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Dolores Huerta, an icon of labor rights, women's rights, and civil rights, died yesterday at 96. Huerta co-founded what became the United Farm Workers of America, and, for decades, she led strikes and protests pushing for better conditions for agricultural workers. Today, we have a remembrance. Also in this episode: why the Fed held off on raising interest rates and what a proposed hyperscale data center could mean for residents of a rural Alabama town.

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.

Read the stories from this podcast:

A remembrance of labor rights icon Dolores Huerta
Wary of data center health impacts, some rural Alabamians are fighting back

Households often take on additional debt as they up their spending over the holidays. Buy now, pay later is poised to be an increasingly popular method for making those holiday purchases, new research finds. We hear about the benefits and the risks. And later in the show, we look at key takeaways from Anthropic's IPO filing and talk about what to make of the vast amounts of money flowing through big tech right now.

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 in this episode:

More consumers intend to use buy now, pay later services for holiday purchases

Consumer electronics and AI data centers need memory chips. But there are only a handful of companies in the world that make them. The surge in demand has caused memory shortages and price spikes for everything, including our all-important smartphones.

Gerrit Schneemann is principal analyst at Counterpoint Research, which recently reported global phone prices have jumped by an average of 15%, and even more in markets where consumers can least afford it.

More on this:

“The AI boom is making the world’s cheapest smartphones disappear” from Rest of World

“Global Existing Smartphone Prices Climb About 15% in 2026, New Launches 25% Costlier YoY as OEMs Maneuver Memory Price Hikes” from Counterpoint Research

With Halloween around the corner, we revisit listeners’ spine-chilling money horror stories — you know, the financial choices that are still haunting them, or the spending secrets they hope to take to the grave.

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Fed governors met this week and voted to keep interest rates steady at just below 4%. The central bank says it’s taking a “wait and see” approach to elevated inflation. But what does that mean for banks and businesses that want to borrow money? In this episode, economic forces make for a fraught lending environment. Plus: We take a trip to Costco to understand how toilet paper is an economic indicator, and spend the day out west with a Wyoming cattle brand inspector.

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:

As interest rates rise, lending gets more fraught for businesses and banks
A day in the life of a Wyoming cattle brand inspector
How student loans have shaped this family’s economy
What toilet paper sales tell us about consumer spending
Copper wire stripping is making people money on TikTok