We resolve to watch these 2026 indicators
The Indicator from Planet Money
NPR
4.7 • 9.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 January 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We had bad consumer sentiment vibes, tariffs, and a seemingly ascendant stock market. And those are just a few indicators from last year!
As we enter 2026, what indicators should we keep an eye on … in the future? On today’s episode, our top indicator predictions for the new year.
Related:
What AI data centers are doing to your electric bill
Tariffs. Consumer sentiment. Cape ratio. Pick the Indicator of the Year!
What indicators will 2025 bring?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong, and I'm joined today by Stephen |
| 0:16.5 | Passaha. Greetings, Waylon. And our producer, Cooper, Katz, McKim. |
| 0:21.7 | Hi, hello. |
| 0:22.6 | Great to meet you. |
| 0:23.4 | Hello. |
| 0:24.5 | Great to meet you. Day one. Come here often. It's like we had a little break for the holidays and you just forgot who we were. Exactly. I'm your colleague, Waylon. Oh, okay. And just to catch you up from what you might have missed, we had a family feud situation here at the Indicator. |
| 0:42.3 | It featured our very own Darian Woods and then Planet Money's Greg Rosalski and Kenny Malone. |
| 0:47.4 | And these guys battled over which indicator best represented 2025. |
| 0:53.7 | Kenny chose consumer sentiment. |
| 0:55.7 | Greg argued tariffs were King |
| 0:57.7 | and Darien made a convincing case |
| 0:59.7 | for the cape ratio in a Dracula costume. |
| 1:02.7 | We have counted up your votes |
| 1:04.3 | and drum roll please. |
| 1:07.6 | The indicator of the year chosen by you, |
| 1:10.6 | the listener, was tariffs by just five votes. |
| 1:17.9 | Congratulations to one Greg Wazowski for successfully arguing that tariffs were the indicator of the year in 2025. |
| 1:25.2 | You know, I think Daryan should have done just a little more New Zealand Dracula, and he |
| 1:29.1 | would have got there. |
| 1:30.2 | Hey, we're not here to discuss the past, though. |
| 1:33.1 | We want to know what's going to happen in the future. |
| 1:38.2 | Flying cars, karate kicking robots. |
... |
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