Marketplace All-in-One

Twitter stock is down after Elon Musk has decided to pull out of his deal to acquire it, and we look into the potential saga surrounding the billion-dollar breakup fee. Employment in manufacturing has risen to pre-pandemic levels. The video game industry, which boomed during the pandemic, could see its growth start to slow down in the face of inflation and the fact that more people are heading outside.

From the BBC World Service: Sri Lanka’s president has fled the country and confirmed he’ll leave his post. Economists say any delay to its debt negotiations could plunge the country further into uncertainty. Ten days of annual summer maintenance work has begun on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which carries natural gas supplies from Russia to Germany. But there are fears that gas flows won’t return after the scheduled outage.

In this final segment in our series “The Score:” Credit scores are vital to modern personal finances, and some people try all sorts of strategies to try to beat the algorithm.

Not to say, “We told you so,” but we did see this coming. Earlier Friday, Elon Musk announced he was backing out of the deal to purchase Twitter. Twitter’s board of directors has told Musk they’ll see him in court. We’ll discuss the possibility of the deal falling through. Then, some thoughts on a new AP report about election workers who are weighing the decision to return to their jobs at the polls this fall. And what’s a Friday show without a round of Half Full/Half Empty? Our hosts weigh in on state tax rebates, eerie green skies, grocery coupons and a possible Pokémon bubble.

Here’s everything we talked about on the show:

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Though fears of a recession persist, there’s plenty to be happy about in today’s hiring report: Manufacturing employment has returned to pre-pandemic levels, and the number of people forced to work part-time because they can’t find full-time gigs is way down. But high child care costs are still keeping women on the sidelines of the economy. Later, a special designation for an English county’s wine leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of some.

The Labor Department’s report this morning shows the U.S. added 370,000 jobs in June, which leads us into our discussion with Julia Coronado of MacroPolicy Perspectives. The Great Resignation is showing slight hints of slowing down. Even in the face of inflation, gig work still appears to be a solid option for a lot of people.

We preview this morning’s upcoming jobs report for June, where the data could be an indicator of how the Fed could handle another interest rate hike. Shinzo Abe, Japan’s former prime minister, has died after being shot during a campaign event. Author Kathryn Judge discusses the place of middlemen within the current economic climate.

From the BBC World Service: In a rare incident of gun violence in Japan, Shinzo Abe has been shot dead while giving an election speech. The G-20 gathering of foreign ministers in Bali is bringing together Moscow and its staunchest critics for the first time since the war in Ukraine began. This weekend, Muslims around the world will be celebrating Eid al-Adha. But the rising cost of living in England is forcing many families here to cut back on festivities.

All this week, we’ve been looking at the data and algorithms behind credit scores. While many lenders will use FICO scores, the company does have one major competitor, VantageScore. It was founded by the three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and Transunion) in 2006. The company, which is independently managed, says its scoring model is more inclusive and predictive of credit risk than traditional models. “Marketplace Tech” host Kimberly Adams recently spoke with Silvio Tavares, president and CEO of VantageScore, about what he and his team consider when they’re designing their algorithms. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

“Fake it till you make it” has long been a mantra in Silicon Valley. It’s a culture that often brings financial consequences but very rarely criminal ones. We’ll talk about the significance of the criminal case against the former chief operating officer of the Theranos medical tech company, Sunny Balwani. He and his former romantic partner, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, faced charges of defrauding investors and patients. Speaking of consequences, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin gets sentenced again, this time for violating George Floyd’s civil rights, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces his intention to resign. We have the “purr-fect” tweet on the BoJo saga.

Here’s everything we talked about on the show today:

Join us tomorrow for Economics on Tap. We’ll be on the YouTube livestream starting at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT. We’ll have more news, drinks and a game!