Kimberly Adams

Correspondent

SHORT BIO

Kimberly Adams is Marketplace’s senior Washington correspondent and the co-host of the Marketplace podcast, “Make Me Smart.” She regularly hosts other Marketplace programs, and reports from the nation’s capital on the way politics, technology, and economics show up in our everyday lives. Her reporting focuses on empowering listeners with the tools they need to more deeply engage with society and our democracy.

Adams is also the host and editor of APM’s "Call to Mind", a series of programs airing on public radio stations nationwide aimed at changing the national conversation about mental health.

Previously, Kimberly was a foreign correspondent based in Cairo, Egypt, reporting on the political, social, and economic upheaval following the Arab Spring for news organizations around the world. She has received awards for her work from the National Press Club, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Religion Communicators Council, and the Association for Women in Communication.

Latest Stories (830)

It's getting harder to predict the economy's effect on presidential elections

Apr 15, 2024
It's not the economy, stupid? With political polarization increasingly motivating voters, the economy may not be the predictor it once was.
Traditionally, there are two ways to predict the outcome of an election: polling and statistical modeling. The latter tends to emphasize economic factors.
Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

Corporate debt defaults rose steeply in 2023

Apr 12, 2024
S&P Global Ratings found there's also a rise in companies that default multiple times.
Defaults were up 80% last year, the fastest rise since 2008. Over one-third of the defaults in 2023 and so far in 2024 come from companies that previously defaulted, said Nicole Serino with S&P Global.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

$6.6 billion TSMC deal in Arizona the latest in the CHIPS Act's rollout

Apr 9, 2024
The CHIPS and Science Act was a 2022 law designed to restart the semiconductor industry in the U.S.
Recently announced funding for the TSMC, coupled with money the company is pledging to spend on expanding facilities in Arizona, represents a $65 billion investment altogether.
Annabelle Chih/Getty Images

Yellen's in China to deliver a message: Stop making so much stuff!

Apr 5, 2024
The booming U.S. economy is giving her leverage on trade as Western economies try to prevent a wave of cheap Chinese goods hitting the market.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Friday. Yellen is on a five-day visit for trade talks amid tensions between the U.S. and China.
Ken Ishii - Pool/Getty Images

How political ads try to shape the way we feel about the economy

Apr 3, 2024
Campaigns and advocacy groups may spend up to $17 billion on ads in 2024. Many pitches will focus on the local and the personal.
According to Tess McRae of the Parkside Group, successful messaging for incumbents will highlight smaller ways people’s lives have improved — like lower gas prices.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Perceptions that the economy's bad can cost you an election, even if the economy isn't actually bad

Mar 28, 2024
In 1992, voters’ perception that an improving economy was actually a bad economy contributed to Bush’s loss to Clinton. Could the same thing happen to Biden?
President George H. W.  Bush greets supporters ahead of a debate against soon-to-be President Bill Clinton in 1992. Bush blamed the media for pushing the narrative of a "bad" economy, despite positive economic indicators.
LUKE FRAZZA/AFP via Getty Images

What does a “good” economy look like — and are we in one?

Mar 27, 2024
Voters’ views on the economy don’t always match their own situation or national trends. The gap can color their views of candidates.
Yuki Iwamura/AFP via Getty Images

Child care gets a boost in the new federal spending law, but advocates say it isn't enough

Mar 27, 2024
They say programs designed to help low-income families are only reaching a fraction of those eligible.
"We got this $1 billion increase that's going to help the [child care] programs that exist, but we need so much more," said the Century Foundation's Julie Kashen.
Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images

Proposed appropriations bill would practically double the size of the Border Patrol

Mar 22, 2024
Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform, so it's using the appropriations bill to bulk up the Department of Homeland Security.
The $1.2 trillion spending package to be voted on by the House on Friday includes funds to hire 22,000 more Border Patrol agents.
Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images