Marketplace All-in-One

From the BBC World Service: Late yesterday, U.K. finance minister Rishi Sunak resigned, attacking Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership and saying people wanted competence and integrity. Norway’s government has imposed a forced settlement on striking oil and gas workers. We look at the legacy of OPEC’s secretary general Mohammad Barkindo, who was instrumental in the expansion of the organization.

We’ve been focusing on the three-digit number that is your credit score. It can be from the 300s and up to 850. And it’s used to determine whether someone is worthy of being granted a loan, a credit card, even a mortgage. What happens when you don’t have access to basic banking? You may not have a credit score at all. And it’s not always easy to establish one. “Marketplace Tech” producer Jesús Alvarado has more on that.

Capitalism is often talked about as one of the big drivers behind climate change. The belief is that our obsessions with buying stuff and growing the economy have destroyed the planet.

But what if capitalism isn’t the real problem?

“Capitalism only goes in a direction that political choices steer it. And we’ve just made a couple of bad political choices that have caused polluting industries to overpollute,” said Shi-Ling Hsu, D’Alemberte professor at Florida State University College of Law and author of the new book “Capitalism and the Environment: A Proposal to Save the Planet.”

Whether or not you believe capitalism is to blame for our climate crisis, Hsu says we could harness the power of capitalism to get us out of this mess. On today’s show, we’ll talk about the tools that could help us reverse course and why that hinges on having a healthy democracy.

In the News Fix: Is natural gas the new Big Oil? We’ll explain how it’s shaping geopolitics. Plus, our social, political and economic lives may start to look really different depending on where we live, thanks to the Supreme Court.

Later, the debate over how many spaces to use after a period is far from settled. Listeners weigh in. And, what about a Kai-sigh index?

Here’s everything we talked about today:

We’re looking for your answer to the Make Me Smart question: What is something you thought you knew that you later found out you were wrong about? Send it to [email protected] and (508) 827-6278 or (508) U-B-SMART.

Oil prices fell and Treasury bond yields inverted today — hints that the U.S. economy may be heading for a downturn. And as revenue-challenged companies look to cut costs in the era of remote work, physical office space may get a pink slip. Plus, President Biden weighs tariff options, airlines reel from staffing shortages and shellfish producers grapple with ocean acidification.

This week, Ryan and Bridget hear from a kid who can see the future! Or, at least, a kid who knows our dollars will be able to buy less stuff as time goes on. It’s all because of inflation, something that seems to have the grown-ups concerned. After traveling back in time to stock up on snacks, the pair get a chance to try to control runaway inflation … but their ideas don’t quite go as planned.

For a special cartoon, discussion questions and tips for parents, check out our website!

Take a second to let us know what you think of the show at marketplace.org/survey

It’s time for a check-in on the trucking industry, which has been at the forefront of everything from supply chain issues to driver shortages. Now, inflation and high gas prices are looming. The Supreme Court has ruled that the Biden administration can do away with the Trump-era “remain in Mexico” policy, which required asylum seekers to stay in Mexico among dangerous conditions along the border while authorities dove into their court cases. Many eyes are on what the administration does to replace the policy.

In West Virginia, a federal judge has ruled in favor of three major drug distributors in a lawsuit over the opioid addiction epidemic. Two local governments had sued, arguing the distributors shared blame for the crisis, which has killed nearly half-a-million Americans. The re-emergence of coal in Europe – due to the saga over Russian gas – could mean setbacks when it comes to meeting global climate change goals.

From the BBC World Service: A strike of offshore workers in Norway is likely to cause a significant reduction in oil and gas destined for Europe. In neighboring Finland, a sand battery may hold the key to how we can use renewable energy when the weather doesn’t cooperate. And as President Biden is considering lifting some tariffs on China, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen holds talks with the Chinese Vice Premier.

Credit risk assessment is largely a job for credit score algorithms, mass market models and systems that are relatively new in terms of the modern credit industry’s lifespan. Before computers and data science were fully adopted by the credit sector, lending decisions were made by credit managers employed by banks or department stores, who then collected information about each individual borrower. “Marketplace Tech” producer Daniel Shin takes a brief look at the history of credit score algorithms and how the industry eventually adopted those systems as the metric for risk assessment.

There may be an unwanted guest at your Fourth of July celebration this year: rising prices. Today, we take a look at how inflation shaped the holiday weekend — from your fireworks to your travel. We’ll also check the pulse of the housing market, examine a potential culture clash at Unilever and attend an aerial firefighting training.