We're sunsetting PodQuest on 2025-07-28. Thank you for your support!
Export Podcast Subscriptions
cover of episode It's "Will they?" or "Won't they?" day for the Fed

It's "Will they?" or "Won't they?" day for the Fed

2025/5/7
logo of podcast Marketplace Morning Report

Marketplace Morning Report

AI Deep Dive Transcript
People
J
Julia Coronado
K
Kimberly Adams
N
Neva Safo
O
Olivia White
S
Stephen Laskowski
Topics
@Julia Coronado : 我认为美联储今天不太可能降息,短期内可能也不会降息。主席鲍威尔将会采取观望态度。美联储面临两难境地:一方面,贸易战可能导致经济增长放缓,这促使降息;另一方面,通货膨胀率高于其2%的目标,这促使他们保持观望。今天的重点不在于利率的升降,而在于美联储如何评估经济形势以及未来可能采取的行动。他们会说明各种可能的经济结果,并根据数据来权衡通货膨胀和经济冲击,再做出相应的决定。他们无法预测何时以及将如何采取行动。 @Olivia White : 我们的研究发现,少数高生产力公司对整体生产力增长贡献巨大。这些公司并非通过微小改进,而是通过大规模改革来实现的。他们并非通过提高效率和减少员工来取得更好的业绩,而是着眼于大局,致力于为所有人创造新的机遇和价值。研究还发现,与生产力较低的公司相比,高生产力公司的工资增长超过一倍。 @Neva Safo : Weight Watchers 申请破产保护,以减少债务,并为其远程医疗业务筹集资金。该公司传统业务(营养指导和团体课程)的销售额下降,而远程医疗业务收入增长迅速。Weight Watchers 希望通过破产重组来消除沉重的债务,并每年节省高达5000万美元的利息支出。 @Kimberly Adams : 加拿大卡车司机受到贸易战的严重影响,生意惨淡,收入减少。许多加拿大卡车运输公司已经裁员或即将裁员,因为货物运输需求减少。贸易战初期,由于企业囤货,业务曾短暂增长,但现在需求减少,许多卡车处于闲置状态。受影响最大的行业包括汽车和农业部门,而加拿大国内的货物运输情况相对较好。 @Stephen Laskowski : 大约10%到15%的成员已经裁员,超过30%到40%的成员表示即将裁员。贸易战初期,由于企业为避免关税而囤货,业务曾短暂增长,但现在需求减少,许多卡车处于闲置状态。

Deep Dive

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
中文

At Comcast, our commitment to the military community goes back to our founder, U.S. Navy veteran Ralph Roberts.

Today, we honor his legacy by partnering with organizations to help veterans, transitioning service members, and military spouses succeed in today's digital world. Delivering the internet connection, skills, and support they need to advance economic mobility and open doors to new opportunities. Visit ComcastCorporation.com slash military to learn more. Comcast, proudly supporting our military community because your service matters.

High Five Casino is the top sweepstakes casino that's free to play. Sign up today to receive a free welcome bonus and exclusive first purchase offers. Choose the premium jackpot package for $29.99 and claim up to 700 game coins, 55 sweeps coins, 1 sweeps coin daily bonus for 5 days, and 400 diamonds. Your High Five moment awaits at HighFiveCasino.com. No purchase necessary, void where prohibited by law, must be 21 years or older, terms and conditions apply.

Don't hold your breath for lower interest rates today. I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. The Federal Reserve wraps up its meetings in about four hours with Chairman Powell's public briefing. Let's bring in from Austin, economist Julia Coronado, founder of Macro Policy Perspectives. Good morning. Good morning.

Good morning. So you're going to be at the edge of your seat in anticipation. What will happen? The suspense. Will they lower interest rates today? Not really. Nobody really expects them to cut interest rates today or probably really anytime soon. So we're going to get a whole lot of wait and see from Chair Powell.

That's going to make the president of the United States mad. He wants lower interest rates like China gave itself today, lower interest rates because of tariffs. Yeah, there's a couple of tensions the Fed is facing. On the one hand, we are likely to see growth slow because of the trade war, and that would tell the Fed that they should lower interest rates. On the other hand, we're going to get a burst of inflation and inflation is still above their 2 percent target. So that tells them to wait and gather information.

So the real content today won't be interest rates up or down, you say, flat, but how the Fed views the economy, how they're assessing things at the moment. And I think they're just going to tell us there's a range of possible outcomes. And as the data come in and tell them how bad the inflation is,

burst is versus the hit to the economy, they will weigh those forces and make their decisions accordingly. They really can't foreshadow what they're going to do or when they're going to do it. Economist Julia Coronado is also a professor at the University of Texas, Austin. Thank you. My pleasure. Again, China cut its interest rates by one quarter of one percentage point today to stimulate the economy weighed down by U.S. tariffs and ongoing distress in the property sector there.

China and the U.S. have announced plans for talks between the U.S. Treasury Secretary and China's vice premier later this week in Switzerland.

Who doesn't want to get more done in less time, whether it's doing the dishes or running a business? Productivity is the name of the game. Economists love their productivity. More leads to more profits, but also sometimes higher pay or cheaper goods. The McKinsey Global Institute has been looking for the secrets of productivity by going company to company. Eight thousand firms in the U.S., U.K. and Germany and has been finding mostly slackers.

What we find instead is that a rather small fraction of what we call productivity standouts are the ones that are overwhelmingly responsible for the productivity growth. Olivia White is a director at the McKinsey Global Institute and co-author of the report. A key lesson therein, the star firms that really boosted productivity didn't do it by nipping and tucking little improvements here and there, but often went big with overhauls.

It wasn't that we found the firms that were really shaving away at efficiency and maybe having fewer workers were the ones who did better. It's the ones who were thinking big and thinking about creating new opportunity and new value for everybody. On that word, everybody, the study found wage growth paychecks went up by more than double at the productivity star companies versus the productivity not so greats. Music

Looking for a one-stop shop for everything from a leaking pipe or air conditioning repair to an EV charger installation for your home or business? Parrish Services, an Ace Hardware company, are your local experts for all your plumbing, heating, cooling, and electrical needs. Trust the pros of Northern Virginia at Parrish Services to keep your home humming and your family comfortable all year long.

At Comcast, our commitment to the military community goes back to our founder, U.S. Navy veteran Ralph Roberts.

Today, we honor his legacy by partnering with organizations to help veterans, transitioning service members, and military spouses succeed in today's digital world. Delivering the internet connection, skills, and support they need to advance economic mobility and open doors to new opportunities. Visit ComcastCorporation.com slash military to learn more. Comcast, proudly supporting our military community because your service matters.

Weight Watchers wants to slim down its debt, entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to avoid paying 1.2 billion iddos and to get cash to build up its telehealth business to make money writing prescriptions for weight loss drugs.

To understand what Weight Watchers is going through, look to no other than Oprah Winfrey. She joined the company's board a decade ago and became its spokesperson. Let's let 2016 be the year of our best bodies. That lasted until, well, last year when Oprah announced she's now taking a prescription weight loss drug. Lots of people are doing the same. In the first three months of this year, Weight Watchers sales for things like nutrition guidance and group workshops fell 10%.

The company does offer prescription medications through a telehealth plan, and revenues from that part of its business grew 57% last quarter.

Weight Watchers wants to invest to expand its telehealth business. It says restructuring its finances through bankruptcy will eliminate burdensome debt, some dating back decades, and save as much as $50 million a year in interest payments alone. I'm Neva Safo for Marketplace. Canada's new prime minister visited the White House yesterday. Mark Carney won his recent election promising he would stand up to President Trump. The

The first meeting seems to have produced little movement on U.S. import taxes on Canadian goods and now vice versa. Marketplace's Kimberly Adams has been reporting from Canada today. Canada's hard-hit truckers.

At a truck stop and rest area just north of Toronto along Highway 400 in Ontario, Steve Austin pulled a red and white big rig in for a bit of a break. The company he works for usually delivers goods from the U.S. to northern Ontario, but these days... Business is really, really slow. I've had a couple three-day weeks, and the days I'm working are six, seven days, and I'm used to 11, 12-hour days. It really is hurting.

He says the trade war is costing him half his paycheck. According to the Canadian Trucking Alliance, Canadian trucks move about 80 to 90 percent of American exports to the country. The CTA surveyed its 5,000 members about the impact of the trade war so far and... About 10 to 15 percent of our members have already laid people off, meaning that there's no freight to move.

Stephen Laskowski is the CTA's president and CEO. And well over 30 to 40 percent are saying they're close to laying people off. He says there was an initial boost in business when the president announced his tariffs and businesses tried to stock up before the new taxes hit. Now our members are sitting and waiting for calls. There is little demand right now in a lot of sectors. So a lot of trucks are sitting.

Truckers are seeing big drop-offs in traffic from the automotive and agriculture sectors, but hauling Canadian goods within Canada is holding up a little better.

At the truck stop, Dale Johnstone tells me his business slowed down a bit at the start of the trade war, but now moving mixed freight between the greater Toronto area and central Ontario. Actually, I'm pretty busy. I've got a full load that I've got to get back up to central Ontario with this afternoon and get it unloaded. But Johnstone knows his bosses and the rest of the industry are worried about the future.

Steve Austin, who's been driving trucks for 49 years, says the slowdown has him thinking about retiring a little earlier than he planned. Your president is changing his mind every other day about tariff on this and tariff on that. So we're just hoping it just all settles down.

Until then, he'll be on the road doing what work he can get. Along Highway 400 in Ontario, I'm Kimberly Adams for Marketplace. And Ford announced today that given tariffs, it's already raised the prices of three models made in Mexico. The Maverick small pickup, the smaller Bronco, the Sport and the electric SUV, the Mustang Mach-E by as much as $2,000.

We have the Federal Reserve briefing coming up about 2 o'clock in the afternoon Eastern time, 11 o'clock Pacific. We'll keep an eye on that. Don't miss the coverage in the Marketplace afternoon show with Guy Rizdahl. It's the Morning Report from APM, American Public Media.

This Old House has been America's most trusted source for all things DIY and home improvement for decades. And now we're on the radio and on demand. I think you're breaking into this wall regardless. I was hoping you wouldn't say that. I need to go and get some whiskey, I think. I would get the whiskey for sure. Subscribe to This Old House Radio Hour from LAist Studios, wherever you get your podcasts.

We're sunsetting PodQuest on 2025-07-28. Thank you for your support!

Export Podcast Subscriptions