Marketplace®

Daily business news and economic stories
  • A Southwest Airlines passenger jet prepares to land at Midway Airport on April 5, 2011 in Chicago, Ill. The airline has said it will follow other airlines in rising prices a notch to deal with high gas prices.
    Scott Olson/Getty Images

    This week, we're looking at how new technology is changing the American workforce. The series is called "Robots Ate My Job," and David Brancaccio of our Economy 4.0 unit is driving across the country without interacting with a single human being. Today, a look at self-checkout at grocery stores. A couple of congressional panels will look at the military's push into alternative energy. And day two of the Supreme Court arguments surrounding the new health care law begins.

  • A boy jumps with his skateboard during a sunny day on March 17, 2012 as unusually warm temperatures hit Prague.
    MICHAL CIZEK/AFP/Getty Images

    The father of what we know as the mass-produced skateboard passed away at age 81. How has the industry grown since he first began to churn out boards?

  • Opening Night Of Lionsgate's 'The Hunger Games' at the Regal Cinemas L.A. LIVE Stadium on March 22, 2012 in Los Angeles, Calif.
    Valerie Macon/Getty Images

    Lionsgate had a very good weekend It's film, 'The Hunger Games,' took in $150 million dollars domestically over the weekend.

  • A giant boombox prop is displayed in the T-Mobile Music Store during the launch of Google Music hosted by T-Mobile at Mr. Brainwash Studio on November 16, 2011 in Los Angeles, Calif. Turns out, boomboxes in some ways made a bigger impact that the iPod or iPhone.
    John Shearer/Getty Images for T-Mobile

    It's day one of Supreme Court arguments over President Barack Obama's health care reform law. Twenty-six states are challenging the law — parts of which are already in place. Apollo Group, which owns the University of Phoenix, is expected to announce earnings today, and analysts aren't expecting big things. It's been 10 years since the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School opened a satellite campus in San Francisco. To mark the occasion, the business school has moved to a bigger — and shinier — facility.

  • U.S. President Barack Obama signs the payroll tax bill in the Oval Office December 23, 2011 in Washington, D.C. He has said he will also sign off on the new inside trading bill passed in Congress.
    Dennis Brack-Pool/Getty Images

    Private investors are buying up foreclosed properties by the bushel and renting them out at a profit. Speaking of bushels, the warm weather is tempting some farmers to start planting — but if you plant too early, you won’t get federal crop insurance if something goes wrong. And tax day is just three weeks away. Why is it that so many people want tax reform, but that it just hasn't happened yet?

  • The British government has announced today that it wants to set a minimum price on beer, wine, and spirits. It hopes the move will help prevent alcohol-related crimes and deaths in the country.

  • Yesterday, Marketplace host headed out to Nevada to meet with President Obama. You may have heard the interview, but what was Kai really thinking as he interviewed the man who runs the U.S.A.?

  • President Barack Obama waves as he arrives to speak on March 22, 2012 at the TransCanada Stillwater pipe yard in Cushing, Okla.
    MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

    The president will be talking energy today in Cushing, Okla. — the starting point for the southern part of the Keystone XL Pipeline. But come Monday, the president will have another issue to worry about: the future of his health care law. Yesterday, Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal sat down with President Obama in Nevada and asked him about it. The president also outlined what he sees as the "recipe for success" for the American economy. One California chain, Umami Burger, is getting ready to test the market for the $15 patty — with all the fixings — nationwide. And we check in with Frank Newport for our weekly Attitude Check.

  • Tugboats towing the oil tanker Exxon Valdez two weeks after the tanker ran aground 24 March, 1989, and spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil. Now, the tanker has been sold for scrap metal.
    CHRIS WILKINS/AFP/Getty Images

    The morning after yet another primary Tuesday, we take a deeper look at the economic policies of Mitt Romney. Is cane sugar really better for you than corn syrup? And as gas prices keep going up, the White House could grant a waiver of what's known as the "Jones Act," which currently forbids foreign cargo ships from moving their goods from one American port to another.

  • Soda is displayed in a market in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Soda sales have been declining slightly for several years now, even though they still make up a huge part of the beverage market.
    Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    New numbers out today show that the soda sales slump that has been going on for years continued to speed up in 2011, with consumers buying more healthy beverages in its place.