Marketplace All-in-One

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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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.

A judge has refused to toss out a copyright infringement case against the pop superstar, saying that a 2001 song, “Playas Gonna Play” by the group 3LW had enough similarities to the chorus in her song “Shake It Off” to let a jury decide if she needs to pay copyright holders for the use. The Fed is turning away from pandemic support for the economy while focusing on inflation. Housing data shows that home builders are actually feeling confident in the wake of costs and shortages.

From the BBC World Service: Turkey is on the brink of hyperinflation and the lira currency has imploded after the country’s leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, turned his back on fundamental economics and interest rates. Turkey’s economic turmoil is a warning shot to the world about what happens when a central bank’s independence gets compromised. We’re in the heart of Istanbul – the city straddling Europe and Asia – sharing how ordinary people’s lives have become much, much tougher.

Artificial intelligence can certainly be used or misused for harmful or illegal purposes, even unintentionally, when human biases are baked into its very code. So, what needs to happen to make sure AI is ethical? Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Timnit Gebru, the founder and executive director of the new Distributed AI Research Institute. Gebru said one issue with current AI research is the incentives for doing it in the first place.

As part of a COVID-19 relief package last spring, Congress expanded the federal child tax credit and started sending it out in monthly installments. For many families, the extra couple of hundred dollars each month has provided a cushion for emergencies or has been spent on essentials, like rent and utilities. But the expansion is temporary, and unless Congress passes President Joe Biden’s social spending plan, the decline in childhood poverty we’ve seen could be temporary, too. Inflation is also on today’s agenda, including how it was discussed at today’s Fed meeting, where it might linger in the economy and whether wage growth will be able to keep up with it.

The nation’s biggest grocery chain has been offering paid sick leave to any of its workers if they got COVID-19, but that option is now off the table for salaried staff and managers who happen to be unvaccinated. There’s also a health insurance surcharge for those employees who are unvaccinated. Susan Schmidt talks to us about the ever-present topic of inflation as the Fed prepares to meet today. In Nashville, out-of-state real estate investors are adding another layer to the issues of a tight housing market.

Early in the pandemic, COVID-19 outbreaks forced some of the country’s largest slaughterhouses and meat processors to shut down, leading to fears of meat shortages across the U.S. Now, there’s interest in diversifying that supply chain by boosting capacity at the local level. We check in on the status of the various vaccine mandates across the U.S., including the national one for health care staff. Supply chain issues have retailers preparing for a surplus of late-coming Christmas inventory that could flow into 2022.

From the BBC World Service: The omicron coronavirus variant is creating more uncertainty for the international travel industry during a peak period. The CEO of Expedia-owned travel website Trivago says Christmas bookings have dropped sharply. U.K. inflation rises to a 10-year high in November. The original creators of the rubber toy Pop Its aren’t benefiting financially from its surge in popularity among both children and adults.

Tornados that ripped through five states over the weekend killed more than a hundred people and destroyed huge swaths of communities. An Amazon facility in southern Illinois was one of the structures hit, and at least six people there were killed. The disaster has some workers saying personal smartphones are necessary on the job. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Spencer Soper who has been reporting on this for Bloomberg.