Marketplace Marketplace

Steve Bannon has joined the list of recent White House departures, and with that, the prospect of a trade war with China got a little less likely. And that's good, because in spite of all the real economic competition between the world's two largest economies, they need each other. To that end: Beijing put out some new rules on overseas investments today, specifically limits on certain kinds of foreign acquisitions by Chinese companies. We'll talk about what that means. Then: During the Great Depression, the government started an experiment. It designed and built entire towns that were federally planned and subsidized. They were called Greenbelt Towns, and three of them got made before politics and economics got in the way. We'll talk with photographer Jason Reblando, who explores the Greenbelt in his new book "New Deal Utopias." Plus, as always, we'll cover a busy week in business and economic news during the Weekly Wrap.

If you've been paying attention to some of President Trump's recent public remarks, you might've noticed something (besides all that). He often leads with the economy, the stock market or his economic agenda and how great it's gonna be. In his extraordinary press conference on Tuesday, he even pointed to jobs as a way to fix race relations. That argument seemed a bit tidy, so we called up an expert to check the facts. That presser was supposed to be about infrastructure, by the way. The president has hyped a big spending package on roads, bridges, transit and the like for a while now. Today, we traveled back to Erie, Pennsylvania, for our series "The Big Promise" to see how infrastructure, public transit in particular, affects real people. Plus, we'll start off the show by asking: Are we at economic war with China?

CEOs of some of the biggest companies in America have been saying for the past two days they simply had to stay on two White House councils. But after Trump's comments yesterday, more and more of them changed their minds and said a seat at the table wasn't worth it. Finally, President Trump announced via Twitter that he'd be disbanding the councils anyway, thank you very much. We'll talk about what changed the dynamic between the executive in D.C. and all the rest of them. Then: We told you yesterday about the time BMW took a chance on building a huge factory stateside. Today we'll look at what happened and talk to the families enjoying the spoils of globalization in our series Trade Off. Finally: We check in with cultural critic Wesley Morris about what people want to watch in these troubled times.

An infrastructure announcement turned into an off-the-rails press conference this afternoon as President Trump blasted the four (now five) CEOs who have left his manufacturing council. We'll correct the record on some of his criticisms and then zoom out to the bigger question: If you're a CEO tapped for one of these White House advisory roles, why do you stay? Then: Trump has nominated people to fill just 106 of 577 key Senate-confirmed jobs in his administration. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are both lacking permanent leadership. We'll try to figure out what's at stake for the scientific community without — or with — someone in charge. Plus: Your pumpkin pie is a lie, and we'll tell you why.

Seeing how we've started this program more than once with a tweet from the chief executive, we'll start today with a tweet from a chief executive. Pharmaceutical CEO Kenneth Frazier was a member of President Trump's Manufacturing Council until this morning. He announced his resignation on Twitter, citing Trump's belated response to the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend. Trump responded with two searing tweets Monday about drug prices. Frazier and the dozens of other CEO advisers to the president are once again facing scrutiny over their response to a national issue with Trump at the center. Then: One small fishing town in Maine is trying something new to help the next generation gain valuable work skills: a new charter school focused on the idea of work-based learning, designed to put students into the community and expose them to different kinds of jobs in their state. Plus: James Patterson has a new book out, and the villain is very familiar...