Marketplace All-in-One

Health insurance plans sponsored by employers could cost more than $19,000 per employee on average in 2027, according to insurance broker Aon — a rise of 9.5%. This morning, we’re talking about how workers could pay more as a result, even though companies typically shoulder about 80% of the cost. Also, we look at how more domestic travel spending is affecting one destination in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park.

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Marketplace Morning Report is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.

Anthropic recently announced it's adding watermarks to all text outputted by its chatbot Claude. But often, you don't need fancy detection software to know; you just need to look for language that gets repeated over and over by AI chatbots, like “it's not X, it's Y.”

That's a rhetorical structure referred to as negative parallelism. And it's the topic for today's “Uncanny AI,” those times when it becomes clear AI doesn't think like us. Will Oremus recently wrote about this AI tic for The Atlantic.

More on this

“The Most Famous AI Writing Tic Is Also the Most Mysterious” from The Atlantic

“Move Over Em-Dash, There’s a New AI Tell in Town” from Ai-Ai-OH

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, at least 1.8 million Americans have been actively looking for a fulltime job for more than 27 weeks. That’s over six months. In this episode, two people tell us what it’s like to navigate a never-ending job search. Plus: A surge in lone star ticks threatens the cattle industry, McDonald’s keeps huge amounts of data on frequent customers, and the national debt passes that $40 trillion threshold.

Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter.

Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.

Read the stories in today’s episode:

The national debt hits $40 trillion
Ticks increasingly threaten the health and livelihood of ranchers
An Alabama cattle farm with a bird-tourism side hustle
“Put me in, coach”: Navigating long-term unemployment in the low-hire economy
How the McDonald's mobile app compiled 515-page dossier on one reporter

Girl Scout Cookies represent a $800 million industry. A new documentary called “Cookie Queens” follows sellers across the country, and one of those featured, Olive, joins the show to discuss the economic lessons she’s learned. But first, Lauren Saidel-Baker, economist at ITR Economics, tells us what retail earnings can reveal about the U.S. consumer.

Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter.

Marketplace Morning Report is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.

Prices for some back-to-school supplies are up this year, alongside other essentials like groceries and gas. Shoppers aren’t just turning to cheaper brands — they’re buying less, and cutting out non-essentials. This morning, we look at how inflation could affect shopping extending into the holiday season. Then, we discuss the cost of our debt pushing up interest rates, and a North Carolina Girl Scout talks cookie selling.

Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter.

Marketplace Morning Report is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.

Stories featured in this episode:

“Back to school” on a budget