Marketplace All-in-One

Trump, tariffs and Brexit — it might sound like a throwback, but it’s the present for British steelmakers. President Joe Biden cut a tax on steel imported from European Union countries last year, but the United Kingdom was excluded. Though the U.S. and U.K. plan on discussing the tariff rift, the future of British steel remains uncertain. We also hear about the impact of rising mortgage rates, tackle why rising oil prices could be here to stay and chat about a new environmental transparency policy for publicly traded companies.

A lawsuit brought by the drugmaker Gilead alleges that a counterfeiting ring sold more than 80,000 bottles of fake and possibly unsafe HIV medications to pharmacies over the past two years, worth more than $250 million. Gilead said the bottles had falsified documentation and sometimes contained fake pills, and in some cases made patients sick. For more, we spoke with the Wall Street Journal’s Corrine Ramey, who broke this story Tuesday. Susan Schmidt discusses the potential rise of interest rates in our daily chat about the markets.

From the BBC World Service: Ukraine’s defense minister told the BBC he encourages Western governments to impose immediate sanctions on Moscow amid rising concerns of an invasion of his country. Plus: Shares of Sony plunge after Microsoft announces a big acquisition. And, how China’s Xinjiang region hopes to benefit from the winter Olympic games.

President Biden pledged to battle climate change when he took office more than a year ago, and bills like the Build Back Better Act reflected that pledge. However, that same bill appears to be in limbo and highlights the administration’s gains and losses on the energy policy and climate front. A Bankrate survey has found that many Americans don’t feel they have the resources to cover a $1,000 emergency expense. Homebuilders are staying optimistic in the face of a hurricane of issues that range from supply shortages to rising mortgage rates.

Microsoft announced plans this week to buy game developer and publisher Activision Blizzard, known for games like World of Warcraft and Overwatch, for an all-cash deal worth almost $69 billion. Both companies are big players in the gaming market — Microsoft makes the Xbox — meaning the massive deal is likely to attract scrutiny from antitrust regulators, even as Activision Blizzard continues to face allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Dina Bass, Seattle bureau chief and technology reporter for Bloomberg News, to get a sense of Microsoft’s strategy.

Communication is key in any relationship — including the one between health officials and the public. On today’s show, a health literacy expert talks to us about how going “back to the communication basics” could aid the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s pandemic messaging. We’ll also hear about how omicron-induced lockdowns in China are affecting the global supply chain, why wireless carriers and airlines are still fighting over 5G and how U.S. Postal Service cuts could impact rural Americans.

On Make Me Smart, we often turn to economists, professors and policy wonks to make us smart about some big topics that need explaining. Today, we’re turning to a different kind of expert, sci-fi writer Neal Stephenson.

His latest book, “Termination Shock,” is about climate change, geoengineering and what happens when a billionaire decides to take matters into his own hands.

“I’m past trying to convince people that climate change is real. What I was more interested in was, for an audience that believes that climate change is real, what are some outcomes that we might see, in the near future, as different people in different countries begin to try to come to grips with that problem, because opinions differ as to what the right approach might be. And whenever you get differing opinions, you’ve got conflict, and whenever you’ve got conflict, you have the potential for a good story,” Stephenson said.

We’ll talk with Stephenson about how he thinks about big, complex issues like climate change and what this genre can teach us about the future and solving problems in the real world. Speaking of the future, Stephenson, who coined the word “metaverse” in 1992, weighs in on all the hullaballoo over the metaverse today.

In the News Fix, what’s behind all the news, or lack thereof, that we’re not getting from Tonga after this weekend’s volcano eruption. Also, you can get your free rapid COVID-19 test now.

Then, a listener drops some facts on the James Webb Space Telescope and what a former Google researcher was really wrong about.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

It’s not just “dry January” anymore. Sales of non-alcoholic beverages spiked 30% in the past year, according to Nielsen data. Leading the charge are younger people, who have not only become more health conscious at the start of the new year, but also more wary of cost. Julia Coronado discusses the markets with us today. The BBC reports on how geopolitics could be a factor in the rise in global oil prices.

From the BBC World Service: The crude oil price spike is tied to rising geopolitical risks, with concerns over a Russian invasion of Ukraine and supply disruptions in the United Arab Emirates after a deadly drone attack. Plus, at the virtual Davos summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping defended his common prosperity strategy. And, concerns over China’s influence at Sri Lanka’s new port city development.

The number of Americans filing paperwork to start businesses hit a record 5.4 million in 2021, up from the previous record of 4.4 million new business applications set in 2020. A study from LendingTree finds that a lot of those new entrepreneurs can be found in the South. We spoke with Matt Schulz, LendingTree’s chief credit analyst, about the study’s findings. Airlines are still wary of Verizon and AT&T’s launch of new 5G signals, as they offer fresh warnings about the signals’ effect on planes and equipment.