Segments From This Episode

• Inflation is hiding within retail sales spikes

  by Mitchell Hartman

  

  While prices are rising for consumers, that’s not discouraging them from making purchases.

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• Using “queuing theory” to understand supply chain logjams

  by Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst

  

  “We can use some fancy math to predict how long the line will get,” Keely Croxton of Ohio State says, then apply it to related problems.

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• Biden pressures China on commitments to buy U.S. goods and services

  by Nancy Marshall-Genzer

  

  This is part of the phase one trade deal China signed with the Trump administration. But those goals may have been unrealistic.

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• A sweet staffing situation for one candy shop

  Kristin Thalheimer Bingham, co-owner of Dean’s Sweets in Portland, Maine, sends a dispatch on how business is going.

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• More workers are returning to offices, but downtown? Not so much.

  by Meghan McCarty Carino

  

  The share of workers staying home due to worries about the coronavirus dropped last month to a pandemic low.

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• A fire in Baltimore threatens effort to rebuild

  by Amy Scott

  

  And shows why restoring distressed neighborhoods can be so hard.

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