Tomorrow marks 100 days of President Donald Trump's second term in office. We're taking a look this week at what this new administration has meant for the U.S. and global economies. We start today by chatting with Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist Magazine. And later: Tariffs have been used before by countries around the world to attempt to revitalize domestic industrialization. What can we learn from revisiting that history?

From the BBC World Service: From rising prices to falling trade volumes, the impact of radical new U.S. trade policies is starting to filter through. But China says it's still “fully confident” it will achieve its target of roughly 5% economic growth this year, despite the escalating trade tensions. Also, global airline revenues are expected to top $1 trillion for the first time this year — thanks, in part, to pesky fees.

Leyla Isik, a professor of cognitive science at Johns Hopkins University, is also a senior scientist on a new study looking at how good AI is at reading social cues. She and her research team took short videos of people doing things — two people chatting, two babies on a playmat, two people doing a synchronized skate routine — and showed them to human participants. After, they were asked them questions like, are these two communicating with each other? Are they communicating? Is it a positive or negative interaction? Then, they showed the same videos to over 350 open source AI models. (Which is a lot, though it didn't include all the latest and greatest ones out there.) Isik found that the AI models were a lot worse than humans at understanding what was going on. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes visited Isik at her lab in Johns Hopkins to discuss the findings.

Americans expect inflation to rise to 6.5% this year according to the University of Michigan’s latest consumer sentiment survey. That’s the highest outlook since 1981. We’ll explain why those high inflation expectations could be keeping Federal Reserve Chair Powell up at night. And, the deal filmmaker Ryan Coogler made with Warner Bros. to make his latest horror movie “Sinners” is anything but ordinary. Could it shake up the Hollywood studio system?

"Trump administration reverses abrupt terminations of foreign students’ US visa registrations" from Politico

"Ryan Coogler's 'Sinners' isn't just scaring audiences. It's scaring Hollywood." from MSNBC

"Inflation expectations remain at highest level since 1981 even after Trump's 90-day tariff pause" 

"Pickle, a Fashion App, Lets Strangers Borrow Your Clothes" from The Cut

"Subtitling Your Life" from The New Yorker

"Is community fact-checking the future of social media moderation?" from Marketplace

"The $20,000 American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, and no touchscreen" from The Verge

Got a question for the hosts? Email makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

The stock and bond markets may tumultuous right now, but gold prices have been on a tear. This week, they hit an all time high of $3,500 an ounce. In this episode, why nervous consumers, investment firms and even central banks are trading in cash for gold. Plus: The Trump administration announces incentives to get self-driving cars on the road and the largest passenger ship in the U.S. prepares to be sunk for science.

 

The Trump administration hopes that tariffs will encourage more products to be made in America. But a new report out this week also says the president's tariffs will be an effective tax increase, with low-income consumers hit the hardest. We'll unpack. Plus, by one analysis, California's economy is now the fourth largest in the world. And later: how the Trump administration is pushing the limits of authority over independent agencies.

In the months since President Donald Trump's re-election, a lot has changed between the United States and Canada. New import taxes and talk of Canada becoming the 51st state, for example. It all adds up to a strained relationship where Canadians feel both betrayed and uncertain about the future. Today, we're visiting Thunder Bay, Ontario to hear more. Plus, we're looking at why more farmers are struggling to pay back their debt.

From the BBC World Service: The U.K.'s Post Office continues to pay millions of dollars to use the bug-ridden Horizon IT system, whose failings resulted in hundreds of wrongful fraud convictions. We'll unpack why the Post Office has failed to switch systems yet. Then, India revokes visas and Pakistan halts trade after a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir. Plus, we'll examine the rise in the price of gold.

It's the last Friday in April and it's time for Marketplace Tech Bytes Week in Review.

This week, we'll talk about how the Federal Trade Commission is suing Uber over its subscription service.

Plus, how the VC world is navigating the uncertainty created by the trade war.

But first, a nonprofit pivot is facing some challenges. Open AI, the maker of ChatGPT was founded about a decade ago as a nonprofit research lab. It's now looking to restructure as a for-profit — specifically, a public benefit corporation

But that transformation is facing resistance.

About 10 former Open AI employees, along with several Nobel laureates and other experts, have written an open letter asking regulators in California and Delaware to block the change.

They argue that nonprofit control is crucial to Open AI's mission, which is to “ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity."

Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Jewel Burks Solomon, managing partner at Collab Capital, about how unusual it is to see this kind of conversion.

More on everything we talked about

An Open Letter - Not For Private Gain

Ex-OpenAI workers ask California and Delaware AGs to block for-profit conversion of ChatGPT maker - from the Associated Press

OpenAI’s Latest Funding Round Comes With a $20 Billion Catch - from the Wall Street Journal

FTC Takes Action Against Uber for Deceptive Billing and Cancellation Practices - from the Federal Trade Commission

FTC sues Uber over difficulty of canceling subscriptions, “false” claims - from ArsTechnica

White House Considers Slashing China Tariffs to De-Escalate Trade War - from the Wall Street Journal

VC manufacturing deals were already declining before tariffs entered the picture - from Pitchbook

Ever had an awkward encounter around money while dating? Host Yanely Espinal speaks with author and financial therapist Aja Evans about how to have better money conversations in your romantic life.

Think you’re financially inclined? Dig deeper into money and dating:

- More suggestions for how to talk about money while dating from Ellevest 

- Grow your financial intimacy with NPR’s “Life Kit”

- Check out The Knot’s 50 affordable date ideas 

Are you in an educational setting? Here’s a handy listening guide.

Thanks for listening to this episode of “Financially Inclined”! We’d love to hear what you learned from it or any questions you’d like us to answer in a future episode. You can shoot us an email at financiallyinclined@marketplace.org or tell us using this online form.

This podcast is presented in partnership with Greenlight: the money app for teens — with investing. For a limited time, our listeners can earn $10 when they sign up today for a Greenlight account.