Consumer spending outpaced income — again

Marketplace

American Public Media

Business, News

4.6 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In August, Americans spent more than they made for the third month in a row. Thanks to tariff-induced price bumps, consumers are dipping into savings and using credit cards to keep up with their typical spending. In this episode, how long can consumers stay resilient? Plus: LA businesses prepare for ongoing ICE raids, a ski group vies to manage U.S. surfing at the 2028 Olympics, and an artist’s work changes in the age of e-commerce.

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Transcript

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0:55.9	That's V-A-N-T-A.com slash G-O.
1:00.9	Today on the show, we'll of course review the nitty-gritty business news of the week.
1:05.7	And then we'll send you into the weekend with a trip to the beach.
1:09.7	From American Public Media, this is Marketplace.
1:16.5	In New York, I'm Kristen Schwab in for Kyrisdahl. It's Friday the 26th of September. Thanks for being here.
2:04.4	Lots to talk about today and only six and a half-ish minutes to do it. And my timer has already started. So let's not waste another moment. Rachel Siegel is at the Washington Post. Amaro Moquay is at Bloomberg. Hey, you two. Hey there. Happy Friday. Happy Friday. So I want to start with the big news of the day, at least business news. The August personal consumption expenditures price index went up three-tenths of a percent from the month before. That puts overall inflation at 2.7 percent and core at 2.9 year over year. Amara, when you saw those numbers,
2:11.4	what was your gut reaction? Yeah, inflation is a little stubborn here. You know, that annual headline number at 2.7% was an uptick. And so we are seeing a little bit of stubbornness. But at the same time, I think the big
2:21.6	sort of discussion around inflation right now is that the impact of tariffs is not really
2:27.2	showing up as much as economists had feared earlier in the year. So I think by now, people were
2:33.5	expecting to see a little bit more pass-through of President
2:36.1	Trump's tariff policies into the inflation data.
2:38.2	And it really hasn't shown up that forcefully.
2:40.6	And I think that's why you're seeing a lot of Fed officials starting to talk about the possibility
	...

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