'Tis the season for credit card debt
Marketplace
American Public Media
4.6 • 8K Ratings
🗓️ 28 November 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Holiday spending tends to drive up U.S. consumers’ credit card debt. In the past, most households were able to pay down that debt come the new year. But as wallets get squeezed, that may not be the case in 2026. Plus: Monopoly celebrates his 90th anniversary, a family moves from a farm to the city, and we visit a lab growing the chocolate of the future.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | At Pluralsight, we don't just teach skills. |
| 0:02.8 | We are building the tech workforce who deliver results fast, accelerated by top-tier content. |
| 0:08.6 | Lead with confidence, lead with expertise. |
| 0:11.1 | Visit us at plural site.com to tap in and learn more. |
| 0:16.7 | Did you do some holiday shopping today? |
| 0:19.3 | And if so, how good or bad did you feel about opening up your wallet? |
| 0:24.4 | The answer might tell us something about the state of the economy. |
| 0:28.2 | From American Public Media, this is Marketplace. |
| 0:42.8 | In New York, I'm Kristen Schwab in for Kyrisdal. |
| 0:44.9 | It's Friday the 28th of November. |
| 0:46.1 | Good to have you along. |
| 0:50.9 | There's a lot to talk about today with the holiday shopping season officially here. |
| 0:55.9 | Also, we got a pile of economic data this week, including reports delayed during the government shutdown. So let's dig in. Jordan Holman is at the New York Times. Rachel Siegel is at the |
| 1:01.4 | Washington Post. Hey, you two. Hey, there. Hey, Kristen. Jordan, I want to start with you, since retail is such a |
| 1:09.2 | big part of your beat, and today is the day. |
| 1:12.0 | And I'm hoping you can make some holiday shopping predictions for us, because we have some kind of contradicting data. |
| 1:18.5 | Retail sales numbers for September were out this week and kind of whatever. |
| 1:23.0 | And meanwhile, the National Retail Federation says Americans will spend more this season than ever before. |
| 1:28.2 | So how do you square those? |
| 1:31.0 | It is really confusing. |
| 1:33.1 | But I think the way to look at it is that our economy has been bifurcating for years at this point right now. |
| 1:41.1 | And so when you see those big numbers about a trillion dollars in sales |
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