Week of July 29th, 2024

Boar’s Head recalled an additional 7 million pounds of ready-to-eat products this week, which has hurt revenue for small businesses.

“My first mobile phone was a huge suitcase I would put in the seat next to me,” recalls Kristina Azab. Later, she cherished her BlackBerry.

But Spanish-language interpreters are likely to do well. That’s information, right? Plus, shipping rates may come down next year.

The information sector lost 20,000 jobs in July. Its unemployment rate is sitting at an uncomfortable 5.6%.

Safety, efficiency and looks play a role in the design.

Interpreters mostly work in big cities, but now there’s also a need in booming resort areas in Wyoming and Idaho.

Muslim Girls Fence is trying to overcome the stereotypes of who fences, often seen as an elite sport.

And more of a slowdown than many analysts thought. Unemployment rose more than expected too.

This week, Wayfair reported a $42 million loss and its CEO compared the drop in demand to the one seen in the last financial crisis.

New research suggests that the historical trend of people moving from colder to warmer states could reverse given climate change.

As heat waves become more common and more severe, life in states with cooler average temperatures may be become more appealing.

From the BBC World Service: In the U.K., one grassroots group is boosting access to the sport among Muslim women and girls.

Joanna Stern, senior personal tech columnist at the Wall Street Journal, joins Marketplace’s Lily Jamali for Tech Bytes: Week in Review.

High interest rates often make home equity loans or cash-out refinance options unappealing.

That’s basically what American workers did last quarter. Plus, celebrity book clubs are a major force in the publishing industry.

“I saw such a shift to having some of those more traditional media sources become less influential in sales,” said journalist Sophie Vershbow. “Ultimately, a lot of these book clubs have taken that place and started selling a lot of books.”

Real wages also grew. To some extent, productivity growth offsets the inflationary effect of pay gains.

In a patch of calm water off the Port of Long Beach, 1,000-foot wind turbines would be assembled before they’re towed out to sea.

A country’s athletic infrastructure as well as subsidies and citizens’ health influence medal counts. Economist Veronika Dolar weighs in.

It’s trying a different route to loan forgiveness, but it is unclear how successful the plan will be.

The seasonal workers manage lines, hand out ballots, process mail-in ballots and serve as greeters at polling sites.

We’ll take a look at what’s happening to mortgage rates now that central bankers are on track to lower the cost of borrowing.

But some former central bank officials think the Fed’s risking a recession.

Heather Boushey, a member of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, on the results of the legislation so far.

How is investment from the CHIPS and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act showing up in the U.S. economy?

From the BBC World Service: The world’s first comprehensive set of rules governing artificial intelligence has come into force across Europe.

Smart devices promise their users utopia, but the impact of this technology is felt far beyond the home, says Kansas State University’s Heather Suzanne Woods.

The Fed is slowing the pace of shrinking its bond holdings, aka quantitative tightening, perhaps before easing its interest rate stance.

Quantitative tightening drives up interest rates and cools the economy. When is it time to reverse course? Plus, the central bank decides to keep interest rates steady, and temp worker employment falls.

As workers settle into hybrid work routines, some employers are upgrading to nicer spaces with a smaller footprint.

While decreasing numbers of temporary workers can be a leading recession indicator, economists say this time might be different.

An accurate estimate depends on a whole lot of variables.

Journalist Roshan Abraham tells the story of a New Jersey resident who fought City Hall to get 70,000 units eventually built.

The restaurant business has been struggling, but an innovative multicuisine operation called Wonder is capitalizing on efficiencies.

Today, we visit a startup that’s purchased the recipes from and rights to multiple existing restaurants.

Boeing has faced scrutiny for the safety of its 737 MAX planes, but problems with its Starliner crew module have also stranded astronauts at the ISS.

Roblox has some 78 million daily users, many of them pre-teens. Some users, however, are predators.

Many economists aren’t expecting a drop in interest rate today — but they’ll be looking for hints of cuts in the near future.

From the BBC World Service: Dozens of employees at TikTok’s parent copmany have been hospitalized after what seems to be a food poisoning outbreak.

ECMO machines can function as lungs and heart for patients whose organs are failing. Physician Clayton Dalton says the process can keep a patient going until recovery or a transplant, but it’s afflicted with ethical questions.

“Econ Extra Credit” readers told us about their own “Glengarry Glen Ross” experiences.

With prices and mortgage rates high, people are “buying at the edge of what they can qualify for,” a real estate economist says.

Lilith from Ventura, California, recalls what it was like working as an information operator in a time before the internet.

Wall Street wants to know! Big Tech, though, says these things take time. Plus: abandoned gold mines and telephone operators.

The American heyday of gold mining may be in the past, but thousands of abandoned mines remain a problem for governments to clean up.

Economists say the supply of jobs and workers is coming into better balance than during the labor shortages of the pandemic.

“I have not seen us write more than two offers before getting an acceptance, whereas before it was writing offer after offer after offer,” said Houston real estate broker LaTisha Grant.

For now, it’s boosting other parts of the economy — chipmakers and contractors that build data centers, for example.

And what the economy has to do with it.

Consumers complain that grocery shopping on Earth is expensive, but at least it doesn’t require a spaceflight.

A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked new regulation that would have required airlines to disclose all fees upfront.

A “standby equity purchase agreement” may produce a windfall for the 2024 candidate. ProPublica’s Justin Elliott explains.

We’ll hear how something called a “Standby Equity Purchase Agreement” could put money in the hands of the former president.

From the BBC World Service: Security forces have fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters in Venezuela demonstrating against Sunday’s disputed election result.

Annie Gilbertson, investigative reporter at Proof News, found companies like Apple, Anthropic and Nvidia are using text scraped from YouTube to train large language models. Content creators say they didn’t give consent.

And why is there no target number to measure it, as there is with inflation —the Federal Reserve’s other mandate?

McDonald’s sales slipped last quarter, which could indicate tighter budgets among lower-income Americans. Plus, the unintended effects of economic sanctions as a policy tool.

Reporting quarterly results, the fast-food company said customers “continue to be more intentional with the dollars they spend.”

The U.S. increasingly uses economic curbs against bad actors, reports The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein. But some consequences are unintended.

In meetings this week, central bankers will consider cutting interest rates in the U.S. and U.K., while rate hikes could be on the table in Japan.

Older siblings have an economic leg up on their younger counterparts, according to a growing body of economic research.

The Federal Reserve meets to discuss interest rates this week. But can we expect a rate cut?

Hundreds of local municipalities, states and tribes applied to get a share of the money; 25 made the cut.

The survey from the Pew Research Center says child care costs and student debt are among the factors dissuading potential parents.

Tesla announced its auto revenues are down, and GM is delaying a new electric truck manufacturing plant.

Among adults under 50 who say they’re unlikely to have children, 36% say it’s partly because they can’t afford them.

From the BBC World Service: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been declared the winner of the county’s election, but the opposition, claims their candidate won.

Industry veterans Anika Collier Navaroli and Ellen Pao compare the need for oversight to the role of the FAA in aviation. “We need something to counter the massive power and the massive influence and the complete lack of protections,” Pao says.