Marketplace All-in-One

From the BBC World Service: Sri Lanka has seen a steep fall in the value of its currency, with private banks struggling to pay for imports, causing a spike in food prices. Plus, as El Salvador prepares to adopt Bitcoin as a form of legal tender, a new $150 million fund has been approved to facilitate conversion from Bitcoin to U.S. dollars. And, what a COVID-19 lockdown in Vietnam could mean for your morning coffee.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the problematic nature of operating a restaurant on tight margins, cheaper ingredients and cheaper labor. We spoke to Peter Hoffman, a chef and former owner of the farm-to-table restaurant Savoy and whose book “What’s Good? A Memoir in Fourteen Ingredients” examines how the restaurant sector reached this point. We also have a few more details on President Biden’s plan to tackle affordable housing. Workers at Starbucks are trying to form the coffee chain’s first-ever union.

Sex workers are planning to demonstrate outside of several major banks in New York City on Wednesday. They say Bank of New York Mellon and others are discriminating against them by refusing to process payments for companies like OnlyFans. That is the social media subscription site made popular by sex workers that recently said it was going to ban adult content, then backed off amid criticism. Jed Kim speaks with his Marketplace colleague Kimberly Adams, who has been reporting on the topic. She said payment processors push decisions on what can happen online.

By now you’ve heard the phrase creator economy. It includes everyone from TikTok stars to Twitch streamers and adult-content creators on sites like OnlyFans.

According to one report, more than 50 million people around the world consider themselves creators, and it’s become the fastest-growing type of small business.

“The influencer marketing industry is projected to be over a $20 billion business in the next couple years,” said Taylor Lorenz, who covers tech culture and online creators for the New York Times. She’s also the author of the forthcoming book “Extremely Online: The Rise of the Online Creator and Creation of a New American Dream.” 

“For so long, it was really, really, really hard to build tech products for influencers or creators … because tech executives and tech investors really thought of it as a niche market, right? Now, obviously, there’s so many creators, the pandemic kind of pushed everyone online and the industry is, you know, reaches a sort of a maturation point where it makes a lot of money. And so you see the Silicon Valley investors kind of rushing in.”

Today, we’re doing the numbers on the creator economy and discuss how it’s not only changing the business world, but also changing how people think about democracy, misinformation, the anti-vaccination movement and, ultimately, whom people trust.

In the news fix, we’ll commiserate over airline customer service wait times, and is Kai a psychic? His “Jeopardy!” prediction comes true. Plus, we’ll hear from a listener who is the boss of multitasking, and another one calls in with a life update.

When you’re done listening, tell your Echo device to “make me smart” for our daily explainers. This week, we’re explaining libraries, vaccines and Dolly Parton. You can hear all our explainers here. And 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.

Today we received record-shattering house price numbers. Although major metro housing market conditions right now are sharply reminiscent of the bubble of 2005, economists consider this a very different category of boom. Also on today’s show, how Louisianans without power or water are surviving in the late-summer heat, a stark report on racial and ethnic disparity in receiving specialty health care and a look at the businesses — 6% of borrowers — that have been asked to pay back portions of their Paycheck Protection Program loans.

You’ll soon be able to make charitable donations directly through Zoom. The video conferencing platform announced the move along with their quarterly earnings on Monday, partnering with fundraising company Pledge to embed its app in Zoom calls. With some workers going back to the office, video tele-conferencing platforms are trying to offer new features to stay competitive. Also, we get a look at consumer confidence, which is not looking high at the moment. The BBC checks in to share news on the economic struggles of Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover.

The pandemic has strained the oxygen resources of hospitals around the country, but Hurricane Ida’s battering of Louisiana could make the problem worse, as transportation routes for that oxygen could be cut off. China correspondent Jennifer Pak shares details of China’s video gaming stocks following the announcement of online playing time restrictions for children. Senior economics contributor Chris Farrell stops by to talk about the concept of the “democratization of personal finance.”

From the BBC World Service: People in Afghanistan are living in tenuous economic conditions: rising inflation, some salaries haven’t been paid for months and cash supplies are limited. Plus, a United Nations warning that Madagascar is on the verge of the world’s first climate change-induced famine.

The gender gap in tech starts pretty early. Look at computer science students: Roughly 4 out of 5 bachelor’s degrees in that field go to men. That’s why the nonprofit Girls Who Code aims to get girls interested at a young age — as early as third grade. Since the organization was founded in 2012, hundreds of thousands of girls have gone through its clubs and summer immersion programs. When COVID-19 canceled in-person classes, they moved totally online. That actually allowed Girls Who Code to grow, and enrollment went up 200%. Marketplace’s Jed Kim speaks with Tarika Barrett, who took over as CEO this year. She said they had to design their new model with the hardest-to-reach girls in mind.

It’s been a somber news day. Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. This time, the city’s $14.5 billion system of levees seemed to have held up, but the storm knocked out power for 1 million people. We’ll talk about what this extreme weather tells us about climate adaptation. Plus, it’s the end of an era in Afghanistan as the last American troops pull out of Kabul and we’ll share a few stories you might’ve missed over the weekend. Finally, an Al Roker clap back you didn’t know you needed.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

Read the transcript here.

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