Marketplace All-in-One

Housing supply can’t keep up with demand, thanks to an old foe: the supply chain. We look further into what the holdup is. The odds of recession are low – but not that low. Julia Coronado gets into that and more during our markets discussion. Also, the website Infowars has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Inflation and tales of its constant rise have been part of the economic reality for a while, long enough for there to be plenty of misunderstandings about what the term and concept actually mean. To help clear some of that up, we spoke to Robert Rich, director of the Center for Inflation Research and a senior economic and policy adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. We check in on the state of China’s GDP. Twitter has adopted the fabled “poison pill” strategy to fend of Elon Musk’s bid to buy the company.

From the BBC World Service: China’s economy grew more than expected in the first quarter, but with strict lockdowns in place, optimism fades for Q2. Plus: Russia launched fresh attacks on cities across Ukraine on Sunday into Monday as President Zelenskyy seeks financial support to rebuild once war ends. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka will also begin talks with the International Monetary Fund for a loan to ease shortages of food, fuel and medicines during the worst economic crisis in decades.

Netflix will give investors a glimpse of its growth Tuesday with the release of its quarterly earnings report. It’s been hard to sustain the pace of 2020, when the world was stuck at home on the couch. But now the company is chasing a new market: video games. And it’s a big one. Mobile gaming generated an estimated $90 billion in 2021. Over the last year, Netflix has bought up small, independent gaming studios— it acquired a third one last month. The company now offers multiple titles free to subscribers, including a card game, bowling, an upcoming first-person shooter and two based on its popular show “Stranger Things.” Leveraging a company’s intellectual property for games is nothing new, but how well can Netflix play this game? Michael Pachter is a research analyst with Wedbush Securities. He told “Marketplace Tech’s” Meghan McCarty Carino that Netflix’s catalog of hit shows might not lend itself to this strategy.

One side effect of the current labor market: Workers are less likely to get laid off. That might not be so great for those of us with toxic bosses and co-workers. Speaking of toxic, Twitter launched a “poison pill” strategy to fend off Elon Musk’s bid to buy the company. We also talk about filing taxes and four-day workweeks. We close out today’s Economics on Tap with a round of Half Full/Half Empty.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

Got a question for the hosts? Email us at [email protected] or leave us a voice message at 508-827-6278, or 508-U-B-SMART.

Elon Musk has a 9% stake in Twitter and offered to buy the company Thursday. Now, Twitter has countered by activating a “poison pill,” a move that gives other shareholders the opportunity to buy more shares and dilute Musk’s power. We’ll also chat about whether we’ve reached peak inflation in the Weekly Wrap. And while China’s COVID-19 restrictions disrupt global supply chains, trucking capacity in the U.S. begins to loosen.

How do you advertise things that either might not be available or just cost too much now? That’s the question for brands everywhere as they wrestle with a constantly locked supply chain and rising inflation. For some insight into this, we talked to Jeanine Poggi, editor at Ad Age. President Biden is nominating Michael Barr to be the Federal Reserve’s top banking regulator.

We look into how the pandemic has altered the way businesses function going forward, especially when it comes to dealing with the possibility of sick staff members or another shutdown as cases surge in some parts of the country. The truck traffic jam along the Mexican border in Texas is starting to ease as Texas’ governor alters his stance on a policy that required additional truck inspections. Domestic manufacturing output has risen, but what effect could that have on prices?

From the BBC World Service: Chinese companies warn of the impact Shanghai’s lockdown will have on the wider supply chain and economy. Plus, why Emirates is still taking passengers and cargo to Russia. And, a visit to São Tomé, just off Africa’s west coast: The continent’s smallest economy that packs a big cocoa punch.

Thousands of vendors on Etsy are staging a strike this week after the company announced it would hike transaction fees for sellers by 30%. It’s the latest in a series of changes that Etsy says will help it compete with e-commerce giants like Amazon by improving customer service, attracting more buyers and strengthening the brand by policing listings for mass-produced items, something sellers have been asking for. It’s a topic for Quality Assurance, where we take a second look at a big tech story. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino speaks with Samantha Close, a professor of communication at DePaul University.