Week of February 24th, 2025

Plus: Goodbye, Skype.

Staying in LA will be even harder for grips, gaffers and lighting techs with roughly 13,000 homes lost in January’s fires. Also: The rising cost of utilities and a second act for frozen foods.

Journalist Meghan McCarron, along with elite chefs, has come to appreciate the new, better-tasting options as well as the convenience.

The roughly 13,000 homes lost in January’s wildfires will only make Los Angeles less affordable for below-the-line workers, Paul Audley of FilmLA fears.

Sometimes a fruit is simply no longer in season. Sometimes grocery stores have to deal with forces outside of their control.

Workers are surveyed during reference week, the seven days that include the 12th day of the month. February’s reference week happened before a lot of the federal cuts.

Cold weather and higher natural gas prices raised household costs, particularly stressing the budgets of lower-income families.

An exclusive report from Reuters finds that one company is preparing for potentially broad bans on exports from Beijing.

On this morning’s show: A look at student borrowers left in the lurch and a snapshot of the economy before Trump assumed office.

Patricia Gross, 47, has worked as an independent government contractor with various nonprofits since 2018. Those nonprofits are now out of work, and so is Gross.

Buying a bond is usually like going for ice cream (to a regular ice cream place): You pick your flavor, you pay, you enjoy a nice, predictable payoff. Lately though, that’s not the deal.

An activist group, The People’s Union USA, is calling for a complete boycott of consumer spending in the U.S. on Feb. 28.

Quantum computers could speed up some computing tasks by orders of magnitude — but they’re still in early stages.

While USAID workers in Washington, D.C. are packing up their belongings for a second day, the ripple effects of federal job cuts have wider reaches.

From the BBC World Service: Fears are growing among bitcoin investors after the cryptocurrency’s price fell below the $80,000 threshold Friday.

Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, joins Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes for this week’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”

Money lessons for living life your own way! Starting March 7.

Kai and Nova have got you covered.

They’re a one-stop-shop for a variety of aesthetic medical services, including Botox, lip fillers and laser hair removal.

It’s hard to say whether durable goods orders are up because of optimism or uncertainty. Plus, unemployment claims, med spas and how a customs broker sees the current economy.

Weekly claims are volatile, but taken in context with other recent economic indicators, this week’s spike is a warning sign.

Supply-chain issues back then are causing supply issues now.

Orders rose in January. Are businesses feeling good about the economy or ordering ahead of promised tariffs?

The current rules give homeowners an incentive to build replacement homes likely to burn just as easily during the next wildfire.

Pokémon is celebrating its 29th anniversary as one of the world’s biggest media brands. What’s behind its success?

Many workers who had contracts with the U.S. Agency for International Development are classified as independent contractors and are ineligible for unemployment.

Some workers impacted by government cuts are independent contractors who have canceled contracts with the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Despite the personal and economic toll of the LA fires, migrant workers have mobilized to help their communities.

A number of companies have announced workforce reductions since the beginning of the year.

Job cuts appear to be picking up in the private sector, too. Plus, bosses at Nvidia think there’s still plenty of room for growth.

From the BBC World Service: The European Union said it will react “firmly and immediately” against any “unjustified” tariffs.

While the algorithmic feed helps creators get discovered, deeper, long-form content is what motivates fans to invest their passion and their dollars, says Brielle Villablanca, head of communications and creator advocacy at Patreon.

Jeff Bezos moves to narrow the editorial pages’ focus.

Discretionary government spending contributes to GDP. What happens if the government spends a lot less? Plus, ice cream roulette.

Ukraine would get U.S. support for security guarantees. For its part, the U.S. could weaken its own dependence on China for technologically-necessary materials.

“NATO is one side of the coin. Economic ties are the other side of the coin,” said Neil Irwin of Axios. “Both sides are tarnished right now.”

Government spending is built into the formula for calculating GDP.

With retailers like Kroger and Walmart growing their own services, grocery delivery has become a crowded market.

There are many small businesses that are owned and operated by undocumented immigrants.

The Republican-controlled House has defied predictions of deadlock and advanced the party’s signature legislative package.

The Conference Board reported the biggest monthly decline in consumer confidence since 2021. And the University of Michigan reported a sharp increase in inflation expectations.

What’s behind all the consumer agita? Also: a look at President Donald Trump’s proposed visa “gold card.”

From the BBC World Service: Under pressure from investors, energy giant BP is increasing investments in oil and gas by $10 billion a year.

Monica McGill, CEO of the Institute for Advancing Computing Education, supports early training in programming and data science because “it basically touches everybody’s work.”

If federal funding is off the table, Howard Berk, president of Ellijay Mushrooms, says he’ll have to consider putting up more equity or taking on debt.

Home prices keep going up, and Home Depot’s earnings report reflects hesitation to make big purchases. Plus, consumer sentiment falls.

Utilities and policymakers have worked for years to bring more Canadian power to New England and New York’s energy grid.

Inflation expectations vary by political affiliation, especially with tariffs in the mix. But fears of inflation can be self-fulfilling.

Prices are now rising fastest in the Northeast, and slowing in some Sunbelt markets that saw big spikes early in the pandemic.

Lee Hawkins traces the history of the Minnesota suburb he grew up in.

A book critic explains how book blurbing works and why it’s become a source of debate in the publishing industry.

It’s the first time the home improvement retailer posted gains in two years. This is partly because homeowners are renovating instead of shopping for a new home.

Building the right facilities to power big rigs at scale requires a lot of pieces to fall into place.

American consumers have a lot of skepticism about self-driving vehicles, a new AAA survey finds.

The investment will go to everything from building a huge new factory in Texas to make AI data servers to shows and movies for Apple TV.

Climate change is changing the sport, and also changing consumer demand for new snowmobiles.

Apple announced a $500 billion investment in U.S. operations over the next four years amid the looming threat of tariffs.

From the BBC World Service: DBS says it’ll cut 4,000 jobs over the next three years as AI takes on more work.

The onus for enforcing the stringent rules will be on the tech platforms. One of the challenges involved is reliably and securely assessing users’ age.

There’s more here than meets the eye.

Increasingly, the wealthiest Americans do the bulk of the consumption in this economy. Plus, data centers and U.S. economic warfare.

The facilities can spur regional economic growth but increase electricity bills as well as carbon emissions.

It could make the economy more vulnerable.

This winter, Manu Powers of Sea Quest Hawaii dealt with low staffing and high surf advisories.

Tariffs on Mexico and Canada would suddenly create barriers in what’s been a decades-long free trade region.

Sanctions are like antibiotics, says “Chokepoints” author Edward Fishman. When used too much or too frequently, they can become less effective.

The vaunted chipmaker is a bellwether for tech stocks and the generative AI industry. But uncertainty has crept into views of the company.

Falling productivity, immigration and a high cost of living all set the stage for Canada’s general election this year.

Markets opened higher this morning after a spate of worrisome economic numbers caused a tumble on Friday.

The newly established Center for Heterodox Economics aims to reimagine how we measure economic progress using a more human-centered approach.

The money the IRS spends on tax collection, enforcement and services pulls in much more revenue to fund government operations.

The money the IRS spends on tax collection helps it pull in more money from taxpayers. How will layoffs impact the agency’s ROI?

From the BBC World Service: The Christian Democrats came in first in German elections, but some tough negotiations over the economy lie ahead.

Joe Supan, senior writer at CNET, recently looked at how satellites connect rural and remote areas to the digital world. But he warns that as the space-based machines proliferate, collisions and debris could become problems.