Marketplace All-in-One

The CHIPS and Science Act puts aside tens of billions of dollars in funding for the National Science Foundation, the nation’s government research agency. We talked to the NSF’s director, Sethuraman Panchanathan, about what the money means and how it would contribute to American scientific advancement in coming years. Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, a key swing vote in the party, announced yesterday that she would support the party’s “Inflation Reduction Act” tax and climate bill. A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Equifax, which acknowledged that some users’ credit scores were miscalculated due to a “coding issue.”

From the BBC World Service: The Chinese Foreign Ministry described Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan as an “egregious provocation” and that it ignored China’s “serious concerns”. Plus, three more grain ships have sailed from Ukraine, bound for Turkey, Ireland and the U.K. Also, medical recruitment is a global challenge for hospitals.

Dozens of people have died and hundreds have been sickened due to mistakes in the organ transplant system, according to a Senate investigation released this week. It  came after a review by the U.S. Digital Service found the network that matches patients and organs is gravely outdated. That program has been run for more than three decades by one nonprofit: the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino speaks with Joseph Menn, who has been reporting on the problem for The Washington Post.

During the height of the pandemic, state-run unemployment systems struggled to support applicants. Though states are investing in upgrades, benefits vary widely and the technology remains outdated. Now, as the job market cools and jobless claims rise, labor economists worry whether the unemployment system is equipped for another onslaught. Plus, Instagram’s shift to video challenges art entrepreneurs and FX’s “The Bear” aces the drama of restaurant work.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ JOLTS report is out, and it indicates that the labor market may be in the early stages of cooling off. We talk about what the report means, and if businesses are feeling less hiring pressure. The Bank of England raised rates today in its biggest increase since 1995. And, horses are back working in French wine country, bucking their mechanical tractor counterparts.

Senate Democrats are working out the details of their latest spending bill, dubbed the “Inflation Reduction Act.” We go over what’s been going on with the bill, and some contentious corporate tax proposals. Tensions between Taiwan and China are starting to disrupt commerce and some flights. The Department of Transportation is beginning to take comments on a potential move to boost protections for airline passengers seeking refunds for tickets.

From the BBC World Service: We hear from the President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan, an organization with more than 500 member firms there. Plus, the Bank of England is expected to make its biggest interest rates rise in 27 years. And, with fears of gas shortages intensifying in Germany, businesses are preparing for what could be a tough winter ahead.

House and Senate Democrats introduced a bill last week that aims to bring back net neutrality. The Barack Obama administration originally put the rules in place to prohibit internet providers from selectively favoring, blocking or slowing content on the internet. The Donald Trump administration rolled those rules back, arguing that the Federal Communications Commission didn’t have the power to enforce them. The new bill faces long odds, but if passed it would, once more, give the FCC oversight of internet service providers, or ISPs. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino speaks with Ryan Singel, an open internet fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. He said the legislation does this by changing how internet service is categorized.

OPEC+ recently pledged to boost oil production by 100,000 barrels a day. Though it sounds like a lot, it likely won’t temper high oil prices much and may indicate that the oil cartel expects a dip in demand and a potential recession. Plus, credit card debt is on the rise, a new era of TV centers on Native people and Germany’s reliance on Russian oil stokes economic anxieties.

China correspondent Jennifer Pak joins us to discuss the economic implications of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. The rate of people who don’t have health coverage in the U.S. has lowered. The surge of warehouse building raises concerns about the environment.