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How the Realtors' legal settlement could change the buyer-agent relationship

Mar 18, 2024
More agents might start charging buyers hourly rates or working on retainer.
In the traditional model, home sellers pay the buyer’s agent. The NAR settlement could mean more buyers directly paying their Realtors.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

New fees and new tech may curb methane emissions

Mar 18, 2024
More accurate means of measurement could help curtail the greenhouse gas, a potent contributor to climate change.
In the next few years, there will be wider deployment of technology to detect and reduce methane emissions, according to Arvind Ravikumar of the University of Texas at Austin.
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Interest rates worldwide might start falling as central banks meet this week

Mar 18, 2024
Switzerland may be the first to start rolling back the recent round of rate hikes.
The European Central Bank is expected to be among the first central banks to start cutting rates, says Sharyn O’Halloran at Columbia Business School.
Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images

More housing stock means the market may be shifting in favor of buyers

Mar 18, 2024
New home listings hit a 17-month high in February, and as more sellers sell, housing prices could flatten, says Conor Sen at Bloomberg Opinion.
"We're seeing inventory really grow off the very low levels of last year," says Bloomberg's Conor Sen. "And in a market that's very undersupplied, that's becoming a meaningful amount of inventory."
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Bird flu has killed chickens and scrambled egg prices

Mar 18, 2024
Since early 2022, more than 80 million birds, most of them egg layers, have been stricken by the disease.
Poultry caretakers and processors take strict biosecurity measures to keep avian influenza and other viruses away from their birds.
Kerry Klein/KVPR

Why Dollar Tree is struggling while Dollar General thrives

Mar 18, 2024
Dollar General is upbeat about the year ahead. Dollar Tree sees challenges in store.
Expanding grocery options is a bet that's paying off for Dollar General.
Scott Olson / Getty Images

Video game Dot's Home brings a story of housing injustice to life

The interactive game lets players follow one family's account of disadvantage and discrimination through the generations.
"We wanted to tell a multigenerational story, because when you think about housing disadvantage, it is cumulative," says Christina Rosales, above, co-creator of Dot's Home.
David Brancaccio/Marketplace

For public good, not for profit.

This is how our listeners budget without Mint

Mar 15, 2024
Plus, a beautifully written “Defend Your Splurge” from author Nicolette Polek, some cheap gardening tips and the economics of “I’m Just Ken.”
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Hey TikTok, beware the Ides of March

Plus: A bid to recruit cops from gamers backfires in Peoria, plus more in this week's Make Me Smart newsletter.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

Recent immigrants have filled labor gaps, boosted job creation, experts say

Mar 15, 2024
There has been a wave of migration to the U.S. — legal and not — since 2022. Many who entered are finding and keeping jobs.
In 2022 and 2023, 5.9 million people migrated to the U.S., according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images