Marketplace All-in-One

The fate of President Biden’s Build Back Better Act appears to be in serious jeopardy, as Sen. Joe Manchin – a fellow Democrat – said over the weekend that he wouldn’t vote for the bill. Manchin says the cost is too high if all of the bill’s temporary elements were made permanent. What are those elements? The presence of the omicron variant has economists looking at different kinds of numbers and indicators to get a feel for the direction of the economy. Residents of small communities in rural, unincorporated areas are bumping into limited housing regulation.

The Joe Biden administration wants Americans to fight global warming by speeding up the transition to electric vehicles, and that means we need more charging stations. Right now, there are around 100,000 chargers nationwide, and the White House says we need at least half a million. A lot of money is going into building them. The infrastructure law, signed just last month, is sending $5 billion to states to build out the charging network. But what will all this investment look like? Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Sam Houston, a senior vehicles analyst for the clean transportation program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Remember just a few weeks back, when we didn’t know whether this new COVID-19 variant was pronounced ah-micron or oh-micron? However you say it, it’s at the doorstep and ready to barge into the economy. Today, we’ll tackle omicron in the Weekly Wrap, hear how businesses are reacting to it with little new guidance and see why the hottest item this holiday season — a rapid COVID test — is becoming hard to find. Also: Why private equity investments are booming and how a Nashville record store is trying to survive a scorching real estate market.

Christopher Low talks about the weird activity on the markets today, as tech stocks are selling off and yields on the 10-year benchmark interest rate are down. Facebook owner Meta says it’s suspending about 1,500 mostly fake accounts run by private surveillance companies. Meta says the companies targeted people who were tricked into giving up personal information. Car dealerships struggling with low inventory amid the supply chain chaos are leaning in on higher prices.

The utility Hydro-Quebec in Canada has plans to help power the northeast United States. Among those plans is a hydro power transmission line running through Maine and into Massachusetts. However, that project has been legally put on hold, as the people of Maine voted to halt construction of that line. We look into what appears to be a big selloff of tech stocks and attempt to find a reason for it. Also, what could the Fed’s predicted trio of rate hikes look like for consumers in the coming days?

From the BBC World Service: Markets react as the U.S. and U.K. central banks turn more hawkish as Europe and Japan take a more dovish tone on monetary policy. Flammable building siding – also known as cladding – remains a dangerous problem in England. An album featuring endangered birds is beating pop stars like Michael Buble and Billie Eilish on Australia’s music charts.

The tech industry is a powerful lobbying force here in Washington, working to shape government policy around technology regulations, trade agreements and privacy laws. And a big player in that space has been the Internet Association. The 9-year-old trade group counts Google, Amazon and Meta as members. But this week, the Internet Association announced it’s closing at the end of the year. That news is our topic for “Quality Assurance,” where we take a second look at a big tech story. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Politico’s Emily Birnbaum, who broke this story.

In case you haven’t heard … prices? They’re higher these days. That’s not terribly surprising, given the global supply chain debacle, but it turns out a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic has an impact, too. Dozens of countries have experienced inflation since the onset of the pandemic, and the United States has one highest rates. Today, we look at how the U.S. approach to addressing inflation differs from other countries around the globe. We’ll also take a trip to a warehouse to see its role in the global supply chain, hear how the Great Resignation isn’t necessarily benefitting everyone and celebrate jobless claims that haven’t been this low since the Beatles were together.

The Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles has historically been home to tightknit immigrant communities. Francisco Gonzalez had lived in an apartment a block away from the neighborhood’s Mariachi Plaza for a decade when the building was sold, and the new owner nearly doubled his rent. Several of Gonzalez’s neighbors got rent hikes too. At first, Gonzalez figured he had no choice but to get out, but then he learned about another option. On this week’s show, the last of our fifth season, we’ll follow Gonzalez and his neighbors through a rent strike — involving lawyers, protests, tense sit-downs and, maybe, a way to stay in their homes.

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“This Is Uncomfortable” is Reema Khrais, Donna Tam, Megan Detrie, Peter Balonon-Rosen, Camila Kerwin, Phoebe Unterman, Marque Greene and Serena Chow.

President Biden’s plan targets issues within the trucking industry that not only were triggered by the pandemic, but also existed before. The industry is suffering from a shortage of drivers, but there’s also matters of expanding apprenticeships. Diane Swonk discusses the markets with us coming off news from the Federal Reserve. The BBC checks in again from Turkey with stories from the people in a country where the currency’s value has plummeted, leaving the economy is a state of chaos.