May 27, 2021
How one Seattle business is reclaiming the narrative around Native art
"What we have learned during the pandemic is that we can be confident in consumers' interest in doing the right thing," said Louie Gong, founder and CEO of Eighth Generation.
Courtesy of Ken Yu/Eighth Generation
Eighth Generation is a retailer that had to close its Seattle store early in the pandemic but blossomed online. It features wool blankets and other items produced by Native artists. Also, more signs of recovery in new data on orders for long-lasting goods and weekly unemployment aid claims. And, bank profits were up nearly 30% in the first quarter this year, but the same report finds lending fell, driven by a drop in credit card balances. We take a closer look at how consumers are spending.
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Orders for long-lasting, expensive things give us a pretty good read on recovery
And those orders for April were up, according to data out today, when you strip out the volatile components like aircraft. So-called core capital goods jumped 2.3% last month. Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, says we see strength in the numbers for computers and metals. She says we see weaknesses in chip shortages for motor vehicles, which pulled down the averages. We also got data showing new claims for unemployment benefits dropped again last week. Swonk said it’s great news that they’re continuing the downward trend, but “the bad news is they’re not coming down rapidly.” “We’d like to see big declines right now, given how many jobs we’re still in the hole,” she said.
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Music from the episode
The Sticks The Budos Band
The team
David Brancaccio
Host
Victoria Craig
Host, BBC
Stephen Ryan
Senior Producer, BBC
Jonathan Frewin
Producer, BBC
Daniel Shin
Producer
Jay Siebold
Technical Director
Meredith Garretson Morbey
Senior Producer
Alex Schroeder
Producer
Erika Soderstrom
Producer
Rose Conlon
Producer
Brian Allison
Technical Director
