Ask an economist what’s driving decision-making right now, and the answer may well be “uncertainty.” In this episode, the unpredictable environment fuels a range of change: The labor market softens, surveys of the service sector point in opposite directions and Treasury yields sink. Plus, the Commerce Department just dissolved two expert advisory groups, putting the trustworthiness of future federal data into question.

On our new series “The Infinite Scroll,” we’re looking at the rules and risks of kids using social media. Artificial intelligence is showing up on these platforms in the form of chatbots, digital characters you can text or talk with. Today we explore what can happen to youngsters who interact with them. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes discussed the subject with Meetali Jain, founder and director at the Tech Justice Law Project. Her organization is involved in a lawsuit against Character.AI, an app that enables users to create and communicate with these bots.

They’re here: President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico begin today, as well as an additional 10% tax on goods from China. In this episode, we hear from business owners who are caught in the middle of trade policy chaos and explain why Texas is likely to suffer in particular. Plus, Forest Service layoffs devastate rural western mountain towns, and small warehouses are in demand but hard to come by.

This week, we are looking at how kids use social media and the risks and rules around it. It’s part of our new series “The Infinite Scroll.” Monday, we talked about how habitually checking social media can change adolescents’ brains, making them more sensitive to feedback from their peers. Today, we’re going to look at what it’s like to be a parent monitoring their kids’ social media. One thing’s clear: It can be a lot of work.

As bird flu proliferates across U.S. farms, infecting chickens, cows and even humans, some public health experts worry that that funding to deal with it has been inadequate. Above all, they say we need stronger incentives for farmers and farmworkers to test for and report cases of the virus. Plus, the manufacturing sector’s outlook remains mixed, two-thirds of Americans say they have been victims of a financial scam and what could happen if we removed government spending from GDP calculations.

Social media takes up a huge chunk of kids’ lives. A 2024 study from Pew found that about half of U.S. teenagers are online “almost constantly.” It’s a big source of stress for parents too, and policing their kids’ actions on these platforms can take up a lot of time and energy. Also, there’s AI, and it’s showing up on social media as bots that are always available to talk. We’re going to get to all of that this week in our new series about what it’s like to be a kid on social media and the risks and rules that come with it. We call it “The Infinite Scroll.” We’re kicking things off with Eva Telzer, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Telzer told Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes about the intensity of youngsters’ connection to their phones and its effects on how the kids are wired, which may last into adulthood.

In the past decade, filming outside of Los Angeles has become a cost-effective option for many major studios. And lower housing costs are driving many lighting techs, grips and gaffers to follow. With roughly 13,000 homes lost in January’s wildfires, staying in LA will be even harder for those workers. Also on the show, the rising cost of utilities and a second act for frozen foods.

In this week’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review,” chip powerhouse Nvidia saw its revenue soar last quarter, showing that the AI boom is still booming. Plus, it was a bumpy week for bitcoin after the crypto exchange Bybit lost almost $1.5 billion of digital assets in a hack. But first, Apple announced it’s spending $500 billion to expand manufacturing and create jobs in the U.S. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, about what the investment could do for American tech manufacturing and more.

Capital goods orders picked up in January — that’s stuff businesses buy that’ll last a while, like tools and equipment. Is it a sign business owners have money to spend? Or, have tariffs fears and economic uncertainty spooked them into buying things before it’s too late? Also in this episode: Unemployment claims tick up (and that’s not even counting laid-off federal workers), architects stress fire resilience in rebuilding and used car prices rise.

Patreon, a company that enables fans to directly support internet creators financially, has produced a report looking at how creators and their fans are feeling these days. One finding: Fans say they’re seeing more short-form work on social media, even though they prefer long-form content. And more than half of creators surveyed say it’s harder to reach their followers now than five years ago. This is part of what the report calls the “TikTokification of the internet.” Brielle Villablanca, vice president of communications and creator advocacy at Patreon, discusses the trade-offs for creators in the current TikTok-driven environment with Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes.