Are we spending more because we can, or because we have to?

Marketplace

American Public Media

Business, News

4.6 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Consumers may have revved up their spending in October, but spending more doesn’t mean getting more — prices are also up this holiday season. In this episode, why most shoppers feel like they're doing less with more. Plus: Auto loan delinquencies rise, mortgage applications heat up during an often-chilly season, and Kai explains the price-earnings ratio of the S&P 500, which is at a decades-high.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	On the program today, you, the humble American consumer.
0:06.9	We are going to revisit the European economy, circa 2010.
0:11.4	And look, just put down your phone, will you?
0:15.2	From American public media.
0:17.6	This is Marketplace.
0:28.4	I'm Kai Rizell.
0:29.5	It is Wednesday.
0:34.5	Today, this one is the 12th of November good, as it always is, to have you along, everybody.
0:39.5	There are a lot of confounding things about this economy right now.
0:43.4	And right near the tippy top of that list is the American consumer.
0:49.3	Specifically, the way we keep on spending, even though survey after survey, after survey shows we are getting crankier and crankier.
0:52.3	Today's data point comes to us from the Bank of America Institute, which tracks credit card
0:56.6	and debit card data, which in turn shows consumer spending was up a bit in October.
1:02.2	That's month to month and year over year.
1:05.2	But we're spending more in part because we can, and we're spending more in part as Marketplace's Suburie
1:12.1	Benishore reports because we have to. Last month, at the dawn of holiday shopping season, consumers
1:18.8	turned up the spending by almost two and a half percent. The year-over-year growth rate is the
1:24.3	fastest since early 2024.
1:31.0	David Tinsley is senior economist at the Bank of America Institute.
1:34.1	It's been increasing for the last five months.
1:37.9	But spending more did not mean we got more.
1:42.6	Tinsley says the amount of stuff we buy hasn't actually changed that much since January. We are just paying more for it.
	...

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