The negative wealth effect
Marketplace
Marketplace
4.6 • 8.6K Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
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Summary
People feel richer — and spend accordingly — when their assets rise in value. That’s called the wealth effect. But when folks get their retirement account statements for Q1 of 2025, they may feel the opposite, since most of those accounts lost value. Will Americans pull back on their spending as a result? Plus, subcompact cars steer into the sunset, farmers are pessimistic about tariffs, and very small businesses can be a bellwether of economic trends.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today we'll talk jobs, dwindling 401ks, and the disappearance of the subcompact car, |
| 0:08.0 | and of course, we'll cover tariffs too. From American Public Media, this is Marketplace. In New York, I'm Kristen Schwab in for Kyrisdal. |
| 0:26.1 | It's Tuesday, April 1st. Good to have you with us. |
| 0:29.5 | The headline number of the day has nothing to do with the T word, though we will get to tariffs in a bit. |
| 0:36.0 | Today, we kick things off with the Joltz report, or the |
| 0:39.0 | job openings and labor turnover survey out this morning from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. |
| 0:44.4 | Changed little is the phrase of the day. February saw 7.6 million job openings and 5.4 million |
| 0:51.3 | hires, both about the same as in January. And the number of quits and layoffs |
| 0:55.5 | didn't change much either. Remember, February's numbers do not reflect the bulk of federal |
| 1:00.3 | layoffs. We might get a better picture of that come the March jobs report out on Friday. |
| 1:05.9 | Overall, though, this jolt's data shows what looks like a steady, decent labor market. |
| 1:11.4 | With one asterisk, layoffs were up at the smallest of small businesses. |
| 1:16.4 | That's companies with fewer than 10 workers. |
| 1:19.0 | Marketplaces Daniel Ackerman looked into small business staffing decisions. |
| 1:23.2 | Eric Saunders runs Carolina landscaping and cleanup near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. |
| 1:28.3 | He's got just a couple full-time employees, and with major question marks over how much |
| 1:32.9 | his customers are willing to spend these days, he sure isn't hiring. |
| 1:36.8 | Yeah, holding steady. |
| 1:38.3 | Unless the market changes to where people aren't so worried about every little scent they |
| 1:43.3 | have, it's kind of hard to do anything right now with laborers. People aren't so worried about every little scent they have. |
| 1:47.3 | It's kind of hard to do anything right now with laborers. |
| 1:52.4 | Holding steady in the face of uncertainty was kind of the theme of today's Joltz report, |
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