Marketplace Morning Report
Marketplace Morning Report

How are your wages comparing to inflation?

December 17, 2025

AI Summary

5 min read

🎙️ The Voices & The Context

  • The Format: This brisk morning news podcast blends rapid-fire economic reports with on-the-ground interviews, connecting macro data like wages and inflation to personal stories of workers navigating economic pressures in a journalistic and grounded style.
  • The Format: A news roundup featuring reporter segments and a field interview.
  • The Key Players:
    • Hosts/Reporters: Sabri Beneshore delivers the anchor intros and conducts the field piece; Mitchell Hartman reports on labor economics; Susan Schmidt analyzes oil markets—chemistry is professional and efficient, bantering lightly on consumer squeezes amid data deluge.
    • Key Guest: June Hagen, a night-shift Christmas tree seller in NYC, shares her raw career pivot story, adding relatable humanity to the economic chatter.

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:00) **Opening Economic Data Fire Hose**
  • 2 (01:22) **Mitchell Hartman Report: Wage Growth Slowdown**
  • 3 (01:51) **Inflation Surge and Purchasing Power Erosion**
  • 4 (02:10) **Economist Insights on Wage Exceptions**
  • 5 (02:42) **Trump Administration Venezuela Oil Blockade**
  • 6 (03:01) **Oil and Gas Price Implications**
  • 7 (03:19) **OPEC Response and Oil Market Supply**

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

We get a firehose of economic data this week. As these numbers come in, one thing is becoming clearer: Wage gains are stalling, and inflation has been heating up. What's that mean for affordability and consumers? Then, we check on oil prices after President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of Venezuelan oil tankers. Plus, we bring you the second part of our conversation with June Hagin, a night shift worker at a West Harlem Christmas tree lot.

Marketplace Morning Report