# The U.S. spending spree continues Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/marketplace-morning-report-479901/the-u-s-spending-spree-continues Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/marketplace-morning-report-479901/the-u-s-spending-spree-continues.md Podcast: [Marketplace Morning Report](https://stenobird.com/podcast/marketplace-morning-report-479901) Published: 2026-05-14T15:10:00+00:00 Episode link: https://www.marketplace.org/episode/2026/05/14/the-us-spending-spree-continues Audio file: https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/5/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/play.publicradio.org/podcast/o/marketplace/morning_report/2026/05/14/mmr_20260514_MMR_Podcast_3_64.mp3?awCollectionId=mkp-MMR&awEpisodeId=01KRKGMPAC91XC81QWWZAKXYTZ Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/marketplace-morning-report-479901/episodes/the-u-s-spending-spree-continues Duration seconds: 397 ## Resource Retail sales in April were up 0.5% compared to the month before and are up 4.9% from a year ago, according to the Census Bureau. So are retail sales higher because consumers are resilient and buying more stuff, or are we spending more just because prices are higher and the stuff we want is more expensive? We discuss. Then, in search of cleaner energy, two new power transmission lines are connecting Quebec to New York and Massachusetts. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/marketplace-morning-report-479901/episodes/the-u-s-spending-spree-continues/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/marketplace-morning-report-479901/the-u-s-spending-spree-continues.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.