From software engineer to bus driver: Where laid off tech workers are now

About nine thousand tech workers in the Seattle area have lost their jobs in the past year. That could be nine thousand people competing for a shrinking pool of tech jobs.  This year started off with the most layoffs we’ve seen in a January since the Great Recession, and the lowest hiring on recor…

From Control F: The weird way we decide who sits below the poverty line

How do we decide who gets financial support from the government? Usually, it comes down to the federal poverty line.   You might think a lot of data and research goes into establishing that number. But in reality, it’s much squishier. So squishy in fact that it involves Jello... Today, a special …

Will this summer's World Cup be an economic win for Seattle?

For the first time ever, cities across Mexico, Canada, and the United States will be sharing the world’s most viewed sporting event... the FIFA men’s World Cup.  But sports economists will tell you, the cost of hosting these games isn't always worth the reward. On today's episode, will the World …

Grocery sticker shock and the rise of the dollar-store dinner

If you have sticker shock at the grocery store, you’re not alone. In Seattle, the cost of groceries is about 30% higher today than before the pandemic.  Those high prices are straining family budgets and causing many people to change how they shop. Today, creative hacks for putting food on the ta…

Could the hottest real estate market become... driveways?

Twenty years ago, buying a house in Seattle felt like a stretch. Today, it feels like you need to win the lottery.  Homeownership is slipping out of reach for a lot of people, especially those with modest incomes.  But there’s a movement underway in Washington State -- one that could bring housin…

The great data center space race

Data centers needed more space, so they literally moved there.  This week, Elon Musk announced he has merged his rocket company, Space X – with his AI company, xAI. The reason? He wants to build AI data centers in space.  But his company is not the only one that wants to take the cloud... off the…

16,000 Amazon employees just lost their jobs. Are we in a tech recession?

This week, Amazon announced it's laying off 16,000 employees.  It’s part two of a continued downsizing Amazon started in October, when it laid of 14,000 employees. Taken together, this is Amazon’s biggest reduction in force ever. This week's layoffs are also the latest in a series of tech downsizi…

Lessons from the state that made child care free

The cost of child care is at an all-time high. The typical American family with young kids now spends more on child care than housing. In most of the developed world, the government pays for child care so parents can work and contribute to the economy. But free, universal child care is nearly unhe…

How a bad bet built the internet: a short history of bubbles

According to a Harvard economist, spending on data centers and artificial intelligence accounted for 92% of U.S. economic growth in the first half of last year.    That's fueled speculation that we’re in an AI bubble, because spending on that level doesn’t feel sustainable. If the bubble pops and …

Housing costs dropped in Austin. How they did the impossible

Austin, Texas is not a cheap place. But for the last few years, it’s been a real outlier. While many cities saw rent go up, Austin’s average rent actually fell. A lot.  On today's episode, what is Austin doing right? And what could Seattle learn from it?  GUEST: Audrey McGlinchy, Housing reporter…