Marketplace for Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Segments From This Episode

• Big three rating agencies prohibit use of their bond ratings

  by Amy Scott

  The bond market is already seeing the first consequence of the new financial reform bill. The three ratings agencies have prohibited the use of their ratings in new bond sales, fearing the law would expose them to new liability. Marketplace's Amy Scott explains.

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• Housing bail out not working, Barofsky says

  by Nancy Marshall-Genzer

  TARP Special Inspector Neil Barofsky told a Senate panel today that taxpayers have put $3.7 trillion towards the financial bail out. Marketplace's Nancy Marshall Genzer explains where all that money went.

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• More government spending, more public consumption?

  by Marketplace Staff

  Commentator David Frum looks at an economic school of thought called the "multiplier effect" — which posits that increased government spending leads to increased public consumption — and wonders if it's possible to accurately measure the effect.

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• Better training for better end-of-life care

  by Caitlan Reeg

  Medical training covers very little on how to confront dying and death with their patients and their families. Marketplace's Caitlan Carroll visits the San Diego Hospice and the Institute for Palliative Medicine, where they are training physicians on how to tailor care around patients' last wishes.

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• China is a material world

  by Rob Schmitz

  Kai Ryssdal talks to Marketplace's China correspondent Scott Tong and new correspondent Rob Schmitz about how the 2010 World Expo reflects the growing consumer culture of China.

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• Medicinal marijuana clinics have trouble with banks

  by Marketplace Staff

  Because of conflicting local, state and federal laws regarding medicinal marijuana, banks are uneasy about allowing clinics to have accounts with them.

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