WNBA franchises are a slam dunk in this iffy economy
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 23 May 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The WNBA’s first expansion team in 18 years, the Golden State Valkyries, played its first game last week to a crowd of 18,000 fans. Though this uncertain economy may not be ideal for most new businesses, professional women’s basketball is soaring to new heights: three brand-new teams joined the league this season. In this episode, why WNBA franchises are emphasizing community over star power to attract new fans. Plus: falling international student enrollment is bad news for the job market and locals push back against lithium mining in the Andes.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Another day, another tariff announcement, or two, or three. From American Public Media, |
| 0:09.0 | this is Marketplace. |
| 0:14.4 | From Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland, I'm Rie McRaez, in for Kai Rizdal. |
| 0:24.0 | It is Friday the 23rd of May. |
| 0:26.2 | Good to have you along. |
| 0:28.0 | You know, normally the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, it's kind of quiet, not a ton going on. |
| 0:33.8 | But we know these are not normal times. |
| 0:36.0 | And there is a lot of news to unpack today. So let's get into it. |
| 0:40.1 | Amara Amokwe is at Bloomberg. Jordan Holman is at the New York Times. Hey, you two. |
| 0:45.2 | Hi. |
| 0:45.7 | Hey there. Amara, I'll start with you. So we woke up this morning to, of course, more tariff announcements, more tariff chaos. |
| 0:54.0 | Trump got on social media. He threatened to impose a 50% tariff on imports from the European Union. |
| 0:59.9 | And he also warned about slapping a 25% import tax on Apple's iPhones if they're not produced here in the U.S. |
| 1:06.7 | You cover the Fed. There have been a lot of conversations about how the Fed is weighing these kinds of headlines. |
| 1:12.2 | If you're Jay Powell and you woke up to this news this morning, what are you thinking? |
| 1:18.4 | If I'm Jay Powell, I'm thinking that the stance that I and other Fed policymakers have taken is probably the right one. |
| 1:26.8 | And that stance is that the Fed should be on hold |
| 1:30.1 | because there is just an immense amount of uncertainty around President Trump's economic policies, |
| 1:37.1 | tariffs being the chief among them, but others around taxes and regulation and immigration and all |
| 1:41.3 | these things. And what we've heard from Fed officials consistently in recent weeks |
| 1:46.1 | is that they just feel like they are going to be in wait and see mode, |
| 1:50.1 | that this is just not a good time to be adjusting interest rates |
... |
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