Marketplace

We’ve all heard bitcoin is volatile, risky, quite possibly a bubble. So why then the demand for bitcoin futures? We take a look at what happened during yesterday’s bitcoin futures trading launch. And in Saudi Arabia, a ban on movie theaters has been lifted, ushering in what is predicted to be a $24 billion cinema industry to offset the economy’s dependence on oil. Plus, the Environmental Protection Agency adds 21 new Superfund sites, public and private entities alike are scrambling to add more electric charging stations, especially in the American West, and the Trump administration is trying to take credit for killing regulations that are already dead.

Ahead of your regularly scheduled episode of Marketplace this afternoon, we're bringing you the second episode of the new season of The Uncertain Hour. Starting where episode one left off, we find the government and consumer activist Ruth Desmond trying to answer an existential question: How many additives can you put into a jar of peanut butter before it's not peanut butter anymore? Trying to answer it kicked off a multiyear battle that changed the way we think about regulations in this country. The things we fight the most about are the things we know the least about, so subscribe to The Uncertain Hour and visit theuncertainhour.org for more.

Is leaving the coveted 18 to 34 advertising demographic a steep descent into irrelevance, or are advertisers still paying attention to you once you make the jump? Plus, steady she goes … this economy has officially added jobs for 86 months in a row. So why aren’t wages moving? That and more of the week’s economic news on the Weekly Wrap with The New Yorker’s Sheelah Kolhatkar and The Wall Street Journal’s Kate Davidson. And just to squeeze in some more tax plan coverage before the week is out, we look ahead to how the tax changes will hinder or help the Trump administration’s plans to tackle infrastructure in 2018.

In a matter of weeks, the GOP tax plan will be in effect and riddled with unintended consequences due to the haste of passing it, says Tax Analysts chief economist Martin Sullivan. His favorite unintended consequence? Benefits for pass-through companies, which are basically any businesses that aren't corporations, and could include you if you incorporate yourself. Then your wages can be seen as tax-preferred income and you can pay a lower rate. Plus, how GE’s job cuts relate to the fall in demand for fossil fuel power equipment, the challenges and costs of getting emergency alert systems right and Kai Ryssdal talks Reagan-era glamour and workplace gender equality with pioneering Vanity Fair Editor Tina Brown.

The GOP tax bills in the House and Senate have been portrayed as legislation intended to create a windfall for big business. But the bills have winners and losers by industry sector. We take a look at what industries come out ahead, and we give you context on the Bitcoin boom, the rumored $60 billion sale of Fox's entertainment assets to Disney and why Jerusalem's divided economy is at risk. Plus, the latest installment of “My Economy," where we hear from the publisher of a cultural magazine about southern Louisiana.

Those are two completely different subjects, one having to do with a very long-term American problem: the dearth of innovation, which could be remedied if more low-income people of color and women were encouraged as children to innovate, according to Stanford economics professor Raj Chetty. And the other problem, lost tax revenue, is more concrete. Forty billion dollars over the next 10 years — that’s what we’d lose if the House’s proposition to repeal the 20 percent minimum tax rate for corporations goes forward (the Senate’s version of the bill keeps it.) Those differences are being ironed out this week. Also this week, a government shutdown looms. In other news, we check in on how Ireland’s open border will be affected by Brexit, and we visit the National Portrait Gallery to see an exhibition on American workers.

We get down to the differences between the Senate and House versions of the tax bill, and debt created is one of those differences. Also included is the number of tax brackets, the alternative minimum tax and the amount of the child tax credit. Plus, Marketplace’s Dan Gorenstein is in Boston looking at how to woo investors to a working-class neighborhood in order to create a healthy, mixed-income community, and Kai Ryssdal figures out how to tell the difference between real and fake Nikes with Eddy Lu, CEO of GOAT, an online sneaker resale marketplace that specializes in authenticity.

You risk overheating it. If these cuts pass, and if they do, in fact, stimulate the already-growing economy, the Fed would inevitably have to pump the brakes and raise interest rates. We get into that scenario and hear listeners' ideas about what America would look like with this tax bill in place. Plus, who the Children's Health Insurance Program left stranded when Congress failed to extend its funding, a dispatch from coal country and the tale of how Charles Dickens wrote his hit Christmas story and ended up with almost no money.

Republicans calling for lower corporate tax rates often say that the cash corporations save will stimulate growth, but the truth is, they may already have the cash on hand to do that.  And then there's the cautionary tale of what happened in Kansas, where five years ago Gov. Sam Brownback brokered deep cuts that stagnated growth and ballooned the state's deficit to $1 billion before the state legislature reversed them this year. In not-tax news, we discuss the bright future of Amazon's smart speaker assistant, Alexa, the uncertain future of Britain's economy as net migration declines more than it has in 50 years and a new transitional kindergarten program that's shaking up the status quo.

It’s a big moment for the tax world in Washington, and it’s even kind of ... glamorous. Nancy Marshall-Genzer reports from the extravagant centerpiece of a spate of wildly popular events where tax elites can mix, talk big tax thoughts and eat Chick Fil A. And, another day, another round of prominent sexual harassment allegations. We check in with Congresswoman Jackie Speier about the one place these claims don’t seem to be sticking: Capitol Hill. Plus, in a time where most kids seem to be glued to an iPad or a cell phone, teddy bears are standing by — and their manufacturers are trying to remain profitable — Build-a-Bear Workshop’s CEO Sharon Price John tells us.