Mar 20, 2024

The Fed’s evolving data diet

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

As the economy shifts, the central bank shifts its data preferences for making interest rate decisions. Plus, the e-waste gold mine.

Segments From this episode

The Fed loves a data buffet. What's on the menu these days?

by Justin Ho

Mar 20, 2024

Beyond government reports on inflation and jobs, it examines bank and payment processor data along with factory output, credit and rents.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell leaves a news conference. "I like to refer to the Federal Reserve as the Hoover vacuum of data," says former Fed economist Claudia Sahm.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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CHIPS Act to give Intel $8.5 billion in direct funding, plus loans

by Kimberly Adams

Mar 20, 2024

Biden's legislation aims to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, reducing reliance on foreign chipmakers.

President Biden speaks Wednesday at an Intel facility in Chandler, Arizona. The funding will enable Intel to build new plants in four states and expand operations in others.

Rebecca Noble/Getty Images

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Think of your electronic waste as a mine of resources

by Stephanie Hughes

Mar 20, 2024

E-waste is filled with old parts and precious metals that could be worth a lot to the right people.

About half of states have take-back laws that require device makers to accept old versions for recycling.

Cesar Manso/AFP via Getty Images

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Alaska has "gobs and gobs" of natural gas, but still may need to import it

by Eric Stone

Mar 20, 2024

It’s one thing to have plenty of gas available in the ground. But in a state as big as Alaska, it’s another thing to get the gas to where people can use it.

Enstar Natural Gas President John Sims explains how pipes and machinery pump natural gas into underground reservoirs at this Kenai, Alaska, facility, where it's stored for later.

Riley Board

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Protecting yourself from COVID-19 these days is hard. And it comes at a cost.

by Samantha Fields

Mar 20, 2024

Governments and businesses need to invest in ways to prevent transmission, experts say, instead of leaving people on their own.

"We cannot rely on masking forever. We cannot ask people, even immunocompromised people, to mask for the next 100 years," says Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist. Above, people with long COVID symptoms sit in on a Senate hearing about the condition.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

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My Economy

In the middle of Bourbon Country, this tea shop owner carved out a space for the sober community

by Sofia Terenzio

Mar 20, 2024

Arielle Clark, owner of Sis Got Tea, started her business doing online sales. Now, she has a storefront in Louisville, Kentucky.

Arielle Clark, owner of Sis Got Tea in Louisville, Kentucky, says running her business has required sacrifice at times, but she "wouldn't change anything for the world."

Courtesy Clark

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Music from the episode

"Esperar Pra Ver" Poolside, Fatnotronic

"Pin It Down" Madison Cunningham

"Ace of Aces" The Fearless Flyers

"Taylor McFerrin" Degrees of Light

"Chamakay" Blood Orange

The team

Nancy Farghalli Executive Producer

Maria Hollenhorst Producer II

Andie Corban Producer I

Sarah Leeson Producer I

Sean McHenry Director & Associate Producer II

Richard Cunningham Associate Producer I

Sofia Terenzio Assistant Producer

Jordan Mangi Assistant Digital Producer

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