not CPI, and right now a notable gap exists between the two measures.

→ WHAT IT COVERS This episode examines how the ongoing war with Iran is driving up jet fuel costs and airfares, weighing on small business confidence, and creating ripple effects across the U.S. economy, while spotlighting Oracle's AI debt risk and a Minneapolis café's unconventional pay-what-you-can pivot. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Jet fuel & airfare strategy:** Budget and domestic airlines face greater pressure from rising oil prices than international carriers.

→ WHAT IT COVERS A U.S.-Iran war triggers oil prices to spike above $119 per barrel before retreating below $90, threatening a broader economic crisis. The episode examines ripple effects across fertilizer, food, and consumer sentiment, drawing parallels to the 1970s oil shocks while assessing today's more fragile economic foundation. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Oil supply disruption timeline:** Even if the Strait of Hormuz reopened immediately, normalization of oil and natural gas supply chains would...

→ WHAT IT COVERS February's jobs report showed a loss of 92,000 positions and a rising unemployment rate, contradicting earlier private-sector data. Economists on Marketplace analyze stagflation risks, the compounding effects of tariffs, oil price surges, and government funding cuts on healthcare employment, while the Fed awaits clearer directional data.

→ WHAT IT COVERS This Marketplace episode examines why U.S. manufacturing employment fell over 90,000 jobs in 2025 — its third consecutive year of decline — alongside shifting hiring practices away from resumes, food affordability trends over a century, and low-snowpack economic impacts on weather-dependent Colorado businesses. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Manufacturing decline drivers:** U.S. manufacturing lost over 25% of its workforce during the 2008–2009 recession and never fully recovered.

→ WHAT IT COVERS Marketplace examines three converging economic pressures — U.S. Treasury market instability, oil-driven inflation risk, and data center vulnerability — alongside a conversation with The Pit creator Scott Gemmill about how the HBO medical drama uses real-world healthcare economics, including Medicaid cuts and AI, as storytelling material. → KEY INSIGHTS - **U.S. Treasury flight-to-safety breakdown:** Investors are no longer automatically buying U.S.

→ WHAT IT COVERS A Marketplace episode examining how Middle East conflict is reshaping air cargo routes, consumer spending, auto sales, and bond markets, while also covering a rural Colorado childcare housing experiment and a brewing battle between Compass and Zillow over real estate listing access. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Air Cargo Surge Pricing:** Thirteen percent of global air freight transits the Gulf region, and when conflicts close or reroute airspace — as Ukraine's war already did with...

→ WHAT IT COVERS A US military conflict with Iran triggers cascading economic risks across oil markets, global shipping, natural gas supply, treasury yields, and consumer prices. Economists from Brookings, Moody's, Harvard, and Peterson Institute assess how this shock compounds existing tariff and inflation pressures on an already fragile US economy. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Oil price shock magnitude:** When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, oil prices rose 2% on day one.

→ WHAT IT COVERS Marketplace's February 27 episode examines tariff uncertainty following a Supreme Court ruling, the data center construction boom's limited GDP impact, rent-now-pay-later lending tools targeting cash-strapped renters, and fast-casual restaurants launching value meal deals to retain inflation-squeezed customers amid rising food and shelter costs.

→ WHAT IT COVERS This Marketplace episode examines the $2 trillion global private credit market and its recent volatility, January producer price index data, mortgage rates dipping below 6% for the first time in 3.5 years, retailer survival strategies during slow season, and a profile of Los Angeles-based children's clothing manufacturer City Threads.

→ WHAT IT COVERS This Marketplace episode covers three distinct economic stories: how consumer inflation expectations can become self-fulfilling prophecies, Federal Reserve Atlanta president Rafael Bostic's final reflections on Fed credibility and leadership, the video game industry's record revenue growth, and Anthropic's reversal on AI safety standards. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Inflation Expectations Psychology:** Consumer inflation expectations currently sit at 6.5% for one year out and 7.

→ WHAT IT COVERS Outgoing Atlanta Fed President Rafael Bostic reflects on nine years leading one of 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks, addressing simultaneous economic disruptions — tariffs, AI-driven labor shifts, immigration contraction, and geopolitical instability — that render traditional monetary policy models unreliable and force decision-making through direct business and consumer outreach.

→ WHAT IT COVERS Following the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling striking down Trump's IEPA tariffs, the administration pivoted to Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, imposing a 15% tariff expiring in 150 days. The episode examines legal constraints, business impacts, refund prospects, and parallel shifts in labor markets and battery storage growth. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Section 122 Tariff Limits:** The new 15% tariff authority under Section 122 carries strict constraints: it cannot exceed 15%, expires...

→ WHAT IT COVERS The Supreme Court struck down Trump's IEEPA tariffs in a 6-3 ruling, dropping the effective tariff rate from 17% to 9%, but the president announced replacement 10% tariffs under separate legal authority, pushing rates back toward 15%. Economists, farmers, customs brokers, and small business owners assess the ongoing uncertainty. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Tariff Rate Volatility:** The effective U.S.

→ WHAT IT COVERS This February 2025 Marketplace episode examines how U.S. tariffs failed to reduce the record goods trade deficit, why consumers struggle to gauge prices despite wages outpacing inflation, how restaurants are downsizing to cut costs, and how Venezuelan oil workers in Houston face deportation pressure amid U.S.-Venezuela energy negotiations.

→ WHAT IT COVERS This February 18 Marketplace episode covers four economic stories: the Federal Reserve's January meeting minutes signaling possible rate hikes, new San Francisco Fed research linking unauthorized immigration to job growth, Stanford economist Neil Mahoney's $165 billion "annoyance economy" calculation, and AI's murky measurable impact on worker productivity.