Consumer sentiment is down, while inflation expectations are up
Marketplace Morning Report
Marketplace
4.5 • 927 Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
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Summary
The Conference Board reported the biggest monthly decline in consumer confidence since 2021. The University of Michigan also reported a sharp decline in optimism, along with a steep increase in inflation expectations. The reasons? Threats of tariffs, high cost-of-living expenses and general uncertainty. Also on the show: a draft deal for the U.S. to access Ukraine’s rare earth minerals and a proposed green card for wealthy people.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Why are consumers turning so sour on the economy? |
| 0:05.1 | I'm David Brancaccio in New York. |
| 0:07.0 | First, the U.S. and Ukraine have agreed to a draft deal to give U.S. access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals. |
| 0:14.2 | The news agency Reuters cites two sources with knowledge of the matter. |
| 0:18.0 | This is a key demand of the Trump administration and Ukrainian officials |
| 0:21.1 | may have believed the concession was necessary to maintain U.S. support in the war against Russia. |
| 0:27.1 | Russia invaded Ukraine just about three years ago this week. Yet, President Trump said that |
| 0:31.5 | Ukraine, quote, never should have started it. Marketplaces Novosafo has more on the emerging |
| 0:37.0 | minerals deal. Yeah, the details of it |
| 0:39.6 | are still fuzzy, David, but the broad outlines of this tentative deal apparently include a |
| 0:44.0 | reserve fund paid for by proceeds from the mining of rare earth minerals in Ukraine, and the U.S. |
| 0:50.3 | would have a joint ownership stake of some sort. President Trump had previously demanded |
| 0:54.4 | $500 billion in mineral revenues from Ukraine as payback for past support, although the U.S. |
| 1:00.4 | has not spent anywhere near that much in military aid for Ukraine. In any case, that's apparently |
| 1:05.3 | not in the deal. Meanwhile, Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky had been seeking security |
| 1:10.7 | guarantees and ongoing military support. |
| 1:13.5 | We don't know if that's included in this tentative deal either. |
| 1:17.7 | What we do know is the two leaders are likely to meet soon for more talks. |
| 1:21.8 | Trump said yesterday that Zelensky wants to come to the White House to sign this deal, |
| 1:29.2 | maybe as soon as Friday, David. |
| 1:35.3 | Friday. All right. And how much of these valuable minerals is Ukraine thought to have? |
| 1:41.7 | Well, by its own accounting, Ukraine says it has about 21 so-called critical raw minerals, which are necessary for green energy development, electric vehicles, and battery |
... |
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