Inflation is bad, work from home sad, FIFA World Cup tix NOT deal to be had

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0:11This is The Indicator from Planet Money. I'm Adrian Ma. And this week we are joined by not one, not two. Well, two, actually. Two special guests. We've got NPR's Stephen Visaha, who covers the personal finance beat. Welcome back, Stephen. Here at your personal request. Thank you. Thank you. And we also have Mary Childs, who until very recently was a host on Planet Money, but now she has her own show called Mary in America. Thanks for being here, Mary. Thank you for having me. Well, we all know why we're here, right? To do... Say it with me. Indicators of the Week! Indicators of the Week! This, of course, is the day of the week where we talk about our favorite numbers from the news.

0:52And today we are covering the recent spike in inflation. how remote work isn't all it's cracked up to be and how the FIFA World Cup might be a buyer's market if you got the cash and patience. That's all coming up after the break. This message comes from Mattress Firm. Sleeping hot can ruin your night. Mattress Firm's sleep experts can match you with a temper breeze designed to deliver cooling comfort for hot sleepers. Visit Mattress Firm and upgrade today. Restrictions apply. See store for details. This message comes from LinkedIn. As a small business owner, you wear many hats. You're the owner, the marketer, the seller, the hirer.

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2:14Learn more at fisherinvestments.com. Investing in securities involves the risk of loss. It's indicators of the week. Stephen Bisaha, married childs are here. Hello, hello. Hey. Hello. And I think I will kick things off for us by talking about one number from the news that I think would be impossible for us to ignore this week, which is 4.2%. This comes from one of our most closely watched measures of inflation, the Consumer Price Index. And as you might have heard, the latest consumer price index shows that prices rose 4.2 % in the past year, which is really just a fancy way of saying that Americans' cost of living has gone up about 4.2 % compared to a year ago.

2:58We don't like that. It does not feel good. That is right. It has been a while. In fact, it has been three years since we saw an inflation number this high. And definitely worth noting how quickly this happened, because just three months ago before the Iran war, Inflation was at 2.4 percent. So now numbers are flipped. We're at 4.2. And most of that increase is due to rising gas and fuel prices. What does the president have to say about this? Well, during a press conference on Wednesday, a reporter asked whether he was concerned with this inflation number. And he said he thinks the numbers were great.

3:35What do you concern, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number which came out this morning? Could that be a thing for Republicans? No, I love it. The numbers were great. You know what I really love? I love the inflation. You know why? Did he just say that he loves inflation? To be precise, he said he loves the inflation. Not the inflation. Not others. Right. And then Trump claimed that the U.S. had been secretly sneaking out millions of barrels of oil from the region, although that has not been confirmed. And he says that is why oil prices have come down slightly in recent days. He also added that the stock market is doing great despite the war.

4:10Yeah, so it's the idea of like, this inflation isn't that bad because it's about to come down, I think is the argument he's making there. I mean, he did that sort of thing where he zigs and zags, so it was a little hard to follow. The wave, the famous wave. Of course, that doesn't really take away from the fact that the disruptions from the Iran war are really biting American consumers right now. And the picture there even looks worse when you consider for the past few years, average wages in the country have been growing faster than inflation. and that is no longer the case. Yeah, and I covered housing and this is not looking good for the housing market because, you know, numbers were starting to do better as far as sales, but with inflation prices going up, that also means the cost of borrowing is going up, which also means mortgage rates are going up and likely home sales going down.

4:57Yeah, I mean, I think this is something to definitely watch out for. So that's my indicator. Mary, why don't you go next? That was a great indicator, Adrian. My indicator of the week is 1.1 hours. That is how much more time alone remote workers are spending per day, according to a new study that looked at how remote work is affecting people's well-being. So that's interesting. There's been a lot of work done on like productivity and job satisfaction among remote workers. But I don't know if I've seen a study on loneliness or mental health among remote workers. Exactly. So the researchers pulled data from five big national surveys on American workers from pre-pandemic and from after and compared how people fared in jobs that allowed remote work and those in jobs that couldn't be done remotely.

5:45So remotable jobs versus non-remotable jobs. And they found that those workers in remotable jobs experienced a 58 percent increase in hours spent alone. And the researchers found that those remote workers also avoided social activities with their friends. So they were more isolated both during and after work. Okay, so there's maybe a sort of like second order effect on their social life from remote work. It looks that way, yeah. And this was most pronounced for remote workers who live alone. They could spend entire days without any human contact. I know none of us have experienced a full day where no one talks to you.

6:22Oh gosh, if I get to like halfway through Sunday and haven't talked to someone, I'm like, why am I in such a funk? And it's like, okay, remote work would do that. Yeah, exactly. unfortunately, hits home. Well, and that is what the study is looking at, right? It's saying that these remote workers also saw increases in their use of mental health care and in their use of antidepressants. And for those living alone, there was an increase in mental distress that's nearly twice as large as for those who live with family. And this is all so bad that the researchers think that the increase in remote work may explain about a third of the increase in social isolation and mental distress since 2011, except for the actual pandemic.

6:58So do you think like people knowing this information would change their minds about remote work? I don't know. I think we kind of love remote work for a lot of obvious reasons. Like we hate commutes. We like the flexibility, especially if you have a family to juggle. It can be really can be imperative to have. And studies have shown that we will accept up to 10 percent less in earnings in exchange for getting that remote work flexibility, even if it makes us miserable. That is your cue, Stephen, to share with us your indicator of the week. Yes, my indicator of the week is 24 ,000. That was the number of still available tickets for the World Cup as a midday Wednesday.

7:39And that comes from the website TicketData.com. Okay, 24 ,000 tickets does, I mean, it sounds like a lot. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty unusual to have that many unsold tickets for a big event like the World Cup. Even opening matches have unsold tickets still. And is that just like there are too many tickets because they priced them wrong? Were they too expensive? Yeah, price point seems to be a big factor here. Like if you look at U.S. opener against Paraguay, the cheap seats are over$900. Okay, so$900, that's a cheap seat? Yeah, might need a new definition on that. You know, and as of Wednesday before the U.S.-Paraguay game, there were still about 117 tickets available.

8:21Okay, so if those are the prices for the opening games, are there tickets for less popular games that are cheaper? Yeah, like if you take Croatia versus Ghana late in the group stage, not a big game at all. According to TicketData.com, the cheapest seats are still available. They're selling around$550. And you can still get some other games for even less, like under$200. If all of these tickets are still unsold, is that bad news for the restaurants and hotels who are hoping for like a flood of business from all these fans coming to visit their city? Yeah, like the occupancy rates for hotels and host cities have been really disappointing so far, especially in the U.S.

8:58Remember, the U.S. is co-hosting this World Cup with Mexico and Canada across 16 cities. And U.S. hotels, they are dealing with a higher vacancy rate than the other countries, according to the Wall Street Journal. And Mexico is beating both the U.S. and Canada in ticket sales. I mean, their tickets are selling pretty well. So it's not all the tickets are just kind of like sitting on the shelf. This is despite tickets in Mexico on average being more expensive. OK, so it's actually just soccer is the most popular sport in the world, except for here in the U.S. and in Canada. It's still lagging behind football and everything else.

9:34I'm guessing it doesn't help that the Trump administration has a very tight immigration policy right now. I mean, I had read stories about a referee from Somalia who was denied entry when he landed in Miami and fans from Morocco being denied entry. Yeah, that's all been a big factor here, too. So, you know, FIFA officials, they are hoping that there will be a surge of interest closer to game time for both popular and less popular games. I mean, that is my plan. So my dad is from Croatia and lives near Philly. So I did buy my flight ticket, but not any game tickets yet. I'm still gambling that prices are going to go down a few days before.

10:16What about you both? You got any games coming up or planning on going to any? No. No? Not a soccer fan. This is that U.S. soccer disdain and apathy right now. This episode was produced by Angel Carreras and engineered by Jimmy Keely. It was fact-checked by Emma Ferrara and Cooper Katz McKim. Cake and Cannon is our editor, and the Indicators are production of NPR.

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