Marketplace All-in-One

Southern European economies, including Greece, are growing faster than some of Europe’s longtime powerhouses, like Germany. We’ll get into how Greece pulled off an economic turnaround after the devastating 2012 financial crisis. And, Halle Berry’s shouts from the steps of the Capitol are calling attention to the need for more menopause research. Plus, we’ll play a round of Half Full / Half Empty! Here’s everything we talked about today: “Europe’s Economic Laggards Have Become Its Leaders” “Halle Berry shouts from the Capitol, ‘I’m in menopause’ as she seeks to end a stigma and win funding” “Dave & Buster’s to let adult customers bet on arcade games” “As work communication migrates to mobile devices, desk phones hang up for good” “Pop-up coworking events are uniting lonely workers” “The conspiracy theory behind Florida’s lab-grown meat ban” “Unfrosted Review: Jerry Seinfeld’s Pop-Tarts Comedy Is Painfully Stale” Want more “Make Me Smart” in your life? Sign up for our newsletter at marketplace.org/smarter.

The U.S. spends about half of its $6 trillion budget on three government entitlements: Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. When it comes to the national debt, cutting these benefits is often part of the cost-cutting conversation. In this episode, we hear how these entitlements grew to be so costly and why reducing them has been so difficult historically. Plus, the layoff that allowed one woman to focus on her small business, and the economic impact of university divestment.

Stocks rise; total number of new jobs smallest since October; wage gains slow down; services sector contracts.

The Labor Department reports 175,000 jobs were created last month, fewer than expected: wage growth was also lower; stocks rise on the news; Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says democracy is under threat.

The bond market is surging after news that 175,000 people were in payrolls in April versus March. That’s less than expected and 44% lower than a month earlier. And it’s the sort of result that those anxious about elevated interest rates want to see. We’ll discuss. Also on the program: Nonprofit hospitals say legislative efforts requiring them to provide more free care could actually hurt the people they’re intended to help.

It’s been just over a month since Trump Media & Technology Group — ticker symbol DJT — started trading on the Nasdaq. The initial public offering has come with lawsuits, wild swings in the share price and potential windfalls for former President Donald Trump. We unpack it all. Plus, Apple reported lackluster results on Thursday, and we’ll take the pulse of the comic book sector ahead of Free Comic Book Day.

From the BBC World Service: Turkey says trade with Israel — worth around $7 billion a year — will halt until a permanent ceasefire is secured in Gaza and sufficient humanitarian aid is allowed in. Plus, the Japanese government appears to have spent $35 billion propping up the yen this week, according to data released by the Bank of Japan. However, the weak yen is boosting tourism, and some people aren’t happy about that.

This week: Startups are taking longer to go public or sell to a buyer. What does that say about the state of tech? Also, the dating app Bumble once courted women by letting them make the first move. We’ll explain why Gen Z is prompting Bumble to change things up. But first, discount retail giant Walmart announced this week it is shutting down its telehealth business, as well as its network of low-cost health clinics. There were 51 of those clinics scattered across five states throughout the country. They were part of Walmart’s big push into health care, announced in 2019. So what happened? Marketplace’s Lily Jamali is joined by Christina Farr, author of the health tech newsletter Second Opinion, for her take on this week’s tech news.

Phoenix is on track to become a national hub for semiconductor production. The city has had lots of help: billions in funding from the Biden administration and buy-in from major chipmakers like TSMC and Intel. One thing they still need, though, is workers — 70,000 nationwide. Training programs are already preparing folks for entry-level chip technician positions. But where are all those promised jobs?

“Spotting tech-driven disinformation isn’t getting easier” Join us tomorrow for Economics on Tap! The YouTube livestream starts at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time, 6:30 p.m. Eastern. We’ll have news, drinks and play a round of Half Full/Half Empty. It’s time to rewind and revisit some of the big business stories of the week. First up, stagflation. Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell isn’t seeing signs of it, and neither is Kai Ryssdal. We’ll explain why. Plus, what Walmart’s decision to shut down all of its health clinics says about the U.S. health care system. Also, we’ll break down the latest efforts to restructure the American economy through the CHIPS Act. And, a singer’s plea to protect artists from AI-generated deepfakes. Here’s everything we talked about today: “Fed Holds Rates Steady, Noting Lack of Progress on Inflation” “GDP growth slowed to a 1.6% rate in the first quarter, well below expectations “Walmart to close its 51 health centers and virtual care service” “Walmart shuttering health units, including telehealth and 51 clinics” “Walmart Health Is Closing” “Breaking Ground: A visit to the “Silicon Desert” ”Senate Hearing on Digital Replicas and Artificial Intelligence Concerns” “FKA Twigs Reveals She Developed Her Own Deepfake in Congressional Testimony on AI Regulation With Warner Music CEO” “Spotting tech-driven disinformation isn’t getting easier” Join us tomorrow for Economics on Tap! The YouTube livestream starts at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time, 6:30 p.m. Eastern. We’ll have news, drinks and play a round of Half Full/Half Empty.

Stocks rise; compensation outpaces productivity; slowdown could push prices higher; imports fall.

Relief on Wall Street when Fed Chair Jerome Powell says a hike in interest rates is unlikely; Labor Department data points to continuing tightness in the labor market; Peloton lays off about 15% of its workforce.

A new report from FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center shows people 60 and older lost $3.4 billion to fraudsters and scammers last year. That’s up 11% in a year, with an average loss of $34,000 per victim. On today’s show, we’ll hear the latest in elder financial exploitation. We’ll also learn more about Tesla’s surprising move to scrap its EV charging team. Plus, a rate hike could still be on the table.

The Biden administration has issued guidelines for a tax credit aimed at promoting greener aviation fuel. Currently, sustainable aviation fuel accounts for a fraction of all jet fuel and costs more than twice as much as fossil fuels. Will the tax subsidy work as intended? Plus, interest rates are a good news, bad news story. And we’ll take a closer look at the changing economics of sports broadcasting.Federal subsidies aim to provide a boost to sustainable jet fuel

From the BBC World Service: The European Union is looking into how Meta handles political content. Now, one of Britain’s top computer scientists has warned that it’s too late to prevent artificial intelligence from being misused to influence voters. Plus, cocoa prices have plunged in the last few weeks. And the electric vehicle industry is struggling right now, but the mood’s been optimistic at this week’s Beijing Auto Show.

Just how capable is today’s artificial intelligence at beating humans at their own games? That’s one of the metrics tracked by an annual report put together by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, or HAI. And its latest AI Index report finds the tech is quickly gaining on humans. According to the report, AI now exceeds human capability not only in areas like simple reading comprehension and image classification, but also in domains that start to approach human logic, like natural language inference (the ability to draw inferences from text) or visual reasoning (the ability to deduce physical relationships between visual objects). Still, there are areas where the bots haven’t quite caught up. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Nestor Maslej, research manager at HAI and editor in chief of the index report, to learn more.

With the presidential election less than six months away, election workers are raising concerns about their safety. We’ll get into the rising threats to election offices and how that might affect staffing ahead of November. Also, how Tesla’s disbanding of its Supercharger team could impact the Biden’s administration push to expand electric vehicle use. Plus, how a pest control professional saved a baseball game from a swarm of bees. Here’s everything we talked about today: “Nearly Two-Thirds Of Election Officials Worry Politicians Will Interfere With Their Work: Poll” from HuffPost“Local Election Officials Survey” from the Brennan Center for Justice“They staffed the Jan. 6 committee. Threats still follow them” from Roll Call“Musk Undercuts Tesla Chargers That Biden Lauded as ‘a Big Deal’” from Bloomberg“Pest control ace clears Dodgers-Diamondbacks bee swarm, throws first pitch” We love to hear from you. Send your questions and comments to makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

In the latest installment from their trip to Phoenix, “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal and Washington Post columnist Heather Long visit Native Resources — a plant relocation, nursery and landscape company — that sits at the intersection of conservation and development amid a semiconductor boom. Plus, takeaways from the Federal Reserve’s policy-setting meeting, a check-in with business owners about wages and an update on a Mississippi barge business.

Stocks close mixed; Powell says Fed prepared to keep rates unchanged for as long as it needs to; job openings hold steady; manufacturing sector contracts.

Job openings and quits changed little month over month; Fed expected to leave interest rates unchanged in anticipated announcement today; CVS Health quarterly profit halved due to Medicare Advantage costs; Amazon profits soar with more cloud computing, ad revenues.