Economic data can come from anywhere, you know.

AI is going to be buying TV ads now, which great.

And how's sitting as a job.

From American public media, this is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kai Rizdahl. It is Thursday. Today, this one is the 14th of May.

It is always to have you along, everybody.

One does not usually count the Census Bureau among the great statistical agencies of the United States government.

But one should, because in addition to all the straight-up counting of people that it does,

it also tracks a wide swath of what happens in this economy.

For our purposes today, two items specifically. First of all, retail sales,

April is the month in question, up half a percent from March. Nice job, American consumers.

Retail sales, by the way, measured in dollars, which makes it even more interesting that that half percent bump holds true,

even when you strip out volatile and expensive items like automobiles and gasoline.

So there is that.

Also on the rise, item two for us today, business inventories.

That is March data, up nine-tenths percent from February.

Those are headline numbers, of course, those

two, and are decent on a first impression. But as Daniel Ackerman reports to start us off,

a closer inspection reveals some consternation among both businesses and consumers.

Yes, sales and inventories were up, but Jessica Ramirez of the Consumer Collective says there's something to keep in mind about those numbers.

Really, its prices are high.

High and rising fast, according to this week's inflation data.

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