Week of May 18th, 2026

Kids' shows, expanded non-alcoholic offerings, and community events are among the ways xBk Live has adapted to new conditions.

The May flash PMI shows diverging growth in two major parts of the economy. Plus: Bird watching, live music venues, and the new Fed chair.

America’s fertility rate has been on the decline, falling 23% since the Great Recession.

The Purchasing Managers’ Index from S&P Global this month shows a booming manufacturing sector, while service industries are stagnating.

More than a third of people in the U.S. spend money on birdwatching. If you’ve ever bought a bird feeder, you’re one of them.

Perez, who also co-hosts Marketplace’s “Million Bazillion,” told us how he prepared and why he’s still reminding himself he’s not the boss.

Athletics give students — and future workers — a foundation of discipline, commitment, and practice, says BlackRock’s Jabari Magnus.

Promising productivity, the HotSOS Housekeeping app tells workers when and where to clean and is now used by most global hotel brands.

An app designed to boost productivity has also added stress and discomfort for some hotel housekeepers.

The term “blue dot fever” refers to unsold seats on websites like Ticketmaster. Those low ticket sales could be to blame for canceled concerts and tours.

The preliminary snapshot released earlier in the month was dismal, comparable to levels not seen since the huge post-COVID inflation spike.

Memorial Day weekend is here, kicking off the summer travel season. But high gas prices are hitting consumers’ wallets.

Plus, AI talk at graduation ceremonies this month drew loud backlash from students, and Elon Musk loses his lawsuit against OpenAI. Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, joins Marketplace's Stephanie Hughes for this week's "Tech Bytes: Week in Review."

SpaceX just filed to go public after more than 20 years in business. Plus: Tungsten prices, new cars, trade wars, and Hawaii fishing.

“[I] definitely won't ever get rich doing it,” said small-scale commercial fisherman Matyas Kreidler.

China controls most of the world’s supply of tungsten, which is used to weld and cut other types of metal.

The average cost for a new passenger vehicle these days sits right around $50,000.

In their new book, co-authors Chad Bown and Soumaya Keynes make the case that in a global economy where trade wars are everywhere, the best thing to do is learn how to fight them.

Massive tech companies like SpaceX and OpenAI look to be finally going public. They’re expected to find a lot of pent-up demand from investors.

Crystal McCrary has never let anyone else define her.

SpaceX filed for an initial public offering yesterday, and OpenAI could file for an IPO as soon as tomorrow. We’ll dig in.

Targeted alpha therapies could better attack tumors while reducing damage to healthy tissue.

“Flatness” refers to the elimination of layers of middle management, as AI agents take over some coordinating functions.

As tech companies embrace AI and “flatter” corporate structures, middle management positions could be at risk.

Marketplace's Meghan McCarty Carino takes a look at how companies are trying to get ahead of any cyberthreats caused by advanced AI.

The Financial Diet’s Chelsea Fagan and behavioral economist Judd Kessler explain why we doomspend, and what we should do instead.

As healthy people drop their coverage, premiums go up for everyone else. Plus: Utilities rate hikes, Oklahoma energy, tariff refunds, and AI training.

The state isn’t seeing a boom from the energy supply crunch. That limits the uptick in tax revenue that comes from higher prices, and makes employment unlikely to see a big boost.

Ruth Fowler, a screenwriter, talked about her experience working as an AI trainer when her work in Hollywood couldn’t pay the bills.

KFF estimates a more than 20% decline, driven largely by the expiration of enhanced subsidies that made marketplace insurance affordable for millions.

Fresh data from energy nonprofit PowerLines and Ipsos this week says utilities requested $9.4 billion in rate hikes in the first quarter of 2026.

Business owners are skeptical that tariff uncertainty is over, even as money is deposited into their bank accounts.

As the war continues and inflation rises, the cost of government borrowing is going up too.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law in 2010 in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

Google’s search business survived the chatbot boom — and now its AI tools and cloud services are accelerating the company’s growth.

Investors have been souring on bonds. We’ll explain what that means for things like retirement accounts and mortgage rates.

Each year, the federal government spends about $3 billion fighting wildfires. And this season is off to a rough start.

While the federal government spends about $3 billion on wildfire suppression each year, most of that is being spent, and states are having to fill the gaps.

Rachel Tobac, CEO of SocialProof Security, explains the implications of Instructure’s newly-struck deal with the hackers.

We’re exploring large-scale interventions, from shooting sulfur into the stratosphere to sucking carbon out of the air.

“Business schools are desperately looking for alternative revenue streams to finance their marquee MBA programs,” said journalist Robb Mandelbaum, reporting for Bloomberg Businessweek. And one stream they’re turning to— executive education.

The incoming Fed chair hinted at shaking up the central bank’s communication style. Plus: EV sales, tree cities, retail earnings, and executive education.

Americans still buy a lot of big pick-up trucks. On top of that, the Trump administration ended subsidies for electric vehicles and stopped enforcing fuel efficiency rules.

Rebecca Holopter pops up at markets and events and paints 10-minute watercolor portraits of pets — from dogs and cats to pigeons and cockroaches.

Every dollar invested in trees generates roughly three dollars in benefits.

Energy and transportation are two areas where costs are rising for stores like Home Depot, Walmart, and Target, but raising prices could turn off an increasingly strapped consumer.

The Fed hasn’t always been so transparent about how it makes interest rate decisions.

New research argues homeowners and businesses are spending far more on insurance than claims alone can explain.

Americans and American businesses paid $1 trillion in property insurance premiums last year. We’ll do the numbers.

One man’s dorm-moveout trash is another man’s treasure.

The problem? A combination of interest rates (too high) and housing supply (too low).

The $1.8 billion fund will compensate people who have been investigated or targeted for “political, personal, or ideological reasons.”

Stanford researcher Maty Bohacek joins the show to discuss his recent study looking at generative AI’s influence on websites.

Everything you need to know about money backed by gold – LIVE from Boston!

Plus: The housing market, retail earnings, consumer sentiment, and the American banking system.

There’s been a decades-long push to grow the workforce but many early career job seekers are hitting a firewall.

What companies say about future pricing can tell us how much consumers can really afford.

In “The Almighty Dollar: 500 Years of the World’s Most Powerful Money,” journalist and financial historian Brendan Greeley looks at why the dollar is the most powerful currency in the world and how that power has shaped the global financial system.

New data from the National Home Builders Association shows some optimism in the housing market. But Realtors in markets from Seattle to Miami say the picture on the ground is complicated.

Tensions are once again rising around conflict in the Middle East, rattling global markets. Government bond and oil prices are both up this morning.

The past few years have been bruising for Hollywood. Pandemic shutdowns and labor unrest led studios to scale back production. Now, a fast-growing, unlikely format is helping fill some of that gap.

The war in Iran has cost Americans more than $40 billion in additional fuel costs, according to an analysis from Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs.

As Marketplace's Henry Epp reports, the idea is that the U.S. could eventually produce enough clean energy to sell back to Québec.

From South LA to the world's largest asset management firm, Jabari Magnus breaks down the financial moves that truly matter, saving from your first paycheck, building credit the smart way, and letting compound interest do the heavy lifting.

Former NBA champion turned media entrepreneur Matt Barnes engages his twin sons in an honest discussion about money management and the financial system.

The founder of culture-shaping media business The Shade Room, breaks down how she turned a simple Instagram account into an influential social-first company.