Support the fact-based journalism you rely on with a donation to Marketplace today. Give Now!

The increased child care tax credit has ended — for now

Jan 17, 2022
The payments typically came through about this time, but not this month. Some families had come to depend on that extra money.
A protestor and child in Brooklyn urge Congress to make the expanded child tax credit permanent in July.
Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for ParentsTogether

Biden administration pledges $1 billion to help small meatpackers compete

Jan 4, 2022
Just four companies process the lion's share of meat. Critics say that means high prices for consumers and low prices for ranchers.
Though the aid is meant to help smaller meatpackers expand their processing capacity, the industry is hampered by a shortage of workers.
Brent Stirton via Getty Images

What makes federal infrastructure jobs "good-paying"?

Dec 6, 2021
The idea that federally funded construction projects must pay a minimum "prevailing wage" goes back to a 1931 law.
The Department of Labor is preparing updates to the regulations of federally funded construction jobs. Above, a crew resurfaces a road in Alhambra, California.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Checking the roads and bridges to grandmother's house

Nov 24, 2021
What will the infrastructure bill do for 60-year-old Putty Hill Avenue Bridge — which supports 17,000 vehicles daily — and similar sites?
Each day, more than 17,000 vehicles use Maryland's 60-year-old Putty Hill Avenue Bridge, which has suffered wear and tear.
Nancy Marshall-Genzer

Biden's release from petroleum reserve probably won't move gas prices

Nov 23, 2021
They're high because oil producers aren't ramping up supply quickly enough.
Oil producers' “incentives are all aligned to keep prices high," an expert says. "And that is going to create some real pain for consumers.”
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Biden seeks to keep Powell in place, elevate Brainard at Federal Reserve

Nov 22, 2021
Brainard will be nominated for vice chair. The two officials typically agree on monetary policy but sometimes diverge on regulation.
President Joe Biden names Jerome Powell, left, as his nominee for Federal Reserve chair and Lael Brainard, right, as vice chair.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Biden administration auctions oil and gas leases on 1.7 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico

Nov 19, 2021
A court ordered the administration to resume the auctions it had suspended.
Drilling of the newly auctioned Gulf of Mexico gas and oil leases likely won't begin for seven to 10 years. Above, a drilling platform off the coast of Texas.
Tom Pennington via Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Biden administration considers its options as gas prices rise

Nov 18, 2021
Officials are considering releasing oil from the strategic reserve. They’re also pushing the FTC to investigate possible price gouging.
There are several factors that go into why the price for gas can be so different from country to country.
Justin Sullivan via Getty Images

The infrastructure bill is on the president’s desk. What’s in it for rural America?

Nov 15, 2021
Rural states with the most work to do on those fronts — like Alaska, Wyoming, Montana and Vermont — will receive the most funding per capita.
Street lights line an unpaved road in Kivalina, Alaska. Alaska is among the rural states to receive the highest per capita funding from the $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
Joe Raedle via Getty Images

Congress' budget gurus may slow down Biden’s Build Back Better plan

Nov 11, 2021
Zach Moller talks about what a Congressional Budget Office score is and how it affects legislation.
Roosevelt Forward CEO Felicia Wong says President Biden and congressional Democrats may be able to implement their economic priorities through laws they already passed, such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the CHIPS and Science Act.
Win McNamee via Getty Images