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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

  • China was the only major economy to expand in 2020, though at its slowest pace in decades.
    Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

    Beijing is now aiming for an expansion of at least 6% this year. It scrapped its 2020 target due to COVID disruption. Plus, Australia insulates itself from Italy’s vaccine export ban by preparing its domestic production lines. And, could Taiwan’s semiconductor manufacturers help with a shortage of chips for U.S. automakers?

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  • Here’s what you need to know about SPACs
    Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

    You know, special purpose acquisition companies: the way to take a company public and create a new stock that’s all the rage in 2021. Plus, a look at job postings along with the government’s hiring and unemployment report for February. And, words from Fed Chair Jerome Powell fail to calm recent market volatility.

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  • The SPAC craze, explained
    Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

    Investors are piling into “blank-check” companies. Some experts are worried.

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  • A Q&A with David Brancaccio on “Hoop Dreams”

    Econ Extra Credit newsletter #52

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  • High voltage transmission towers on Feb. 21 in Houston.
    Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

    Sky-high electricity bills for utilities and individual customers alike as a result of the deadly power outage last month, and how Texas is dealing with them. Plus, a forecast for the February jobs report from the government due out tomorrow. And, critical pandemic oxygen shortages in a barely regulated market in Mexico.

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  • Leaders from Austria, Denmark and Israel will discuss production of vaccines against new COVID variants.
    Georg Hochmuth/APA/AFP via Getty Images

    Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz says the European Union’s medicines regulator is too slow at approving vaccines. Also, how will central banks grapple with rising inflation fears? And, a cargo port development in Sri Lanka sees stiff competition between India and China.

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  • The status of new stimulus checks
    LPETTET via Getty Images

    President Joe Biden is apparently backing a compromise in the Senate that makes fewer people eligible for $1,400 dollar relief checks. Plus, just how high weekly unemployment claims have been throughout the pandemic. And, a push for the Biden administration to decriminalize sex work — an industry transformed by the pandemic — as part of its criminal justice reform.

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  • Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (right) issued an executive order lifting the state's mask mandate on Tuesday.
    Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

    The governors of Texas and Mississippi are ending requirements to wear masks, given a drop in COVID cases. Plus, the latest reading on the employment picture in the U.S. And, monetary policy solutions for inequality that could come from the Fed.

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  • Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (right) issued an executive order lifting the state's mask mandate on Tuesday.
    Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

    Texas businesses can open at 100% capacity in a week. In Mississippi, mask and distancing recommendations are now in place.

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  • Mar 3, 2021

    Blaming the Fed

    Karen Petrou, author of "Engine of Inequality," laments that investors win and savers lose. "Every time the Fed steps into the market, the markets go up. The markets run by the Fed's clock," she says.
    Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    Karen Petrou, co-founder of of Federal Financial Analytics, is out with a new book that holds the Federal Reserve responsible, in part, for inequality in the U.S. Plus, Samsung is looking to build a chip factory in the U.S., at a price for local governments. And, what happens if letting carbon dioxide loose is no longer free?

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David Brancaccio