Category: 4-FrequentNewsStreams

How optimistic are small business owners nowadays? According to a recent survey, the picture is downbeat — many owners have been dealing with tariffs and other stressors. We delve into the data. And, a chat with the co-founder of a non-profit restaurant in New York City that serves up economically inclusive meals priced with a sliding scale based on what diners can pay.

From the BBC World Service: Donald Trump is set to cut import taxes on products like coffee, bananas, and beef as part of trade agreements with four Latin American countries, aimed at easing food prices. A tariff of 10% will stay on most goods from Guatemala, Argentina, and El Salvador, as will a 15% tax on imports from Ecuador. But staples like coffee and bananas, which the U.S. can’t produce enough of, will be exempt.

This week we learned the Japanese investment firm Softbank sold all of its stake in the juggernaut chipmaker Nvidia. We'll get into why on today's “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.” Plus, Apple is reportedly pushing back the release of its thinnest iPhone, the Air, and Wikipedia is asking AI companies, once again, to pay for scraping its data.

But first, back to that big move by Softbank and its CEO, Masayoshi Son. It cashed out its stake in Nvidia in October, the same month that the chipmaker hit a $5 trillion valuation. The $5.8 billion it netted will be redirected to OpenAI, part of a promised $30 billion to be invested in the maker of ChatGPT.

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, about what all this means.

SoftBank Sells Its Nvidia Stake for $5.8 Billion to Fund OpenAI Bet - The Wall Street Journal

SoftBank sells its entire stake in Nvidia for $5.83 billion - CNBC

Apple Delays Release of Next iPhone Air Amid Weak Sales - The Information

iPhone Air Sales Are So Bad That Apple's Delaying the Next-Generation Version - MacRumors

Wikipedia urges AI companies to use its paid API, and stop scraping - TechCrunch

In the AI era, Wikipedia has never been more valuable - the Wikimedia Foundation

Military service personnel have been seeking outside legal advice about some of the missions the Trump administration has assigned them. The strikes against alleged drug traffickers and deployments to U.S. cities have sparked a debate over their legality. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Frank Rosenblatt, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, which runs The Orders Project. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Since last fall, more than 12,000 North Koreans have reportedly been deployed to fight with the Russian army in Ukraine. Recently, Ukraine accused the Kremlin of recruiting foreign fighters from African nations as it struggles to recruit troops among its own population. Special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky investigates the reliance on mercenaries in the world's deadliest conflicts. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

With the government shutdown officially over, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is back at work after a 43-day hiatus. But all that missed data can’t be recreated — and catching up while understaffed will be difficult. In this episode: What reports will BLS prioritize and what’ll be left behind? Plus: Solar projects rush to finish before a tax credit deadline, Disney stops reporting its streaming subscriber numbers, and businesses strategize for a world without pennies.

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Congress may have ended the shutdown (finally), but it’s still entangled in a power struggle with the Executive Branch. Kai Ryssdal has thoughts. On the show today, Kai and Kimberly get into what comes next in the shutdown’s wake, how the Trump administration’s tariff arguments went over at the Supreme Court and what the sliding balance of power in the federal government has to do with the health of the U.S. economy.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• "Court appears dubious of Trump’s tariffs" from SCOTUSblog
• "Trump floats $2,000 tariff rebate checks: Here's what you need to know" from CNBC
• "Trump claims tariff loss would force $3 trillion ‘unwind'" from Axios
• "If SCOTUS strikes down President Trump's current tariffs, he has plenty of other options" from Marketplace
• "How Congress Gave Up Its Own Power" from Time
• "Senate sinks measure to block military action against Venezuela" from Politico

Join us tomorrow for “Economics on Tap.” The YouTube livestream starts at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time, 6:30 p.m. Eastern.

The longest government shutdown in U.S. history came to an end Wednesday. The bill signed by President Trump provides back pay for federal employees and funds some federal agencies until September 2026. What it doesn’t do is extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, which are set to expire at the end of the year. Some can expect to see their insurance premiums rise to the point it's unaffordable to have health insurance. In the Loop sits down with Community Health CEO Stephanie Willding and UIC health policy professor Justin Markowski to hear how skyrocketing insurance premiums could impact the work of people providing healthcare. For a full archive of In the Loop interviews, head over to wbez.org/intheloop.

The longest government shutdown ever ended last night when President Donald Trump signed a stopgap bill to keep federal agencies going through Jan. 30. But the shutdown deal also included spending bills funding military construction, the legislative branch, the Agriculture Department, and the VA. We went through the lesser-known provisions so you don't have to. Also: the state of Canada's energy exports and potential limits to the power of proxy advisory firms.

By now, you know that the House passed legislation last night to reopen the government. But you might not know about a provision that would completely change the way hemp is regulated. It was tucked into the new farm bill, which was also approved last night, and funds the Agriculture Department through September. We'll hear more. Plus, are government institutions shifting resources away from the working class? Professor Clara Mattei argues that's the case.