Marketplace All-in-One

Federal regulators are poised to take over enforcement of COVID workplace safety rules in Arizona, South Carolina and Utah. The government says those states aren’t following the rules at their health care facilities, while the states disagree. Susan Schmidt discusses what outlooks from the regional banks could tell us about the economy. We check in with the BBC’s Victoria Craig about airports raising passenger charges in an effort to bolster recovery from the pandemic.

For Ian Bremmer, founder and president of the political risk consultancy the Eurasia Group, the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol showed how the growing power and influence of tech companies are starting to overshadow the influence of traditional government institutions. We spoke to Bremmer about tech’s power in the geopolitical space. Also, a new survey notes that overdraft fees at banks have hit an all-time high.

From the BBC World Service: The bank has agreed to a $475 million settlement with U.K., Swiss and U.S. regulators over a corruption scandal involving Mozambique’s tuna fishing industry.

Ongoing cyber threats to local water and wastewater systems were flagged in an advisory jointly sent out by the FBI, the EPA, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) last week. It warned that systems to ensure that sewage and other biohazards stay out of our drinking water are vulnerable. The advisory pointed to several cyberattacks in the last few years, like one in Oldsmar, Florida where someone tried to hack in and dump extra chemicals in one municipal system. CISA is urging water and wastewater facilities to plan for, and get ready to block, these attacks. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Kim Zetter, a cybersecurity journalist and author.

Imagine what it would be like if you didn’t have to wait days for your paycheck to be processed by the bank. Or getting a loan without having to go through a bank loan officer.

That’s finance, decentralized. Fans of decentralized finance believe DeFi has the potential to make our current financial system more efficient, accessible and affordable by getting rid of intermediaries like banks, brokers and exchanges.

“The goal of DeFi is to make financial services more democratic,” says Linda Jeng, a visiting scholar of financial technology and adjunct professor at Georgetown Law. “That means more open access. Anyone should be able to use it. It’s about empowering the customer. So users get to decide the rules of the game.”

There’s a lot of hype around DeFi. It’s gone from $1 billion industry in 2018 to $90 billion in 2021. But there’s not a lot of regulation.

On the show today, we’ll talk about the risks and rewards of decentralized finance.

In the newsfix, we’ll stay on the DeFi theme and discuss a new Securities and Exchange Commission report on the GameStop brouhaha and explain why coal-fired power is on the rise in America. Plus, a “Make Me Smart” listener weighs in on the difference between sailing and yachting.

When you’re done listening, tell your Echo device to “make me smart” for our daily explainers. This week we’ll explain the business behind Halloween candy and haunted houses. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter! You can find the latest issue here.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

Read the transcript here.

Philadelphia’s Eviction Diversion Program, launched last year, allows landlords and renters late on payments to avoid court through mediation. Since, the program has conducted more than 2,000 mediations, with more than 90% ending in agreement or continued negotiation. The program has also helped distribute millions of dollars in federal emergency rental assistance. Plus: A trip to a new government stockpile of medication ingredients; a Bitcoin fund debuts on the New York Stock Exchange; and what actually happens when you return an online order.

Best Buy, Walmart and other retailers are already kicking off holiday discounts to encourage people into shopping earlier this year, and there are plenty of reasons for their inspiration, if you want to call it that. The Securities and Exchange Commission has been looking into what happened since the GameStop rally from earlier in the year, and it has a report suggesting online brokerage firms might need new rules. Jeffery Cleveland stops by to discuss the bond market and inflation.

The first exchange-traded fund – or ETF – in the country that’s linked to Bitcoin’s price swings begins trading today. The fund is actually a basket of Bitcoin futures, which are bets on where the volatile cryptocurrency’s price will go. Helping us make sense of this is Erik Gordon, professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. We check on how Netflix is doing as earnings reports season gets underway. Home builders are looking on the bright side despite the challenges facing the supply chain.

From the BBC World Service: London’s Heathrow airport, one of Europe’s busiest, has announced it’s going to increase charges to airlines landing there as it tries to recover from the impact of coronavirus restrictions on travel.

Many people spent the pandemic binge-watching TV shows and movies. And if the streaming wars were heating up before, now they are white hot. Netflix got a head start and pretty much owned the streaming space for almost a decade. Now it’s fighting to hold on to that position. And the competition is real: Disney+, HBO, Apple TV. Will “Squid Game,” the breakout hit from South Korea, reassert Netflix as the leader in the streaming competition? Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Julia Alexander, a senior strategy analyst for Parrot Analytics.