Marketplace

Over the weekend, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists broke news about leaked financial documents called the Pandora Papers, which highlighted how the global elite shield their wealth. Dominic Rushe, U.S. business editor at The Guardian, spoke with us about how the documents reveal that some states, principally South Dakota, offer greater protections for offshore money than places like Switzerland or the Cayman Islands. Also on today’s program: A look at the Fed’s debt ceiling playbook, Molly Wood on the Facebook and Instagram outage and ride-hailing apps face competition from an old rival: taxis.

The pandemic has helped shift power in the economy from employers to workers. Public support for unions is among the highest its been in recent years. On today’s show, Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, discusses what she sees as the beginning stages of a modern labor movement that can grow and change with the needs of working people. But first: The Weekly Wrap, consumer pessimism grows and what budget constraints will mean for federal agencies.

Hospitals and intensive care units have seen a wave of nurses leave the field, prompted by the stressors of COVID-19. Enrollment has picked up in many nursing programs, but schools project that there won’t be enough graduates to fill the gap. Also on today’s program: Supply chain-induced inflation may be with us for a while, an Iowa farmer recounts her difficult growing season, and need proof of vaccination? There are apps for that.

The United Nations General Assembly is meeting this week, and climate change is high on the docket. More than a decade ago, the U.S. and other developed countries pledged to gather $100 billion annually by 2020 to assist in climate adaptation and resilience for developing countries. Despite bearing most of the responsibility for emissions and having the most resources to adapt, pledge countries are falling short of their promised amounts. Also on today’s program, we’ll examine London’s financial services post-Brexit, how disaster aid became coupled with budget bills and why you should care about the Fed’s tapering of bond-buying.

Anxiety over Evergrande, a behemoth property developer in China, and its $300 billion debt sent stock markets around the globe tumbling on Monday. The situation is spotlighting precarity in China’s real estate sector and the country’s economy as a whole; some fear a Lehman Brothers-style crisis. The uncertain future of Evergrande, coupled with supply chain and inflation woes, could continue to stoke market jitters. Plus: Location-based setbacks for new houses, high-frequency data hints about the labor market and mixed business is dished up for New York’s lunch spots.

In anticipation of the holiday season, Walmart plans to hire 20,000 distribution and fulfillment center workers. Getting to that number might be a long shot. According to a recent survey of major retailers by the consulting firm Korn Ferry, 97% said they were having “moderate” or “significant” challenges hiring such workers. Also on today’s show: Could the loss of power on the Gulf Coast have been prevented? And we’ll hear from a Pakistan-based macroeconomist about how the Taliban might run the Afghan economy.

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.

Although about a million people in Louisiana are without power due to the destruction caused by Hurricane Ida, the investment of billions of dollars in a robust levee system means things are a lot better than they would have been. It’s a real-life examination of return on infrastructure investment. Also: Economist Mohamed A. El-Erian on why he —  still — disagrees with the policy approach taken by the Federal Reserve, how Ikea hopes to stop you from sending its wares to landfills and a marketing professor’s take on the Taliban’s association with Toyota.

The Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s most recent eviction moratorium yesterday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had extended the ban to buy more time for state and local governments to distribute aid to tenants and landlords. Though some 8 million adults in America are behind on rent, the Treasury Department said that just 11% of relief money had been paid out by the end of July. Now, housing advocates worry about a wave of evictions. Also on today’s show: the health care costs of wildfires, the economic outlook for companies that have flourished in the pandemic and examining the silver screen relationship between China and Hollywood.

A new report from The Century Foundation shows that the manufacturing sector will need 2 million new workers over the coming decade, as the predominately white, predominately male workforce ages into retirement. But manufacturers are struggling to recruit younger employees — and to correct racial and gender divides. Also on the program: the convenience and efficiency of curbside pickup, what a drought declaration could mean for states out West and why cybercrime groups are taking aim at supply chains.