Week of October 9th, 2017

It's $495, to be exact. Where does the money go?

A hacking organization shut down a Montana school district for three days following threats of violence and a demand for bitcoin.

Public schools stand to lose about $8,000 per child, but they don't know how many students are unauthorized.

We wrap up the news week wondering: Will Congress be able to pass any big legislation in 2017? What will happen to low-income people seeking health care once government subsidies disappear? Will President Donald Trump and European leaders decide to impose new sanctions on Iran? Plus, corporate America’s reliance on nondisclosure agreements helps serial harassers stay under the radar and aren’t necessarily protecting public interest, so why do we still have them? And, on a more personal note, it would make it a lot harder for us to do our jobs if we didn’t have accurate economic data. The Census Bureau usually takes care of this every five years, but the upcoming count has already been delayed by six months because of funding cuts. 

Let's wrap up the week in business and economic news.

Two doctors told Marketplace Weekend the best ways to stay healthy during cold and flu season.

Fall sports are in full swing. Football season began last month, hockey kicked off last week, basketball begins soon and playoff baseball has fans riveted. And lots of people will be watching from sports bars instead of the couch. This is perhaps especially true in Los Angeles, where the Dodgers are in the playoffs, but the […]

We’re talking about the cost of cold and flu season this week, then digging into the president’s health care plans and looking into a hacking attack on a Montana school district. Later, the business of dog walking and what it’s like to run a sports bar during baseball playoffs. 

(Markets Edition) The Trump administration plans to cut off payments to insurers that allow them to subsidize the plans they offer to middle- and lower-income Americans. We’ll discuss the pushback this move is facing from different parts of the country. Afterwards, we’ll chat with FTN Financial’s chief economist, Chris Low, about the reason for last month’s inflation spike. Also on today’s show: The rise of the Kardashian empire and the Education Department’s change to the way it measures college student success (which will now track the number of part-time and transfer students who graduate).  

Nearly 6 million Americans have been benefiting from these payments.

If the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act isn't extended, homeowners with forgiven debt will have to pay taxes on that debt.

(U.S. Edition) The White House says the administration will stop paying federal money to health insurers under the Affordable Care Act. We’ll discuss what this money has been used for and the potential consequences of this move, which may include the withdrawal of insurers from Obamacare exchanges. Afterwards, we’ll talk about who might run Samsung following the resignation of its CEO, and then look at the new payday loan rules in the U.S.

(Global Edition) From the BBC’s World Service … Ryanair has announced it will complain to regulators after rival Lufthansa’s announced a $250 million deal to buy part of Air Berlin. It claims Lufthansa’s dominance of the German market will push up prices, but with three airlines collapsing in recent months, what is really going on with Europe’s budget airlines? Then, 20 years after America imposed economic sanctions on Sudan, it has lifted them again. We explore what life was like under the sanctions and what the U.S. move means for businesses. Also, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro faces a test this weekend as the country votes in regional elections. We look at what daily life is like for millions in a country where plummeting oil prices have crippled the economy, and talk to supporters of Chavismo – a political political ideology named after late predecessor Hugo Chávez.

To find out how your trusted weather app gets its intel, look no further than the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Virginia outpost of NOAA has huge disks on its roof that pull in information from the satellites floating in space, and a massive server room where all of the data they collect gets stored and sent out. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams took a tour of the building with Bill Carter, who’s in charge of ground systems and maintenance.

But they're still getting the job done.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order today that will eventually allow Americans to buy health insurance with lower premiums. While younger, healthier people may be able to take advantage of these plans, they may exclude some sick people with pre-existing conditions and other factors Obamacare eradicated. The president is keeping us in business as fact-checkers: Last night he said the rising stock market will fix the debt problem. But debt and stocks are entirely different assets and can’t be compared dollar for dollar. And while fires rage in Northern California, we look into the risk assessment of floods and why some in Houston would prefer their homes stay off official floodplain maps.  

The maps take data from past disasters and apply it to future risk, but the calculations can get tricky — and political.

The redevelopment project helped attract $400 million in investment and thousands of new residents.

Miranda Berman and Gabi Moskowitz want to hold your hand in the kitchen.

The AMAC Accessibility Solutions and Research Center at Georgia Tech is one of the only braille production centers in the U.S. that caters to blind and visually impaired college students.

(Markets Edition) We may get a new Federal Reserve chair soon, according to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Not on the shortlist: current chair Janet Yellen. Diane Swonk, CEO of DS Economics in Chicago, joined us to discuss who the final contenders are and how the markets might react if they’re chosen. Afterwards, we’l look at how two retail workers on opposite sides of the country are coping with America’s retail crisis. 

The order will aim to make lower-premium plans more widely available.

Two decades ago, Congress voted to have the IRS help Americans file their returns but it never happened.

Most homes lost in California wildfires likely covered by insurance.

Only a third of those who are aware have checked to see if their data was compromised.

With 31,000 jobs cut in a year, even those still employed wonder how long they can hang on.

(U.S. Edition) President Trump is expected to sign an executive order that would make it easier for Americans to buy basic insurance plans, but potentially make things harder for those with pre-existing conditions. On today’s show, we’ll look at how the insurance market will react to the uncertainty shrouding the future of health care. Afterwards, we’ll discuss the International Monetary Fund’s projections for global economic growth. It’s expected to grow at an overall rate of 3.6 percent this year — but that growth doesn’t apply to every country. Plus: We’ll look at how companies like H&R Block are trying to prevent the government from providing free tax-filing alternatives. 

(Global Edition) From the BBC’s World Service …  Jay Y. Lee, the de facto head of the Samsung empire, has appeared in a South Korean court to appeal a five-year jail sentence for corruption. We look inside a scandal that brought down the country’s president. Also, a looming deadline for President Donald Trump to recertify the Iran nuclear deal has sparked speculation that he will pave the way for sanctions to be reimposed. We examine the implications for Europe, Asia and the rest of the global business community. Then, political unrest in India has hit its tea pickers following a 100-day strike called by separatists in the country’s Darjeeling region. The strike is over, but what’s next for the area, and its Nepali-speaking Gorkhas?

A lot of the rules we follow when creating passwords actually makes them worse.

From data breaches to global cyberwarfare, it’s clear cybersecurity isn’t really working. And not even a newly minted MacArthur fellow can tell us why. What he can tell us: Advice like creating long, complicated passwords might not make a big difference in the end. Marketplace Tech’s Molly Wood talks with Stefan Savage about what we can do to make cybersecurity better.

The White House made a few statements recently regarding tax cuts and tax rates that could really use some fact-checking. And that’s what Marketplace is here for. President Donald Trump tweeted that the massive tax cuts he’d like to see from Congress would cause an already rallying stock market to skyrocket. But historically, the effects of big tax cuts on the stock market have been small, and it has likely gone up  since Trump was elected in anticipation of cuts. Then, Sarah Huckabee Sanders assured the press corps that the U.S. has the highest tax rate in the developed world, which is technically true, but the rate most corporations actually pay is pretty average in comparison. There’s also some tax trouble in Cook County, Illinois, over a soda tax that’s been repealed after only two months in effect. Plus, we dive deep into home buyouts in post-flood Houston, the economic mood in Catalonia and how to make a women’s magazine thrive in a competitive industry.

Hearst's Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles on how she thinks about reinventing the 130 year old legacy magazine company.

"It's hard if you're a white woman. It is triple time harder for African-American women and other women of color, too."

"There is no secret sauce, apart from deep passion for women's journalism," says the chief content officer.

(Markets Editon) Fourty-seven percent of entry level employees in America are women, but women make up only one-fifth of chief executives. And black women are especially underrepresented in executive roles. Currently, no black women serve as CEOs at any of the Fortune 500 companies. That doesn’t surprise Professor Ella Bell Smith. She joined us today to talk about the various institutional barriers that stand in the way of black women climbing the executive ranks. Also in this episode, President Donald Trump boasted in a tweet about “virtually unprecedented sock market growth since the election.” So we talked with Susan Schmidt, from Westwood Holdings Group, about stock market growth and what those numbers really mean. Plus, we do the numbers, (like we do every day).

After hurricanes, government officials buy homes that are "hopelessly at risk" for future flooding and demolish them.

Brands often rely on food influencers to connect with new audiences.

(U.S. Edition) The fourth round of NAFTA negotiation talks begin today in Arlington, Virginia. President Trump recently reiterated threats to pull out of the deal, just as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was on his way to D.C. to meet with him. This round of talks is set to be the most contentious yet, which has some in Washington wondering if NAFTA could really end. Also on this episode: Most of the time banking is a boring industry, but right now big banks are excited about raking in record profits.  Most analysts are expecting profits of more than $21 billion.

Machines are getting stronger and smarter. They may soon be our competitors and colleagues in the workforce. What would happen if we used them to enhance our own brains? Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks with Nick Bostrom, director of the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, about what would happen if artificial and human intelligence met.

(Global edition) From the BBC’s World Service …  First steel, then copper. Now Japanese company Kobe Steel admits it may have fabricated data on iron powder products used to make car gears. The company – and the rest of corporate Japan – is now investigating the issue amid safety fears in the global industrial powerhouse. We look at where the scandal will head next. Also, more bad news from Equifax. The credit reference agency has admitted almost 700,000 customers in the U.K. had their data stolen this summer, close to double its original estimate. Then, more than seven thousand foreign businesses have operations in Catalonia. We ask the head of the British Chamber of Commerce in Spain what these companies are thinking a day after Catalonia’s president declared independence – only to immediately suspend it.

Spanish businesses are confused after the latest developments in Catalonia.

The economics of superintelligence and the workplace.

Molly Wood talks with Nick Bostrom, director of the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, about what would happen if artificial and human intelligence meet.

The venture capitalists who just gave $110 million to a sock company said that. And that’s today’s good news. Nearly everything else revolves around two men at the helm of their respective organizations who are losing popularity this week: Harvey Weinstein, whose business affiliates in Hollywood are fleeing from deals with his eponymous production company after years’ worth of sexual assault allegations were reported, and Donald Trump. His tactics renegotiating NAFTA were described as an “existential threat” by the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, his big infrastructure plan is in limbo after he made comments trashing the public-private partnerships that had been expected to fund it, and data shows that the coal industry won’t be coming back anytime soon despite his reversal of greenhouse gas emissions regulations. And we answer a listener’s question: “Why are bottles of soda sold in liters but milk is sold in gallons?”    

This week on the book club: The legacy of author Philip K. Dick's ideas about economics, technology and pop culture.

Stance is a venture capital-backed company that calls itself a “premium sock startup.”

Rebranding can be especially challenging when the man himself is, in many ways, the brand.

(Markets Edition) Stock in Kobe Steel dropped 22 percent after the Japanese firm revealed it falsified data on the strength of the aluminum and copper parts it sold around the world. We’ll look at the companies could have been affected and what they’re doing to tackle the issue. Afterwards, we’ll talk with economist David Kelly, chief global strategist at JP Morgan Funds, about how the world economy is starting to pick up steam. Then, we’ll discuss today’s election in Liberia to replace Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female elected head of state. 

Only 15 percent of tenured faculty in economics are women — worse than in STEM fields. Why?

A new survey from McKinsey and LeanIn.Org finds that women continue to have a steep climb in corporate America, and many companies don't see the scale of the problem.

(U.S. Edition) A new corporate scandal is rocking Japan today. Kobe Steel has revealed that its copper and aluminum, which went to the likes of Toyota and Boeing, have not been up to standard. We’ll look at whether this could be as big of a problem as the Takata airbag recall scandal that began in 2013. Afterwards, we’ll discuss one activist investor’s push to get on the board of Procter and Gamble, and then look at the true costs of providing care for transgender members of the military (and how expensive it would be to hire replacements). 

Pepsi's 2-liter bottle brought more soda into households while the nation flirted with the metric system.

The future of transgender members of the military remains unclear after President Donald Trump signed a memo barring transgender recruits from serving in the military. The Department of Defense is now reviewing the issue.

(Global Edition) From the BBC’s World Service … French unions are urging millions of public sector workers to join a one-day strike in the latest industrial action against President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to cut jobs and freeze pay. While some airlines have cancelled flights, we look at why the French economy may be ready for reform. Also, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim warns humans to get ready for the rise of the robot to ensure they’re not left on the scrap heap. Ahead of the World Bank’s annual meeting in Washington, we ask him why countries need a “crash course” in automation. Then, Nobel Prize in economics winner Richard Thaler has been praised for his work looking at everyday unconscious biases. We examine the gender bias in economics, and why there are fewer women in the profession than men.

It’s safe to say that we’re becoming increasingly afraid of tech. Algorithms and ad platforms are feeding us information we can’t trust, companies are storing and sharing our personal data and robots might be coming for our jobs. Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, is a futurist who wrote the new book “WTF: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us.” Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks to him about how tech could do better.

Venture capitalist Tim O'Reilly says his very industry needs to do better.

There’s a lot of policy reform underway at the White House this week. President Donald Trump is gearing up to sign an executive order to undermine Obamacare, and people are calling it a “synthetic repeal.” He’s also worked out a deal with Democratic senators on immigration, a deal that shifts policy based on family ties to one that prioritizes skilled workers. And the clock is ticking for Trump and the Republicans to overhaul taxes — there are only 32 legislative days left in 2017. Across the globe, we look at what’s happening diplomatically behind the scenes to put pressure on North Korea, how destruction in Puerto Rico looks like opportunity to some corporations and how European Union member states are breaking apart and coming together in the name of reform.  

(Markets Edition) And the 2017 Nobel prize in economics goes to … Richard Thaler, for his work in behavioral economics. One economist who’s not surprised by the results: Robert Shiller, who won the prize himself a few years ago. Shiller stopped by to chat with us the “revolutionary” Thaler, and the importance of using psychology and the social sciences to do economic research. Afterwards, we’ll look recap how the markets are doing, and then discuss how rules on government business travel are plaguing members of Trump’s administration.

Flu shots and vitamin C, cold meds and cough syrup, soup and OJ — tell us what you spend on to prevent a seasonal bug…or fight it.

Felicia Schwartz of the Wall Street Journal reports on how the State Department has been quietly pressuring Pyongyang. But don't expect results any time soon.

Will aid from corporations help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria faster?

Previous Nobel winner Robert Shiller talks about Thaler's intolerance of bad economic research and why psychology is so important.

It's designed to ensure all taxpayers pay their fair share, including those with higher incomes.

Halloween spending is expected to hit a record $9.1 billion this year.

It may have some insights that the government doesn't.

Minnesota is trying to limit runoff carried by the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.

(U.S. Edition) Media tycoon Harvey Weinstein, a major player in Hollywood who’s behind Oscar winners like “Shakespeare in Love,” has been ousted from the company he founded. The move follows a New York Times article that published details on settlements he’s reached for sexual harassment over the years. We’ll recap these revelations, and then look at the financial standing of his company. Afterwards, we’ll look at how schools on the U.S. Virgin Islands are coping following the recent hurricanes, and then we’ll discuss how Minnesota is trying to limit runoff carried by the Mississippi River. 

The French president needs German support for his ambitious program, which includes closer cooperation between the member states.

(Global Edition)  From the BBC’s World Service … Turkish stock markets have plunged and the value of the lira has fallen against the dollar after the U.S. and Turkey suspended non-immigrant visa services. We look at the implications of the political tit-for-tat. Then, Liberia heads to the polls in elections tomorrow as candidates bid to revive an economy ravaged by 14 years of war and the Ebola epidemic. We examine the economic outlook for the commodity-rich nation. Also, the price of diamonds is set to soar after one of Africa’s largest diamond mining companies announced it is likely to breach the terms of its loans this year. We discuss the implications for Petra Diamonds. Finally, the winner of the 2017 Nobel economics prize has just been announced. We take a quick look at the work of American academic Richard Thaler, who won the prize for his contributions to behavioral economics.    

The Labor Department released its monthly jobs report on Friday, and in September, for the first time in seven years, we lost jobs — 33,000 of them. But the government isn’t the only entity tracking the workforce. LinkedIn data show that hiring was on the upswing in September. So who’s right here? It turns out, both may be. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks with Guy Berger, an economist with LinkedIn, about how the company gets its data.

The Nobel committee said Thaler’s work shows how human traits affect individual decisions and market outcomes.