Week of February 17th, 2025

Plus, how Trump firings are impacting national park rangers.

But looking ahead, poor consumer sentiment and safety concerns could weigh on bookings.

We’re all stressed about high prices. But Democrats are really, really stressed. Plus, dark oil shipping and travel industry demand.

Western sanctions on oil from places like Iran, Russia, and Venezuela have caused a growing number of oil tankers to shut off the tracking system that could alert authorities of their movements.

We’re here to tackle your questions.

Customers returned $890 billion worth of goods last year, which is almost triple the amount they returned pre-pandemic.

“If we think about the ways that companies collect data, it ranges so widely from different company,” said George Washington University’s Tara Sinclair. “That’s why it’s so important that we have government statistical agencies.”

Inflation and tariff fears contributed to a decline of 10% in the University of Michigan’s latest survey.

Funding for agriculture research at 17 labs at U.S. universities is now frozen. The labs are laying off workers, and some research is on hold.

Orders of manufactured goods have been picking up in recent months, according to the Institute for Supply Management. That’s a sign that production and hiring could increase in the months ahead.

Funding for agriculture research at 17 labs at U.S. universities is now frozen. We’ll parse some of the impacts.

A new podcast from GBH News finds that it’s a story of scratch-off tickets, vaudeville and more.

Travel companies are raking in profits as consumers look to travel.

From the BBC World Service: Thousands of students are protesting as part of what’s become known as “Dark Indonesia” demonstrations.

Maria Curi, tech policy reporter at Axios, joins Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes for “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”

Plus, all the good things happening to fellow Smarties!

No one has ever lived that long, but a misleading spreadsheet from Elon Musk purports to show they’re still in the safety net agency’s database.

David Van Riper, an expert in improving public access to government data, discusses why the information is vital. Plus, Walmart is branching out beyond retail.

Solar’s big year helped push the proportion of power generated by renewables up to 24%.

Data collected by the government helps researchers, policymakers, business owners and other individuals understand what’s happening in the economy.

The profusion and popularity of free, open-source models has raised questions about how AI companies can actually profit from their products.

Its quarterly report shows ad sales, membership income and its third-party marketplace expanded. Their margins may help keep store prices low.

Anyone who drives into Midtown or lower Manhattan now has to pay a toll. The Trump administration wants to change that.

While a handful of states are working to electrify trucking, that effort has largely focused on new electric trucks rather than converting older ones.

A survey from the National Association of Home Builders found contractors’ expectations fell to their lowest level in more than a year.

Thousands of specialists still work at food safety agencies, but critics say the cuts reduce the government’s ability to implement standards.

New York became the first city in the country to implement congestion pricing in January.

Layoffs at the FDA could impact the agency’s ability to adequately oversee the safety of the U.S. food supply.

From the BBC World Service: The Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes suggest they want more evidence that inflation is cooling before cutting rates.

The Department of Government Efficiency has been accused of potentially violating federal privacy law by accessing Department of Education information without prior consent. Kevin Frazier, contributing editor at Lawfare, says there are many other ways to use AI for government efficiency without breaching privacy law.

The recipe for a weaker economy may be brewing.

More than 40% of consumers say that since the last election, they’ve altered their spending habits to align with their morals. Plus, Trump threatens federal agencies’ independence and businesses decide whether to pass tariff costs on to consumers.

White House seeks sway over FCC, FEC, FTC and some Fed operations. Politics professor Sarah Binder says it “grabs power from Congress.”

The e-commerce site is learning the hard way that consumers often choose inexpensive mass-produced products over hand-crafted ones.

Tariffs and higher mortgage interest rates are at the top of the list.

More than 40% of consumers say they’ve changed their spending habits to align with their beliefs, according to a new Harris Poll.

The once-leading voice assistants have fallen behind other AI tools, but upcoming revamps could make them more useful.

The impact of tariffs will be uneven.

Marlon Riggs’ film “Color Adjustment” highlighted racism and whitewashing in early TV. What about the media landscape today?

President Donald Trump says he wants to impose tariffs of 25% or more on imports of automobiles, semiconductor chips and pharmaceuticals.

The civil rights organization has stopped short of calling for a boycott but wants consumers to be intentional in their buying.

The National Bureau of Economic Research found the number of deaths was large enough to result in a net increase to the Social Security fund.

Today, we’ll examine a grim connection between a net increase in the Social Security fund and the horrors of COVID-19.

From the BBC World Service: The inflation rate in the United Kingdom has jumped to 3%, its highest level in 10 months.

Jack Cushman, director of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab, has been preserving sites and data that went dark after executive orders from President Trump. He underlines the importance of keeping digital copies or risk parting with “our cultural memory.”

Organizations that help newcomers have started to cut programs and lay off staff due to the loss of funding.

“It” being U.S. unemployment, which sat at 4% in January. Plus, the business of Twitch streamers and how tariffs might impact inflation.

Taxes on goods the U.S. imports will affect what consumers pay, but will we see one-time price hikes or a more persistent form of inflation?

One epidemiologist said chaos at health agencies has left scientists “flying in the dark.”

It’s a way for companies to boost the value of their shares.

Many Twitch streamers with a following fear their fans will move on with little warning, says author Nathan Grayson.

Unemployment was at 4.0% in January 2025. Since WWII, it’s never gone lower than 2.5% — which it reached for two months, in 1953.

The U.N.’s Angeli Achrekar reports that many clinics have closed, despite exemptions in the policy. She fears mortality will surge.

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. And under the Trump administration, a number of data sets that investors and businesses use have gone missing.

The Trump administration is defending giving the Elon Musk-led advisory group DOGE access to the detailed tax records of all Americans.

New research finds that larger fires can depress local hiring for up to three years.

More inventory is good for buyers.

From the BBC World Service: We discuss the latest on Argentina’s President Javier Milei and the short-lived promotion of an obscure cryptocurrency.

Sarah Kunst, managing director at Cleo Capital, foresees a culture clash as VCs take on prominent Trump administration roles. She points out that they’re used to having a few big winners while most investments fall by the wayside.

“It’s like we’re back in our dorm in college,” said Kirsten Harrison, a resident of a senior housing community in Minnesota.

Home listings in January hit a high not seen since 2020, but demand is low. Plus, a typewriter repair shop shutters and seniors move into a housing co-op.

Emerging economies will account for 85% of the growth. Data centers and electric vehicles will also boost demand in richer countries.

Economic uncertainty has combined with a persistent lack of affordability to chill the housing market.

Colleges provide economic and social benefits for their surrounding communities.

Ever since Tom Furrier, owner of Cambridge Typewriter, announced that he’s retiring at the end of March, the shop has been flooded with customers.

The rule is designed to stop the cycle of flood damage, but it’s leading to opposite outcomes in two Louisiana towns.

The Arctic World Archive — 300 meters below the permafrost in a demilitarized zone — houses art, music and a copy of the world’s open source code.

Alissa Quart of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project observes that a sense of precarity has spread to America’s middle class.

The famous Ehrlich-Simon bet on the value of metals showed that prices fell as supply increased, despite population growth.

President Trump seems more likely to support deep-sea mineral extraction than President Biden did. But do we need those ocean floor metals?

Today: What a bet about the price of five metals over time can teach us about resource consumption and human innovation.

One of the key themes of American life right now is uncertainty — from the rising cost of living to the toll of natural disasters.

From the BBC World Service: To safeguard humanity’s digital footprint, some are storing digital artifacts at the Arctic World Archive.

An industry is emerging that uses AI to build chatbots of people who’ve died. The BBC’s Isabel Woodford looks at the business of grief-tech.