When stressed consumers and higher prices collide

Marketplace All-in-One

Marketplace

News, Business

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Retail sales were practically flat from March to April, and consumers are feeling more glum, two recent reports show. Already, one big box retailer has said it will start raising prices in the wake of tariff pressure. In this episode, what happens when stressed shoppers meet higher costs? Plus: Data centers could be key to stabilizing natural gas demand, slashed USDA grants leave small farms scrambling to stay afloat and Trump’s tariffs, ironically, send some manufacturing out of the U.S. and into Canada.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Federal funding for public media is at risk of being eliminated.
0:04.2	That seriously affects over 800 local public radio stations that broadcast marketplace,
0:09.6	and that in turn impacts our bottom line.
0:12.9	Marketplace needs your help to plan for an uncertain future and to continue to be able to bring you the news, interviews, and stories about the economy as it changes.
0:21.2	Every donation right now has a profound impact. So please give what you can at marketplace.org
0:27.1	slash donate and thanks.
0:31.9	Okay, not for nothing, but do you suppose Jay Powell has ever shopped at Walmart?
0:38.3	From American Public Media, this is Marketplace.
0:47.6	In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Rizzdell.
0:54.0	It is Thursday, today the 15th of May. Good as always to have you along, everybody.
0:59.8	We're going to do a little one-two at the top of the program today, a little back and forth, a little compare and contrast, if you will.
1:07.1	The featured players are Jay Powell, chair of the Board of Governors, as you know, of the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States, and John David Rainey, the chief financial officer at Walmart.
1:18.5	Chair Powell, the floor is yours, sir. We may be entering a period of more frequent and potentially more persistent supply shocks, a difficult challenge for the economy and for central banks.
1:27.4	And, oh, by the way, the economy and for central banks.
1:32.5	And, oh, by the way, for consumers and retailers, that was a Fed chair this morning at a conference in Washington. John David Rainey was speaking this morning on CNBC after Walmart's earnings
1:38.5	announcement. We're wired to keep prices low for customers. Wired that way, though they may be.
1:45.2	Rainey did go on to say that tariff-driven price increases could start later this month.
1:51.3	Told you all that to set the table for this.
1:54.3	After a big jump in March, the Commerce Department told us this morning that retail sales were basically flat in April. So we asked Marketplace's
2:02.7	Henry Ep, what all of the above might portend for the economy yet to come. So here's the thing
2:08.8	about the American economy right now. A lot of indicators look pretty good. Unemployment's relatively
2:13.9	low. Wage growth is solid. Inflation's not too bad. Rick Miller is with the retail
	...

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