Kristin Schwab

Brooklyn, New York

Senior reporter @marketplace, teaching @columbiajourn | produced @nytimes, @nymag, @wsj | former ballet dancer | Drop Dead Gorgeous was filmed in my hometown

Articles

Why Trump's current tariffs are so different from his 2018 round

4 days ago | marketplace.org | Kristin Schwab

It’s been just over four months since President Donald Trump came into office and started overhauling trade policy, and in that time a lot has happened. Here are the latest bullet points: Just last week, a panel of federal judges ruled that some of Trump’s tariffs are illegal. Then on Friday, the president announced he’d double tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to 50%. That, of course, will have a real impact on everything from appliance makers to canned food manufacturers to you, the consumer.
How one big family with a tight budget is handling inflation

1 week ago | marketplace.org | Kristin Schwab

Julie Yang and Daniel Thao only live a block away from their neighborhood playground in St. Paul Park, Minnesota, but they drove the minivan to get here because it’s easier with all the kids. They park and the little ones toddle out, Happy Meals in tow. There’s Ostin, Tatum, Isla, Harvey and Asher — five kids, ages one to eight. And soon there will be a sixth, a baby boy due in June. “So we tried for my daughter, to get her a sister.
There's a shift in how people are traveling this summer — and who's making the trip

1 week ago | marketplace.org | Kristin Schwab

The unofficial start of summer is here, which means the start of summer travel season. More than 45 million Americans were projected to travel over Memorial Day Weekend, . That’s a record high. Some recent figures show a change in the types of consumers spending on travel this year: Households with incomes of $100,000 or more will make up about half of all travelers, according to recent survey data from Deloitte. That number was 35% in 2023.
A few retailers are bucking the doom and gloom forecast trend

1 week ago | marketplace.org | Kristin Schwab

This earnings season has been sprinkled with some doom and gloom, with many companies citing worries about tariffs and lowering their expectations for the year. But today, Dick’s Sporting Goods bucked that trend. The retailer is standing by its forecast for the year, despite everything happening with economic policy, joining a small group of retailers that say they’re worried, but not too worried.
How expanding to Europe can help retailers offset tariffs

2 weeks ago | marketplace.org | Kristin Schwab

Pottery Barn recently announced it’s planning on expanding its presence in the UK. It’s one of many retailers that And it seems to be a strategy to offset the cost of tariffs and the potential downshift in spending from American consumers. Brands have been increasingly eyeing markets outside of the U.S. for years. That’s because it’s getting harder to capture the attention of American consumers, said Aaron Cheris at Bain & Company. “The U.S. market is mature and heavily stored,” said Cheris.
What to buy ahead of tariff-related price increases

2 weeks ago | marketplace.org | Kristin Schwab

All the talk about tariffs finally got into Dan Blanchard’s head. “I have a one-year-old who goes through a lot of diapers,” said Blanchard, senior associate director of research at the Yale Center for Customer Insights. “So personally I’ve stocked up on diapers.”His sudden rush to the store isn’t based on insider knowledge about the diaper supply chain. It’s based on emotion. The business world has a term for when consumers panic buy, they call it scarcity mindset.
What kinds of companies can easily move manufacturing to the U.S.?

3 weeks ago | marketplace.org | Kristin Schwab

One of the things President Trump says he wants to accomplish with this trade war is the reshoring of manufacturing — bringing production lines and jobs to the U.S. Well, Reuters is reporting that Kraft Heinz, maker of ketchup and Kool-Aid and Philadelphia cream cheese, is planning to invest $3 billion to upgrade its U.S. factories to help lower costs, partly due to tariffs. Moving manufacturing to the U.S. involves a lot of moving parts. “Buildings, equipment, talent, technology.
April’s consumer price index reveals some price declines

3 weeks ago | marketplace.org | Kristin Schwab

April’s consumer price index, out Tuesday morning, came with some surprises. For one, inflation was a bit lower than expected at 2.3% over the last 12 months, though that’s still above the target rate. Second, when you break the CPI down by category, some of the sectors most impacted by tariffs saw a price decline from last month, including apparel and used cars and trucks. (The cost of new vehicles stayed flat.) Businesses have been preparing for the possibility of tariffs for a long time.
Is it really a good idea to buy extra stuff before tariff price hikes kick in?

3 weeks ago | marketplace.org | Kristin Schwab

From Apple to Audi, consumer goods companies have been reporting rising sales. And if the April retail sales numbers we get this Thursday look anything like they did the month before, they’ll show that consumers are indeed trying to get what they need before tariffs hit their pocketbooks. David Swartz has been seeing quite a few car commercials promoting pre-tariff pricing. “Even local dealers were clearly encouraging people to buy now and not wait ‘til later,” he said.
What it's like to join the economy right now

1 month ago | marketplace.org | Kristin Schwab

Stillwater is a small town on the eastern edge of Minnesota, surrounded by fields and farms. Natalie Pilrain is driving on the highway, stuck behind a tractor going 25 miles an hour. “Yeah, in this area specifically, yeah, you definitely get that once in a while,” she said. Pilrain is on her way to do some furniture shopping. The 19-year-old lives with her dad, but is about to move out on her own for the first time, into a two-bedroom apartment that costs around $1,800 a month.