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Kai Ryssdal
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09/08/2017: Bracing for the storm, again

Sep 8, 2017

Episodes 2421 - 2430 of 5795

  • U.S. President Donald Trump (3rd L) and Vice President Mike Pence (2nd L) meet with (L-R) Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in the Oval Office of the White House September 6, 2017 in Washington, DC. 
    Alex Wong/Getty Images

    You could look at the deal President Donald Trump made with leading congressional Democrats yesterday as a sort of butterfly effect situation — a seemingly trivial act that massively alters the country’s future. As we broadcast today, a bill just passed the Senate with both the first dose of Hurricane Harvey relief money and government funding for the next three months while raising the debt limit. Those last two were going to suck up a lot of energy later this month. The House still has to vote on it, but it’s a big deal, and congressional Republicans are left trying to figure out what it all means for their economic agenda. Then: With the Gulf Coast picking up the pieces after Harvey, and Hurricane Irma bearing down on millions more, we’ll take a look at the years-long recovery process after a natural disaster. Plus: What city will land Amazon’s second headquarters?

  • President Donald Trump greets people after arriving at Bismarck Municipal Airport on September 6, 2017 in Bismarck, North Dakota.
    BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

    President Trump made a big tax speech in North Dakota today. A key feature in his plan: Cutting the corporate tax rate, which currently sits at 35 percent. It’s not clear how much Trump will be able to cut, however: Every percentage point cut in the corporate tax rate would cost the U.S. Treasury an estimated $100 billion over a decade. We’ll talk about it, plus the latest departure from the Federal Reserve. Then: We’re continuing our series “Trade Off” with a look at retraining. When people lose their jobs to globalization, government programs are meant to get them ready for new jobs. But reinvention is hard. Plus: Why is “‘Star Wars’ movie director” seemingly one of the highest-turnover jobs in the country?

  • Activists rally in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in front of the White House on Aug. 30.
    Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced President Donald Trump’s decision today to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an Obama-era rule protecting undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Sessions argued, without evidence, that the 800,000 or so Dreamers harmed the labor force. We’ll start the show today looking into that claim. Then: Congress is back to work, and topping its long list of priorities is disaster relief. The House is taking up the first bit tomorrow, and we’ll talk about what that $7.8 billion will buy. Plus: We hear a lot about tax brackets, but what do you really know about them? We’re here to help.

  • Nadine Vassallo, manager of independent bookseller Book Soup, in West Hollywood, California, schedules a 20-person staff with an Excel spreadsheet. 
    Larry Buhl/ for Marketplace

    North Korea has ratcheted up tensions again by testing what it called a hydrogen bomb on Sunday. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he’s working on plans to further sanction the country and, potentially, one of the United States’ biggest trade partners: China. We’ll talk with former U.S. ambassador Joe DeThomas about how that might play out. Then: Efforts to boost the minimum wage have gotten a lot of attention lately and proponents have scored some major victories. But workers rights advocates are now asking: What good is a wage boost if workers don’t know how many hours they’re working every week? Oregon is the first state to legislate predicable work schedules, and the movement is gaining traction. Plus: this Labor Day weekend, the summer movie season limped to a close with no new wide releases. So what happened? 

  • People wait in line to buy water at the Coastal Industrial and Specialty gas welding supplies store yesterday after the water supply to the city of Beaumont, Texas, was shut down from the effects of Hurricane Harvey.
    Joe Raedle/Getty Images

    The free market is cold blooded. Under normal circumstances, prices will balance out for supply and demand. Consumers adjust and the economy goes on its way. But what’s going on in Houston is not normal, and price gouging is rampant. Economists will tell you those prices make sense, but making business sense is another matter. Then: The Department of Health and Human Services is cutting Obamacare advertising by $90 million. Critics say Trump is trying to sabotage his predecessor’s signature legislation, but the administration insists the ads just didn’t work. Speaking of ads: TV is starting to take cues from social media, with six-second ads aimed at short attention spans. Finally: Global trade always has winners and losers, and this country has always struggled with thinking about the latter. That’s the focus of today’s installment of our series Trade Off.

  • A flooded street is seen after the area was inundated with flooding from Hurricane Harvey on August 31, 2017 in Port Arthur, Texas. 
    Joe Raedle/Getty Images

    A refrigerated storage container at the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, exploded this morning. Well, the sheriff calls it a chemical reaction indirectly caused by flooding, which killed the power and backup power that was keeping the container cool. At any rate, it was bad, and eight more could go off. We’ll start today’s show by looking at the electrical grid: a piece of critical infrastructure that’s very vulnerable to storms like Harvey. Then: We talked yesterday about the White House’s tax plan, which, right now, doesn’t exist. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin talked about it on CNBC today, and we’ll break down his remarks. What you need to know about Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, before Trump potentially overturns it.

  • 

US President Donald Trump participates in a tax reform kickoff event at the Loren Cook Company in Springfield, MO, on August 30, 2017.
    JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

    President Trump laid out his tax plan during a speech in Springfield, Missouri, today. Except, well, the White House has more of a sheet of bullet points than a plan. There are no details, although the president laid out four principles of tax reform, which we’ll talk through at the top of the show. Then: According to FEMA, 40 percent of businesses that close during a disaster never reopen. And of those that do, nearly a quarter fail within a year. There are any number of reasons for that, but when it comes to floods, there’s a certain structural problem that has to do with the National Flood Insurance Program. Plus: Will electric cars put mechanics out of business?

  • People make their way out of a flooded neighborhood after it was inundated with rain water following Hurricane Harvey on August 29, 2017 in Houston, Texas. 
    Scott Olson/Getty Images

    It’s still raining in Houston and all along the Gulf Coast. We don’t quite know what it’s going to look like when the water recedes, so we called Craig Fugate. He ran FEMA under President Obama and talked to us about what happens next and how displaced people can start putting their lives back together. Then: We’ll look how undocumented immigrants are seeking (or even avoiding) help in Harvey’s wake. Plus: Why does it seem like Congress does the same debt ceiling dance every couple years?

  • People view the flooded highways in Houston yesterday as the city battles with Harvey, downgraded to a tropical storm, and resulting floods.
    THOMAS B. SHEA/AFP/Getty Images

    The thing about Hurricane Harvey is that other than there’s gonna be more rain in and around Houston, there’s a whole lot we don’t know. We’ll start with oil. Some of the biggest oil refineries in the country, not to mention the Port of Houston, are shut down right now, and it’s not clear when any of that will open back up. Then we’ll talk about the empty posts at key agencies responding to Harvey and the shelter strategy for people whose homes are underwater. Plus, we’ll look at why Houston is especially susceptible to flooding. Believe it or not, there’s other news to talk about today, too, including the Trump administration’s restoration of a program that gives military gear to police and Uber’s new CEO. 

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About the show

Hosted by Kai Ryssdal, our leading business news radio program and podcast is about providing context on the economic news of the day. Through stories, conversations and newsworthy developments, we help listeners understand the economic world around them. Marketplace makes sense of the economy for everyone, no econ degree or finance background required. Marketplace doesn’t just report on the numbers, we take it deeper, adding context to what’s happening in the stock market and how macroeconomic policy can affect you and your business. Monday through Friday, our team speaks with a wide range of industry professionals — from small business owners to Fortune 500 CEOs, Marketplace breaks down complex topics related to business and the economy without industry jargon and over-complicated explanations.

Kai Ryssdal has led the program since 2005 and has hosted the program from China, the Middle East and dozens of cities across the United States. As a leading public media voice, Kai has been a trusted broadcaster for two decades and received an Emmy for investigative journalism on a PBS FRONTLINE documentary about money in politics called “Big Sky, Big Money.” He has appeared often on CNN, CNBC and CBS news. His written work has been featured in The New York Times and The Atlantic.

Produced and distributed by American Public Media (APM) our popular business news podcasts are available worldwide on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and RSS Feeds and any place else where you get your podcasts.

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