National News

Retail sales ticked up by 1.1 percent last month according to the Commerce Department. The growth was better than expected, despite higher gas prices and the payroll tax increase that went into effect at the beginning of the year.

Shoppers around the world may have tightened their belts, but the world’s biggest clothing retailer is doing the opposite -- it is expanding fast. The Spanish company Inditex, which owns Zara among other chain stores, has just unveiled an impressive set of figures: a 22 percent jump in profits. Large does not necessarily mean unwieldy, and Inditext is the proof. The world’s biggest clothing retailer is also one of the  nimblest; it invented fast fashion. By manufacturing more than 50 percent of its products itself the Inditex chains can respond quickly to changing tastes.

President Obama is getting together with a group of CEO's today to discuss cybersecurity. Obama will be talking with the CEO's -- such as JPMorgan head Jamie Dimon -- about how the public and private sectors can work together to protect against cyber attacks.

President Obama is meeting at the White House this morning with corporate CEO's to talk about cybersecurity. The CEO's and the administration will discuss sharing information about potential computer vulnerabliess and specific threats.

"There are sensitivities both ways because some of the information the government has comes from intelligence sources and that needs to be protected," said Michael Kaiser*, who works with the National Cyber Security Alliance representing big names from the digital world, including Google and Facebook. "Going the other way, industry wants to be sure that when they give information to the government, that somehow won't come back to haunt them."

Some worry the government will impose technology that it wants on the private sector. 

"It may force things to be deployed which are less than optimal," said Michael Angelo with NetIQ Corporation. "There have been instances where proposed legislation actually recommended technology, and [that] causes issues for growth."

Today's White House meeting comes soon after U.S. officials said they're looking into reports that Obama's own family, including the First Lady, has been hit by hacking.

*CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article mis-identified the first name of Michael Kaiser. The text has been corrected.

A new clickable atlas shows just how far it is to the grocery store, everywhere in the United States. "Food deserts" are the focus of state, local and federal anti-obesity efforts.

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The 1.1 percent increase is a sign that despite higher payroll taxes and increases in the price of such things as gasoline, consumers are still willing to spend. And that's good news for the economy.

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Retail sales ticked up by 1.1 percent last month according to the Commerce Department. The growth was better than expected, despite higher gas prices and the payroll tax increase that went into effect at the beginning of the year.

Gus Faucher, senior economist with PNC Financial Services Group, joins Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to break down the details behind the numbers.

The allegations against two high school football players in an Ohio town obsessed with high school football have attracted attention around the world.

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The Federal Aviation Administration has approved Boeing's plans for new safety tests that could get its troubled 787 Dreamliner back in the air as early as this spring. After a series of incidents linked to its lithium ion batteries, all 50 of Boeing's 787 Dreamliners were grounded earlier this year.

Though Boeing has added extra safety precautions to the 787 and remains upbeat about the plane's future, will passengers feel confident enough to fly it? 

Seth Kaplan, at Airline Weekly, says yes.

"People [will] fly [the] aircraft for the same reason they always do, which is that there is a plane going from where they are to where they are going for about the price they want to pay," Kaplan says, adding that as long as regulatory authorities are on-board, travelers will be too.

Mitch Seavey is 53. His son Dallas holds the record as the youngest musher to win the race. He was 25 when his team finished the 1,000-mile course first in 2012.

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Also: Maurice Sendak's watercolors; the longlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction is announced; and complaints against Bob Woodward's book on John Belushi.

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This final note today, courtesy of the Associated Press. The AP got its hands on an application for benefits under the health care law. A draft application, we should say. It's 15 pages long, could take anywhere form 30 to 45 minutes to fill out.

It was characterized as a "daunting" process in some of the reporting we read today.

So we went out and did an unofficial poll: Do you think it's worth it? 45 minutes in exchange for health care benefits?

Tell us what you think in the comments below, or tweeting us @MarketplaceAPM. And listen to the audio above to hear other responses.

The Dow broke another record yesterday and is now on its longest record-breaking streak -- six days -- since 1998. And while that all sounds great, one man is not happy.

Allan Sloan, senior editor-at-large at Fortune magazine, is focusing instead on the four-year anniversary of the market bottom.

"The mood was suicidal, the market was crashing, people were scared," Sloan says. "[But] I learned that nothing is forever."

According to Sloan, today's booming market could use a healthy dose of that suspicion.

"I am a student of history, I've seen people stampede up, I've seen people stampede down," Sloan says. "What I try to do is to be half a cycle out of phase."

To hear more investing tips from Allan Sloan, click on the audio player above.

The government of the Yunnan province in Western China is going after Coca-Cola. Officials say the company has been illegally mapping the province with GPS devices.

The BBC's John Sudworth in Shanghai joins Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to explain the charges and whether they represent larger tensions between China and the U.S.

Catholics around the world are watching the roof of the Vatican again to learn if their church has a new pope. If they see black smoke, that means the church's cardinals still haven't decided. White smoke and bells signal that a pope has been chosen.

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Shoppers around the world may have tightened their belts, but the world’s biggest clothing retailer is doing the opposite -- it is expanding fast. The Spanish company Inditex, which owns Zara among other chain stores, has just unveiled an impressive set of figures: a 22 percent jump in profits.  

Large does not necessarily mean unwieldy, and Inditext is the proof. The world’s biggest clothing retailer is also one of the  nimblest; it invented fast fashion. By manufacturing more than 50 percent of its products itself the Inditex chains can respond quickly to changing tastes.

“There’s something new in the stores almost every couple of weeks which gives shoppers a reason to go back to those stores every couple of weeks," says Rahul Sharma, a retail analyst with Neev Capital. "This makes it a very exciting place to shop; brings people in.”

In spite of the recession in Europe and economic malaise elsewhere, the model seems to be working everywhere from China to Russia to the U.S. Inditex now has 6,000 stores in 86 countries -- a rare success story for Spain. The company’s founder, Amancio Ortega , has just leapfrogged Warren Buffet as the world’s third richest man. 

With the Masters less than a month away and two PGA wins this season, a win in two weeks would mean Tiger is again number one in the world. And it shows, says Jay Coffin, editor at Golfchannel.com.

"He's got the swagger, he's got the look, he's got the confidence, he's got the name," Coffin says. And last week on a golf course in Doral, Florida, Coffin says the stands were flooded with fans.

"Just about everybody that was at that golf course wanted a piece of what it was that he was doing, because they feel that he's back. Because it looks like he has the potential to do things that he used to do," says Coffin.

But has Tiger gotten his sponsorship mojo back? That depends, says David Schwab, senior vice president at Octagon, a sports and entertainment marketing agency. 

"Nobody agrees with what he did," Schwab says. "The question is, is he a legitimate, authentic, true endorser for a product that one would buy? And for products that are performance related, he is."

Tiger's indiscretions cost him his wife, and some huge endorsement deals like Gatorade and Gillette. But remaining are lucrative contracts with Nike, Rolex, and EA Sports.

Woods is still in a position where he can pick and choose endorsement deals, Schwab says. But it's unclear whether he'll ever win back the deals where moms are often doing the shopping, especially grocery items and other consumer goods. 

The Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project has a new study that looks at teens and their use of computers, tablets and smartphones. Looks like smartphone use by teenagers is skyrocketing. As of late last fall, 37 percent of U.S. teens have smartphones, up from 23 percent just in 2011.

Pew's Mary Madden and Amanda Lenhart wrote the study, and offered other tidbits from their research on teens and how they're using technology.

1. Nine in ten (95 percent) U.S. teens ages 12-17 use the Internet. About three in four (74 percent) say they access the Internet on cellphones, tablets and other mobile devices at least occasionally.
2. 78 percent of teens now have a cellphone, and almost half (47 percent) of those own smartphones. That translates into 37 percent of all teens who have smartphones, up from just 23 percent in 2011.
3. One in four teens are “cell-mostly” Internet users -- far more than the 15 percent of adults who are cell-mostly. Among teen smartphone owners, half are cell-mostly.
4. Most teens have at least a basic cellphone by age 12 or 13. Among teens ages 12-13, 68 percent have a cell phone. Just 23 percent of younger teens have a smartphone.
5. More than 4 in 5 teens with cellphones sleep with the phone on or near the bed.
6. 75 percent of all teens text, and 63 percent say that they use text messages to communicate with others every day.
7. 26 percent of American teens of driving age say they have texted while driving, and 48 percent of all teens ages 12 to 17 say they’ve been a passenger while a driver has texted behind the wheel.
8. One in four teens (23 percent) have a tablet computer, a level comparable to the general adult population.
9. Nine in ten (93 percent) teens have a computer or have access to one at home. Seven in ten (71 percent) teens with home computer access say the laptop or desktop they use most often is one they share with other family members.
10. Eight in ten teens use social networking sites. Two in three (65 percent) social media-using teens have had an experience on a social network site that made them feel good about themselves, while 15 percent say they have been the target of online meanness.

So what might this mean for businesses looking to market to teens? Click on the audio player above to hear more.

On Wednesday night, President Obama speaks to big money donors and activists at an event for Organizing for Action, the group former top Obama aides run to support the President’s political agenda. Tickets went for $50,000 per person. OFA is a 501(c)(4) group, so it’s able to raise unlimited money, without telling where it comes from.

Dark money groups are nothing new on the left or right. They spent a fortune in the last election. But this one’s got something special.

“The problem is they’re a dark money group with a direct tie to the president,” says Lisa Rosenberg of the open government group Sunlight Foundation. “It’s an opportunity to sell access to the president to the highest bidder.”

Rosenberg and many like her have been sounding the alarm about a new wave of money in politics since Citizens United, the 2010 Supreme Court ruling declaring open season on political spending by corporations and unions. President Obama joined the chorus during his 2010 State of the Union speech, prompting Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to famously shake his head from his second row seat.

Critics cried hypocrisy when the OFA launched. In response, the organization recently said it won’t take corporate, foreign or lobbyist money, and it promises some quarterly disclosure. But critics say the disclosure is disturbingly infrequent and incomplete.

“We will never really know if they are disclosing what they say they’re going to be disclosing,” says Viveca Novak of the Center for Responsive Politics. “Because 501(c)(4)s aren’t required to disclose their donors.”

Her group tracks money in politics, something made increasingly difficult by the explosive growth of dark money groups. But, following the money is a growth industry.

Mark Garrison: These organizations are nothing new, but OFA has something special.

Lisa Rosenberg: The problem is they’re a dark money group with a direct tie to the President.

Lisa Rosenberg is with the Sunlight Foundation.

Rosenberg: It’s an opportunity to sell access to the President to the highest bidder with really minimal disclosure.

Of course an open government activist would complain. But so did this guy.

President Obama: I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests.

At the 2010 State of the Union, the President attacked the Supreme Court ruling that allowed unlimited corporate and union political spending. Responding to criticism, OFA said it won’t take corporate, foreign or lobbyist money. And it promises to ID big donors.

Viveca Novak: We will never really know if they are disclosing what they say they’re going to be disclosing because 501(c)(4)s aren’t required to disclose their donors.

Viveca Novak is with the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money. Her field is a growth industry. I'm Mark Garrison, for Marketplace.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly spelled the name of Mayor Cory Booker in the headline. The text has been corrected.

South By Southwest might be a festival of rock, movie, and technology stars. But the festival in Austin, Texas also had a visit from a politician. Newark, New Jersey mayor Cory Booker spoke at a hack-a-thon event put together by some of Lady Gaga's social media team. Booker hopes to join the festival’s tech stars with a startup called #waywire, which aims to help regular people create multimedia content that can be searched easily.

Marketplace Tech caught up with Booker at the Festival to find out more about his new start-up and social media philosophy.

"The problem with these massive utilities like Youtube is that it is very hard to discover the video that you really need," Booker said. "What I started realizing with things like Pandora, was creating algorithms better brought music that I really enjoyed. I said wait a minute, why isn't there something like this for video?"

Booker is also known for tweeting around the clock and painstakingly documenting his adventures -- including an instance when he saved a neighbor from a burning building. Though recognized for his heroics, some criticize him for over-sharing.

"I get yelled at all the time," Booker said, also noting that his own staff worries he tweets too much. Nevertheless, Booker advises people to be authentic.

"If you are up at two in the morning and you are thinking something, consider sharing it with people,” he said. “If you have a corny joke -- Corny and Cory are one letter apart -- put them out there. Let's stop putting our politicians up on a pedestal and start realizing they are just like us, they have insomnia, they drink too much caffeine, they get frustrated sometimes."

Booker sees social media as a powerful way to connect government to constituents. The mayor even remembers the the tweet that first carried him across what he called "the Rubicon." When welcoming troops back from Afghanistan, he received a tweet from a veteran in California who needed support services and was able to lend a hand. 

For his part, Booker is clearly is more impressed with the transformative power of technology and less worried about what it does to you. Even so, he said tech companies need to work harder on boosting diversity and supporting diverse enterprises.

"I believe in humanity's ability to create [and] innovate," Booker said. "Technology is going to be [an] accelerating force to make real Martin Luther King's vision. [Martin Luther King] said we are all 'caught in an inescapable network of mutualities.' That network that ties us together is getting more rapid, those connections that can now be made cross geography, race, religion."

Where are you from? Jessica Hong, a Korean-American, is constantly asked about her heritage, often before people learn anything else about her. Charley Sullivan found himself on the wrong side of the same question when he was 12 years old.

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The Michigan senator tells NPR he wants to focus on the fiscal battle, not campaigning, in his last two years. He wants to push for ending tax loopholes and advocate for programs like education, health care and infrastructure.

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