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Cooper Katz McKim

@cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social
2.4K followers 283 following 59 posts

NPR Producer/Newsletter writer - The Indicator from Planet Money Read the newsletter: npr.org/indicatornewsletter www.cooperkatzmckim.com

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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I have never once thought how cemetery plots are priced. A listener asked us how it worked. It is... NOT like airlines where prices changes in real time. I spoke to an expert who says prices change max twice a year. That said some companies do use inventory management software to get into the weeds-
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Alright so how realistic is it Venezuelan oil to refill America's back-up oil supply (aka Strategic Petroleum Reserve)? I got surprisingly mixed messages, I was expecting a little more of a united message.
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Sulfur, a key ingredient in fertilizer, costs more than $1100/ metric ton. The previous 10-year avg: $170. You may have also heard this week that diesel prices hit a new record. Rabobank predicts food inflation in the States to rise another 3 to 5% in 2027. Read on here
npr.org
What expensive sulfur means for your dinner table
Oil supplies are falling, sulfur prices are threatening food costs, and we measure Lego against Hollywood
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Patagonia could become the next hub for data centers with U.S. and other companies looking south. Among other things, you could save on cooling costs! Nice piece from @reuters.com this week explaining. finance.yahoo.com/technology/a...
finance.yahoo.com
Tech companies look to Argentina’s windswept Patagonia to build massive data centers
By Leila Miller BUENOS AIRES, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Argentina's rugged Patagonia is drawing increasing interest from investors searching for sites for mega data centers who are enticed by the region's
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Look, I don't know how you treat the stock market but if shorting alien babies isn't a part of it then LISTEN UP. There's a game called Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator and you can learn about why it matters in this week's Indicator newsletter. www.npr.org/2026/09/04/n...
npr.org
Pulling the SNAP lever + Why Gen Zers bet (invest?) differently
Changing SNAP eligibility actually change change consumption habits
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
The strategic petroleum reserve is being drawn down at an incredibly fast rate and it didn't start with the Trump administration. When stockpiles are low, the reserves can't be filled out or drawn down as efficiently. In this week’s newsletter, I dug into what's going on tinyurl.com/indicatorjul...
tinyurl.com
Southern states are adding more EV chargers to their establishments Credit: AP Photo/David Zalubowski
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Computer science majors have a HIGHER unemployment rate than philosophy majors. This week's Indicator newsletter gets into it, plus: 🚗Why your neighbor might be paying less for a car than you ⚡How data centers are avoiding paying their fair share tinyurl.com/indicatorjul...
tinyurl.com
Associate Producer, Planet Money
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mary childs @marychilds.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
this week we get to sit down with economic historian, bond person, and pulitzer-prize-winning author Liaquat Ahamed. I can't recommend hanging out with him enough. learn about the crash of 1873, if you can: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uirW...
youtube.com
The Pettiest Financial Crash In History
YouTube video by Mary in America
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
This week’s Indicator newsletter is out. We tackle: 🎥 Does Netflix regret their video podcast investment? 🏢 Why is office space filling up in NYC? 💸 What to know about Venezuela’s unnerving debt situation Read on tinyurl.com/PMI-June-26
tinyurl.com
Netflix acquired the video rights to shows including The Bill Simmons podcast/Getty Images
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
I firmly believe Google Docs put 'Page Numbers' under Format instead of Insert as a fun way to make me go slowly insane
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
There should really be a Spotify wrapped for people you speak with on the phone. And then you get a video of your friend saying ‘Congrats, you’re in the top 1% of my listeners.’
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
I always forget about this option
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
This week’s Indicator newsletter is out. We tackle: 💼 Why employers don’t want to pay for GLP-1s 🏥 Why hospital mergers equate to higher prices with limited gains 🗳️ Where campaign cash ends up Read on tinyurl.com/3zpnaze
tinyurl.com
GCC President Tiffany Hernandez explains what’s underfoot Credit: Screenshot from video posted by Alex Hanna (@alexhanna.bsky.social) on Bluesky
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Texas’ main grid operator ERCOT says its peak demand could more than quadruple in the next few years overwhelmingly due to data centers. This summer will certainly see a new record up at ~15%, possibly double that.
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
US battery production inched up to a record high in data released this morning, up 36% from this time last year. Total output has more than doubled since 2022
a graph of US battery manufacturing
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Michael Derby @michaelsderby.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
As incoming chair Warsh comes to Fed with big plans for the Fed's balance sheet, Governor Michael Barr warns in a speech that lowering liquidity rules to get to smaller Fed holdings simply increases financial stability risks: "Shrinking the balance sheet is the wrong objective."
reuters.com
Fed's Barr says wrong to lower liquidity rules to shrink Fed holdings
Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr said Thursday that ​lowering liquidity rules to get the central bank’s balance sheet smaller is a bad idea and could undermine the safety of the financial ‌system...
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
It's Friday! The Indicator is back with another newsletter ⚡ Texas is seeing unprecedented electricity demand. Can they meet it? 💸 There are so many other ways to tax the rich! Why are Americans obsessed with the income tax? 🎰 Insider trading is a problem. Why is it so tricky to stop? Read on
tinyurl.com
The new chip bags only need two ink colors
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Michael Derby @michaelsderby.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
"The vote was 54-45 in the most-partisan-ever U.S. Senate confirmation of a Fed chair. A single Democrat, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted with the Republican majority."
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The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 13/05/2026
Kevin Warsh has been confirmed as Fed chair. The 54-45 vote is the narrowest margin since Senate approvals became a requirement in 1977.
on.wsj.com
Kevin Warsh Is Confirmed as Fed Chair in 54–45 Senate Vote
The divided vote signals the challenge ahead for Warsh, who faces a Fed committee skeptical of the rate cuts President Trump has demanded.
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
If you want some feel good stats about local news, there is a report for you. People have the most trust in local news compared to national news, independent creators, chatbots so on. And people blame local news the LEAST for misinformation.
apnorc.org
The Evolving News Landscape: Comparing Media Habits and Trust Between Teens and Adults - AP-NORC
Older adults are more likely to show stronger confidence in traditional news outlets while teens and young adults distribute trust more evenly across traditional outlets and alternative sources of inf...
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Ben Casselman @bencasselman.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Charts! Starting with the big one: Consumer prices in April were up 3.8 percent from a year earlier, the fastest inflation since May 2023. Over the past three months, prices have risen at an annual rate of 7.3%. #NumbersDay
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Wild that aligning school times with biology would help young people do better... in school. Glad someone did this study
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
When grid upgrades take too long, say hello to a lot of new natural gas. The new 'structural supercycle' will create new gas-powered infrastructure. AI demand -> compute demand -> electricity demand -> grid too old -> yes please, all the fast-scaling natural gas
businessinsider.com
The AI industry is turning to an old energy favorite to bring its data centers online fast
AI companies are in a race to secure energy for their data centers. They are finding that natural gas is the easiest solution, if not the cleanest.
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Today's Indicator newsletter is OUT. We cover: 🤖 How Chinese AI might actually help inequality 💼 How a unique legal strategy enables five subscribers to take on the Paramount+ merger ⚓ What alternatives exist for the Strait of Hormuz @planetmoney.bsky.social
tinyurl.com
The financial red flags that show up for dementia patients
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U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics @usbls.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Productivity increases 0.8% in Q1 2026; unit labor costs increase 2.3% (annual rates) www.bls.gov/news.release... #Productivity #BLSdata
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
My dad, Larry McKim, was an artist. He passed in 2019 and left behind hundreds of paintings that are either scattered in people’s homes or stuck in a storage unit. Art was his life. He just wanted his work to be seen. So I put together a living map of where his work has ended up!
larrymckim.art
Larry McKim's Art
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
The scale of power demand is absolutely nuts. So the all-time peak load for the ENTIRE ERCOT system (Texas’s independent electric grid) is ~85 GW. Oncor, the TX utility, has interconnection requests of 122 GW over the next five years within that system.
renewableenergyworld.com
Affordability and reliability define the data center wave
To meet electricity demands of data centers, the US power grid will need to expand and evolve in ways that require stakeholders to rethink traditional frameworks.
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 06/05/2026
I reckon if you'd asked 2016-Ketan whether California's grid profile will look like this in 2026, he would've said something like "that'd be excellent, but it's pretty unlikely as batteries can't really perform load shifting at that scale" www.caiso.com/todays-outlo...
a chart showing cal's grid profile
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
If you’ve flown recently, you may have learned the Wi-Fi was actually FREE. The trend is catching on. I’ve been a member of the “pay $8 dollars for bad airplane internet” community for many a year. Satellite tech has changed the equation to make airlines un-UN-bundle www.npr.org/2026/05/04/n...
npr.org
'Un-unbundling' & oil 'bathtubs': The Indicator newsletter is here! (PM+) : Planet Money
In today's bonus episode, Indicator co-host Wailin Wong and producer Cooper Katz McKim share some of the stories you can find in the Indicator's new weekly newsletter: Are we starting to see "un-unbun...
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Patrick De Haan @gasbuddyguy.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
The national average price of gasoline has just hit $4.50/gal, the highest level since July 17, 2022, according to GasBuddy data.
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
This is one of the more powerful stories I’ve been a part of this year. We put out a call for people who have seen family members struggle with their finances that turned out to be dementia-related. We got a surprising number of stories. tinyurl.com/3jh7c965
tinyurl.com
How your bank account might predict dementia : The Indicator from Planet Money
Some of the earliest signs of dementia can show up in your financial portfolio. Missed bill payments and erratic investments could be indicators, and they can happen years before an official diagnosis...
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Cooper Katz McKim @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
umm. hi. you should sign up for the indicator's newsletter. it is so SICK! This week, I wrote about how like half of data centers in the US aren't getting built. and ONE of the reasons... there aren't enough transformers!! Why is that? Read on if you want or don't. tinyurl.com/Indicator-Ne...
tinyurl.com
Photo Credit: Screenshot of trumpcard.gov, U.S. Department of Commerce
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Julia Ritchey @juliaritchey.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Love The Indicator and need more numbers from the news explained to you? My colleague @cooperkatzmckim.bsky.social has launched a brilliant companion newsletter that will arrive in your inbox weekly if you sign up here: npr.org/indicatornewsletter
npr.org
NPR: The Indicator
What's driving the economy, what’s changing your life, and what caught our eye when the mics were off. Sent weekly.
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