Month: December 2025

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — and with that, the obligatory office holiday party. Thing is, some choices around holiday parties can tell a story of how a company is doing. Who's there? Who's chatting together or sticking to a corner? What food and drink are being served? Today, we'll help you read the room. But first, most regional Federal Reserve bank presidents have been reappointed, despite some Trump administration proposals to exert greater control over the Fed's regional banks.

From the BBC World Service: Reddit has filed a lawsuit calling for Australia's social media ban for children under 16 to be declared invalid. The text-based forum is one of 10 online platforms covered by the ban, which came into force this week. And later in the program, we head to Peru, where conflicts are brewing over how money from Machu Picchu tickets is being spent and whether it's benefiting tourists and locals.

There’s been something of a critical mass of high-profile departures and retirement announcements at Apple in recent weeks. Plus, how will consumers be helped or hurt by a potential merger between Netflix and Warner Bros or a hostile takeover from Paramount? And McDonald's pulls an AI-generated Christmas ad because some folks on social media weren't “lovin' it.”

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Joanna Stern, senior personal technology columnist at The Wall Street Journal for this week’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”