David Brancaccio

You can hear more of our reporting for Building Tomorrow, this weekend's special program on the future of American housing from Marketplace and this old house radio hour on many public radio stations nationwide.

As for the rebuilding of my own house lost in the big California fires last year, we have fire resistance, sustainability and cost in mind.

Could a chunky kind of wood be our answer even in a fire zone?

That's in the special.

And my ongoing stories are at Marketplace.org in Los Angeles.

I'm David Brancaccio.

From APM American Public Media.

Trade is the pits in South Africa, as in fruits with pits.

I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles.

First, there's news that the cost of employing people did not go up as much as predicted.

At one level, that's too bad, since who doesn't want a bigger raise?

But if you're worried about interest rates or want inflation to come down, you may see this differently, which may be a bigger story than the other news this morning that retail sales have

did not go up as expected in December.

Jeffrey Cleveland is chief economist at Payton and Riegel.

So second year of the pandemic, just before the great surge in wages, inflation, all that stuff.

That's interesting.

With the stipulation that it's a bummer that we're not getting raises, right?

All right.

Jeffrey Cleveland, Chief Economist, Payton & Riegel, thank you.

Have a good week.