Author: Marketplace

Last week, the new trade agreement was painted with a broad brush. But we're now getting some finer details, including a 15% cap on taxes for most European imports. Also on the program: Amazon is putting more money into AI and its cloud computing business, and major oil companies report mixed results in their latest earnings.

From the BBC World Service: Farmers in India are gearing up for protests over the country's trade relationship with the U.S. They're worried about the threat of higher tariffs, and the prospect of their market opening up to U.S. producers. Plus, as delegates from more than 170 countries meet in Geneva to agree to a legally binding agreement to curb plastics pollution, we hear from one social entrepreneur who is cleaning plastic from rivers and oceans.

A new national study from groups including Gallup and the non-profit Jobs for the Future found that relatively few employees have any influence over how new technology is adopted in the workplace.

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Molly Blankenship, director of strategy and impact at Jobs for the Future, about what that means for employers and employees as technology like generative AI becomes more common in the office.

As President Donald Trump puts political pressure on the Bureau of Labor Statistics, experts worry BLS data will become less trustworthy. Economists following China say they know the feeling. In this episode, what we can learn from them. Plus, we peek behind the scenes of a municipal bond sale, speak with some economists who aren’t too surprised by the revised jobs numbers, and break down what it means that Trump can nominate a new Fed governor.

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This week, we’re revisiting one of our favorite episodes, plus a new update and your surprising reactions.

While sorting through her father’s belongings after his death, Amanda Petteruti came across a collection of locked toolboxes. What she discovered inside made her rethink what she knew about her family’s finances and left her with unsettling questions about her dad: Why had he spent so much money on this secret hobby? Why was it now Amanda’s burden to handle? And how do you find closure with someone once they’re gone? 

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President Trump’s firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner is not without international precedent. Other countries have gone down the path of meddling with economic data for political gain. We’ll get into lessons we can take from the rest of the world. And, can the U.S. continue to be a bastion of scientific research in the wake of deep federal funding cuts? Plus, we’ll celebrate one listener’s feat of digitizing years of her great grandmother’s diaries.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• "Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End" from The Atlantic 
• "Trump to Name New Fed Governor, Jobs Data Head in Coming Days" from Bloomberg
• "Trump Fired America’s Economic Data Collector. History Shows the Perils." from The New York Times

• Thread on X from Lulu Garcia Navarro

  
  

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President Trump fired the top Bureau of Labor Statistics official on Friday, after the agency issued a weak jobs report. The report also revised earlier estimates of job creation in May and June down by 258,000. The president claimed the numbers were being manipulated. Julia Coronado, founder and president of Macropolicy Perspectives and a professor at UT Austin, joins us to discuss. Also on the show: how Trump's tariffs could sink Lesotho's textile industry.

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that job creation in the U.S. was much lower than expected in July, and revised down its numbers for May and June, reporting there were 258,000 fewer jobs created in those months than initially estimated. President Trump, upset about the revisions, then proceeded to fire the head of that Bureau. The president now says he'll name a replacement in the coming days. Plus, why the manufacturing sector is struggling and how storm-chasing scientists are working to unlock the mysteries of hail.

From the BBC World Service: The U.S. has warned India of an "unspecified penalty" for buying Russian oil and weapons, which Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller says could take India's tariff rate to as much as 100%. For years, the economy of the tiny African kingdom of Lesotho has struggled, with claims of corruption and soaring unemployment; it’s now been hit with 15% U.S. tariffs — less than the 50% they were facing, but still a huge blow.

As autonomous vehicles become more common, cities are grappling with how to keep robotaxis from interfering with emergency response efforts. Julia Pickar reports on how Seattle is trying to fix this problem.