Marketplace All-in-One

From the BBC World Service: The European Central Bank will raise interest rates today for the first time in 11 years. What does that mean for heavily indebted southern European countries like Greece? Victoria Craig has this special edition of the program live from Athens.

Sharing copyright music, movies and books online can be legally precarious, and there are restrictions on how they can be lent. A big court case about these issues is happening now. Four major publishers are suing the Internet Archive, a website repository that also loans digital books. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Aram Sinnreich, a professor at American University’s School of Communication, about this lawsuit and what it means for controlled digital lending.

Have you heard? Minivans are cool again, and one of our listeners wants to know why she can’t find a minivan for sale at reasonable price. Our minivan-driving host has answers. Plus, we’ll take your questions about ethanol, consumer spending here and abroad, along with how we’re all managing to still go to work amid everything happening around us.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

If you’ve got a question you’d like us to find the answer to, email us at [email protected] or leave us a voice message at (508) 827-6278 or (508) U-B-SMART.

While a deadly heat wave bakes Europe, the continent faces multiple economic predicaments as well. It’s prepping for a potential natural gas cutoff as tensions with Russia remain high. Inflation is also running rampant and expected interest rate hikes are stoking fears of another debt crisis. Plus, the party’s over for some companies that reaped pandemic profits, and regulators look to reimburse victims of money-transfer app scams.

Susan Schmidt discusses market activity with us as numbers show dropping home sales and mortgage applications. Also, the BBC provides an update on how Europe is handling the Russian gas conundrum. We speak with the BBC’s Victoria Craig about the interest rate decision from the European Central Bank.

The electric car giant is expected to roll out adapters for its Supercharger system, which can charge vehicles in minutes. Also, the European Central Bank is on the verge of following the Fed’s anti-inflation play of raising interest rates.

From the BBC World Service: Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been elected Sri Lanka’s president by the parliament. The European Commission is expected to outline proposals for EU countries to reduce their gas consumption by up to 15%. And we catch up with Marketplace’s Victoria Craig, who’s in Greece ahead of tomorrow’s expected rate hike from the European Central Bank.

Advanced computer programs influence, and can even dictate, meaningful parts of our lives. Think of credit scores or facial recognition software. And as this technology becomes more sophisticated and more pervasive, it’s important to understand the basic terminology. People often use “algorithms,” “machine learning” and “artificial intelligence” interchangeably, and there is some overlap, but they’re not the same things. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams has discussions with several experts to get some basic definitions.

If you’re a prospective homebuyer, you know that the housing market is — in a word — brutal. Though the market is showing signs of cooling, fewer homes are being built and rising mortgage rates continue to push ownership out of reach for many. Also in this episode, China reduces its U.S. debt holdings, small businesses still feel supply chain pinches and grocery stores market their way around rising prices.

From gasoline prices to decoupage, we’ve got a little bit of everything.

First, let’s start with gas prices. Yes, they’ve been coming down a bit lately, but gas prices are on a roller coaster, and the ride isn’t likely to end anytime soon.

“By participating in this global market for oil and gas, we have hitched our economy to a roller coaster ride that we don’t have any control over. We’re all part of one big market, and a policy change in Beijing or a war in Europe, those have the same effects on our prices as if something had happened here in the U.S.,” said Clark Williams-Derry, an analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

But what if there’s a way off this ride? Is there another way to put our energy economy together that doesn’t take consumers for a spin and shields us from the whims of the global market?

On the show today, the economic and geopolitical forces behind gas prices and why pivoting to renewables might be the only way out.

In the News Fix, we’ll discuss the actions the Biden administration is considering to fight climate change. We’ll also check in on an unusual economic indicator: What’s Apple up to?

Later, if you’re an ’80s music fan, you’ll love this hack a listener shared that he uses at the grocery store checkout line. And, what would you do with old, worthless baseball cards? Help out a fellow “Make Me Smart” listener, will ya? Plus, decoupage, anyone?

Here’s everything we talked about today:

If you’ve got a hack you’d like to share, email us at [email protected] or leave us a voice message at (508) 827-6278 or (508) U-B-SMART.