The mood among small businesses

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Kimberly Adams** (0:30)
How small businesses are feeling these days and what goes into making Magic the Gathering.
From Marketplace in Washington, I'm Kimberly Adams. We have the latest reading on how small businesses are feeling in this economy. The National Federation of Independent Businesses Small Business Optimism Index rose 2.4 points in July. Here to break that down for us is Jeffrey Cleveland, Chief Economist at Payton and Regal. Jeffrey, good morning.

**Jeffrey Cleveland** (0:57)
Good morning.

**Kimberly Adams** (0:58)
We got a look at how small businesses are doing in this economy. What did we learn?

**Jeffrey Cleveland** (1:04)
At least in the month of July, the Small Business Survey shows that small businesses are a bit more upbeat on the state of the economy, with more small businesses looking to hire. So I think this is interesting because we saw a very weak jobs report last Friday, as you know, but that jobs report maybe over-exaggerated the weakness in the labor market. Maybe the labor market is doing a bit better. We'll have to see, led by small business hiring.

**Kimberly Adams** (1:31)
We'll also get a look at CPI tomorrow. In June, it decreased by 0.4% after rising by half a percent in May. What are you expecting?

**Jeffrey Cleveland** (1:41)
Well, we're looking at core CPI, which excludes food and energy, that index.
And most important is really the month-to-month change, whether it increases 0.3% month-to-month or 0.2% month-to-month. So very small margin, but I think that's what Wall Street is watching most attentively.

**Kimberly Adams** (2:03)
Why does such a small margin matter?

**Jeffrey Cleveland** (2:06)
I think because if it's 0.2, then that month-to-month change is broadly consistent with the Fed's 2% inflation target. But if it comes in a little bit hotter, so just 0.3 is enough. If you imagine 0.3 every month for the next year, then inflation would come in above the Fed's target, and they don't want that. So I think a lot of decisions hinge on just a small difference in a monthly change.

**Kimberly Adams** (2:31)
Jeffrey Cleveland is the Chief Economist at Payden and Riegel. Jeffrey, thank you so much.

**Jeffrey Cleveland** (2:36)
Have a good day, Kimberly.

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**Kimberly Adams** (4:26)
Trading card games, think Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon, surged during the pandemic. And unlike some other COVID-era trends, their popularity seems to be lasting. Magic the Gathering is one example. Hasbro says the game's revenue jumped 32% in the second quarter to a record $545 million.
This week on What's That Like? We're meeting some of the workers who bring the Magic ecosystem to life.

**Gavin Verhe** (4:53)
My name is Gavin Verhe. I am a Principal Game Designer on Magic the Gathering at Wizards of the Coast. When I was 11, I decided I wanted to go make Magic cards. I happened to run into the Vice President of Game Design. I went up to him and I was like, I wanna come work for you. I'm ready, hire me now, right? And he's like, okay, kid, you're gonna need two things. The first thing you're gonna need is a college degree. And my heart just sunk. So I'm like, it's gonna take forever to get one of those. But the second thing he said is that we like to hire people who are really good at Magic. And so I was like, well, I don't know about this whole college degree thing, but a pro Magic player, anybody could do that.