The myth of “the deserving rich and the undeserving poor”
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2024
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the new Trump administration, there may be a greater focus on people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. But “this idea that we’re doing this all on our own is a fiction,” argues Alissa Quart of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. On today’s show, we’ll discuss economic inequality and how the economy is — or isn’t — working for people. But first: bitcoin’s meteoric rise in value and a labor market losing momentum.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Why would a Bitcoin cost 100 grand? I'm David Brancaccio in New York. The S&P 500 has had a good year, up 28%. But then there's Bitcoin up 138% since New Year's. The cryptocurrency is a tool and a kind of counterculture alt version of regular currency. |
| 0:26.9 | It also trades like a stock, and at the moment that stock is riding high, crossing above 100,000 for the first time overnight. |
| 0:33.3 | Some of that is a bet the incoming presidential administration will work to keep regulation of the crypto industry light. |
| 0:36.6 | My marketplace BBC colleague, Leanna Byrne, has more. |
| 0:42.7 | So Bitcoin's big surge has a lot to do with President-elect Donald Trump's pro-Crypto appointments, |
| 0:46.9 | which signal a new era of lighter regulation and supportive policies. |
| 0:50.8 | It's also got a lot to do with it going mainstream over the past year, |
| 0:54.1 | with heavyweight investment giants like BlackRock and Fidelity, |
| 1:00.3 | funneling billions into the market. But the momentum isn't limited to the US. Asia is home to some of the world's largest crypto traders in places like China, India and South Korea. Earlier this |
| 1:05.8 | week, after South Korea briefly declared martial law, reports showed a surge in crypto trading as people turned to |
| 1:12.7 | Bitcoin. They were treating the currency as a safe haven asset in uncertain times, a role traditionally |
| 1:18.7 | played by gold, quite a journey since Bitcoin's birth in 2009 when its value was measured in cents. |
| 1:25.1 | I'm the BBC's Leanne Burn for Marketplace. There's news just now. |
| 1:29.0 | The number of layoff announcements rose 4% in November, according to the outplacement company, |
| 1:34.6 | Challenger Gray, and Christmas. Layoffs overall have been subdued ever since the early stages |
| 1:39.4 | of the pandemic, although it won't feel that way in some sectors like technology. But as marketplaces Justin |
| 1:45.2 | Ho reports, what we're seeing for November is a sign that the labor market could be losing |
| 1:49.5 | momentum. A lot of businesses are in a tricky spot right now, says Gregory Docko, chief economist |
| 1:55.6 | at EY. He says consumer demand has started this slow, but wages remain elevated. |
| 2:02.7 | So hiring has cooled off. |
| 2:05.6 | You're seeing employees staying longer in place. |
| 2:09.6 | You're also seeing hiring managers being more careful with who they hire. |
... |
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