Also today: We also discuss a potential breakthrough in the tortuous negotiations among Democrats and the White House over President Biden’s domestic spending agenda.

From the BBC World Service: The European Central Bank’s meeting today is under the spotlight as inflation continues to skyrocket across parts of Europe. Plus, police in Brazil have uncovered a criminal operation to remove nearly a metric ton of gold each year from protected indigenous lands in the Amazon. And, we hear from an experiment on the English coastline to use a sand barrier to protect a gas terminal against sea erosion.

Also today: Lindsey Piegza joins us to discuss how there’s been a drop in the buying of durable goods such as factory machines and home washers and dryers. Appliances are actually becoming harder to get for home builders. Google’s parent company Alphabet is having a good year. It just reported its third straight quarter of record profit. 

Also today: The Democrats are adding a corporate minimum tax in an attempt to help pay for President Biden’s social spending plan.

From the BBC World Service: U.K. finance minister Rishi Sunak will unveil London’s latest spending priorities today, with details already trickling out including plans for a higher national living wage, new spending on public transport projects and money to tackle backlogs in the National Health Service. Plus, as Russia threatens to suspend gas exports to Moldova, is Moscow using energy as a political weapon?

Also today: A working paper from researchers at USC and UCLA found that the vaccine-averse aren’t receptive to financial incentives to get vaccinated. In some cases, it might have the opposite effect. Marketplace’s Jennifer Pak drops in to share some details about Goldman Sachs establishing a deeper foothold in China. 

Also, Tesla has now become a trillion-dollar company after rental car company Hertz ordered up 100,000 Teslas to add to its fleet.

From the BBC World Service: Janet Yellen had a “frank” conversation about economics and trade with China’s Vice Premier Liu He, who laid bare Chinese concerns over U..S tariffs and treatment of Chinese companies. Plus, Australia – one of the world’s biggest fossil fuel exporters – pledges to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. And, with international funds to Afghanistan frozen since the Taliban took over in August, we hear about crippling food shortages and other challenges facing people in the country.

There’s a program called “E-Rate” that subsidizes broadband data connections for schools and libraries. But libraries on tribal lands were excluded. Also, we’ll get yet another wave of signs about where the economy is headed (and where it’s most recently been) from profit and revenue reports for companies like Apple, Ford and General Electric — as well as the latest calculation of U.S. economic growth for Q3. And, AMC movie theaters are rolling out open captioning for those with hearing loss.