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Tess Vigeland

Former Host, Marketplace Money

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Tess Vigeland was the host of Marketplace Money, a weekly personal finance program that looks at why we do what we do with our money: your life, with dollar signs. Vigeland and her guests took calls from listeners to answer their most vexing money management questions, and the program helped explain what the latest business and financial news means to our wallets and bank accounts.

Vigeland joined Marketplace in September 2001, as a host of Marketplace Morning Report. She rose at o-dark-thirty to deliver the latest in business and economic news for nearly four years before returning briefly to reporting and producing. She began hosting Marketplace Money in 2006 and ended her run as host in November of 2012. . Vigeland was also a back-up host for Marketplace.

Prior to joining the team at Marketplace, Vigeland reported and anchored for Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland, where she received a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Silver Award for her coverage of the political scandal involving Senator Bob Packwood (R-Ore.). She co-hosted the weekly public affairs program Seven Days on OPB television, and also produced an hour-long radio documentary about safety issues at the U.S. Army chemical weapons depot in Eastern Oregon. Vigeland next served as a reporter and backup anchor at WBUR radio in Boston. She also spent two years as a sports reporter for NPR’s Only a Game.

For her outstanding achievements in journalism, Vigeland has earned numerous awards from the Associated Press and Society of Professional Journalists. Vigeland has a bachelor's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She is a contributor to The New York Times and is a volunteer fundraiser for the Pasadena Animal League and Pasadena Humane Society. In her free time, Vigeland studies at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music, continuing 20-plus years of training as a classical pianist.

Latest Stories (863)

The best default for your retirement

Jun 22, 2007
The Pension Protection Act passed by Congress last year allows companies to automatically enroll their employees into a 401k. But regulators still have to decide what plans work best. Tess Vigeland talks to Charles Ruffle of PlanSponsor.com.
A money puzzle
iStockphoto.com

Be free of your cell phone carrier... for free

Jun 22, 2007
You're unhappy with your current cell phone service and you want to switch to another carrier -- but then you get burned with a $200 fee. Tess Vigeland talks to Janine Kenney of Consumer's Union about how to get out of your contract without a penalty.
Holding a cell phone
istockphoto.com

You can't always get a full tank

Jun 22, 2007
Just when you thought it was safe to get a quick, full tank of gas, the credit card companies shut you down. Tess Vigeland talks to the Associated Press's Ieva Augstums about how some consumers are finding out that their cards won't let them fill all the way up.
Gas prices are hovering around $3 a gallon.
MPR Photo/Tim Pugmire

Straight Story: Drug safety

Jun 22, 2007
Economics editor Chris Farrell says to better monitor drug safety, Congress should give the FDA more funding.
Economics editor Chris Farrell
APM Photo

Let them eat sheet cake

Jun 22, 2007
Susan Lobsinger has been baking wedding cakes for 30 years. But now she's also renting them. She talked with Tess Vigeland about what appears to be her tiered recipe for success.
Susan Lobsinger, left, and Wendy Hunter.

Week on Wall Street

Jun 22, 2007
Kim Clark, personal finance columnist for U.S. News and World Report, discusses with host Tess Vigeland what happened on Wall Street this week and what may lie ahead.
Wall Street sign
Mario Tama, Getty Images

Title IX has pumped up women's sports

Jun 21, 2007
The law that requires colleges receiving federal money to provide equal opportunities for men and women went into effect 35 years ago this weekend. Business-of-sports commentator Diana Nyad takes a look at its impact.
Ivory Latta of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts during the semifinal game of the 2007 NCAA Women's Final Four.
Gregory Shamus, Getty Images

Some New Orleans levees still in danger

Jun 21, 2007
Almost two years and more than $1 billion has been spent in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina to fix the city's levees. But the Army Corps of Engineers says some neighborhoods are still vulnerable to floods.
The Army Corps of Engineers tests pumps on New Orleans' 17th Street Canal floodgates in May. A breech in the canal's levee flooded the Lakeview area with more than 10 feet of water in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Mario Tama, Getty Images

U.K. puts private-equity on the hotseat

Jun 20, 2007
Execs from five of the world's largest private-equity firms went before the British Parliament today to address questions on how their deals should be taxed. Francesco Guerrera of the Financial Times has the details.
Britain's Parliament building
Getty Images

Straight Story: The end of worker discrimination

Jun 15, 2007
Pay discrimination can't survive where there's transparency. Economics editor Chris Farrell thinks businesses should be required to publish everyone's salary.
Economics editor Chris Farrell
APM Photo