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David Brancaccio

"Future Effects" Senior Correspondent

David Brancaccio is Marketplace’s “future effects” senior correspondent. In this role, David aims to explore how short-term thinking can impact our personal finances, innovation, government policy, and more.

David worked as the host and senior editor of “Marketplace Morning Report” from 2013 to 2026, where he focused on the regulation of financial markets, the role of technology in labor markets, the history of innovation, digital privacy, sustainability, social enterprises, and financial vulnerability in older adults. David freelanced for Marketplace in 1989 before becoming the program’s European correspondent based in London in 1990.

David hosted the evening program from 1993-2003, then anchored the award-winning public television news program “Now” on PBS after a period co-hosting with journalist Bill Moyers. David has co-produced and appeared in several documentaries, including “Fixing the Future,” about alternative approaches to the economy, and “On Thin Ice,” about climate change and water security, with mountaineer Conrad Anker. David is the author of “Squandering Aimlessly,” a book about personal values and money. He enjoys moderating public policy discussions, including at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Chicago Ideas Week, and the Camden Conference in Maine.

David is from Waterville, Maine, and has degrees from Wesleyan and Stanford universities. Honors include the Peabody, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University, Emmy, and Walter Cronkite awards. He is married to Mary Brancaccio, a poet and educator. They have three offspring, all adults. He likes making beer and building (and launching) pretty big rockets. Among his heroes are Edward R. Murrow and Wolfman Jack.

Latest from David Brancaccio

  • Passengers wait at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia over Presidents Day weekend. The TSA screened more than 2 million people on Friday and Sunday.
    Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images

    As Labor Day weekend wraps up, a snapshot of the upcoming fall season of air travel reveals that some of the frustrations from the summer will carry over, but crowds might thin out. We discuss how lockdowns in China are forcing companies to rethink their global diversification efforts.

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  • The manufacturing and construction sectors have done pretty well throughout the pandemic, but But, jobs in travel, hotels and restaurants are still way down.
    Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

    Jobs Day numbers are here, and so is Julia Coronado of MacroPolicy Perspectives to discuss them. We also discuss the variety of factors that have led to the homelessness situation in New York. 

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  • Inflation and high rent prices in New York City are contributing the city's ongoing homelessness crisis.
    Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    The homelessness crisis is being punctuated in the nation’s most populous city by sky-high rents and rising prices, says the CEO of the Bowery Mission, a New York City-based nonprofit.

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  • Checking in on the labor movement, infrastructure – and corkage fees at the harvest level
    Sebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images

    Union organizers at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island have scored a legal victory. An aging water infrastructure is the culprit behind a troubling water shortage in the Mississippi capital of Jackson. The BBC checks in from Portugal, where new tech awaits the axe wielders who take part in the cork harvest.

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  • CHARSADDA, PAKISTAN - SEPTEMBER 2: Flood victims child as they try to survive under hard conditions following deadly flash floods In Zatula village of Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan on September 02, 2022. (Photo by Hussain Ali/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

    From the BBC World Service: Record-breaking floods across Pakistan are estimated to have washed away 45% of the nation’s croplands and with resources on the ground in short supply, delivering aid is a mammoth task. Australia’s government is moving quickly to try to address a chronic worker shortage that’s left businesses scrambling across the country; it will raise its cap on permanent migration for the first time in a decade. And nations in the Western Balkans are meeting to discuss more regional economic co-operation.

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  • BERLIN, GERMANY - NOVEMBER 03:  Cars and traffic fill the A100 ring highway at dusk on November 3, 2014 in Berlin, Germany. Germany is heatedly debating the introduction of highway tolls (in German: Maut), which in the current form proposed by German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt would be levied solely on foreigners. Dobrindt's office argues that this is not discrimination, which would be illegal under European Union law, since Germans already pay an annual car tax.
    Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    First, Diane Swonk of KPMG joins us for today’s talk about what the markets are doing in the wake of new unemployment data. The Biden administration’s restrictions on computer chip sales to China and Russia have put a Silicon Valley chipmaker in a bind. The BBC reports on how the idea of speed limits on Germany’s Autobahn has accelerated debate among drivers.

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  • LONDON - AUGUST 21:  The Rolling Stones perform at the O2 Arena August 21, 2007 in London, England.
    Gareth Davies/Getty Images

    But first, Oxfam America put together a list of the best (and worst) states for workers to live in, and there are a few things that link the worst states together. We talk to senior economics contributor Chris Farrell about the economic lessons one can take from the Rolling Stones.

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  • With almost full employment, Australia is grappling with not having enough workers for the the available jobs.
    Martin Ollman/Getty Images

    From the BBC World Service: Australia’s government is holding a two-day summit in Canberra with business groups and trade unions to figure out what to do about a lack of workers for some jobs. Also, the International Monetary Fund approved a $1.2 billion loan for Sri Lanka to prevent an all-out economic collapse, after a week of talks with government officials. And, in Ethiopia, we hear about the early effects of losing out on a lucrative U.S. trade deal because of the unrest in the country.

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  • A new documentary series on the Stones' rise to fame touches on lessons about growing a business and entrepreneurship. Above, frontman Mick Jagger and guitarist Ron Wood performing in 2006.
    Cancan Chu/Getty Images

    Chris Farrell walks us through the business factors behind the enduring success of one of the world’s greatest rock bands.

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  • Thursday’s report on gross domestic product may show a contracting economy, but recessions are typically determined by a wider range of data.
    Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    Susan Schmidt checks in with us for our discussion about market activity as the ADP jobs report numbers emerge. Some states still plan on taxing canceled student loan debt. We look into where gig workers fit in with this constantly reshaping economy.

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