Growing GDP, thank GPT
4/30/202625 min
U.S. gross domestic product grew by 2% in the first three months of 2026. (It’s a stark improvement to the final quarter of 2025, which saw GDP growth of just 0.5%.) Experts agree massive investment in artificial intelligence is the main driver of that growth. But what does that mean for the rest of the economy? Also in this episode: Financial market predictions fall short of real-life crude oil costs, airlines face an aircraft technician shortage, and social media is in the midst of a bean craze.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsKai Ryssdal· Host0:00
[upbeat music] We'll do some oil, we'll do some data, and we'll wrap it all up with a nice bowl of beans. From American Public Media, this is Marketplace. [upbeat music] In Los Angeles, I'm Kai Ryssdal. It is Thursday today, the last day of April. Good as always to have you along, everybody. There is some economic data with which we could begin today, and we will get to it in a minute, I promise. But we're gonna start instead with a number. That number is one hundred twenty-six point four one. The proper denomination is US dollars. The commodity associated with it is Brent North Sea Crude, which in the wee small hours of this morning hit the aforementioned $126.41 a barrel. That's June delivery, which is to say the futures price. Now, as we sit here at the two-month mark of the most severe energy shock the world has ever seen, as every day countries are chewing their way through their inventories and ever less oil is being produced and delivered, the competition for those barrels gets steeper and steeper. And that is showing up in futures market, yes, which I just talked about, but more significantly in the physical market for oil, the very high price you will pay to get a barrel delivered to you today. The thing