Author: Marketplace

Starting Friday, federal workers will be getting their first paychecks for smaller-than-usual amounts as a result of the government shutdown. That’s likely to especially sting federal employees who still have to show up to work, including TSA agents and air traffic controllers. They've helped up the pressure to end shutdowns before. Could they do it again? Plus, we'll unpack how C-suite execs are currently feeling about tariffs and artificial intelligence.

Las Vegas is arguably the discretionary spending capital of the country, if not the entire world. This makes it a good barometer for understanding the current economy — not just of one city or state, but the entire nation. And right now, Vegas is grappling with declining tourism and a high unemployment rate. We'll visit Sin City to learn more about the slump. Plus, why is China stepping up controls on rare earth metal exports?

From the BBC World Service: Jamie Dimon, the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, told the BBC that a serious market correction could come in the next six months to two years. He also hinted that there could be an imminent deal between India and the U.S. on tariffs; India is currently suffering under 50% duties. Also, China has tightened export controls on rare earth metals, which are vital to a range of electronic devices, including military hardware.

A recent study of nearly 20,000 University of California, San Diego Health workers found cybersecurity training reduced the likelihood of successful phising attacks by just 2%.

Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Ariana Mirian, senior researcher at the cybersecurity firm Censys and co-author of the study, who explained that many workers are just not taking those training programs seriously enough.

Know how the government shutdown put the kibosh on federal data distribution, like last week’s cancelled September jobs report? Well experts haven’t just had a tough week of interpreting this economy — they’ve had a tough year. In this episode, the Trump administration’s policies have uniquely muddied traditional economic forecasting. Plus: Adjustable-rate mortgages grow in popularity, the food and beverage industry adapts to GLP-1 proliferation, and an American furniture manufacturer discusses Trump’s tariffs.

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Just two months ago, the World Trade Organization predicted global trade would grow by nearly 2% next year. Now, it’s revised that forecast down to just 0.5% as the impact of the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs sinks in. We'll hear what's been propping up trade so far and what's on the road ahead. Then, "Marketplace Tech" shares tips for spotting job scams. And later, we'll hear how other countries' "gold card" visa programs fared.

When President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on Chinese goods earlier this year, China ceased crop purchases from U.S. farmers. That hurt American agriculture, so the government hopes to help those farmers out with aid using tariff revenue. Trump did this during his last trade war. Today, we'll outline how it all played out. Plus, the price of gold keeps climbing, and we check in with a tea shop owner about how tariffs are affecting business.

From the BBC World Service: Gold has breached $4,000 an ounce for the first time, following one of its strongest monthly performances and its biggest sustained rally since the 1970s. What's driving the surge? Then, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is attending a two-day summit in India focused on trade, but he's insisting the U.K. won't issue more visas to Indian workers. Also on the show: Trump's "gold card" visas and newly minted billionaire soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo.

Imagine a future where chocolate and coffee are rare and expensive; where cheap, nutritional staples, like corn and wheat, are threatened.

The climate crisis is a food and agriculture crisis. A third of global greenhouse gas emissions come from what’s on our plate. Cow burps, deforestation, water use and food waste all feed into making our planet unlivable. And it’s a double-edged sword, because as the planet heats up, staple crops are withering, soil is losing its nutrients, and droughts and famines will become more common. Our food systems are hurting the planet, and the hotter planet is hurting our food systems. 

To survive, we need to drastically cut down our use of farmland and we need to find alternative meat sources that don’t give consumers the creeps. How will we keep feeding millions of people? And how will we do that with less land? 

This season of “How We Survive,” we’ll take you on a food tour of the future. May we interest you in some lab-grown chocolate or some cell cultivated salmon (that is, if you’re not in Florida)? We explore the uncanny valley of meat and visit farmers in our nation’s breadbasket where hotter, drier, less predictable weather has global consequences. Finally, we’ll take you on the ground into one of the more demonized (and misunderstood) parts of the agricultural system: Factory farms.

AI slop is pointless content shared online like fake images and videos. A new study in the Harvard Business Review wants us to consider a variant: “workslop,” or AI-generated reports, emails and more that are sloppily crafted.

The authors of the study say 40% of workers they surveyed have encountered workslop. And that's costing time and money.

Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with social psychologist and vice president of BetterUp Labs Kate Niederhoffer, who co-authored the study. She said workslop harms interpersonal work relationships, such as when one employee receives an AI written report from another.