Marketplace

It's been a while since we've started this program by dissecting a presidential tweet. But with a whiff of trade war in the air, there's some good economic context to be had from that exercise today. At 6:03 in the morning, the president said, "When a car is sent to the United States from China, there is a Tariff to be paid of 2 1/2%. When a car is sent to China from the United States, there is a Tariff to be paid of 25%. Does that sound like free or fair trade. No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE - going on for years!" Believe it or not, the most important part of that whole thing was the last two sentences. We'll explain. Then: It's often said that if you aren't paying for a product, you are the product. The past few weeks at Facebook have been a stark reminder of that. So, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg set to testify before Congress tomorrow, we'll explore this model, other companies that use it and whether Facebook has any alternatives. Plus: Kai ended the trade war! He lost.

Today's jobs report was underwhelming, no doubt. But after putting up huge numbers last month, we're still adding 200,000 jobs a month this year. What we should really be worried about is The Ghost of Jobs Reports Yet to Come, because this run of economic growth is getting very long in the tooth. We'll talk about it, plus the latest Russian sanctions from the Trump administration. Then: Why on earth is Netflix looking to spend $300 million on a billboard company? But first, we'll talk about all the economic news of the past seven days in the Weekly Wrap.

The trade deficit — all the goods and services we buy from overseas, minus what other countries buy from us — is President Donald Trump's key economic irritant. He's cited it when threatening to raise tariffs and tear up trade deals like NAFTA. We just got the February trade report this morning from the Department of Commerce, and for the sixth month in a row, our trade deficit has grown, despite Trump's promises to shrink it. It may not be his fault though, and we'll explain why. Then: Yesterday we talked to several Americans about what the potential trade war between China and the U.S. would mean for them. Today we're headed to the streets of Shanghai, where the perspective is a little different. Plus, it's opening day for minor league baseball. While MLB players can pull eye-popping salaries, their counterparts down the ladder are making peanuts — with no raise in sight.

We should be clear from the jump: China and the U.S. are trading specific, escalating threats of tariffs, but none have actually gone into effect. So you could call it a "trade war," but it really isn't ... yet. Still, you all have a lot of questions about what might happen if this cold trade war heats up. We'll start today's show with the economic fundamentals, then do our best to answer those questions. There's even more on Marketplace.org. Plus: A look at what will happen to America's agriculture industry if no one blinks in this macroeconomic game of chicken.

The 12 regional banks in the Federal Reserve are ostensibly equal, but in reality the New York Fed leads the way on regulation of Wall Street and other bits of monetary policy. Today, the central bank announced John Williams (no, the other one) will run it. We'll talk about what that means for the Fed and what you need to know about Williams. Then, the latest from the so-called red-state teacher rebellion, playing out now in Kentucky and Oklahoma, West Virginia previously. Plus: Tiger Woods has been off his game in a very big way for years now. But after a string of personal struggles and four back surgeries, he's back and playing pretty well. Turns out, what's good for Woods' game is good for golf. We'll look at the Tiger Effect in 2018.

Wall Street finally reacted to the escalating tariffs between the U.S. and China today, and sliding tech stocks contributed to what was a pretty manic Monday for markets. We'll kick off the show with everything you need to know. Then: We'll zoom in a bit on Amazon, which took fire from President Donald Trump's Twitter account again today. Is it true that USPS is giving Amazon a sweetheart deal? (No.) Plus: Restaurant workers are pushing for their own #MeToo moment.

... but Molly Wood is here! Walmart is looking to acquire the health insurance giant Humana, which is valued at $37 billion. If approved by regulators, it'll be the latest in a string of big health care mergers. Plus: More and more people are playing HQ Trivia for more and more money, but who's winning? We talked with Neal Pollack, a former "Jeopardy!" champion who just made $25,000 playing a mobile trivia app. But first, of course, we'll talk about the headlines of the past seven days in our Weekly Wrap.

... about who controls it or where it all goes. OK, that's not great poetry, but it is a pretty good business model. Even Facebook couldn't get enough. The embattled company was getting consumer data from outside brokers until this week, when it announced it won't let advertisers use them. We'll kick off today's show by explaining the world of data brokers, along with the latest news from the latest White House Infrastructure Week. Plus: It's opening day for Major League Baseball, so we're looking at fines in sports. Sometimes they're peanuts, sometimes not so much. Who decides?

The South Korea trade deal we were talking about has finally gone through, and there's a lot in there: cars, currency manipulation and steel. South Korea gets out from under the steel tariffs that went into effect last Friday in return for limiting how much it sends here. The "here" in this case happens to be just 6 miles from Marketplace headquarters in Los Angeles. We went to Hannibal Industries, where 300 employees use imported steel to manufacture pallet racks you see at places like Costco. They're used to some instability, but new tariffs could be a "worst-case scenario" for their business. Then: The latest on Facebook's privacy fiasco. Plus: What's that thing we're always saying? Listen to the bond markets.

It goes something like this: "Politicians use economics the way a drunk uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination." It's what Princeton economist Alan Blinder is exploring in his new book: Why can't economists and lawmakers seem to understand each other? First though: The Department of Commerce says it's going to ask people about their citizenship in 2020. Several states are suing, and critics say it could keep some folks from talking to census takers. Today we'll look at the potential consequences of undercounting. Plus: Mark Zuckerberg said he'd testify before Congress about the Cambridge Analyitica scandal, but he doesn't plan to talk to the United Kingdom Parliament. We'll look at the European perspective on Facebook's latest controversy.