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Marketplace

Marketplace Business News Podcast
Kai Ryssdal
Latest Episode

06/16/2017: What can $13.7 billion buy Amazon at Whole Foods?

Jun 16, 2017

Episodes 2481 - 2490 of 5795

  • West Virginia's primary is Tuesday. Hillary Clinton has said, "We're going to put a lot of coal miners out of business." Donald Trump promised, "We're going to put the miners back to work." Above, signs at a Charleston, West Virginia, rally on Thursday.
 
    BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

    EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt caught a lot of heat for claiming the U.S. has added 50,000 coal jobs. That’s not true; there are actually about 51,000 coal miners in this country total. That small group wields out-sized political influence, so we’ll do numbers on the coal industry and the way energy is moving overall. Then: A gas explosion in Colorado this spring is renewing an intense debate in that state over drilling in urban areas. Plus, as we approach the ten-year anniversary of the iPhone, we’ll take a look at the untold stories of its invention with author Brian Merchant.

  • Federal Reserve Board Chairwoman Janet Yellen waves to members during a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, February 25, 2015 in Washington, DC.
    Mark Wilson/Getty Images

    As many suspected, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates a fourth of a percent today. It’s the third hike in six months, and we’ll get a little wonky parsing Janet Yellen’s comments on inflation, the labor market and overall economic health. Then, we’re going hunting for the silver lining in a very cloudy year for retailers. Plus: a look at why bootlegging is booming again.

  • Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell walks with President-elect Donald Trump, his wife Melania Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence at the U.S. Capitol for a meeting on Nov. 10 in Washington, D.C.
    Mark Wilson/Getty Images

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he wants a vote on Republicans’ health care bill before Congress leaves town for the July 4 recess. That gives the Senate 13 working days to vote on 17.8 percent of the American economy without, so far, any public hearings. We’ll take stock of where that’s at. Then: A new Bloomberg investigation found Russia’s digital intrusion into the U.S. election was more widespread than we thought. We’ll talk about the latest. Plus, two local news stories that get at interesting questions: Why can’t the Yankees sell tickets and why do Southern California doughnuts come in pink boxes?

  • The Death Of Caesar
    Edward Gooch/Getty Image

    In this summer’s Shakespeare in the Park, the titular character in “Julius Caesar” is distinctly Trumpy. Of course — 400-year-old spoiler alert! — he’s assassinated, and outcry from the right caused Delta and Bank of America pull their support. The theater is the latest in a growing series of political minefields for brand-sensitive companies. We’ll look at how companies are trying to find their way and what it means for entertainment. Plus, it’s been a tough start to the week for America’s highest-profile CEOs, with GE’s Jeff Immelt being shown the door and Uber’s Travis Kalanick facing a possible leave of absence amid personal tragedy and a new report of dysfunctional corporate culture. Then: New York City is adding a new area code, and the after-market for the old 212 is booming.

  • Prime Minister Theresa May the day before this week's general election.
    Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

    Oy. Right after the U.K. kicked off the two-year countdown to Brexit in March, Prime Minister Theresa May called for a snap election in hopes of getting a stronger majority in Parliament to negotiate the country’s exit from the European Union. That plan has backfired, leaving May with less support than she started with. We asked our London reporter for an update on the ground there. Then: We’ll talk through the week in business and economic news — it’s infrastructure week at the White House, remember? Plus, Taylor Swift and Spotify gave us a lesson in why you should never say, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”

  • U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan leaves after a House Republican conference meeting Wednesday at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Rep. Ryan said he is open to run for Speaker of the House if the GOP will unify behind him.
    Alex Wong/Getty Images

    The Senate spent most of the day consumed with former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony on President Trump and Russia. But over on the House side, political theater turned into economic reality with the passage of the Financial Choice Act. We’ll talk about what it does, how it relates to the GOP’s pledge to dismantle Dodd-Frank and its chances of actually becoming law. Then: Big news out of Kansas got a little lost this week. The state’s five-year-old experiment with big income tax cuts ended this week. The idea was that low, low taxes would spur economic growth, but for lawmakers the deficits were just too much. What went wrong? Plus: We’ve talked a lot about the troubles facing brick-and-mortar retail — here’s how one California mall says it will survive. 

  • 06/07/2017: Cracked phone screens are a $4 billion business
    Nick Amoscato/Flickr

    Tomorrow’s Election Day in the U.K., and it’s a test for Prime Minister Theresa May ahead of Brexit negotiations with the European Union. One of the toughest issues in those talks may well turn out to be immigration. More than 3 million European nationals have settled in Britain, but since the Brexit vote, EU migration to the U.K. has slowed sharply. That’s stoked fears of a labor shortage. We’ll talk about it. Then: For the first time, Apple is giving third-party vendors access to a sort-of secret machine it uses in fixing cracked phone screens. Screen repair is a $4 billion business, but this move from Apple means it could be in for some changes. Plus, a conversation with the woman who runs the second-busiest airport in the country.

  • Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney discusses the Trump administration's proposed fiscal year 2018 budget at a press conference. The $4.1 trillion budget would cut programs for the poor while offering big tax cuts for the wealthy.
    Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    Let’s say Trump’s tax plan that has yet to be introduced to Congress does get passed. How long would it take for tax cuts to jolt the economy? We ask tax experts. Also on the show: Amazon offers a discount on Prime memberships for people receiving government assistance. What’s behind the move? Amazon, again, is going toe-to-toe with Walmart. Plus, we talk to Forbes reporter Chloe Sorvino, who scored an interview with a very private billionaire in Denver whose company controls 85 percent of the pizza cheese market.

  • “When you're doing your taxes, you're just the IRS' lowest-paid employee,” said Austan Goolsbee, former chairman of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. “All you’re doing is typing in information they already have.”
    Chris Hondros/Getty Images

    The Trump administration has promised to simplify the tax code, which is an idea Democrats and Republicans can get behind. But reforming the tax code is no easy task. We take a look at what this change could mean for the IRS, tax-prep companies and Americans filing their taxes each year. In other news from the White House, President Trump wants to put a nonprofit in charge of air traffic control instead of the Federal Aviation Administration. How would air traffic control work as an independent organization? Also on today’s show: We talk to Stephen Beard, Marketplace’s European bureau chief, about the upcoming election in the U.K. 

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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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