Week of April 15th, 2024

Plus, should robots have hair?

The USB-C connector has become a standard across laptops and phones.

Hospitality businesses say they want working visas for migrants to be fast-tracked as they struggle to fill job vacancies.

Flights haven’t restarted in high volume since the pandemic drop-off, and South Koreans are booking their vacations elsewhere.

Also: The “catastrophic” halt to a Baltimore port business, and why companies change the metrics they report to investors. 

Plus, we do the numbers on smartphones and sleep in this week’s Make Me Smart newsletter.

“It was like, ‘OK, this is a horrific event. And how are we going to recover from this?'” says Dawn Speakman, founder of Drayage Solutions in Baltimore.

Netflix will stop disclosing subscriber numbers next year. Companies revising what measures they use to indicate performance is nothing new.

Consumers are experiencing price fatigue, one economist says.

While sizable gains in the value of stocks and real estate has likely boosted spending, it’s done less to improve sentiment.

Stocks close mixed; Chicago Fed president says inflation progress has stalled; American Express profits rise; Netflix to stop reporting quarterly membership numbers.

Reema recaps our latest season and reveals Team Uncomfortable’s summer plans in the latest newsletter.

Today, we’ll discuss why there’s a chance that “higher for longer” may not be the end of it.

Earlier this week, political campaigns and PACs had to turn in numbers on spending and fundraising to the Federal Election Commission.

The designation applies to chemicals long used in consumer goods; Israel’s credit rating gets a downgrade from S&P; France requires shrinkflation warnings; American Express profits jump on more consumer spending.

Bitcoin halving happens approximately every four years, and it’s a big deal for the philosophical premise of the cryptocurrency.

Will the periodic slashing of the number of new bitcoins provide a value boost to crypto holders?

From the BBC World Service: Hospitality businesses in New York City have said quicker work permits for arriving migrants could be key to filling vacancies in the sector.

Natasha Mascarenhas at The Information joins Marketplace’s Lily Jamali to discuss the biggest tech stories of the week.

Biden is calling for the tripling of tariffs on Chinese steel.

Wall Street loves artificial intelligence companies, but has the romance gone too far, too soon? Plus, regional banks are vulnerable to the state of commercial real estate.

Some types of CRE are hurting more than others. A steep downturn could cause pain to regional banks as well as property owners.

For restaurants and retailers in particular, it can lead to something the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book calls “lumpy” pricing.

Stocks close mixed; housing inventory rises; leading economic indicators index falls; initial jobless claims unchanged.

Netflix has bought game studios and made other investments, but it’s playing at a “high-stakes table” with deep-pocketed competitors.

In the 1990s, Wall Street was very enthusiastic about the internet — and lost a ton of money because of that enthusiasm.

States are making tax-break offers that producers can’t refuse.

The rise of online ordering drives restaurant chains to build more drive-thrus, but traffic and walkability concerns have led to bans.

Doris Tyler was losing her sight, so she tried a new stem cell treatment that changed her life — but not as she had hoped.

D.R. Horton increased quarterly profit by 27%; TSMC forecasts sales increase of up to 30% on A.I. chip demand; initial jobless claims remain at a low of 212,000; U.S. investigating China’s shipbuilding industry over potential unfair subsidies.

Today, we’ll learn more about some of the accommodations available under freshly finalized Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulations.

The ironworkers, painters and others who constructed the bridge thought it would outlive them.

Guidelines for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act detail the accommodations pregnant workers can seek under the law, including unpaid leave.

Ikea is launching a new line of gaming furniture more suited for the living room than the basement. It’s a sign of how gamer demographics are maturing.

Many who worked on the Francis Scott Key Bridge considered it to be a monument to their work. What happens when that monument is gone?

From the BBC World Service: The European Commission has given TikTok 24 hours to provide more information on its new app that pays users to watch videos.

Reporter Eve Thomas explains how breakthroughs in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy could bring definition and regulation to an unbridled spirit.

VW workers vote on whether to unionize.

Household appliances like refrigerators and washing machines would use a lot more energy if not for efficiency standards.

President Biden calls for tripling levies on Chinese steel and aluminum imports. Plus, why car insurance is more expensive than it was a year ago.

As the Biden administration proposes tripling duties, experts recall how previous tariffs mainly hit American consumers and industries.

Having once enjoyed vibrant growth, China’s wine industry is being held back by trade barriers, changing tastes and a flagging economy.

And people are increasingly shopping around for a better deal, according to new data from JD Power. Finding one is another matter.

Stocks close down; employment rises modestly; price increases in line with previous surveys; car insurance jumps over the last year.

With sloping, concrete floors and huge, windowless rooms, movie theaters are not the easiest properties to convert.

White House says China is flooding U.S. with artificially cheap steel, aluminum; United Airlines Q1 losses less than feared; Tesla wants shareholders to reinstate Musk’s $56 billion pay package; Transportation Department to partner with states to investigate airline passenger complaints.

Chris Rutherford, executive director of Salvage Warehouse of Detroit, shares how the deconstruction business is a huge benefit for communities economically, environmentally and socially.

Workers at a Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, begin voting on whether to join the United Auto Workers union today.

“It was sailing against the tide of oppression,” Negro Leagues Baseball Museum co-founder Larry Lester says.

Americans see steak — in the right setting — as an affordable indulgence. But fewer diners are enjoying it with an alcoholic drink.

On today’s show, we hear about the Black baseball players and entrepreneurs of the pre-integration Negro Leagues.

From the BBC World Service: Despite extensive sanctions, the International Monetary Fund has forecast Russia’s economy will grow more than any other rich nation this year.

The EPA says forever chemicals, or PFAS, should be filtered out of drinking water. Tasha Stoiber of the Environmental Working Group discusses the technology for doing so and explains how people can mitigate the risk at home.

We’re digging into the debate over kids, smartphones and social media.

Global economic growth has been surprisingly resilient, the IMF says. Plus, how restaurants scout locations.

A big part of the problem: Power plants usually go offline for maintenance in April.

Kate Sprout, owner of Alaska Sewing Machine Repair in Anchorage, Alaska says her new business has allowed her to live the lifestyle that she wants.

The institution says the world economy continues to show “remarkable resilience.”

“There’s a lot of science and a little bit of art” involved in finding the perfect place, a Chipotle executive says.

Stocks close mixed; Powell says it’ll take longer than expected to be confident that inflation is moving down; housing starts fall; industrial production rises.

The theory is that the studio is trying to save on its tax bill after merging with Discovery, reporter Teddy Brown says.

Investors fear missing out on higher rates of return by locking up the money they put in for 10 years or more.

David Brancaccio’s economic lessons from “The League.”

Some remote workers, able to work anywhere, are opting to move to Medellín. It’s brought a welcome financial boost to some locals, but others say they’re being priced out.

IMF improves global economic growth forecast to 3.2%; new housing construction plummets in March; UnitedHealth beats earnings forecasts despite ransomware attack; Bank of America’s profit falls amid high interest rates.

The biggest tech platforms are getting poor grades from a new study on advertising transparency.

Lawsuits allege that RealPage, a company many large landlords use to price their apartments, uses confidential data in an anti-competitive way.

New York Times’ best-selling author Michael Arceneaux discusses his personal journey with debt and the importance of letting go of the shame often attached to it.

Today, a look at landlords, the company RealPage and alleged rent-fixing.

From the BBC World Service: Economic growth in China, the world’s second biggest economy, beat expectations in the first quarter.

Arizona became a hotbed of election-related conspiracy theories in 2020 after President Joe Biden won the state by a narrow margin. As artificial intelligence threatens to supercharge the spread of misinformation, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes discusses how his office is responding.

And why scabbing is a big no-no!

Tax objectors date back to the American Revolution.

Consumers are still spending, but that looks a little different now than it has the past few years.

While today is the deadline to pay taxes, you can still file an extension.

Is the economy still the most important predictor of election outcomes? Plus, the latest in retail sales and investment banking.

After a couple of years of uncertainty, there’s pent-up demand for mergers, stock and bond sales and other complex transactions.

The electric vehicle maker faces softening demand and intense competition on prices, and earlier price cuts have not sufficiently jolted sales.

If you’ve recently dug through the racks of a Goodwill and found a lot of lower-quality fast fashion, you’re not alone, says Kelsey Vlamis of Business Insider.

Stocks close down; retail sales rise 0.7% from February; homebuilder confidence flat in April; investment banking revenue pushes up Goldman Sachs earnings.

It’s not the economy, stupid? With political polarization increasingly motivating voters, the economy may not be the predictor it once was.

Restaurants and other service sector businesses often give workers their schedules with little notice, but that’s changing in some places.

Old laws and the high cost of these drugs have been obstacles for wider coverage.

Retail sales increased 0.7% in March, Commerce Department says; FBI boards cargo ship that crashed into Baltimore bridge; Goldman Sachs quarterly profits soar amid more deal making; global smartphone sales rise nearly 8%.

Diving into the water crisis in the West.

Immigrants are much more likely to create a new business, studies show, and the knock-on effect is job creation.

Tax software companies like Intuit and H&R Block are turning to generative artificial intelligence to give products an edge.

Immigrants are more likely to start new companies than U.S.-born citizens, and those businesses create jobs.

And those attitudes about local information ecosystems may provide insight into solutions for news deserts.

Both H&R Block and Intuit have introduced generative artificial intelligence assistants to help people file their tax returns.

From the BBC World Service: Following Iran’s attacks on Israel, we discuss what an escalating conflict could mean for Iran’s economy.

More than 40% of U.S. banking systems are built on a coding language that predates the Beatles. Is that a problem?