Apr 23, 2020

We need to change our economic indicators to keep up with the crisis

Economists are using real-time data in the COVID-19 pandemic and recession. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Plus: the need for more contact tracers, the states leading on small business loans and putting a dollar value on human life.

Segments From this episode

COVID-19

States are trying to build armies of coronavirus contact tracers

by Meghan McCarty Carino

Apr 23, 2020

But public health departments have been chronically underfunded.

Contact tracers try to find everyone a person who tested positive for COVID-19 has come into contact with.

Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images

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COVID-19

How economists are keeping up in the fast-paced COVID-19 recession

by Sabri Ben-Achour

Apr 23, 2020

Quarterly and monthly data, like GDP and the unemployment rate, don't really give us a picture of what is happening today.

Economists are using real-time data in the COVID-19 pandemic and recession.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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Shelf Life

How much is a human life worth?

by Howard Steven Friedman

Apr 23, 2020

Civil courts, for-profit companies and regulators regularly put price tags on human lives. But how?

Maria Hollenhorst/Marketplace

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COVID-19

Upper Midwest, Great Plains states have fared best in SBA emergency loan program

by Justin Ho

Apr 23, 2020

As Congress weighs a new round of funding, data reveal that the upper Midwest and Great Plains regions benefited the most from the first round of PPP funding.

With the coronavirus closing many businesses, the Paycheck Protection Program saved millions of jobs that would have been lost, according to MIT research.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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COVID-19

First the virus, then the oil crash, hit Midland, Texas

by Andy Uhler

Apr 23, 2020

Midland, Texas, is ground zero for oil and gas production in the U.S., and much of the local economy, in some way or another, is tied to the industry. When West Texas Intermediate went negative for the first time ever on Monday, everybody in Midland felt it — on top of the coronavirus. This morning […]

A pumpjack in Midland. The Texas oil patch has never seen a bust like this one.

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COVID-19

Army of 3D printers battles Britain’s shortage of PPE

by Stephen Beard

Apr 23, 2020

Machines churn out face visors for health workers running short of personal protection gear.

A nurse wears personal protective gear outside a London hospital. Activists with 3D printers are manufacturing items to address the U.K.'s shortage.

Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images

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Businesses adapt to the pandemic by moving online

by Alli Fam

Apr 23, 2020

We hear from a pair of children's entertainers and a doctor.

Susan Estes and Steve Brown, a clown duo from NYC.

Courtesy Susan Estes

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Music from the episode

Teenage Birdsong Four Tet

Eyes Closed BADBADNOTGOOD

Pin It Down Madison Cunningham

Good Will Come to You Fruit Bats

Golden Rough The Bamboos

Relief in Believing Jon Ososki

Megaton Mile Local Natives

The team

Nancy Farghalli Executive Producer

Maria Hollenhorst Producer II

Sean McHenry Director & Associate Producer II

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