Yet another stockpile scramble
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Business activity growth soared in April, according to S&P Global’s purchasing managers index. The topline number might sound rosy, but experts think the growth spurt is really a sign of fear. In this episode, why businesses spent month two of the war in Iran stockpiling goods. Plus: Avis experiences a stock market “short squeeze,” business owners apply for the first round of tariff refunds, and we look back at the 1970s to understand the economics of oil price caps.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | At Radio Lab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry. |
| 0:06.9 | But we do also like to get into other kinds of stories. |
| 0:10.2 | Stories about policing or politics. |
| 0:12.9 | Country music. |
| 0:13.8 | Hockey. |
| 0:14.5 | Sex. |
| 0:15.5 | Of bugs. |
| 0:16.7 | Regardless of whether we're looking at science or not science, we bring a rigorous curiosity to get you the answers. |
| 0:23.3 | And hopefully make you see the world anew. |
| 0:24.9 | Radio Lab, adventures on the edge of what we think we know. |
| 0:28.8 | Wherever you get your podcast. |
| 0:31.8 | Coming up on the program today, a short Wall Street tutorial. |
| 0:36.7 | We'll talk factories and we'll talk price caps and we will pour one out for Florida |
| 0:42.2 | oranges. |
| 0:43.7 | From American public media, this is Marketplace. |
| 0:53.1 | In Los Angeles, I'm Colin Rizdahl. |
| 0:59.7 | It is Thursday. |
| 1:00.9 | Today, this one is the 23rd of April. |
| 1:03.4 | Good, as it always is, to have you along, everybody. |
| 1:06.8 | Wall Street was in a, yeah, maybe war is not so great mood today. |
| 1:13.3 | Equities fell, the price action, as traders like to say, mostly to the downside. |
| 1:19.4 | The bigger picture we will do at that spot in the program where we always do the bigger picture, |
... |
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