May 31, 2016

Marketplace for Tuesday, May 31, 2016

A Playmobil toy figure is covered with plastic granules at the playmobil toy factory in Dietenhofen on November 12, 2013 in Dietenhofen, Germany. Timm Schamberger/Getty Images

Today's episode goes inside Verizon's American call centers and inside the heads of American consumers. Plus: Only about half of welfare funding actually goes to cash assistance, work or child care. What happens to the rest?

Segments From this episode

How an oil shortage in the 1970s shaped today's economic policy

by Kai Ryssdal

May 31, 2016

Meg Jacobs details the effects of U.S. dependency on foreign oil in her new book.

An attendant at a Texaco petrol station on 1st Avenue and 37th Street, New York, during a fuel shortage in June 1979.

Brian Alpert/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

LISTEN

EMBED

Why do welfare funds go to marriage counseling?

by Krissy Clark

May 31, 2016

Our new podcast, "The Uncertain Hour" looks at the sometimes surprising places welfare cash ends up.

Instructors Cynthia Rayford and Scott Roby conduct a marriage counseling class in Oklahoma.

Krissy Clark

LISTEN

EMBED

Consumer spending surged in April. Why?

by Mark Garrison

May 31, 2016

Is it pent-up demand or confidence in the economy? Either way, it's surprising.

A Toys'R'Us store in Miami, Florida, 2010.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

LISTEN

EMBED

Verizon's deal puts more U.S. call centers to work

by Kimberly Adams

May 31, 2016

The company's bringing 1,400 new jobs to the East Coast, and there are some advantages to running call centers in the U.S.

A call center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.

William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

LISTEN

EMBED

Final Note

It was very easy to hack North Korea's Facebook clone

by Kai Ryssdal

May 31, 2016

Child's play, really.

North Korean children learn to use the computer in a primary school on April 2, 2011 in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Feng Li/Getty Images

LISTEN

EMBED

Today’s episode goes inside Verizon’s American call centers and inside the heads of American consumers. Plus: Only about half of welfare funding actually goes to cash assistance, work or child care. What happens to the rest?