Marketplace®
Every story is an economic story

Marketplace

Marketplace Business News Podcast
Kai Ryssdal
Latest Episode

05/19/2017: TGIF

May 19, 2017

Episodes 2501 - 2510 of 5795

  • President Donald Trump walks down the stairs after arriving on Air Force One at the Palm Beach International Airport to spend part of the weekend at Mar-a-Lago resort on February 17, 2017 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
    Joe Raedle/Getty Images

    On the eve of his first trip abroad since taking office, President Trump took the first formal steps of renegotiating NAFTA. But is it the right time? And what will the U.S. get out of it? That’s what we’re talking about today before turning to Saudi Arabia. It’s Trump’s first stop on a whirlwind nine-day trip, and he’s bringing a lot of CEOs with him. Plus: Roger Ailes, the founder and former CEO of Fox News, died today at 77. Ailes was, according to more than a dozen women, a serial sexual harasser who enabled others to do the same. But he was also a man who changed the United States and propelled Trump to the White House. We’ll talk with Ailes biographer Gabriel Sherman. Plus: We covered stocks and currency under Trump already this week. So why not try to predict the future and complete the trifecta with a look at the bond market?

  • Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday in New York City. Following a day of steep drops in global markets, the Dow Jones industrial average rallied over 300 points in morning trading.
    Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    Leaving aside some late-breaking special (counsel) announcements, stocks seemed pretty immune to the chaos in Washington until today. But the dollar? Different story; it’s at a seven month low, in fact. That’s not to say currency traders are more on the ball than the folks in equities but… if the shoe fits? We’ll talk about it, and today’s big sell-off. Then: TV upfronts are wrapping up this week. All the networks are showing off their fall schedules which look… a lot like stuff we’ve seen before. Finally, we follow a cancer patient who’s devoting his life to making drugs more affordable.

  •  Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the end of the day on January 15, 2016 in New York City
    Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    In the past week, the president of the United States shared highly classified information with the Russians after he fired the director of the FBI. That whole affair was still roiling as we taped this show. Before that, Congress pulled a major piece of legislation affecting almost 20 percent of the American economy off the House floor before a vote, then passed it by the thinnest of margins. In different times, all this chaos would have spooked traders, shaken up markets and maybe Washington in the process. So it’s worth hitting pause and asking: What did the markets know? And when did they know it? Then: What you need to know about Ford’s plan to cut 10 percent of its global workforce, and the U.S. Postal Service’s bid for millennials. Plus, as the WannaCry cyberattack fades, a new story is emerging: Hollywood films held by hackers for ransom. What would it take for studios to pay up? Should they?

  •  sticker on the window of a local pub indicates the acceptance of Bitcoins for payment.
    Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    Here’s the thing about WannaCry, the ransomware attack much of the planet was dealing with today: it’s been remarkably unprofitable for the perpetrators. Hackers asked for as much as $300 worth of bitcoin per infected user, and they’ve only netted about $55,000 for their efforts. Why use bitcoin as ransom payments? We’ll talk about it. Then: 2017 is gonna be written about in the history books for a whole lotta reasons, one of which might be as a tipping point in the global economy. Following China’s big infrastructure summit we’ll sort through the state of negotiations around the world. Plus: why it’s a good time to be a restaurant worker in Nashville. 

  • A journalist looks at a copy of the termination letter to FBI Director James Comey from President Donald Trump on May 9, 2017. 
    MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

    We have a lot to talk about on the Weekly Wrap this week: We’ll cover the economic impacts of Comey’s firing, the interview President Trump gave about his own economic policies and that letter about Trump’s Russian business interests or lack thereof. Then: State governments submitted more than 500 infrastructure projects to the White House for consideration as Trump puts together his spending plan. We’re tracking what’s on each state’s wishlist along with APM Reports. Plus: What the Justice Department’s new action on drug offenses means for the private prison business.

  • President Donald Trump and Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin walk to a meeting in the US Treasury Department building on April 21, 2017.
    Shawn Thew - Pool/Getty Images

    As we await tonight’s already-a-bombshell conversation with NBC News, there’s another Trump interview we’ve been unpacking today. The president and two of his key economic advisers sat down with The Economist to talk health care, trade and more. We’re going to zoom in on one part, where Trump said he’ll “prime the pump” of the economy while claiming he invented the term. He didn’t, but we’ll talk about what it means and why that policy matters. Then: The Senate has confirmed Robert Lighthizer as the U.S. trade representative, and he’s going to have his hands very full (see above). Plus, we’ll look at a grim but hidden dimension of this country’s opioid epidemic: morgues and medical examiners are overwhelmed.

  • President Donald Trump shakes hands with FBI Director James Comey during an Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders Reception in the Blue Room of the White House on January 22, 2017 in Washington, DC.
    Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images

    Kellyanne Conway went on CNN this morning to talk about President Trump’s bombshell firing of FBI director James Comey and said this: “You want to question the timing of when he hires, when he fires. It’s inappropriate. He’ll do it when he wants to.” Um, asking questions is exactly what a free press in a representative democracy is supposed to do, and we still have a lot of them. Questions like: what’s gonna happen with health care? Tax reform? Trump’s trillion-dollar infrastructure package? And there’s a broader question that’s unique to this president: Is this how you run a business? Is it how you run the government like a business? We’ll talk about it. Plus: the state of schools in Erie County, Pennsylvania and the second part of our interview with Susan Burton.

  • FBI Director James Comey, right, says that strong encryption is hampering law enforcement.  Above, Comey sits with Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates at Senate hearing on encryption, public safety and privacy in July.
    MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

    President Trump has fired FBI Director James Comey, the White House said, for the way he handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. We’ll talk with Politico’s Sudeep Reddy about whether that reasoning passes the sniff test and what this news means for Republicans’ congressional goals. Then: The Trump administration has put off a decision about staying in the Paris climate agreement as coal production is up. The long term for coal is trickier though. Plus: “American Idol” is back from the dead.

  • Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has low approval ratings. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leading presidential candidate in Mexico's 2018 election, is critical of both Peña Nieto and U.S. President Trump.
    Lorne Matalon

    Emmanuel Macron easily won France’s presidential election over the weekend, but he has a rough road ahead. Parliamentary elections are next month, and the rest of Europe will be watching. We’ll look at what comes next, then turn to Mexico, where U.S. President Trump’s plans for a border wall and continued uncertainty over NAFTA have triggered a national conversation there about the American border and economic freedom not seen in years. Plus: a whopping fourth of Starbucks’ sales come through its mobile app, but that app could be vulnerable to fraud. 

Talk to us

You must complete the reCAPTCHA above to submit your message.
By submitting, you consent to receive information about our programs and offerings. The personally identifying information you provide will not be sold, shared, or used for purposes other than to communicate with you about Marketplace. You may opt-out at any time clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email communication.

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.

All Shows