Across regions and sectors, inflation zigs and zags

Marketplace

American Public Media

Business, News

4.6 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ever read past the top line of the consumer price index? That 2.7% inflation rate varies a lot by metro area. The same goes for goods categories. So why is inflation higher in San Diego than Dallas? And higher for baby clothes and than electronics? We explain. Also in this episode: Long-term unemployment rises as hiring slows, businesses grow weary of waiting for tariff clarity, and we talk to Cheryl McKissack Daniel, CEO of the country's largest Black-owned construction firm.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Inflation, tariffs.
0:04.0	Inflation, tariffs.
0:06.0	Inflation, tariffs?
0:09.0	Tariffs?
0:10.0	From American public media.
0:12.0	This is Marketplace.
0:15.0	In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Rizzdahl.
0:25.9	It is Tuesday today.
0:27.4	This one is the 12th of August.
0:29.1	Good as always to have you along, everybody.
0:31.3	As you might have gathered, somehow, import taxes and rising prices are going to be the throughlines of the program today with a detour or two into the labor market and the construction business.
0:43.1	The July consumer price index came out this morning.
0:46.0	2.7% on an annual basis was the headline number that was steady from a month ago.
0:52.5	The core rate, though, which takes out food and energy and gives you a better sense of the long-term direction of things, that bumps up to 3.1% year over year.
1:03.0	And, but that's for the whole economy, the wide angle of view, if you will.
1:08.7	You zoom in on your local slice of this economy, and the picture might
1:11.6	look a little bit different. In San Diego, inflation's running at 4% since this time last year.
1:17.8	Dallas, though, less than 1%. Marketplace's Kristen Schwab gets us going.
1:23.5	It's pretty normal for inflation to vary across the U.S. because it's normal for prices to vary,
1:29.3	especially for housing, which makes up about a third of the CPI.
1:33.5	And, of course, housing trickles down into many other parts of the index.
1:37.8	Jed Colco at the Peterson Institute for International Economics says if rent goes up...
	...

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