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The Egyptian economy is teetering. Since the revolution two years ago, the main-stay tourism industry has struggled, and the amount of foreign currency in the country is drying up. Egypt relies on foreign currency, particularly the U.S. dollar, to subsidize cheap fuel and bread for its people. So now the Egyptian government is telling banks they can no longer sell dollars.

Before the revolution, when there were still lots of tourists and investors in Egypt, the country's foreign reserves were $36 billion. Today they are less than $13.5 billion. So dollars are scarce in the traditional places, but on the street, it's a different story.

Just blocks from the Cairo stock exchange, you see men looking back and forth nervously, repeating one word under their breath to passers-by: "Zarafa, zarafa, zarafa…”

Exchange, exchange, exchange, they say. If you have dollars they will buy and sell them, for a premium. My friend Hossam Minnea has 1,000 bucks to exchange and within minutes of us walking onto the street, Hossam is handed 7,200 Egyptian pounds -- about a 6 percent premium over the official exchange rate.

I ask Hossam if he got a good deal. He sighs, "It’s a good under the table, but in general, for my country -- it’s not a good deal!"

Hossam says the fact he can get this deal so easily on the street is a sign of just how bad things are in Egypt. Everyone I spoke to for this story knows someone who is going into the gray economy to get dollars. 

The guy buying Hossam’s dollars isn’t some shady crook. He’s an importer of toys from China and he needs dollars to get his shipments. He started working the informal exchanges on the streets a month ago.

In a wealthy neighborhood on the other side of town, the Genghiskhan Chinese Restaurant now has big sign on the wall announcing, “We are buying USD!” Yu Shikuh’s family owns the restaurant. She says they’re paying a premium of about 3 percent over the official exchange rate.

Yu needs the dollars to send to her mom in China. Her mom is using the cash to buy food and supplies for a new restaurant in Cairo, including a new karaoke machine. Yu says at the same time her family needs to pay extra for dollars, they’re make less profit on the restaurant because rising inflation has pushed food price higher.

While I was talking to Yu the power went out in the restaurant. It’s part of rolling black outs the government is staging because it doesn’t have the foreign currency to buy enough imported fuel for power stations.  

Yu gathers some candles and starts putting them on the tables.

Despite all the problems Yu says she and her family plan to stay in the country, but like many Egyptians, she wonders how much worse it will get, before it gets better. 

A border station linking a Mexican village called Boquillos to a U.S. national park has opened in west Texas. Before it was sealed, the border had been an abstract, one that people on either side ignored. When it closed, Boquillas's economy and residents felt it hard.

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A nearly 14 percent drop in first-quarter sales of PCs is attributed in large part to interest in mobile devices — as well as a lukewarm reaction Microsoft's latest operating system.

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The central bank made a mistake. It sent minutes from its most recent policy meeting to a small group of influential institutions, including some major banks, a day earlier than scheduled. But the minutes are always weeks old. Why are they important? Because they contain clues to the Fed's thinking.

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The administration's budget still matters, even though it's late and the House and Senate have approved their own spending blueprints for fiscal 2014. President Obama laid down markers that could lead to changes in Medicare and Medicaid and affect funding for a broad array of health programs.

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About 3.4 million vehicles produced since 2000 are subject to the recall due to faulty airbag inflators.

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The drought has dried up water supplies in some parts of the country -- and water wars are heating up, between farmers and cities. In New Mexico, farmers have kicked off what could be a long-running fight by making a “priority call” on water resources.

Biogen Idec, a Massachusetts-based biotech company, is hoping its new multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera will eventually bring in the hundreds of millions of dollars it cost to develop -- at least before a generic comes along and copies it. CEO George Scangos joined Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to discuss his company's development process and pricing strategy.

Baseball, with its passion for tradition, is more tech-savvy than you think. Major League Baseball is now working with wireless engineering company Qualcomm to let people have a better smartphone experience while crammed together at the ballpark. The company has also worked over the last decade to insure that things go smoothly for people who pay to watch games online.

MLB.com CEO Bob Bowman says things were different in the early, herky-jerky days of streaming.

"Way back when in 2002 when we first started streaming, our fans got herky-jerky, buffering, dark minutes, and they were paying subscriptions so they weren't really happy about that," Bowman says.

Thanks to breakthroughs in the years since, fans can now stream live baseball on their computer, cellphone, or tablet without all the bumps and breaks.

"It look[s] just like a High-Def game that you get through your cable operator," Bowman says.

To hear more about MLB.com's mobile strategy and plans for the off-season, click on the audio player above.

After recent reports that were disappointing, Thursday's news was more positive. An estimated 346,000 people filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance, down 42,000 from the week before.

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Off the Hawaiian island of Oahu, Isaac Brumaghim was reeling in a tuna when a tiger shark grabbed the fish. "It definitely was an adrenaline rush for me," Brumaghim said afterward. Watch what happened.

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Gold prices are down this morning after falling a 1.5 percent yesterday, nearing a two-year low.

Diane Swonk, chief economist with Mesirow Financial, joins Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to discuss the drop off and whether there is such a thing as a safe haven anymore.

Gold prices are down this morning after falling a 1.5 percent yesterday, nearing a two-year low.

Diane Swonk, chief economist with Mesirow Financial, joins Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to discuss the drop off and whether there is such a thing as a safe haven anymore.

Although Venezuela has a rich literary culture, its writers remain largely unknown outside of the country. Marcela Valdes traces the intersection of literature and politics in the large Caribbean nation, showing the forces that have kept Venezuelan writers from getting the praise they deserve.

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Emil Kapaun will be honored for his "extraordinary heroism" during the Korean War. The Catholic priest, who died in a prisoner of war camp in 1951, is also a potential candidate for sainthood.

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Although Venezuela has a rich literary culture, its writers remain largely unknown outside of the country. Marcela Valdes traces the intersection of literature and politics in the large Caribbean nation, showing the forces that have kept Venezuelan writers from getting the praise they deserve.

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There have been tornadoes in Missouri and Arkansas. More severe storms are expected in parts of the southern mid-Atlantic and Southeast. Meanwhile, Minnesota and other places in the upper Midwest are bracing for another foot of snow. Where's spring?

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The drought has dried up water supplies in some parts of the country -- and water wars are heating up, between farmers and other industries and cities. In New Mexico, farmers have kicked off what could be a long-running fight by making a “priority call” on water resources. 

What exactly does that mean? Put simply, water rights in the Western states are “first come, first served.”

“The idea is that the people who were using the water first, they get the first call on the water that there is,” explains Holly Doremus, an environmental law professor at UC Berkeley.

Making a “priority call” says I was here first and I want my water.

“It’s the mechanism to allocate water during times of shortage,” says Ronald Kaiser, a water rights expert at Texas A&M University. “There’s no share and share alike, there’s no reasonable use.  The allocation of water is based on first in time, first in right.”

There is a problem with these rules -- they’re old. In lots of cases, they promise water to famers before cities. For that reason, Kaiser guesses they’re going to change.

“I think what’s going to happen is that the legislature will not let cities go dry," he says, but he thinks it will be tension filled, politically and legally.

Also: A new T.C. Boyle short story; the problem with the "death" of print; and Maya Angelou speaks with The Daily Beast.

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The North is expected to test another ballistic missile in the next few days. Its rhetoric has been hot in recent weeks. But there's a case to be made that once the U.S. and South Korea wrap up military exercises, the North will declare it won this war of words.

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It's the height of the spring real estate season in Phoenix, Arizona. If you're trying to buy a house in that city, well, Godspeed to you.

Just a few years ago, the area was pummeled by the mortgage crisis. But now realtors and buyers are frustrated with how fast the market is recovering. The median sales price is up nearly 40 percent from the same time last year. 

For an idea of how strange things have gotten, consider the story of Realtor Brad Bohn. He's about to close a deal on a five-bedroom house for his clients in the suburb of Tempe. He won't describe the deal because a competitor might catch of wind this story.

"Somebody could pull up right now. Walk in. Like it. Go back to the office with their realtor. Write up a cash offer and I'm probably out of luck," says Bohn, standing a few feet from the house.

Bohn's clients have been looking for a house this good for a year. The area's housing stock is in short supply, bidding wars are driving up prices, and buyers are worried about getting priced out of the market.

"If they like it, it's not 'think about it 24 hours,'" Bohn says. "It's write an offer right now. Think about it later during the inspection period."

But wait, haven't we been through this before? 

"I can think of eight reasons why it's not a bubble," says Michael Orr, a researcher with Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business. First, unlike 2005, people are actually living in the homes they're buying, Orr says. Second, there aren't enough construction workers to build new houses, so oversupply won't be a problem for a while. And third:

"In the last bubble we had the availability of loans to almost anyone who could breathe," Orr says.

So, yeah, finding a house to buy is tough. But Orr says it's not time to go on bubble watch just yet.

Nine Reasons Why the Rise in Phoenix Real Estate Prices is Not a Bubble, according to Michael Orr:

1.       The population is growing much faster than the housing stock in Greater Phoenix.

2.       Prices are being driven up by a chronic lack of supply, not by excess demand.

3.       Prices are still at the same level as 9 years ago. They still have a lot of room to increase yet.

4.       Most buyers are putting their own money in with cash or large deposits, not borrowing it all from foolish lenders.

5.       Lenders are still being ultra cautious.

6.       Investors are mostly buying to rent - if and when they sell it is a neutral event for the market - one extra home becomes available and one extra family needs a home to live in.

7.       There are major long term obstacles to developer trying to increase the supply of new homes.

8.       Phoenix has a low vacancy rate both in homes for rent and for sale. Multiple generations and even multiple families are sharing single homes.

9.       No bubble has ever occurred in the same market twice in the same generation. However after a recent bubble everyone is hyper-sensitive to every price increase and numerous false cries of "bubble" are par for the course.