By MAE ANDERSON, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK — Egg prices again reached a record high in February, as the bird flu continues to run rampant and Easter and Passover approach.

The latest monthly Consumer Price Index showed a dozen Grade A eggs cost an average of $5.90 in U.S. cities in February, up 10.4% from a year ago. That eclipsed January’s record-high price of $4.95.

Avian flu has forced farmers to slaughter more than 166 million birds, mostly were egg-laying chickens. Just since the start of the year, more than 30 million egg layers have been killed.

If prices remain high, it will be third year in a row consumers have faced sticker shock ahead of Easter on April 20 and Passover, which starts on the evening of April 12, both occasions in which eggs play prominent roles.

The price had consistently been below $2 a dozen for decades before the disease struck. The U.S. Department of Agriculture expects egg prices to rise 41% this year over last year’s average of $3.17 per dozen.

But there may be light at the end of the tunnel. The USDA reported last week that egg shortages are easing and wholesale prices are dropping, which might provide relief on the retail side before this year’s late Easter, which is three weeks later than last year. It said there had been no major bird flu outbreak for two weeks.

“Shoppers have begun to see shell egg offerings in the dairycase becoming more reliable although retail price levels have yet to adjust and remain off-putting to many,” the USDA wrote in the March 7 report.

David Anderson, a professor and extension economist for livestock and food marketing at Texas A&M University, said wholesale figures dropping is a good sign that prices could go down as shoppers react to the high prices by buying fewer eggs.

“What that should tell us is things are easing a little bit in terms of prices,” he said. “So going forward, the next CPI report may very well indicate falling egg prices.”

However, he doesn’t expect lasting changes until bird stock can be replenished and production can be replaced.

“Record high prices is a market signal to producers to produce more, but it takes time to be able to produce more, and we just haven’t had enough time for that to happen yet,” he said. “But I do think it’s going to happen. But it’s going to take some more months to get there.”

Advocacy groups and others have also called for a probe into whether egg producers have used the avian flu to price gouge. But egg producers say the avian flu is solely behind the elevated prices.

Meanwhile, restaurants have added surcharges and made other changes to offset the cost of eggs.

The Trump administration has unveiled a plan to combat bird flu, $500 million investment to help farmers bolster biosecurity measures, $400 million in additional aid for farmers whose flocks have been impacted by avian flu, $100 million to research and potentially develop vaccines and therapeutics for U.S. chicken flocks. But it will likely take a while for that plan to make an impact.

Patsy Aguilar longed to bring a taste of the Mexican city of Mazatlán to Colorado.

She and her husband excelled in the kitchen, whipping up fresh seafood and ceviches from their homeland. But when it came to starting a business, they didn’t know where to begin.

Through social media, Aguilar discovered a Commerce City-based nonprofit offering Spanish-language business classes geared for Colorado’s Latino community, teaching the basics of finance, marketing, administration and U.S. culture.

Adelante Community Development even hosts a boot camp for entrepreneurs who dream of opening their own food truck — the Sal y Pimienta, or Salt and Pepper, program.

Now, Aguilar and her husband Ramon Lizarraga’s food truck, Pata Salada Ceviches, is so successful, they’re expanding.

“We Hispanics are hard workers,” Aguilar said. “We always try to do better and better, but sometimes we don’t have the right information, so that’s why Adelante makes a lot of difference in our community.”

Latino-owned companies are the fastest-growing segment of the United States’ business population, according to a 2023 report from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. U.S. Latinos own nearly 5 million businesses, generating more than $800 billion in annual revenue. Latino-owned businesses grew 57% in the U.S. between 2007 and 2022, whereas white-owned businesses grew 5% in the same time period, the report found.

Latinos themselves contribute more than $3.7 trillion to the nation’s economy, helping drive growth in the country.

In Colorado, more than 90,000 small businesses are Hispanic-owned, with Hispanics making up 20% of the state’s workforce and nearly 14% of its business owners, according to 2024 data from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Adelante Community Development founder Maria Gonzalez has her hand in building the largest Latino business ecosystem in Colorado. By providing training programs, she wants to ensure the state’s Latino entrepreneurs have the knowledge and support they need to succeed — particularly at a time when Latinos can feel attacked by a presidential administration hostile toward diversity and immigrants.

“As long as we’re doing things the right way, waking up with the most amazing energy, we are going to do good,” Gonzalez said. “We’re being targeted in this crucial moment, but all I hear in our meetings is, ‘We’re going to move forward.’ Yes, this might be very painful and hateful, but at the end of the day, we don’t give up. We’re very resilient, we’re hard workers and we are here to thrive.”

Building generational wealth

Gonzalez, who has been an entrepreneur for 25 years, struggled to keep her insurance business afloat during the Great Recession. She lost her house through foreclosure and her vehicle was repossessed. She didn’t know how to help her business recover and noticed other Latino business owners struggling without resources.

She became the resource she needed, founding Adelante in the mid-2000s after learning from local business courses.

Adelante offers multiple courses a year — all in Spanish — on accounting, digital strategy, business administration and helping entrepreneurs navigate the complicated web of licenses, insurance, taxes and regulations.

“We didn’t know how to register the business, so Maria helped us do that,” Aguilar said. “We didn’t know anything about taxes. The health department. The inventory. Now, we have a successful business and are planning on expanding.”

Pata Salada Ceviches, which imports its seafood from Mexico for authentic flavors, opened in 2023 after Aguilar went through Adelante’s $750 food truck training program. The organization offers scholarships for community members in need, although the federal funding backing that aid has since dried up, Gonzalez said. Adelante is looking for new grants.

Denver has been recognized as among the best places in the nation to start a food truck, but Gonzalez said the regulations to operate mobile businesses within metro Denver make the venture a bureaucratic mess.

“Food truck regulation is a nightmare in Colorado,” Gonzalez said.

To open a food truck, an owner might need to secure 10 to 15 different licenses, she said, and if an operator drives down the road to a new jurisdiction, all those licenses and regulations can become moot. That red tape can be confusing for anyone, but especially someone who doesn’t speak English, Gonzalez said.

Adelante helps its clients navigate the licenses and regulations, but is also pushing for legislation to make the process easier.

Gonzalez said she’s working with state Rep. Manny Rutinel, an Adams County Democrat, to pass a food truck operations bill that would establish a reciprocal licensing and permitting system between local jurisdictions so food truck operators wouldn’t need entirely new licenses to operate in a nearby city, like when crossing between Denver and Aurora.

In addition to the permitting, Gonzalez also helps her clients develop menus, design logos and strategize social media marketing.

Plus, the Latino-centric courses educate clients on cultural differences, such as the prevalence of paying with debit and credit cards in the U.S. compared to Mexico, where people predominantly use cash.

Financially, Gonzalez said a food truck can be a more affordable and less risky operation for a fledgling entrepreneur. Adelante has supported more than 200 food truck operators, Gonzalez said.

“You could buy a food truck within $10,000 and then go send it to a fabricator to make it compliant and pay another $20,000 and you’ve already got a business,” Gonzalez said.

Pata Salada Ceviches has plans to open a stall inside La Plaza Colorado, a sprawling Latino market and food hall in Aurora. With Adelante’s continued guidance, Aguilar dreams of owning brick-and-mortar ceviche joints in the future.

“I know if I build this business right, I can leave something for my two kids and they are going to benefit,” Aguilar said. “We try to explain that to them. They see us working hard and doing things right, and I hope one day they can keep doing this.”

Harry Hollines is the chief strategy officer at the Colorado-based Latino Leadership Institute, where he oversees the institute’s entrepreneurship accelerator, LEAP.

Hollines believes the future growth of the U.S. economy hinges on the success of Latino entrepreneurship. He sees Latino business ownership growing along with the state’s demographic shifts. By 2050, Latinos are expected to make up nearly 30% of the U.S. population.

Since 2000, Colorado’s Latino population has grown 72% — twice the state’s overall population growth rate of 35%, according to the University of California, Los Angeles’s Latino Policy & Politics Institute. Latinos are the second largest racial or ethnic group in the state, at 22% of the population

While Hollines is heartened to see the growth in Latino businesses, he said there needs to be an understanding of the difference between businesses making income and building wealth.

Latino-owned businesses tend to be smaller in scale, with only about 5% of Latino-owned businesses in the U.S. having employees and fewer than 3% generating more than $1 million annually, Hollines said. This means they have a harder time generating wealth at the company and ownership levels and within the community by creating workforces.

More resources should go toward helping Latino-owned businesses expand and grow, he said.

“If we don’t have entrepreneurs growing relative to the demographic shifts happening, you’re not going to have as many businesses, not going to have as many places to buy from and the dollars won’t circulate from the economy at the same rate,” Hollines said. “Latino businesses are important because we’re talking about the backbone of the U.S. and Colorado economy.”

“We need to feel secure”

In 2019, Erica Rojas was driving with her five kids when her car gave out. She called a local mechanic, who told her he didn’t like working with women.

The more Rojas talked with other women, the more she heard similar stories about women being disrespected or made to feel uncomfortable at auto repair shops.

The Aurora resident wanted to create a mechanic experience that not only catered to women, but also taught them basic car maintenance — like how to change a tire or use jumper cables — so they could feel empowered.

The move would be a career change for Rojas, who previously ran a catering business. She loved to cook but struggled to keep up with the administrative side.

“We need to feel secure, and we need to learn,” Rojas said.

Rojas, a native Spanish speaker, connected with Adelante and took its business courses. The organization helped her create a business plan and bring her idea — Pink Auto Services — to life. The small business is expected to open this fall in Aurora.

“Everything was up here,” Rojas said, tapping her head. “Now, it’s here in my business plan, and I can show other people.”

Rojas recently met with representatives of Pickens Technical College in Aurora to discuss a partnership in which the school’s auto technician students could get experience working at her shop.

Not only did Rojas learn from Adelante’s courses, but she said the organization’s one-on-one mentoring makes her feel like she has someone on her side as she enters uncharted career territory.

“Latinos need a space like this,” Rojas said. “Adelante is different. I see Adelante like my family. They make me feel comfortable, and I learn so much.”

Get more business news by signing up for our Economy Now newsletter.

With Fox and ESPN launching a DTC service among the biggest trends in 2025. The dedicated sports streaming bundles could spell the end of the pay-TV business model.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. inflation slowed last month for the first time since September and a measure of underlying inflation fell to a four-year low, even as widespread tariffs threaten to send prices higher.

The consumer price index increased 2.8% in February from a year ago, Wednesday’s report from the Labor Department showed, down from 3% the previous month. Core prices, which exclude the volatile food and energy categories, rose 3.1% from a year earlier, down from 3.3% in January. The core figure is the lowest since April 2021.

The declines were greater than economists expected, according to a survey by data provider FactSet. Yet inflation remains above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. And most economists expect inflation will remain elevated this year as Trump’s tariffs kick in.

The report “is encouraging news, though it doesn’t tell us much about where inflation is headed,” said Oren Klachkin, Nationwide Financial Markets economist, in an email. “With tariffs possibly set to push goods prices higher … we see inflation risks as tilted to the upside.”

On a monthly basis, inflation also came in much lower than expected. Consumer prices rose 0.2% in February from the previous month, down from a big 0.5% jump in January. And core prices rose just 0.2%, below the 0.4% increase in January. Economists watch core prices because they are typically a better guide to inflation’s future path.

A sharp drop in air fares, which fell 4% just in February from the previous month, helped bring down overall inflation. Rental price increases also slowed and the costs of hotel rooms and car insurance rose much more slowly in February than the previous month. The price of new cars fell last month compared with January.

Grocery prices were unchanged last month from January, bringing some relief to consumers grappling with a 25% jump in grocery prices from four years ago. The cost of eggs, however, jumped 10.4% in February from the previous month and are nearly 60% more expensive than a year ago.

Avian flu has forced farmers to slaughter more than 160 million birds, including 30 million in January. Average egg prices hit $5.90 a dozen nationwide in February, a record high. The price had consistently been below $2 a dozen for decades before the disease struck.

How big an impact Trump’s tariffs will have on prices remains unclear, for now. The duties have roiled financial markets and could sharply slow the economy, and some analysts see the odds of a recession rising.

On Wednesday, Trump raised U.S. import taxes on all steel and aluminum imports to 25% each. Some companies that use steel are already seeing their costs rise, and depending on how long they stay in place, they could lift prices for cars, appliances, and electronics. The European Union responded in kind almost immediately to the steel and aluminum duties, announcing retaliatory trade action with new tariffs on U.S. industrial and farm products.

The White House has also imposed 25% duties on all imports from Canada and Mexico, with a 10% rate for oil from Canada. Most of those tariffs have been suspended until early April.

However, Canada will announce retaliatory tariffs that add up to $21 billion in U.S. dollars, according to a senior Canadian government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak before the announcement.

Trump has also pledged to impose reciprocal tariffs on any country with duties on U.S. exports on April 2. Economists at the Yale Budget Lab calculate that those duties could boost the average U.S. tariff rate to its highest level since 1937, and cost the average household as much as $3,400.

That has sent business owners scrambling.

“It does put a lot of businesses like ours in a tough spot,” said Ethan Frisch, co-CEO of the New York spice company Burlap & Barrel. “We’re going to have to pass along (the cost) to the consumer. We can’t afford to eat that cost ourselves as a small business. And we certainly can’t pass it back to a farmer in central Mexico. So, it’s going to make the product more expensive, which is then in turn going to slow down sales.”

Performance expectations for 2025 have already been moderated by some of the largest U.S. retailers.

Walmart CFO John David Rainey said last month that some product categories will have price increases.

Last week, Target CEO Brian Cornell said produce prices, including Mexican avocados, could rise soon industrywide and prices for other goods are likely to follow. Best Buy’s CEO Corie Barry said she’s expecting higher prices from suppliers, with China and Mexico being primary sources for its products.

Tariffs were a big topic at the recent annual Toy Fair as nearly 80% of the toys sold in the U.S. are sourced from China. Price increases of 15% to 20% are expected on games, dolls, cars, said Greg Ahearn, president and CEO of The Toy Association, said

AP Writers Josh Boak and Paul Wiseman in Washington, Anne D’Innocenzio in New York, and Lorne Cook and David McHugh in Europe, contributed to this report.

Pat Nottingham, the local market manager for Milestone Brands, was proudly promoting Dulce Vida Organic Tequila and Empress 1908 Gin at the Colorado Restaurant and Bar Show at the Colorado Convention Center on Tuesday.

His mood took a turn when asked about the possibility that the on-again and off-again 25% tariff the U.S. has threatened on a host of goods coming out of Mexico and Canada might kick in for good on April 2.

The Austin-based company’s tequilas are distilled and bottled in Mexico and the company’s gin line comes out of Canada. Should tariffs restart next month, the company and its customers won’t be spared from taking a hit, he said.

The saving grace, if there is one, is that most of the company’s tequila bottles run in the mid-$20 range, which will make the dollar increase lower than tequilas sold at a higher price point, he said.

The cost of eating and drinking out in metro Denver, as measured by the Consumer Price Index from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, has remained stubbornly high even as many other items have moved lower.

Restaurant inflation was rising 5.8% on an annual basis in January, more than double the overall inflation rate of 2.3%. That follows a hot 9.1% rate in 2022, an 8% rate in 2023 and a 6.3% rate in 2024. Restaurants have been testing the breaking point of customers as they cope with higher food and beverage costs, higher labor costs and higher real estate and utility costs. Now they must wrestle with tariffs.

Conor Horan, a retail territory manager with Gourmet Foods International, said his company hasn’t taken a direct hit compared to importers trading goods from Canada and Mexico. The company distributes cheeses and other charcuterie products, supplying many of the items that sell under the Murray’s Cheese brand found locally at King Soopers. Most of its products come out of Europe, in particular France, Italy and Spain.

“A European tariff would not be good,” he said. Wisconsin producers might be able to step in with some substitutes on the cheese side, but their products would be a shadow of what the Europeans have mastered over centuries of making cheeses.

And as for stockpiling items at current prices, that layers on additional costs. While hard cheeses store well, soft cheeses are more perishable.

In the end, the added costs of tariffs will likely be absorbed up and down the supply chain, including by consumers. When asked what the company’s retailers expect, Horan said, “They expect us to adapt.”

Even small companies that source materials and market domestically aren’t immune from tariffs. Dave Wemple, vice president of sales at Mor Kombucha in Federal Heights, said the company relies on aluminum cans made by another Colorado company, Westminster-based Ball Corp.

Ball, however, relies on Canadian aluminum, which is under a new 25% tariff, part of a larger push by the Trump administration to spur more domestic production of metals considered vital to national security.

The province of Ontario retaliated with a 25% surcharge on electricity sold to Michigan, Minnesota and New York. That in turn met with a threat of 50% tariffs on Canadian aluminum, steel and cars.

On Tuesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford agreed to end the electricity surcharge after U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick agreed to a sit-down to renegotiate the terms of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USCMA.

Get more business news by signing up for our Economy Now newsletter.

The Truth About SEO, AI, and Content in 2025 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing



The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with Bruce Clay

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interviewed Bruce Clay, widely regarded as the “Father of SEO.” With a career spanning nearly three decades, Bruce has witnessed every major shift in search engine optimization—from the early days of simple keyword ranking to today’s AI-driven landscape.

During our conversation, Bruce shared powerful insights into how Google ranking, AI-generated content, and SEO strategy are evolving in 2025. We discussed the impact of search engine algorithms, the role of content marketing, and why businesses must rethink their approach to website optimization and organic traffic.

SEO is changing fast, and Bruce Clay’s insights highlight why businesses must adapt or risk being left behind. Whether you’re an SEO consultant, marketer, or business owner, focusing on SEO strategy, usability, and high-quality content will be critical in 2025.

Chapters:

• [00:09] Introducing Bruce Clay
• [00:53] SEO in 1996
• [04:47] The Growing Importance of SEO
• [11:19] How to Create Quality Content for SEO
• [14:50] Is Zero-Click the End of SEO?
• [18:59] Guest Podcasting Can Help SEO

More About Bruce Clay: 

Check out Bruce Clay’s Website
Connect with Bruce Clay on LinkedIn

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by

Want to elevate your marketing game? AdCritter pairs Connected TV ads with precise digital retargeting to drive real results. Discover how their full-funnel strategy can help your business grow smarter. Let them know Duct Tape Marketing sent you, and you’ll get a dollar-for-dollar match on your first campaign! Learn more at adcritter.com.

By Eliza Haverstock, NerdWallet

The U.S. Education Department took down the online and paper applications for all income-driven repayment (IDR) plans on Feb. 21, following the latest legal ruling in a lawsuit against the new IDR plan, Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE).

“A federal Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction preventing the U.S. Department of Education from implementing the SAVE Plan and parts of other income-driven repayment (IDR) plans. The Department is reviewing repayment applications to conform with the 8th Circuit’s ruling. As a result, the IDR and online loan consolidation applications are currently unavailable,” an Education Department spokesperson said.

That means borrowers cannot currently apply for SAVE or any of the other three IDR plans: Paye as You Earn (PAYE), Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) or Income-Based Repayment (IBR).

The online IDR application was previously unavailable last year from July through September. Paper IDR applications remained as a workaround then, though there were processing delays.

“The risk of harm to borrowers is much higher this time,” says Abby Shafroth, co-director of advocacy at the National Consumer Law Center. The temporary student loan “on ramp” that kept borrowers who missed payments from going into delinquency or default ended on Sept. 30, so borrowers who can’t afford standard payments but are blocked from applying for an IDR plan may now be unfairly penalized, she says.

Here’s who is affected by the IDR application suspension and what options you have.

Borrowers who need to recertify their income for IDR plans

Borrowers on all IDR plans must recertify their income each year — which must be done through the general IDR application. They can’t do so right now.

As a result, some borrowers on IDR plans could be penalized through no fault of their own. Borrowers who miss their recertification deadline risk getting kicked out of their IDR plan and could see their balance balloon with capitalized interest, Shafroth says. (Interest capitalizes when you leave the IBR plan.)

Borrowers with at least one loan in the SAVE plan don’t have to worry about this yet: Their recertification deadlines were previously moved out to at least February 2026, according to the latest Education Department guidance.

Student loan servicers are waiting on the Education Department to provide guidance on recertification for the other three IDR plans, says Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance. However, he expects recertification deadlines to be pushed back for all IDR borrowers.

In the meantime, servicers will work with borrowers who have looming certification deadlines to help them avoid getting penalized, Buchanan says.

“If [borrowers] have a recertification date that is coming up, reach out to the servicer and say, ‘hey, what can I do here?’ Because that’s changing day by day,” Buchanan says. Servicers will contact borrowers once they get government guidance about IBR, ICR and PAYE recertification deadlines, so keep an eye on your inbox, he says.

What you can do

• Call your servicer and check that your contact information is up to date. Ask about your options for recertification if you have an upcoming deadline.
• Wait until more information comes out. In the past, the Education Department has suspended recertification deadlines during periods of uncertainty.

Recent graduates who want to enroll in an IDR plan

Borrowers who just graduated or left college last spring recently entered student loan repayment. Usually, they’d have their choice of student loan repayment plans, including an IDR plan that would cap monthly payments at a certain percentage of discretionary income.

Instead, borrowers must now choose between the default standard 10-year plan, the graduated plan or the extended plan. Payments on these plans can be much higher than IDR payments, especially for recent grads who are still job-seeking or earning an entry-level salary.

What you can do

• Estimate your payments. Use the Education Department’s loan simulator to gauge what your monthly payments could be under the three non-IDR plans: standard, extended and graduated repayment.
• Keep an eye on IDR application news. Apply for an IDR plan when they reopen.
• Ask your servicer for guidance. You can ask for a plan with the lowest monthly payments.
• Consider a deferment. If you don’t have a job yet, you can pause payments with unemployment deferment — but interest will build, increasing the overall amount you owe. 

Borrowers who need lower payments

In the past, borrowers who had unaffordable payments relative to their incomes could switch from the standard 10-year repayment plan to an IDR plan to get lower monthly payments — as low as $0 if they earned a small enough income or lost their job.

“If none of the IDR plans are available, then that safety net is removed, which could potentially lead the borrower to head down the path of delinquency and default,” says Karen McCarthy, vice president of public policy and federal relations at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Now, struggling borrowers can only turn to deferments or forbearances to get relief from unmanageable payments. In most cases, interest will build during these pauses, increasing the amount borrowers owe in the future.

“These are temporary stopgaps,” McCarthy says. “They’re not long-term plans. It’s not a repayment plan like the income-driven repayment plans are.”

What you can do:

• Pause payments with a deferment or forbearance. Interest may build, increasing the amount you’ll pay overall, but you won’t default on your debt. A deferment is usually a better choice than a forbearance, because interest is less likely to build, but you’ll need to meet specific conditions to qualify.
• Avoid falling behind on payments. If you simply don’t pay your federal student loans, you could face delinquency or default, which can hurt your credit score and devastate many aspects of your financial life. Request a forbearance or deferment first.

Borrowers who want to consolidate their student loans

Borrowers can still submit paper consolidation applications, but servicers aren’t allowed to process them right now, says Buchanan.

Consolidation allows you to replace multiple federal student loans with a single federal student loan. It’s different from refinancing, which replaces one or more student loans with a single private student loan. If you have older federal loans, like FFELP loans, you must consolidate them before you can access IDR plans or Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).

However, even though you can apply for consolidation right now doesn’t mean you should. Shafroth suggests borrowers hold off on consolidating until we know whether the Education Department will continue to protect borrowers who consolidate from losing all previous credit they earned toward IDR forgiveness.

What you can do

• Wait until there’s more information. Since you can’t enroll in IDR anyway right now, you may consider waiting until the Education Department clarifies its position about counting pre-consolidation payments toward PSLF and IDR forgiveness.
• Submit a paper consolidation application, if you need to. Print and fill out the PDF version of the consolidation application and mail it directly to your servicer. Expect processing delays.

SAVE borrowers who want PSLF credit

Borrowers on the SAVE plan have been in an interest-free payment pause since the summer, when lawsuits first blocked the plan. Though these SAVE borrowers are getting a break from student loan bills, they also aren’t making progress toward PSLF, which forgives a borrower’s remaining student debt after they spend 10 years working for a qualifying nonprofit employer.

In recent months, SAVE borrowers were able to earn PSLF credit again by switching to a different IDR plan, like PAYE, IBR or ICR. But they no longer have that option.

What you can do

• Switch to the standard repayment plan. Months spent on the standard repayment plan count towards PSLF, but your payments could be much higher than they were on the SAVE plan. Use the Education Department’s loan simulator to estimate your payments. And since the standard plan has a 10-year term, you won’t want to stay on this plan for the entire term — or you could wind up paying off all your debt by the time you reach the 10-year PSLF finish line. Switching to the standard plan may also be a good option if you’re only a few months away from getting forgiveness on PSLF.
• Look into the PSLF Buyback. If you recently hit the 10-year PSLF finish line, you could use the PSLF buyback to get credit for payments missed during the SAVE forbearance.

Other ways to get help

This is an evolving situation for borrowers. For the latest updates and personalized guidance, consider these ways to get student loan help:

• Call your servicer. Your servicer is your go-to contact for any questions about your student loan repayment option. Your assigned servicer’s name appears in your studentaid.gov dashboard. Prepare before calling your servicer and take notes during the call in case any issues arise in the future or you need to make a student loan complaint.
• Reach out to your college’s financial aid department. A financial aid officer from your college can help you walk through your repayment options, even if you left campus years ago, McCarthy says. However, they can’t help you ultimately apply for something like a forbearance or deferment. You have to work with your servicer for that.
• Contact borrower assistance organizations. Vetted nonprofits, like the National Consumer Law Center, offer resources to help borrowers navigate their repayment options.
• State-based student loan ombudsmen. If your state has a student loan ombudsmen office, it may be able to help you with issues or complaints.

Eliza Haverstock writes for NerdWallet. Email: ehaverstock@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @elizahaverstock.

The article Income-Driven Repayment Applications Shut Down, Student Loan Borrowers Left In the Dark originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Stock markets are plunging, consumers and businesses have started to sour on the economy, and economists are marking down their estimates for growth this year, with some even seeing rising odds of a recession.

It’s a sharp shift from just a month ago, when stock indices were at record highs and consumer sentiment was rapidly improving. Many business executives were optimistic that President Donald Trump would cut taxes and pursue deregulation, which they expected would bolster growth.

Instead, Trump has aggressively implemented tariffs — and tariff threats — against the United States’ largest trading partners. On Tuesday, Trump boosted import taxes on steel and aluminum from Canada to 50%, from 25%, in response to Ontario’s imposition of duties on electricity it sends to the United States.

For now, the economy appears to be stable. Stock prices often fluctuate and sharp, temporary drops typically don’t harm the economy. Most analysts still think the chances of a recession are fairly small. Goldman Sachs expects slower growth this year than last but still puts the odds of a recession at just 20%.

Still, fears of a downturn are rising as investors, economists, and business executives are realizing that Trump’s import taxes are much more at the forefront of his economic policy this time than his last term in the White House. Tax cuts and deregulation appear for now to be on the back-burner. During Trump’s first term, tax cuts came before the import duties.

Tariffs can slow the economy in a variety of ways: By rising prices for consumers, they can slow spending. Businesses may pull back on investing in new projects if they face higher costs from tariffs. And the uncertainty from Trump’s on-again, off-again approach can also cause firms to delay hiring and investment.

“The longer the tariffs stay on, the more the risk of recession grows,” says Luke Tilley, chief economist at M&T Bank/Wilmington Trust.

Here are some questions and answers about recessions:

Are there any signs a recession is imminent?

Not really. But one development that has sparked widespread fears is a real-time economy tracker maintained by the Federal Reserve’s Atlanta branch. Last week it showed a sharp downshift and is now projecting that the U.S. economy will shrink at an annual rate of 2.4% in the first three months of this year.

The Atlanta Fed’s tracker is not technically a forecast but instead a running tally that is updated as economic data is released. It turned negative after trade data showed a surge in imports in January, which likely reflected an effort by businesses to get ahead of tariffs. Most economists still expect the U.S. economy to expand in the first quarter, though at a slower pace. JPMorgan sees growth slowing to just 1% at an annual rate in the first quarter, down from 2.3% in last year’s fourth quarter.

What else has caused the stock markets to drop?

Trump helped spark the sharp market selloff Monday by refusing to rule out a recession during a Sunday interview on Fox Business News.

When asked whether he expected a recession this year, Trump said, “I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. … It takes a little time.”

Some of Trump’s advisers, however, have dismissed recession concerns and have said the economy should continue to grow.

Why didn’t Trump’s tariffs spark recession fears last time?

The import taxes Trump is threatening to impose this time are far more sweeping than the duties he put in place in 2018-2019, which were mostly focused on China and a few targeted items, such as steel, aluminum, and washing machines.

Now, Trump has placed 20% duties on all imports from China, has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico — the United States’ two largest trading partners — and also says the U.S. will place reciprocal tariffs on all countries that have tariffs on U.S. exports, including Europe, India, and Japan.

All told, Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, estimates that the average U.S. tariff on imported items could rise 10 percentage points as a result, five times the increase he imposed in his first term.

And most economists say that Trump’s 2018-2019 duties did cause a downturn in the manufacturing sector. The Federal Reserve ended up cutting its benchmark interest rate three times in 2019 to shore up the economy.

What signals would suggest that a recession has begun?

The clearest signal would be a steady rise in job losses and a surge in unemployment. Companies generally stop hiring, and sometimes lay off workers, if they see their business shrinking.

The unemployment rate did tick up last month, to 4.1% from 4%, though that is still quite low. But employers added 151,000 jobs, a sign that businesses are still seeking to add workers.

Many economists monitor the number of people who seek unemployment benefits each week, a gauge that indicates whether layoffs are worsening. Weekly applications for jobless aid remain quite low by historical standards.

Who decides when a recession has started?

Recessions are officially declared by the obscure-sounding National Bureau of Economic Research, a group of economists whose Business Cycle Dating Committee defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months.”

The committee considers trends in hiring. It also assesses many other data points, including gauges of income, employment, inflation-adjusted spending, retail sales and factory output. It assigns heavy weight to a measure of inflation-adjusted income that excludes government support payments like Social Security.

Yet the organization typically doesn’t declare a recession until well after one has begun, sometimes as long as a year afterward.

“This Old House Radio Hour,” a new series from the creators of “This Old House,” has been announced by LAist Studios and American Public Media (APM).

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, AP Business Writer

Southwest Airlines will begin charging customers a fee to check bags, abandoning a decades-long practice that executives had described last fall as key to differentiating the budget carrier from its rivals.

Southwest, which built years of advertising campaigns around its policy of letting passengers check up to two bags for free, said Tuesday that people who haven’t either reached the upper tiers of its Rapid Rewards loyalty program, bought a business class ticket or hold the airline’s credit card will have to pay for checked bags.

The airline did not outline the fee schedule but said the new policy would start with flights booked on May 28.

“We have tremendous opportunity to meet current and future customer needs, attract new customer segments we don’t compete for today, and return to the levels of profitability that both we and our shareholders expect,” CEO Bob Jordan said in a statement.

Less than a year ago, the Dallas-based airline announced it was doing away with another tradition, the open-boarding system it has used for more than 50 years. Southwest expects to begin operating flights with passengers in assigned seats next year.

Southwest has struggled recently and is under pressure from activist investors to boost profits and revenue. The airline reached a truce in October with hedge fund Elliott Investment Management to avoid a proxy fight, but Elliott won several seats on the company board.

The airline announced last month that it was eliminating 1,750 jobs, or 15% of its corporate workforce, in the first major layoffs in the company’s 53-year history.

The job cuts, which were scheduled to be mostly completed by the end of June, are part of a plan to slash costs and transform the company into a “leaner, faster, and more agile organization,” Jordan said at the time.

Southwest’s stock rose more than 9% Tuesday.

As recently as Southwest’s investor day in late September, airline executives described the bags-fly-free as the most important feature in setting Southwest apart from rivals. All other leading U.S. airlines charge for checked luggage, and Wall Street has long argued that Southwest was leaving money behind.

The airline estimated in September that charging bag fees would bring in about $1.5 billion a year but cost the airline $1.8 billion in lost business from customers who chose to fly Southwest because of its generous baggage allowance.

Southwest said Tuesday that it would continue to offer two free checked bags to Rapid Rewards A-List preferred members and customers traveling on Business Select fares, and one free checked bag to A-List members and other select customers. Passengers with Rapid Rewards credit cards will receive a credit for one checked bag.

People who don’t qualify for those categories will get charged to check bags. The airline said that it also would roll out a new, basic fare on its lowest priced tickets when the change takes effect.

“I would rather have the free checked bags, that’s for sure,” said customer Dorothy Severson, who was awaiting a flight Tuesday at Chicago Midway International Airport. “It’s one of the main reasons I still fly Southwest.”

Southwest is betting that the added bag fees will outweigh the loss of business from travelers who look closely at the costs on top of ticket prices. Rivals on Tuesday saw an opening.

“I think clearly there are some customers who chose them because of that, and now those customers are up for grabs,” said Delta Airlines President Glen Hauenstein, speaking at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference.

Yet in the current economic environment, keeping travel affordable may play an outsized roll in staying competitive. The trade war initiated by President Donald Trump is roiling U.S. markets and dampening the high-flying optimism prevalent last year among businesses and households.

To start the week, Delta slashed its quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, saying that a recent decline in consumer and corporate confidence over the economy is weakening domestic demand. Shares of Delta have tumbled 24% this year.

Shares of United have slumped 22%, JetBlue 27% and American Airlines a whopping 32%.

On Tuesday, Southwest cut its own expectations for the quarter. The airline now anticipates revenue per available seat mile will rise between 2% and 4%. That is down sharply from its previous projections of a 5% to 7% increase. The airline said it expects capacity to be down about 2%.

The airline announced last year that along with giving passengers assigned seats, it would charge them extra for with more legroom and offer red-eye flights.

AP Video Journalist Melissa Perez Winder contributed to this report from Chicago.