When does AI become a spending suck?
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How is AI spending impacting companies today?
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What challenges do companies face with AI token usage?
Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Congratulations, Chairman Warsh. I guess? From American Public Media, this is Marketplace.
In Los Angeles, I'm Kai Risdahl. It is Friday today. This one is the 24th of April. Good as always to have you along, everybody. We have seven minutes at the top of the program today to talk about the week gone by.
How are companies measuring the return on AI investments?
And I got to tell you, I am not sure it is going to be enough. Katharine Pell is at MSNOW, also at The Bulwark. David Gora is at Bloomberg. Hey, you two.
Hey, Kai. Hey, Kai.
Catherine, you get to go first. The news of the day, of course, in our wheelhouse, as it were, is that the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, is dropping, and you can't see me, but that's in air quotes, the investigation into the Fed and Chair Powell. I guess I wonder, first of all, what you make of that.
Well, it seems like the White House is White House slash DOJ. I know that they're supposed to be independent from each other, but it seems like all of the above have recognized that they are getting in their own way or Trump is getting in his own way, that the way to get his pick for the next Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, through is to find an off ramp for what certainly appears to be a political campaign.
What are the implications of Procter & Gamble's recent earnings?
politically motivated criminal investigation into Jerome Powell and that the way to get Kevin Warsh cleared is to abide by Senator Tom Tillis's request to drop this investigation because Tillis says he likes Warsh, but he's not going to move forward any of Trump's picks for the Fed until this investigation is done. And to my knowledge, we still have not heard from Tillis to know whether This satisfies that demand because it's not totally clear that Howell is out of the woods.
Right, right, right. So, David, let's keep going with that. The last line of Pirro's tweet this morning, because that's how we do government policy nowadays, is by tweet or true social. Her last line was, I reserve the right to reopen this investigation. And I guess, you know, to Catherine's point, is that enough for Tillis, who we think is looking for an off-ramp? But also, what about Powell, right? Because let's remember, his term is up as chair on the 15th of May, but he does have the statutory right to stay on the board for another two-ish years.
How are consumers responding to rising prices in essential goods?
It's a great point. So we haven't heard from Senator Tillis. We haven't heard from Jay Powell. And remember what he said a little while back. He said he was going to stick around until this probe was resolved with transparency and finality. Those were his words. And so I think the question is, does this mark a resolution of that? So in that tweet that you referenced in that post, Jeanine Pirro passing the buck over to the inspector general at the Federal Reserve, calling upon the inspector general to do this investigation of the renovations and what Powell said to Congress. I should note, back in July... Fed chair Jerome Powell called for the same thing.
What role does innovation play in consumer product success?
So this work has been underway by the inspector general already. But I think that's really the key question here. If this is simply moving from one investigator to the next, is that going to satisfy the Fed chair that this investigation is over with? And I, like Catherine, like you, waiting to see what we hear from the senator who's been threatening to block all of this and from the chair.
And we'll see if anything emerges here over the course of the weekend.
Catherine, with complete awareness of what happens when one assumes, let's assume that this all works out, as it were, for the way the president wants it to. And and Mr. Warsh does get the actual job.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How is AI spending impacting companies today?
0:00–0:27
2
What challenges do companies face with AI token usage?
0:27–1:03
3
How are companies measuring the return on AI investments?
1:03–1:59
4
What are the implications of Procter & Gamble's recent earnings?
1:59–3:03
5
How are consumers responding to rising prices in essential goods?
3:03–3:34
6
What role does innovation play in consumer product success?
3:34–4:27
7
How does the new women's sports bar reflect changing cultural trends?
4:27–5:15
8
What future plans do the owners have for expanding their business?
5:15–27:52