The largest fast-food company in the world -- with about 24,000 stores -- was once known for its rapid expansion mindset. Now, Subway is closing stores faster than ever and pushing out franchise owners in the process. In a recent report by the New York Times, franchisees across the country said that seemingly tiny violations, like cucumbers cut too thick and smudges on glass doors, have cost them their businesses. And when they try appeal to Subway's corporate leadership? They rarely get a response.   This week on Money Talking, guest host Ilya Marritz talks to Tiffany Hsu, a business reporter at the New York Times who co-reported the piece, about how Subway's efforts to scale back have impacted franchisees.

Next week marks fifty years since Neil Armstrong took “one small step” on the moon’s surface. The Apollo 11 mission was an historic voyage, fulfilling President John F. Kennedy’s goal of reaching the moon by the end of the 1960s. More than half a billion people watched the astronauts live on television. But in the years that followed, America’s interest and commitment to space exploration largely disappeared.  Yet the country’s ambitions in space are far from over. In March of this year, Vice President Mike Pence expressed a renewed sense of urgency. “Make no mistake about it — we're in a space race today, just as we were in the 1960s, and the stakes are even higher,” he told attendees at a meeting of the National Space Council in Alabama. At the same meeting, Pence presented a new timeline for landing humans on the moon again: Within the next five years, four years sooner than the administration's initial timeline of 2028, leaving some to wonder if a new space race could be on the horizon.   This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to Tim Fernholz, a reporter at Quartz covering space and author of Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and the New Psace Race, about the latest chapter of space exploration.

This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and the birth of the modern gay rights movement in this country. Over the intervening years as attitudes towards LGBTQ people have changed, corporate America has taken note. Whether it's McDonald's selling special-edition “Pride Fries” or Walmart’s (online) Pride Shop, companies have very publicly been displaying support for the community over the last few years. It’s a dramatic shift from the days of Anita Bryant and Florida orange juice or companies like Wendy’s pulling their advertisements after Ellen came out on her sitcom. The greater acceptance of the LGBTQ community has presented an opportunity for businesses. While some take issue with companies commercializing this weekend's pride events, it’s hard to ignore how much mainstream businesses have embraced LGBTQ culture and consumers. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to Jim Ellis, assistant managing editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, about the business of pride past, present, and future.

Corporate influence is no stranger to politics, but many businesses have found more support for their priorities in the Trump administration. Up until now, one influential group has flown under the radar, the Trump Leadership Council. A recent report from Rolling Stone names members of the group.  The Council dates back to the summer before the 2016 election. Though it went unnoticed at the time, the group's members consist of powerful business leaders from many of the nation's biggest industries who have pushed for policies such as a tougher trade stance with China and a rollback of environmental protections at the EPA. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to Andy Kroll, DC bureau chief for Rolling Stone, about his story "The Shadow Cabinet: How a Group of Powerful Business Leaders Drove Trump’s Agenda."

The Plaza Hotel is a New York City icon. The eighteen-story white marble building is the home of Eloise, the mischievous six-year-old who lived in the "room on the tippy-top floor" in the classic children's book series. Both the Beatles and the taxicab made their statewide debuts outside the Plaza. And it’s had a featured role in more movies and television shows than some actors in Hollywood, from Home Alone 2 to The Sopranos. Since it opened in 1907, the story of the Plaza has been the story of New York. Its history is littered with colorful guests, financial uncertainty, and a controversial transformation from hotel to a multimillion-dollar condominium. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to journalist Julie Satow about the past and present of the Plaza Hotel. In her new book, The Plaza: The Secret Life of America's Most Famous Hotel, Satow shares never-before-told stories about the iconic hotel from its murderous origins to its bankruptcy under Donald Trump.

The New York State legislative session is wrapping up this month. With just a few days left, lawmakers are feeling the pressure to tie up several loose ends, including rent regulation — an issue that affects millions of residents across the state. The state’s rent control and stabilization laws expire on June 15th, and legislators are racing to renew them before that deadline. For months, they focused on other issues like bail reform and congestion pricing. Now, it’s down to the wire to figure out everything from ending the deregulation of vacant apartments to limiting landlords ability to raise rents through renovations to a building or an apartment. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to Liz Kim, senior editor with Gothamist, and Jarrett Murphy, executive editor at City Limits, about the debate over rent regulations in the state legislature.

As the trade fight between the United States and China intensifies, one company has found itself in the center: Huawei. Despite its humble origins, the Chinese tech giant has become the second largest cellphone maker and largest provider of telecom equipment in the world. Only Samsung sells more smartphones than Huawei. But the company’s close ties to the Chinese government have concerned U.S. intelligence officials for years. This month, President Trump issued an executive order effectively banning U.S. companies from doing business with Huawei, citing potential threats to national security. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with David Sanger, national security correspondent for The New York Times, about what the administration's actions against Huawei could mean for the U.S, from trade to our relationship with our allies to the future of 5G cellular technology. As the Chinese firm becomes a possible bargaining chip in the ongoing trade fight between the U.S. and China, Sanger says the big question is, “Is the end state some kind of American victory as President Trump frequently refers to, or is that we’ve divided the internet into an authoritarian side run by China and Chinese companies, and a free chaotic, sometimes abusive side, run by western companies?”

A three-foot tall, shiny, stainless steel rabbit has set the art world buzzing after it sold for $91.1 million at Christie's this month. "Rabbit" by Jeff Koons now holds the record for the highest price paid at auction for a living artist. (While the buyer was art dealer, former Goldman Sachs executive, and father of the current Treasury Secretary, Robert Mnuchin, it's since been reported that he purchased it on behalf of hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen. Cohen is well-known for his art collection and for his previous firm S.A.C pleading guilty to insider trading.) Spending that much money on a big, metal bunny might sound like a risky investment. Is it worth it? And what does the record sales price tell us about what's going on in the economy and how it affects the rest of us? This week on Money Talking, economist and journalist Allison Schrager talks with Charlie Herman about what she learned writing her book, "An Economist Walks Into a Brothel” about the intersection of risk and economics. “Art reflects our culture” said Schrager. “What we’re getting now is this superstar effect.”

President Donald Trump has stymied hopes of a trade deal by raising tariffs on Chinese goods. In retaliation, China put additional tariffs on U.S. goods, causing the stock market to plunge that day. The Trump administration responded to that by taking steps to implement tariffs on even more Chinese products. So, who’s winning the trade war? Trump’s approach could signal a historic shift in U.S. policy which has largely encouraged free trade around the globe. The casualties of this fight could include American farmers, the Chinese companies, and the U.S. economy and consumers. But it might also lead to changes in how U.S. companies conduct business in China. This week on Money Talking, POLITICO Chief Economic Correspondent Ben White talks to host Charlie Herman about how much these escalating tensions should concern us.

Recent financial reports filed by the 2020 presidential candidates show vastly different amounts of money raised in varying amounts from many different sources. Some candidates are focusing on small donors, others are turning to high-dollar bundlers and some are dipping into their own bank accounts. For example, Senator Elizabeth Warren raised raised $6 million in three months for her campaign, while Joe Biden and Beto O’Rourke each raised that much in just a day. Yet with more than a year to go until the 2020 election, how much will the money they raise today matter in the long run? This week on WNYC’s Money Talking, host Charlie Herman talks to CNN national political writer Fredreka Schouten and The Washington Post national political reporter Michelle Lee about the candidates’ funds so far and their chances in the long run.

After months and months of speculation, former Vice President Joe Biden announced he’d be running for president in 2020. Already an early frontrunner, Biden joins a crowded field of potential Democratic nominees. There are now more than 20 candidates running, from policy wonk Elizabeth Warren to newcomer Pete Buttigieg to 2016 veteran Bernie Sanders. The Iowa caucuses are nine months away and if everyone stays in the race, it could challenging for voters to keep track of where the candidates stand on critical policy issues like healthcare, taxes, and climate change. This week on Money Talking, WNYC's Charlie Herman talks to Rick Newman, senior columnist for Yahoo Finance, about some of the fiscal policies being put forth by the Democratic contenders — and what they might mean for your pocketbook. 

"Avengers: Endgame" is officially opened at movie theaters across the country. It’s the most highly-anticipated movie event of the year and is expected to set a new box office record. Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, and the whole Avengers crew are back to do battle with super villain Thanos after he wiped away half of the universe’s population with a single snap of his fingers in last year’s "Avengers: Infinity War." The movie is the culmination of a groundbreaking superhero movie franchise that’s pushed out 22 films in 11 years, starting with the blockbuster "Iron Man" in 2008. With this movie, the so-called Marvel Cinematic Universe is expected to easily bring in more than $20 billion in global box office earnings. Love it or hate it, this franchise has become one of the most ambitious commercial endeavors in the history of Hollywood. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to Adam B. Vary, senior film reporter at BuzzFeed News, and Hunter Harris, associate editor at New York Magazine’s Vulture, about how the Marvel universe has changed the movie business.

Uber has taken its first steps to becoming a publicly traded company, following rival Lyft’s debut on the stock market last month. The initial filing from Uber reveals even more extensive details about the company's revenue, ridership and potential roadblocks. The good? Ridership is up and Uber is expanding its food delivery service. The bad? The rid-hailing company is losing huge sums of money and faces steep competition. This week on WNYC’s Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to Aaron Elstein, Senior Reporter for Finance at Crain's New York Business and Maureen Farrell, IPO and markets reporter for the Wall Street Journal, about the latest information about Uber and what is says about the future of tech and driving.

Much of the way influential consulting firm McKinsey & Co. operates is shrouded in secrecy. But recent reporting by the New York Times has revealed some of the company’s secrets, including its involvement with controversial companies like Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, as well as foreign leaders and governments in Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Additional stories have focused on the firm’s hedge fund MIO and alleged failures to make required financial disclosures. McKinsey has defended its work around the world. In a statement, the firm told the Times that “since 1926, McKinsey has sought to make a positive difference to the businesses and communities in which our people live and work.”  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with New York Times investigative editor Walt Bogdanich and investigative reporter Mike Forsythe about their reporting on the often hidden world of McKinsey and why it matters.

New York City just became the first city in the country to implement congestion pricing. As part of the effort to ease traffic and raise money to fix public transportation, drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street could pay between $10 and $15 per day for cars and possibly double for trucks. But how the system will work technologically, who might be exempted from paying the fees and how much they will actually raise are details that have yet to be decided. Cities like London and Stockholm have already implemented congestion pricing, but with mixed results. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Hermanand WNYC transportation reporter Stephen Nessen talk about the ways congestion pricing will cost you, and how it might pay off.

Advertising has become a big business for Big Tech—and it keeps getting bigger. Google now controls a whopping 91 percent of the search advertising market. The tech giant’s monopoly means it’s almost impossible for businesses not to advertise with Google. That’s especially true if you’re a company that exists entirely online, like the ride-sharing app Lyft, or mattress brand Tuft & Needle. Lyft, for example, spent 92 million dollars on ads placed with Google last year. As a recent article in Bloomberg notes, that’s about 10 percent of Lyft’s 2018 net loss. And if a business decides not to advertise on Google, a competing brand might buy its keywords and place an ad against them. It’s an advertising Catch-22. This week on Money Talking, Ilya Marritz speaks with Jake Swearingen, a contributor for New York Magazine’s Intelligencer, about how Google came to dominate search advertising—and what it means for businesses and consumers alike.

It’s been nearly three years since a majority of people in the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. One of the arguments made by many Brexit supporters was to “take back control.” Lately, however, the opposite has been true as the process spirals out of control. Britain was on track to leave the E.U. one week from today, but a last minute reprieve has given British Prime Minister Theresa May a new deadline of April 12, to come up with deal. No matter when or exactly how Brexit occurs, analysts expect there will be financial and economic consequences for the country. Already, the uncertainty has hurt businesses and overall economic growth.  This week on Money Talking, WNYC's Charlie Herman speaks with Eshe Nelson, economics and markets reporter at Quartz about the effects of Brexit on that nation's economy and its people. 

Hudson Yards is officially open to the public. What was once the site of warehouses, tenements, and rail yards is now home to the largest development in New York City since Rockefeller Center. From the initial idea to the opening this week, it’s taken nearly 20 years— and $25 billion — to create the sprawling 28-acre megaproject on the west side of Manhattan. The new neighborhood features supertall glass towers, luxury apartments, a high-end retail and restaurant hub, and a climbable honeycomb-like structure called the Vessel. And this is just phase one. Debuting in April, a new arts center called The Shed will be home to art galleries, concerts, and theater performances. There are also plans to build more public space, housing, and and even a new school. It’s a carefully-curated new neighborhood built from scratch. This week on WNYC's Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to Greg David, columnist at Crain’s New York Business, about the long road to the new Hudson Yards.

It’s been about eight months since President Trump launched a trade war with China, and it looks like we might be approaching an agreement between the two nations. Trump says that trade relationship with China has been unfair to the U.S. To force a change, he’s put in place punishing tariffs on Chinese goods to gain leverage. But that’s also punishing some in the U.S., like farmers, automakers manufacturers and even some consumers. If the deal is made, the big question will be, was it all worth it? On this episode of Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Rick Newman, senior columnist for Yahoo Finance, about how the impact of the trade war and what, if anything, the deal will change.

If you're depending on a tax refund this year to pay loans, make a down payment on a car or take a vacation, you might be out of luck. According to the IRS, average refunds have been lower compared last year. If the trend continues, many Americans will end up with a smaller refund or worse — they may owe the government. Residents in high-tax states, like New York and New Jersey could see a bigger swing because President Trump's tax code overhaul capped deductions for state and local taxes. But it doesn't mean people paid more taxes overall. The amount the IRS withheld from each paycheck was lower, so many people had a little more money each time they got paid. But it's a big change for those Americans who've become accustomed to pocketing some extra cash during tax season. On this episode of Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to Heather Long, economics correspondent for The Washington Post, about why this is happening and the political consequences it might have.

This week, a report from the House Oversight Committee revealed that officials in the Trump administration pursued a plan to export nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia in order to build nuclear power plants. The report from House Democrats says the deal gained momentum during President Trump’s first days in office with help from then-national security adviser Michael Flynn. The efforts continued, despite warnings from ethics officials and staff at the National Security Council. Behind the proposal was IP3, a company of former US generals that could benefit financially if the plan moved forward. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Isaac Arnsdorf, a reporter at ProPublica, who's been following the story for more than a year about where the plan stands today and what it could mean for Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. 

Imagine sitting down to watch a movie and downloading the file not in minutes, but mere seconds. 5G, short for "new fifth generation cellular networks" promises lightning-fast wireless service. That kind of connectivity is expected to open the floodgates for innovations beyond the home and possibly lead to a new technological and economic boom. For instance, it could make self-driving cars an everyday reality in cities around the country.  The network has already been launched in several places, but a nationwide roll out hasn't gone entirely smoothly. Cities and the federal government have been fighting over how the expansion should happen, while others are raising national security concerns. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to CNET reporter Maggie Reardon about what it will take to make 5G a reality, and what that could mean for your city and your smartphone.

Sears was once an iconic American retailer, selling everything from jewelry, to power tools, to ready-to-assemble houses. The 126-year-old company made its name through mail order catalogs eventually expanding to thousands of physical stores. In 2005, when Sears merged with department store Kmart, the combined retailer had over 300,000 employees and almost 3,500 stores.  But the company has proved unable to keep up in the 21st century and has been losing money for years. In October, the retailer filed for for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Once the largest retail company in the world, the future of Sears is looking grim. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to Michael Corkery, reporter at the New York Times, about what's in store for this former behemoth.

In just nine years, WeWork has gone from a company that offers shared office space for startups and freelancers to a global company valued at $47 billion that provides offices to the likes of IBM, GE and NASDAQ. Not only that, it has added to its core business a handful of other — sometimes puzzling — companies, including WeLive, WeGrow and Made by We. With over 300 locations around the world, WeWork has ambitions to be a lot more than a co-working space, but can it make good on its vision for the future of work and home? Then again, what exactly is that vision?  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to Ellen Huet venture capital reporter at Bloomberg and Katrina Brooker, senior contributing writer to Fast Company about what WeWork is, and where it wants to go.

In a historic vote, the House of Commons in the United Kingdom decided decisively against a plan for exiting the European Union.  Members of Parliament voted 432 to 202 to reject Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal, marking one of the largest margins of defeat in recent British history, with even many of her own Conservative party members voting against her plan. The following day, May faced, and survived, a challenge to her leadership in a no-confidence vote.  For more than two years, the British government has been negotiating how it will leave the European Union before a March 29, 2019 deadline. May has been working to craft a deal that both European Union officials and her own government will accept. But that is looking more and more impossible. Leaving the EU without any deal in place could have massively negative consequences for Great Britain, and possibly even Europe and the United States. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with Edward Luce, US National Editor for the Financial Times. 

Tech companies are rapidly shaping our lives — often in ways we do not even realize. Artificial intelligence and automation are transforming sectors from manufacturing to transportation to real estate. One of the people creating that future is Masayoshi Son, the founder and CEO of the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. In 2016, through the company, Son launched the $100 billion Vision Fund. According to a report from Bloomberg, that was greater than the entire US venture capital industry in 2016. By directing huge investments into tech startups such as Uber, WeWork, Slack, and many others, Son hopes to accelerate technological advancements, whether the rest of the world is ready for it or not.  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Katrina Brooker, a senior contributing writer at Fast Company whose profile of Son and the company is the cover story for the magazine's February issue.

After reaching records highs last year, the stock market went south in the final months of 2018. In the end, it was the worst year for markets since the 2008 crisis and the worst December since 1931. And the tumult is carrying over into the first week of trading in 2019.   What exactly is causing the turmoil? The government shutdown, rising interest rates, and unresolved trade tensions are all contributing to the ups and downs, but one reason for the triple point drops might have to do with how the market itself operates.  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with Greg Zuckerman, special writer for the Wall Street Journal, about the increase in computerized trading, how it shapes the market's moves, and what it means for the average investor.

On the other side of the globe, a corruption scandal has been rocking Malaysia for years involving a multi-billion government fund from which billions of dollars have gone missing. The fund, known as 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, was supposed to fund government-backed infrastructure projects, but investigators say it was instead used for the personal benefits of individuals, including the country's previous prime minister, Najib Razak. The money was allegedly used to buy a number of lavish and unique items, including a $250 million yacht, backing for the film The Wolf of Wall Street, diamond studded tiaras and a see-through piano for the model Miranda Kerr. This week, authorities in Malaysia filed criminal charges against Goldman Sachs, alleging the bank made false and misleading statements connected to work it did for the fund. The bank has denied wrongdoing and says it is cooperating. To explain the complex story, Money Talking's Charlie Herman spoke with Ben Walsh, reporter for Barron's, and Peter Eavis of The New York Times about 1MBD and Goldman Sachs involvement. To hear the complete interview, click "Listen."

It's a been a tough couple of years for technology companies. Facebook, Google, Twitter and others have faced criticism on many fronts, from accusations of bias to privacy concerns. Leaders of these companies have been called before Congress to testify about their businesses, most recently this week, when Google's CEO Sundar Pichai answered questions from members of the House Judiciary Committee. Underlying those concerns is the realization that tech companies have become so big, powerful and necessary in our lives that many of us are troubled by that reality, but unsure what to do about it.  In his new book, "The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age," technology law expert Tim Wu examines the history of antitrust actions in the 20th century and makes the argument that breaking up today's largest companies will not only be good for business, but for our democracy as well. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with Wu about his book and the state of monopolies in the U.S.

Last week's clash between U.S. law enforcement and Central American migrants along the border with Mexico took place thousands of miles from New York. But the controversy surrounding the conflict found its way to New York City through an unlikely place: the Whitney Museum. Two days after the event, the arts news site Hyperallergic reported that Warren B. Kanders, one of the museum’s top board members, owns Safariland, the company that made the tear gas used on the border. In response to the news, more than 100 staffers at the museum wrote a letter demanding answers about Kanders and his business, which prompted responses from both him and the museum's director, Adam Weinberg. The controversy has led to criticism of the Whitney and restarted a conversation about the role of money in the arts, especially when it comes from donors that people disagree with. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman discusses the issue with Robin Pogrebin, reporter for the Culture Desk at The New York Times, and Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief of Hyperallergic.

This weekend, President Trump will be in Argentina for a G20 summit which will include a dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meeting comes after months of escalating tariffs on Chinese goods imported to the U.S. But that simmering trade fight may come to a truce — or at least, a pause — as the president is reportedly feeling concerned about the long-term state of the U.S. economy. Though the American economy is generally strong, the stock market has had a rough few weeks and the Argentina meeting comes as one U.S. employer, General Motors, announced it plans to lay off  thousands of employees and close plants in Ohio, Maryland and Michigan. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks to Rana Foroohar, global business columnist at the Financial Times, and Rick Newman, senior columnist for Yahoo Finance, about what Trump may say to Xi, and what it may mean for consumers and the economy.

It's the talk of the towns. After a 14-month search, Amazon says it will have two new East Coast headquarters: one in Arlington, Virginia and the other in New York City. In each city, the company says it expects to create 25,000 jobs. But the expansion comes with a hefty price tag. In New York, the company has options to receive up to $3 billion in tax credits, abatements and capital grants from the city and state in return for building a new complex in Long Island City, Queens. These incentives, along with the lack of transparency over how the deal was made and how the state plans to streamline approvals for the project has sparked a backlash from many local officials — and New Yorkers — who are asking: Is the deal worth the money? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman sorts through that question with two reporters paying close attention to the Amazon news: Shira Ovida, a columnist with Bloomberg Opinion, and Derek Thompson of The Atlantic.

This Tuesday's election didn't quite end with the big, blue wave Democrats might have hoped for. But the flip from red to blue in the House of Representatives will change the political landscape and could affect fiscal policies. From financial regulations to trade to consumer protections to infrastructure spending — they’re all issues Democrats have been wanting to tackle following changes put in place by the Trump administration over the past two years. For example, California representative Maxine Waters is expected to chair the House Financial Services Committee and that could mean more hearings featuring CEOs from the biggest banks, not to mention investigations into the finances of the president's family business. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to Sheelah Kolhatkar, staff writer at The New Yorker, and Joe Nocera, columnist for Bloomberg, about what the change in the House means for Wall Street and Main Street.

Within a hectic news cycle ahead of the midterm elections, a big story has emerged from Wall Street: October has turned out to be one of the worst months for the U.S. markets since the financial crisis ten years ago. Stocks plummeted and most of the gains of 2018 have been erased in a few short weeks. That all happened in the immediate run-up to Election Day. Knowing that people tend to vote their pocketbooks, how will a turbulent time on Wall Street play out in the voting booth? And should people worry about what it all says about the health of the U.S. economy? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with Heather Long, economics correspondent for The Washington Post.   Loading...

For decades, the American dollar has been the international currency of choice for investors, for markets and even for other governments: Saudi oil, gold from China —it's all traded in dollars. But some recent developments indicate that the long-running supremacy of the dollar isn’t guaranteed. According to a new report from Bloomberg Businessweek, China is challenging the dollar with a crude oil futures contract denominated in yuan, Russia cut its holdings in U.S. currency and, most significantly, some European countries are talking about creating a payment system to work around U.S. sanctions in Iran. All of this doesn't mean the dollar is in imminent danger of toppling from its number-one spot, but it is a note of concern for the long-term health of the U.S. economy. This week on Money Talking, WNYC's Charlie Herman talks about the issue with Peter Coy, economics editor for Bloomberg Businessweek and the author of "The Tyranny of the U.S. Dollar."

The disappearance of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi after visiting an embassy of Saudi Arabia in Turkey has brought renewed attention to what’s been true for years: the United States — and its president — has an important, and extremely complicated, relationship with Saudi Arabia. In recent years, U.S. businesses have developed even deep connections to the Middle Eastern country. Now, in the aftermath of Khashoggi’s disappearance, CEOs of some of the largest financial firms have announced they’re walking away from a business summit known as "Davos in the Desert" planned for next week in Saudi Arabia. Leaders from Goldman Sachs, Google, Uber and the giant investment firms Blackrock and Blackstone are among those who have pulled out while the Khashoggi investigation continues. At the same time, President Trump's own history with the Saudis is coming under scrutiny. Trump has done business with the country for years, even bragging during his presidential campaign about the large amount of money Saudi buyers paid for his apartments. "Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million," he said at a rally in Mobile, Alabama in August, 2015. "Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much." This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman delves into all the ways Saudi Arabia is intertwined with U.S. business interests including those of the president himself, with David Fahrenthold, who reports on Trump's business interests for The Washington Post, and Joe Nocera, business columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.

By the end of this year, Amazon says it will choose the city where it will build the company's second North American headquarters. Since it announced the project, cities across the country have jumped at the chance to host the mega-office. Now, Amazon has whittled the list of contenders down to 20, including New York City and Newark, N.J. The campus, wherever it lands, will be a big prize. Amazon says it will bring 50,000 employees earning high median incomes in addition to $5 billion in investments for the city that is selected. As the final months of 2018 wind down, where do things stand with the hunt for the new headquarters, and will the winning city get a good deal considering the tax breaks and subsidies many are offering to lure the tech giant. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with The Guardian’s business editor Dominic Rushe and Karen Weise, a Seattle-based technology reporter from The New York Times about the latest developments in the search for Amazon's HQ2.

Nearly 20 years ago, Donald Trump famously told Fortune magazine that he could run for president and make money doing it. "It’s very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it," he said in the 2000 interview. But now that he's president, the story is looking a bit different. A report from Forbes magazine this week concluded that the presidency has not enriched Trump overall: Measuring Trump's net worth before he announced his run for the presidency in 2015 to the last two years, Trump’s fortune has dropped from $4.5 billion to $3.1 billion.  In a statement to the magazine, Eric Trump, who is co-managing the Trump Organization, said, “My father made a tremendous sacrifice when he left a company that he spent his entire life building to go into politics. Everything he does is for the good" of the American people. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with one of the Forbes reporters who looked into Trump's finances, Dan Alexander, and how Trump could have saved millions (and prevented a lot of headaches as well).

Amid an atmosphere of intense political partisanship, a rare and remarkable thing happened in Washington this week: Both parties came together to solve a problem — in this instance, in the music world. With music streaming on the rise, lawmakers hammered out legislation that will update copyright laws and create a new licensing system for streaming services in an effort to bring the music business into the 21st Century. The legislation, known as the Music Modernization Act, (renamed the Hatch-Goodlatte Music Modernization Act), passed both the House and Senate unanimously and will become law once the president signs it. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with John Schaefer, host of WNYC’s New Sounds, about how the new law will work and how it will affect music-listening consumers. Schaefer also discusses how artists and labels are trying to boost the number of plays on streaming services in order to score a number one hit on the Billboard charts.

This election season, many leading Democrats have come out in favor of "Medicare for All," the single-payer health care plan from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. The bill, which two years ago hardly had any support, is now popular with about a third of the Senate Democratic caucus, including many rumored 2020 presidential candidates. It also got a big boost from the most famous Democrat of all: former president Barack Obama, who said recently "Democrats aren’t just running on good, old ideas like a higher minimum wage, but they’re running on new ideas like Medicare for all." The idea — that the state provides health care coverage to all people, regardless of their employment status or ability to pay — is also very costly. One study estimates it would have a price tag of $32 trillion over 10 years. Are we ready for such a radical shift in how healthcare works, and who pays for it? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman dives into the issue with Yahoo Finance columnist Rick Newman.

This week marks the 10-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers on Sept. 15, 2008. It was an event that set off a downward spiral in the American markets and ultimately led to a global recession. Leading up to the anniversary, there’s been a lot of reflecting about what happened and what, if anything, has changed. There's also been a lot of analysis about how the recession had many unexpected responses, like the rise of the Tea Party movement, Occupy Wall Street and the increase in income inequality. But another change in the past ten years is how the United States became a major oil and gas producer. There's been an historic energy boom in this country; in fact, the International Energy Agency estimated earlier this year that the U.S. could become a bigger oil producer than Saudi Arabia and Russia by 2023. It's a shift that's had major repercussions around the world. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman discusses the trend — and how it's intertwined with the 2008 financial crisis — with financial journalist Bethany McLean, author of new book, "Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How It’s Changing the World."

Silicon Valley is back in Washington, D.C. Executives from the two of nation's leading tech companies — CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg — went to Congress this week to face questions from lawmakers about their efforts to prevent foreign influence in our elections and to respond to charges of bias against conservatives. It’s not the first time Congress has grilled tech executives in an attempt to untangle the effect of social media on democracy; Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg famously appeared in front of both the House and Senate this spring. At this week’s hearing, lawmaker expressed a desire to do something to rein in the hugely influential companies. But it was unclear, exactly, what that should be. "The size and reach of your platforms demand that we as policymakers do our job to ensure proper oversight, transparency and protection for American users and our democratic institutions," Democratic Senator Mark Warner told the executives in his opening remarks at the committee on Wednesday. "The era of the Wild West in social media is coming to an end. Where we go from here though is an open question." This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with Rana Foroohar, global business columnist for the Financial Times, about what, if anything, Congress can do to regulate Silicon Valley — and how it may affect the way technology companies do business.

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has had a rough year. His effort to get a relatively affordable electric car, the Model 3, to a mass market has been rocky. Profitability has been an ongoing issue. And his own sometimes bizarre behavior has gotten the attention of both gossip blogs and investors betting against the success of the company. Amid a tumultuous time for Tesla, Musk sent out a tweet that sent investors scrambling: He had a plan to take the company private, and funding to back it up. An uproar followed with investors, his board and financial journalists asking a lot of questions. Then, less than three weeks later, Musk reversed course and scrapped the going-private plan. So, what exactly is going on with Tesla’s famous leader, and what does it mean for the future of the electric car company? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with two reporters who cover Musk and his business: Linette Lopez, senior finance correspondent for Business Insider, and Dan Primack, business editor at Axios.

For a long time now, the economy has been doing quite well, thank you very much. Job growth is up, unemployment is near a 50-year low and the stock market has been on a bullish climb for more than 10 years — nearly the longest stretch in its history by some accounts. All that good economic news has the Trump administration pleased. The president’s economic advisor Larry Kudlow boasted that the White House’s policies — including protectionist tariffs, tax cuts and loosening of regulations — deserve the credit.  "Our economy, our investors, our workforce are crushing it right now.  We are crushing it," he told the president at a cabinet meeting on cabinet meeting last week. As the midterm elections move closer, Republicans are hoping the rosy economic picture will prevent a "blue wave" of Democrats from taking control of the House of Representatives, and perhaps even Congress. But will a steadily rising stock market, good job numbers and consistent economic growth be enough to make a difference for the G.O.P. in November? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with Ben White, chief economic correspondent for Politico and host of the podcast "Politico Money" about whether or not voters will be thinking about their pocketbook when they enter the voting booth.

Ten years ago, in September 2008, Lehman Brothers failed. It marked a decisive moment in the financial crisis, one where the U.S. economy plunged into what we now know as the Great Recession. With such a momentous anniversary approaching (September 15, if you want to mark your calendar), you can expect there'll be a slew of stories that look back at what happened and where things stand. But there’s another anniversary that’s not getting as much attention. Ten years before Lehman, in 1998, the country faced another possible crisis, and at its center was another financial firm, Long-Term Capital Management. LTCM, as it was known, was one of the world's largest hedge funds. But after Russia defaulted on its debt, LTCM faced a near collapse as a result of its investments along with too much leverage (a significant reason behind the financial crisis in 2008). The New York Federal Reserve Bank stepped in and organized a bailout of LTCM with the backing of the largest banks on Wall Street. This week on Money Talking, Rob Cox, Global Editor of Reuters Breakingviews, discusses what we did — and didn't — learn from the global financial crash that nearly was, and what the lasting impacts we can see today.

Indra Nooyi, the CEO of PepsiCo, announced this week that she is stepping down after leading that company for 12 years. With her departure, that leaves 24 female CEOs at companies in the S&P 500 index, less than five percent.  Earlier this year, during an interview with the podcast Freakonomics, Nooyi spoke about the challenges of getting and keeping women in top positions. "How are you going to attract women to the workforce, where we need them, but allow them to balance having a family…and still allow them to contribute productively to the workforce?" she said. "I don’t have an answer to that. It’s got to be a concerted effort on the part of governments, societies, families, companies — all of us coming together." Yet despite efforts to promote women to leadership roles in companies, the number of female CEO’s declined compared to last year, and for women of color, the situation is worse. According to statistics from Catalyst, a nonprofit research and consulting firm, women of color account for about four percent of senior level officers and managers at S&P 500 companies, while white women make up about 21 percent. This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman examines why so few women are leading companies with Sheelah Kolhatkar, staff writer for The New Yorker who wrote about Nooyi and the vanishing female CEO.

This week, a new policy from Manhattan’s District Attorney Cyrus Vance went into effect. His office will no longer prosecute people for using marijuana (unless it's deemed public safety threat) or for possessing small amounts. "I believe it is more proportionate to the offense to have someone given a ticket to go pay a summons than to be arrested or to have a criminal record," he told WNYC News' Richard Hake. Vance is not alone. Across the country, politicians and prosecutors in more and more states — including New York and New Jersey — have been pushing for legalization of marijuana. In the nine states where it’s already legal for recreational use, it’s becoming a big business. Despite the drug remaining illegal at the federal level, one estimate puts sales of legalized recreational and medicinal marijuana at just under $9 billion in 2017. Locked out of the traditional financial system, the industry faces many hurdles. How is this industry operating, and who is set to profit from further legalization? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks the ins and outs of the cannabis business with Julie Weed, who writes about marijuana for Forbes and the New York Times, and Alyson Martin, co-founder of Cannabis Wire and a reporting adjunct at Columbia Journalism School.

Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has been talking about boosting America's automobile industry. Specifically, he wants to roll back the stricter standards for carbon dioxide emissions that were placed on cars by the Obama Administration in 2010.  The auto industry has been griping about the so-called CAFE standards ever since. Last year, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an industry group, wrote a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency which read “even under the EPA’s optimistic estimates, the automotive industry will have to spend a staggering $200 billion between 2012 and 2025 to comply.” Now, the Trump administration is preparing to take the first steps to undo the stricter efficiency rules. Bloomberg News says that if Trump's proposal takes hold, “it could be his biggest regulatory rollback yet." So why aren't carmakers celebrating, and what does this mean for drivers? This week on Money Talking, Ilya Marritz talks to two journalists covering the transportation and policy: Maxine Joselow, reporter at E&E News, and Ryan Beene, auto regulations and policy reporter at Bloomberg News. 

Jerome Powell has only been serving as Chairman of the Federal Reserve since February, but he's already having to contend with some unusual circumstances. This week, he appeared before Congress to speak about the state of the economy. Lawmakers wanted to know what America’s top central banker thinks about President Trump's steadily escalating trade war. Since January, Trump has imposed or threatened to impose tariffs on 10,000 different products the U.S. imports from Mexico, Canada, Europe, and China. Those countries are retaliating with tariffs of their own. Powell avoided commenting on Trump's tariffs, but did share the view of many economists on trade: "In general, countries that have remained open to trade that haven’t erected barriers including tariffs have grown faster, had higher incomes, had higher productivity and countries that have gone in more protectionist direction have done worse", said Powell. "I think that’s the empirical result." This week on Money Talking, Ilya Marritz speaks to Neil Irwin of The New York Times on America’s growing protectionism, and how the Fed is preparing for it.

If President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, is approved, he will potentially be making decisions on some of the nation's most contentious issues. That includes topics like abortion, corporate regulation, and healthcare.  The Obama-era Affordable Care Act has been at the center of partisan debate since it went into law, and reports swirl of rising premiums and plans that offer few benefits. With yet another challenge to the ACA working its way through courts in Texas, critical aspects of the law could soon come before the Supreme Court. What does Kavanaugh's record reveal about his stance on the ACA? What challenges does the law face outside of the court system? And what steps has the Trump administration taken to undermine the law? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to two reporters who follow the complicated world of healthcare, Tami Luhby, Senior Writer at CNN Money, and Jeffrey Young, Senior Reporter at HuffPost, to explore he ever-changing future for the Affordable Care Act.

By all accounts, the U.S. economy is doing well, and has been for a long time. Unemployment is at an 18-year low, businesses are growing and the stock market has been on a historic, bullish climb. But some on Wall Street are closely watching one economic indicator — the yield curve — that has a history of predicting an end to all of that: Recession. The yield curve — a somewhat obscure (if you aren't in finance) display of interest earned, or the yield, from treasuries — rises from low to high in a healthy economy. But when things are shaky, it can flatten and even inverts. And in every instance of a yield curve inversion since 1970, a recession has followed within a year. Currently, the curve is still bending the right way, but it's getting flatter, and that has some people concerned. But how much stock can we still put in this historic predictor? And really, what does it even mean? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman gets answers from two yield curve wonks (or at least one super fan), Cardiff Garcia and Stacey Vanek Smith, co-hosts of Planet Money’s "The Indicator" podcast from NPR.

With all the back and forth lately about trade and tariffs, you can’t be faulted for feeling a bit confused about where exactly the U.S. stands. The Trump administration has already implemented tariffs on steel and aluminum, threatened other tariffs elsewhere, taken a lot of flack from other countries about it — including, critically, China and one of America’s closest allies, Canada — all while Trump and his administration make contradictory public statements on policy. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with two experts, Rana Foroohar with the Financial Times and Rick Newman with Yahoo Finance, to keep track of where things stand and how the new policies will affect prices, companies and American workers.

In the Trump administration’s trade deal negotiations, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has a leading role, particularly in China. He’s been in the room with officials in Beijing and is often called upon as the public face of the White House’s policies. This week, he appeared before the Senate Finance Committee hearing to defend tariffs on steel and aluminum. But as that was happening, new reporting from Forbes magazine found that for most of last year, Ross — a former businessman and multi-millionaire — still had ties to foreign companies that could be affected by his trade negotiations. The article details how, despite Ross telling the federal ethics office he would divest from most of his business assets, he failed to do so for months. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks about the story with Dan Alexander who wrote the story "Lies, China And Putin: Solving The Mystery Of Wilbur Ross' Missing Fortune."  To hear the segment, click "Listen" above. And to hear an extended version of the conversation, visit TrumpIncPodcast.org.

As Silicon Valley creates driverless cars and attempts to commercialize space travel, several companies are aiming to disrupt a much more modest mode of transportation: Short trips taken by motorized, battery-powered scooters. Dockless, app-powered scooters have popped up in cities all along the West Coast in recent months, and tech investors are taking notice. One scooter company, Bird Rides, is reportedly raking in millions from venture capitalists and is aiming for a $2 billion valuation; its main competitor Lime may not be far behind. But as the idea gets bigger, so have scooter-related headaches. Officials in California report vehicles are regularly left all over sidewalks and roadways, that riders often don’t wear helmets and that bad behavior by scooter drivers is endangering pedestrians. So where are electric scooters headed, and what does it mean for the future of transportation, particularly in big cities? This week on Money Talking, Ilya Marritz talks to two journalists covering the scooter craze: Aarian Marshall, transportation reporter at Wired, and Tim Bradshaw, who covers technology for the Financial Times.

Back in the day, Toys ‘R’ Us brought to mind cheerful images: lots of kids having fun, rows and rows of shiny toys and games, Geoffrey the Giraffe and a great jingle (got that song stuck in your head now? you're welcome). But the iconic toy company is now closing up shop, laying off more than 30,000 employees and shuttering its U.S. stores amid bankruptcy. It's demise is the cover story for this week's Bloomberg Businessweek, entitled "Tears 'R' Us: The World’s Biggest Toy Store Didn’t Have to Die." This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with two of the authors, Susan Berfield and Matthew Townsend, and delves into the history of Toys ‘R’ Us and what it means for the future of retail in America.

When Elizabeth Holmes dropped out of Stanford University at age 19 to found her company, Theranos, she promised to revolutionize blood testing and in doing so, transform the healthcare industry. Her concept was appealing: By drawing a single drop of blood through a simple prick of a finger, her company's high-tech devices could run hundreds of tests at a fraction of the price of traditional blood tests. In the years that followed, Holmes’ lofty goal brought in millions of dollars of investments and a star-studded board of directors as well as landed her on the cover of magazines that portrayed her as a leader in Silicon Valley. But according to reports and analyses by medical researchers, the technology didn't work. To hide that fact, Holmes and other company officials created a massive deception that included faking demonstrations, silencing employees who brought up concerns and lying about the company’s capabilities to investors, reporters and the public. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Carreyrou, who first reported the problems at Theranos in a 2015 Wall Street Journal exposé. He is also the author of the new book "Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup" that details the scandal at the company.

President Trump has been in office for a nearly year and a half and in that time, he has pushed through several new economic policies, while proposing many others: Ongoing negotiations with China, massive changes to the tax code, a big move on sanctions on Iran and a scaling back of guest worker visas — all moves affecting business large and small. But as primary elections get underway ahead of the 2018 elections this fall, how are Trump's policies likely to influence people's decisions in voting booth? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks about these issues with James Hohmann, national political correspondent for the Washington Post, who wrote recently about some of Trump’s key policies and its effect on voters.

Sports bettors have a lot to celebrate this week. On Monday, the Supreme Court struck down a 1992 federal law that had banned betting on sports in most states. In effect, the decision paved the way for any state to legalize gambling on sports. The ruling comes from a years-long court battle led by the state of New Jersey, which is expected to be among the first states to implement legal gambling. Tax-collectors, leagues, owners and fans are seeing a lot of dollar signs. But who will benefit the most, and when? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with Joe Nocera, an op-ed columnist for Bloomberg, and David Purdum, a sports betting reporter at ESPN.

For years, Donald Trump has boasted that he's the "king of debt" and routinely uses financing to make lots of money. "Nobody knows debt better than me. I've made a fortune by using debt," he said on CBS This Morning in 2016. "There’s nothing like doing things with other people's money," he said during a 2016 campaign rally. But new evidence suggests Trump abandoned his own playbook for debt-backed business deals a long time ago. The Washington Post reports that in the nine years before he ran for president, Trump’s company spent about $400 million on properties including golf courses, mansions and a winery — and in most of those transactions, he didn’t use other people’s money at all. He paid cash. Given the now-president’s history with debt, those deals don’t make a lot of sense and leave a lot of unanswered questions about where the Trump Organization got all that cash. This week on Money Talking, Trump Inc. podcast host Ilya Marritz speaks with Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold and business and economics reporter for The New Yorker, Adam Davidson, who tweeted about Fahrenthold’s reporting: "This could well be the single most important story ever on Trump." To hear the segment, click "Listen" above. And to hear an extended version of the conversation, visit TrumpIncPodcast.org.

Back in 2015, President Barack Obama proposed new regulations with a straightforward-sounding aim: Protect everyday investors by ensuring financial professionals serve in the best interests of their clients — "above their own financial interests," he said at the time. Right away, the new measure, known as the "Fiduciary Rule," was opposed and criticized by many in the financial industry. It's implementation was challenged and then further delayed after Donald Trump became President. Now, the regulations will likely go away entirely. After a federal appeals court ruled against the fiduciary rule, the Trump administration has chosen not to appeal the decision, meaning the rule will effectively disappear as of May 7, 2018. What does all this mean for average investors? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman discusses the issue with Megan Leonhardt, a reporter for Money Magazine who covers consumer protection issues, and Jason Zweig who writes the "Intelligent Investor" column for the Wall Street Journal.

Since its founding less than a decade ago, Uber has grown from a taxi-booking start-up in San Francisco to a multi-billion dollar company operating in 73 countries with 18,000 employees. And the fast-growing company has big ambitions, including plans to go public next year. But while it prepares for that milestone, Uber is facing a lot of challenges. The company is fighting regulations, protests and competitors all over the world. It's also trying to recover from a string of scandals, including reports of a toxic culture and multiple allegations of harassment and discrimination that led to the ouster of Uber’s founder, Travis Kalanick. On top of that, a huge Uber project to develop its own self-driving cars ground to a halt after a fatal crash in Arizona last month. At this critical moment, the company has brought on a new leader: Dara Khosrowshahi, the good-natured, former C.E.O of Expedia, has been charged with changing the internal culture of Uber while repairing the brand's external image. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with Sheelah Kolhatkar, staff writer at The New Yorker who recently published a profile of Khosrowshahi for the magazine.

As women, and men, the world over reckon with a tidal wave of disclosures about sexual harassment in many industries, an investigation has found a troubling history at the organization that oversees workplace misconduct on Wall Street. For decades, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority — or FINRA — has supervised disputes involving 630,000 brokers who buy and sell securities. That can also include claims of sexual harassment and hostile work environments. An analysis by The Investigative Fund in partnership with The Intercept has found that in the past 30 years, women brought only 98 cases of sexual harassment or hostile work conditions to FINRA, and 60 of them were dismissed or denied by the authority. During that same time period, arbitrators at FINRA decided more than 55,000 claims related to other issues. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with financial journalist Susan Antilla who wrote the story, “FINRA’s Black Hole” that examines how Wall Street's self-regulating organization is handling allegations of sexual harassment. Antilla is also the author of "Tales From the Boom-Boom Room: Women vs. Wall Street."

In February, the billionaire Elon Musk took a big step toward his goal of a manned mission to Mars: His aerospace company, SpaceX, launched a rocket into space carrying a huge payload — including his red Tesla Roadster, complete with a spacesuit-wearing dummy named Starman in the driver's seat — and two booster rockets used in the launch successfully flew back to earth and landed to be used again. The launch was considered a huge success, and is the latest in a series of rocket tests and missions by private space exploration businesses founded by entrepreneurs and billionaires. That list also includes Amazon's Jeff Bezos who runs his own aerospace company, Blue Origin. This new breed of space explorers have big dreams, including a future where humans live on the Moon and other planets or in space stations that orbit the Earth. The rise of these private rocket businesses comes as NASA ended its shuttle program in 2011 and has seen funding cuts over the years. With these changes and new innovations, what does the future of space exploration look like, and how much will it be shaped by these idiosyncratic billionaires looking to solve problems in a very different way than the Cold War-era NASA program? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with Quartz writer Tim Fernholz, author of the new book “Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and the New Space Race.”

It's a bizarre viral video: Dozens of local news anchors in markets all over the country, reading word-for-word from a script decrying "false news" and media bias. The compilation — created by the website Deadspin — comes from stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the local news giant known for its conservative management and right-leaning commentary. Sinclair gave the scripts for the promotional television spot to every station in its network, noting they were "must-run" segments. As the video spread, it's raised questions about the ownership and politics of a company that owns and operates 193 news stations around the country. And the controversy comes as Sinclair wants to grow by buying Tribune Media's 42 stations for $3.9 billion in a deal that needs government approval. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to two media reporters, CNN's Hadas Gold and The Daily Beast's Maxwell Tani, about how Sinclair operates, how the chair of the FCC is under investigation for changing rules that help the company's expansion plans and what they’re doing next.

Investors call them the FAANGs — Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google — and in recent years, Wall Street has put a lot of faith in their continued success. But in the last few weeks, tech sector stocks have fallen amid negative headlines: The scandal involving Cambridge Analytica has sent Facebook's stock sharply down. Then, after Axios reported that President Donald Trump asked if there was a way to "go after" Amazon, the online retailer's price fell sharply as well. Tech companies are getting a lot more scrutiny from consumers, government officials and investors who are all raising questions about regulation, privacy and the future of technology in our lives. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with Rana Foroohar, global business columnist for the Financial Times, about where the FAANGs go from here, and how it could affect our lives. 

From the start, the United States has embraced the free market, founded as economists and philosophers were developing theories about laissez-faire capitalism. Perhaps one the most famous of those thinkers was Adam Smith — considered by some to be the father of modern economics. Smith coined the phrase, the "invisible hand" — the idea that people acting in their own self-interest will benefit the entire society. It's a belief in the power of the market (with limited to no government intervention) that remains ingrained in American society to this day. It’s also at the center of a new play "The Low Road" at the Public Theater about a young man who has a run-in with Smith, then proceeds to dedicate his life to fulfilling his self-interests. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speak with the play's author, Bruce Norris, about the themes of the work and why he chose to tell the story of America's founding through the lens of economics. "The Low Road" is running at the Public Theater through April 8, 2018.

AT&T, the nation’s second largest wireless company, has been trying to buy the entertainment giant Time Warner for nearly a year and a half. The deal, valued at $85 billion, would create a colossal media and internet company. But in November of last year, the Justice Department under President Trump sued to stop the merger, bringing an antitrust lawsuit that claims the deal would stifle competition. Trump himself has been vocally critical of the merger, saying when he was a candidate that he would not approve the deal "because it's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few." Now, a judge is set to hear arguments in the trial beginning next week. What does the case mean for consumers? And what could it mean for future large mergers? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with Rana Foroohar, columnist for the Financial Times, and CNN media andbusiness reporter Hadas Gold.   EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated. The trial had been scheduled to start on Monday, March 19, 2018. The judge overseeing the case announced it will begin two days later. 

Amid controversy over new tariffs on aluminum and steel, the president’s chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn announced his resignation from the White House. His departure — the latest in a string of recent, high-profile exits from the Trump administration — leaves many unanswered questions about how the president will handle trade policy going forward. Former president and chief operating officer at Goldman Sachs, Cohn was a veteran of Wall Street who many in the financial world saw as one of their own, a rational voice on economic issues and a "stabilizing influence" in the administration. He was also a proponent of free trade, disagreeing with many of President Trump's protectionist policies. With his exit, where does the Trump economic agenda go from here and what can we expect from the administration? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with Megan McArdle, a columnist for The Washington Post, and Rick Newman, columnist for Yahoo Finance.

The music streaming company Spotify filed plans on Wednesday to start trading shares on The New York Stock Exchange in the next few weeks. The decision to go public also revealed more information about the company's financial health, including a $1.5 billion loss last year. Ben Sisario, who covers the music industry for The New York Times, thinks Spotify could make money down the line "if they’re able to pay a little bit less for the music that they stream, and they come up with new products to get people to sign up."  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to Sisario about the future of the music streaming business and what it means for musicians, record companies, and listeners. 

In the aftermath of the deadly Parkland, Florida, school shooting last week, the question is being asked again: What can be done to prevent these attacks from happening? Students have been lobbying lawmakers in Tallahassee and meeting with the president to push for gun control, especially for the assault weapons used in so many recent mass shootings. But is there another route to change in gun laws, not through legislators, but through CEOs and shareholders? In the New York Times and in Reuters, financial columnists  asked whether companies — particularly banks and investment management firms  — have a corporate responsibility to address the sale of certain kinds of guns. It's an idea that dovetails with the increasingly popular "corporate social responsibility" programs touted by large corporations. Recently, Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, the world's largest asset management firm, wrote to other CEOs that "society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose. To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society."  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman discusses the issue with Rana Foroohar, Global Business Columnist at the Financial Times, and Rob Cox, Global Editor at Reuters Breakingsviews.

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the Obama administration created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, to be the watchdog agency to protect consumers from predatory lenders, aggressive debt collectors and bad actors in the financial industry. Since its creation, the agency has reported that it has returned $11.8 billion to nearly 30 million consumers because of its enforcement activity. But the CFPB now appears to be headed in a very different direction, led by a interim new leader, President Trump's budget director Mick Mulvaney. As a congressman, he once described the consumer protection agency as a "sick, sad" joke. In a few short months, Mulvaney has already made major changes to how the agency operates, such as proposing to reduce its funding and reversing several investigations and enforcement actions. How will the CFPB continue to operate under the Trump administration? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks about the issue with Renae Merle, Wall Street reporter for The Washington Post.

Before he took office last year, President Trump promised to separate his family business — the Trump Organization — from the White House. But we still know very little about whether or not he, or the rest of his family, are keeping their word. Investigative editors and reporters from ProPublica and WNYC are trying to answer that question and many others about the president’s family business in a new podcast, Trump Inc. In the first episode, reporters examined how Trump said he would handle any conflicts of interest and what happened during his first year in office. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with two of the reporters working on the podcast: WNYC's senior editor for politics and policy, Andrea Bernstein, and Eric Umansky, a deputy managing editor at ProPublica.

Before he was known for an insider trading scandal, Steven Cohen was known as the “hedge fund king,” bringing sky-high returns to clients at his super successful firm, SAC Capital Advisors — and serving as an inspiration for the Showtime series “Billions.” Now, Cohen is looking to get back into business after a two-year ban on trading other people’s money ended at the start of this year. With his new company, Point72 Asset Management, Cohen is once again courting clients and their billions — up to $4 billion, according to a recent report from Bloomberg. What does his comeback mean for Wall Street? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Sheelah Kolhatkar, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of “Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street" about the investigation of Cohen and the downfall of SAC.

As President Trump speaks to heads of state and top business leaders at the World Economic Forum, his administration says he’ll focus on “free, fair, open and reciprocal trade,” in the words of Trump’s chief economic advisor Gary Cohn. But at the same time, Trump put tariffs on foreign-made solar panels and washing machines this week and is threatening to pull out of NAFTA as negotiations to revise the nearly 30-year-old trade agreement get underway in Montreal. So, do we really know the Trump administration’s stance on global trade, and what’s next? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to CNN Money economics reporter Patrick Gillespie about what to expect from the White House when it comes to making deals with the world.

As the new Republican tax bill goes into effect, big banks are reporting billions of dollars in losses thanks to one-time charges stemming from the new rules. But in the long-term, the tax rules give financial firms a lot to celebrate with the corporate tax rate dropping from 35 percent to 21 percent. And some banks expect to pay an effective tax rate as low as 17 percent. It’s a boon expected to push profits higher in 2018, just as Congress is debating rolling back banking regulations that were put into place in the aftermath the financial crisis ten years ago. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks to two Wall Street experts — New Yorker writer Sheelah Kolhatkar and New York Times reporter Jim Tankersley — about how the banking world is reacting to the big changes coming from Washington.

In the past fiscal year, Congress has delayed permanently funding the government three times, choosing to pass short-term "continuing resolutions" instead. Now, lawmakers are facing another hard budget deadline: if they don’t pass a funding bill Friday, January 19, the federal government will shut down. But Republicans and Democrats are further apart than ever and a bipartisan solution seems like a tall order, especially as legislators wrangle over immigration. Just funding the government is a problem that’s cropped up year after year, with federal shutdowns threatened or taking place in nearly every presidential administration in recent memory. How will Congress and the White House find a solution this time around? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks about the effect of the chronic funding gridlock with budget expert Stan Collender, with Georgetown University and author of “The Guide To The Federal Budget.”

In the past year, the cryptocurrency Bitcoin has jumped in value by nearly two thousand percent — and then, in the last days of 2017, saw a double digit percentage drop. Other digital currencies are seeing similar value jumps, like Ripple, which rose in price by 25 percent this week and is now the second-most traded cryptocurrency. But how do these volatile digital currencies work, who uses them? Are they investments or a way to pay for goods and services? And if you don't own any Bitcoins, how much should you care? This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks about the recent cryptocurrency craze with Nathaniel Popper, finance and technology reporter for The New York Times and author of "Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money.”

Three months after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the commonwealth is still struggling to restore power and provide fresh water to all of its residents. Conditions have forced thousands to leave for the mainland in search of better opportunities. The storm hit after years of economic hardship and a record $74 billion bankruptcy, the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Now, Puerto Rico faces another challenge: the Republican tax plan which would levy a 12.5 percent tax on income from intellectual property earned on the island by companies based on the mainland. That could effect decisions by companies about whether or not to base operations — and hire workers — on Puerto Rico. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman speaks with Rebecca Spalding, a reporter with Bloomberg, and Alana Casanova-Burgess, a producer with WNYC's On The Media, who have both been reporting about Puerto Rico. (You can also find Casanova-Burgess' reports from the island on OTM's latest episode “After the Storm.")

This week, House and Senate Republicans came to a deal on a massive, far-reaching tax bill that Congress could vote on as early as next week. If the bill passes, and the President signs it before Christmas, the new tax code will go into effect in this January.  Though some of the details of the bill have yet to be confirmed, what is clear is that there is a lot at stake for corporations and individual taxpayers.  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Rick Newman, a columnist for Yahoo Finance, about what’s in the extensive bill and what it could mean for taxpayers around the country. 

In her exhibit “Generation Wealth,” Lauren Greenfield, a photographer and documentary filmmaker, chronicles how evolving perceptions of money, status and celebrity have transformed societies around the world. The show, on display at the International Center of Photography in New York City, includes interviews, documentary footage and nearly 200 photographs.  A photograph of Russian oligarch Ilona and her daughter Michelle, now on display at the International Center of Photography's "Generation Wealth" exhibit. (Lauren Greenfield/International Center of Photography) To Greenfield, the election of President Trump is closely related to the rise of a populace consumed with materialism and public displays of wealth. "The Values of 'Generation Wealth' give rise to Donald Trump's ascension," said Greenfield. "He expresses a lot of the values and a lot of the themes in the work. The importance of celebrity; coming from reality television; fake it ’till you make it; the love for gold and the aesthetics of luxury; having beauty pageants and beautiful women as an expression of success, that's important to our President.” A photograph of women with Versace handbags at a private opening at the Versace store, now on display at the International Center of Photography's "Generation Wealth" exhibit. (Lauren Greenfield /International Center of Photography) This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Greenfield about how the fixation on celebrity and displays of status give insight into American culture (as well as in other countries like Russia and China) and of our politics today. "Generation Wealth" International Center of Photography, 250 Bowery, New York Showing through Jan. 07, 2018

In the past few weeks, the list of public figures who have been accused of workplace sexual harassment has grown. According to Yuki Noguchi, an NPR correspondent who regularly reports on issues in the workplace, videos and various types of training programs that companies use to prevent harassment have been largely ineffective. "What a lot of sexual harassment trainers will say is that sexual harassment really is something that happens in a culture where there are usually other problems," said Noguchi, "management problems, problems of civility, discrimination."   This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Noguchi about what companies have done to prevent workplace harassment and what works and what doesn't.

This week, the House of Representatives passed the Republican-led tax reform bill that proposes significant tax cuts for corporations. It passed on a partisan basis with no Democrat voting in favor of the bill. Now, it’s over to the Senate which has to finish crafting its version of tax reform and then vote. If approved — and it's not yet clear if Republicans have the votes to do so — the two bills will need to be reconciled. And while there are differences, both measures propose significant tax cuts for corporations, cuts that would, in particular, benefit Wall Street.  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Rob Cox, Breakingviews global editor at Reuters, and Rick Newman, a columnist for Yahoo Finance, about tax reform and the effects it will have on the financial industry. 

In the past few months, the tech industry has come under increased scrutiny. Twitter, Google and Facebook, three of the companies that make up "Big Tech," are being questioned for the role they played in Russian interference before and after the election. More recently, Apple is being criticized for taking advantage of loopholes to avoid paying taxes in the United States. These tech giants — along with other companies like Microsoft, Netflix and Amazon — have become so large and powerful that consumers are paying closer attention to how they affect our lives, while policymakers consider new regulations. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Rana Foroohar, global business columnist at the Financial Times, about "Big Tech" and what the future of the industry could look like.

The new play, “Junk,” tells a fictionalized story inspired by events from the 1980s, when deal-making, hostile takeovers, and high-yield debt financing (along with excess) were common. Now playing in New York City, the show is centered on the financier reminiscent of Michael Milken.  Joey Slotnick (center) playing Boris Pronsky in Ayad Akhtar's "Junk," showing at the Lincoln Center Theater.  (T. Charles Erickson /Lincoln Center Theater) "Finance has become the dominant way of our being, of our national life," said playwright Ayad Akhtar. "What the play is attempting to do is to go back to that last moment in our history when the battle for who owns America could still be waged."  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Akhtar, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, about his show "Junk" and the links between finance in the 1980s and today. Junk The Lincoln Center Theater, 150 West 65th Street, New York Playing through Jan. 7, 2018 

In recent years, opioid addiction has become an epidemic in the U.S. As health professionals and policymakers push for more funding to tackle the crisis, one group of people has remained largely quiet: the Sacklers, the family behind the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma that manufactures OxyContin.  “There's a Sackler wing at the Met. There's a Sackler wing at the Louvre. They put their names on all kinds of things," said Patrick Radden Keefe, a staff writer at The New Yorker. "The one thing they really don't put their name on is the company Purdue Pharma." This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Keefe about his story, "The Family That Built an Empire of Pain," which details the role the Sacklers played in the spread of OxyContin and opioid addiction.   

This week marks thirty years since "Black Monday," when the Dow Jones had its biggest one-day percentage drop in its history. Nowadays, even as the Dow hits record highs, there are still investing lessons to learn from the crash of 1987.  If you're planning for your retirement, and believe the stock market will be the best place for you to grow your money as much as possible, you'll have to learn to "ride out the bumps or the crashes," said Ron Lieber, the “Your Money” columnist for The New York Times. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Lieber about the stock market crash of 1987 and those that have followed, and what investors can learn from them.  This is the fourth story as a part of WNYC's Crash Course, a series about the stock market crash of October 19, 1987, and what it can tell us about today's financial markets. 

Today marks the 30th anniversary of "Black Monday," one of the worst days in Wall Street history. The Dow Jones lost dropped nearly 23 percent in a single day of trading.  These days, it seems like the stock market only goes up. 30 years ago today it crashed. Lest we forget, this is what that felt like. The crash exposed problems in how the markets operated and how they were regulated. In the aftermath, there were Congressional hearings and even the creation of the Presidential Task Force on Market Mechanisms chaired by future Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady. Other than the creation of circuit breakers to halt trading and prevent panic sell-offs, few new regulations were implemented. As the market recovered and the national economy continued to grow, people moved on, until the next crash. Today, we look at the response to the 1987 crash, and what it says about today’s financial system. This is the third story as a part of WNYC's Crash Course, a series about the stock market crash of October 19, 1987, and what it can tell us about today's financial markets. If you've ever regretted a decision about investing in the stock market, how did you make that choice? Tell us your story.

Thirty years after "Black Monday" — one of the worst days in Wall Street history — economists and historians are still analyzing the causes of the crash. One factor, a new, financial strategy that had become incredibly popular, “portfolio insurance.” As it turned out, traders, investors and regulators were ill-informed about how this shiny, new tool that was supposed to minimize risk would actually perform in a market downturn. “When you have new technology that is ill-understood, both by traders and regulators, it’s dangerous,” said Karen Shaw Petrou, managing partner at Federal Financial Analytics. “It’s like giving a six year-old boy a Ferrari. It’s really not a good idea.” A look back at the 1987 crash, and what it says about future declines in the stock market.  This is the second story as a part of WNYC's Crash Course, a series about the stock market crash of October 19, 1987, and what it can tell us about today's financial markets. If you've ever regretted a decision about investing in the stock market, how did you make that choice? Tell us your story. 

October 19th marks the 30th anniversary of what's called "Black Monday" when the Dow Jones had its biggest one-day percentage drop in its history; it was one of the worst days in trading in Wall Street ever. To this day, there’s still no agreement as to what exactly sparked the crash, with historians and government officials pointing to a variety of contributing factors. But a major suspect was an investment strategy known as portfolio insurance. "We came so close to a system cracking meltdown, fuse blowing crisis. We need to know that," said Diana Henriques, a financial journalist and author of the new book A First-Class Catastrophe: The Road to Black Monday, the Worst Day in Wall Street History.  This is the first of several stories in WNYC's Crash Course, a series about the stock market crash of October 19, 1987, and what it can tell us about today's financial markets. If you've ever regretted a decision about investing in the stock market, how did you make that choice? Tell us your story. 

October 19, 2017, is the deadline for cities and states to submit their proposals for why they should be the home of Amazon's second headquarters. Local business leaders and government officials are especially interested because of the estimated 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in investments that could come with winning the bid.  Amazon's influence is ever-growing and according to Shira Ovide, a columnist at Bloomberg Gadfly, "Amazon spent a record amount of money for the company last year on lobbying." The online giant has taken other steps to become a great part of our daily lives, such as purchasing Whole Foods, opening actual bookstores in New York and creating new features like Smart Home Consultations.  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Ovide and Dennis Green, a reporter at Business Insider, about Amazon and its expanding power.

Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans are still struggle with a lack of water, power and food. Looking for ways to help, President Trump had a suggestion that caused a lot of unhappiness on Wall Street: wipe out the island's more than $70 billion in debt. According to William D. Cohan a journalist who wrote about the island's debt for Vanity Fair, this type of financial crisis is especially difficult. "There's no cash flow, so there's nothing really to reorganize around," said Cohan, "negotiations are continuing but it's going to be really ugly and painful."  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Cohan and Sheelah Kolhatkar, a staff writer at The New Yorker, about the state of Puerto Rico’s economy before and after Hurricane Maria and what it means for rebuilding on the island.

This week the multi-million dollar world of college basketball got hit with allegations of bribery, corruption and fraud. This comes after a three year investigation that involved wiretaps, an FBI informant and undercover agents. Ten people, including four Division I coaches and an Adidas executive, have been arrested.   When it comes to exposing corruption in college basketball, Joe Nocera, a Bloomberg View columnist and the author of Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA, thinks this is just the beginning.  "There's definitely an implication on part the of the prosecutors and the FBI that they're only at the beginning of this," said Nocera. "Once you uncover this rock, it's not just going to be one worm, or two worms, or one rat, it's going to be dozens."  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Nocera about the recent NCAA controversy and what it means for the big business of college sports.   

Facebook is under increasing scrutiny as more problems — like selling ads to entities connected to Russia — emerge on a regular basis. Despite Mark Zuckerberg's efforts to address the recent controversy, each revelation leads users and elected officials to question how the company operates and self-polices content and advertisements. When it comes to regulations, Rana Foroohar, a columnist at the Financial Times, thinks things are going to change drastically, not only for Facebook, but for the entire tech industry. "Their influence has grown and they haven't really grappled yet with the fact that this puts them in the sites of regulators," said Foroohar, "I think that things are really going to change for them in the next five years. I think it's going to be the biggest economic story."   This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Foroohar, as well as Rick Newman, a columnist at Yahoo Finance, about the recent scrutiny of Facebook and what the consequences could be for the rest of the tech industry.

This week, new Census data had good news for New York City: median household incomes rose and the poverty rate declined in 2016. These latest figures come at just the right moment for Mayor Bill de Blasio who has pledged to fight inequality and New York City's "Tale of Two Cities." After easily winning this week's Democratic primary, he's already taking on Republican challenger, Nicole Malliotakis. As a part of his campaign, de Blasio can point to the health of the city's economy. But how much of the recent growth in jobs and incomes can he take credit for? "Bill de Blasio came into office under the best circumstances of any mayor in either 30, 40, 50 or 100 years, depending who I talk to," said Greg David, a columnist for Crain's New York Business. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with David as well as Sally Goldenberg, senior reporter for housing and economic development at Politico New York, about the city's economy under Mayor Bill de Blasio. 

Congress is barely back in session and President Trump has already struck a deal with Democrats in order to fund the government, extend the nation's borrowing limit and provide financial aid to victims of Hurricane Harvey. If this deal passes, it will only last three months, at which point, everything goes back on the table for negotiations. At the same time, the President is eager to focus on tax reform (or at least tax cuts), legislation to replace DACA and funding the "Wall" along the U.S. and Mexican border. Until this deal, the White House, and Congress, had been criticized by some for not accomplishing very much since President Trump took office. But in reality, Trump has been busy, at least when it comes to reversing the actions of previous presidents, especially President Obama.  "I think the theme is undo everything that the previous guy did," said Catherine Rampell, opinion writer for the Washington Post, "regardless of whether it's a good idea or a bad idea."  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Catherine Rampell, an opinion columnist at the Washington Post, about what's getting "undone" at the White House and what it could mean.

These days it’s hard to tell whether the restaurant industry is struggling or thriving.  Diners with their breakfast-all-day, multi-page menus are closing — but niche restaurants like avocado bars and cat cafés are opening. According to the NYC Department of Health there are 26,129 open restaurant permits as of June 28 this year, a steady increase since 2007. With so many dining establishments in this city and others, it’s hard to not wonder: Why do some survive and others don’t? Who benefits from this world of revolving dining trends?  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Derek Thompson, a senior editor at the Atlantic, who wrote about why it’s the best of times, and the worst of times, for the restaurant industry.

Since the spring, the Trump administration has made big promises when it comes to reforming the tax code. "The President is going to seize this opportunity by leading the most significant tax reform legislation since 1986," Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters back in April. Yet since then, there haven't been many details about how the administration is planning to do this. While Congress is on summer recess until the day after Labor Day, negotiations have been going on among Republicans leaders in the House and Senate and White House officials. They hope to have a bill ready for a vote by the end of the year. This week, Politico revealed some of the proposals under consideration, and Wall Street liked what it saw. But the proposals could effect tax deductions that many individuals have come to rely on, like the mortgage interest and state income tax deductions. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Ben White, Chief Economic Correspondent for Politico, about what's being considered and what it means for President Trump and Republicans if tax reform does — or doesn't — pass. 

This week, several top execs decided to distance themselves from the White House following the president's response to violence in Charlottesville. Shortly after, President Donald Trump disbanded two groups of business leaders put together to advise him on manufacturing and policy.  But while big business may seem to be walking away from Trump, the administration is still full of former financiers — and promises to loosen regulations will most likely benefit big corporations. This week on Money Talking, Jennifer Kaplan of Bloomberg News and Aaron Elstein of Crain's New York Business discuss with Ilya Marritz where the relationship between corporations and the Trump Administration stands.  

This month, students all across the U.S. are getting ready to head off to college. For many of them, preparing for school involves taking on thousands of dollars in student loans that could impact their lives for years to come.  Student debt totaled $1.3 trillion at the end of 2016, more than double what it was 10 years ago. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that mounting debt could ultimately hurt consumer spending and the upward mobility of low income students. Long after they've taken out student loans, Americans are being forced to choose between paying off debt and getting married, having children, saving for emergencies and purchasing homes.  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Anna Sale of WNYC's Death, Sex & Money about her project, "Our Student Loan Secrets" and NPR Education Correspondent Anya Kamenetz about the long-term effects of rising student debt on both individuals and the U.S. economy.   Student loan debt. (fred.stlouisfed.org/Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System)  

After the failure by Republicans to replace or repeal Obamacare, they're moving quickly to score a political win, and they're focusing on overhauling the nation's tax code by November. There's a lot do in a little amount of time, and even Trump's legislative director has admitted it's  an aggressive schedule. But that is just one of many items on Congress' to do list that includes must several must-pass pieces of legislation like funding the government and raising the debt ceiling. This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman reviews what's head and what's at stake with Catherine Rampell, opinion writer with the Washington Post, and Rick Newman, columnist with Yahoo Finance.

With each day, there are more Congressional hearings and more details about the investigations into Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential elections. This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Seva Gunitsky, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto and author of Aftershocks, and with WNYC's Andrea Bernstein, senior editor for politics & policy, about the financial and economic motives that could be behind Russia's intentions in the U.S.

President Trump is seeking to fulfill the “America First” theme of his administration by launching “Made in America” week. Starting on Monday, the White House featured companies and workers making products here at home. The goal is to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. But Trump’s pledge is inconsistent with his family’s own business practices as many Trump products are made overseas, including the clothing line created by his daughter — and White House adviser — Ivanka Trump. "Her clothes, handbags, and shoes are all made exclusively in foreign factories in Asia right now by low-wage workers who have a limited ability to advocate for themselves," said Matea Gold, a reporter with the Washington Post who wrote about the business practices of Ivanka Trump's company. "As an apparel brand, as much as they would like to produce here in the United States, it's incredibly difficult to do so on a large-scale fashion," she said. "The reality and nuances of this debate conflict, I think, with some of [Trump's] broader rhetoric about this." This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Matea Gold about what it would take for Trump to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. by looking at his daughter's clothing company.

Martin Shkreli is often described as the "most hated man in America” for raising the price of a lifesaving drug by 5,000%, earning him the nickname "Pharma bro." Shkreli said his pharmaceutical company raised the price of Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750 in order to spend that money on research for an alternative drug, a claim which medical experts widely derided. Now, Shkreli is back in the news and on trial for securities fraud, and while others in his situation might sit quietly and await the verdict, that's not what Shkreli is doing. He can't help himself from making even more attention grabbing headlines.  This week on Money Talking, Host Charlie Herman talks with Renae Merle, a Wall Street and white collar crime reporter for the Washington Post, and Sheelah Kolhatkar, staff writer for the The New Yorker and author of Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street about Shkreli’s case and what it could say about the prosecution of white collar crimes.

President Donald Trump has made it clear that he disagrees with many global trade deals. He withdrew from the Trans Pacific Partnership almost as soon as he took office.  He has repeatedly criticized and is now looking to withdraw or renegotiate NAFTA — the North American Free Trade Alliance.  Trump argues that global trade deals hurt the U.S. economy and its workers. This week, as he sits down with global leaders at the G20 summit in Germany, he’s also reportedly considering putting a tariff on steel imported to the U.S. These tariffs might also grow to include other imports, like aluminum and paper. But in doing so, Trump could end up setting off a global trade war. Other countries might retaliate with their own tariffs on products coming from the United States. This week on Money Talking, Host Charlie Herman talks with Rana Foroohar with the Financial Times and Rick Newman with Yahoo Finance about the unintended consequences of steel tariffs and the trickle-down effect on consumers. 

Republicans are united in their opposition to Obamacare, yet they're finding it difficult to repeal and replace the law as they promised to do. This week, the Senate delayed a vote on the bill after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell realized he didn’t have the support he needed to pass it. The delay came after negative reviews (many of which came from Republicans themselves) and dismal polling. So now, the political horse trading to get more votes is underway, and if Republicans fail to pass their version, Obamacare will continue to be the law of the land. This week on Money Talking, Host Charlie Herman talks with Tami Luhby of CNNMoney and Jonathan Cohn of The Huffington Post about the state of healthcare today and whether or not Obamacare is "failing."  

This week, one tumultuous Uber ride came to an end, with the resignation of CEO Travis Kalanick. Just last week, Kalanick announced he was taking an indefinite leave of absence, but investors had had enough, and forced him to step down. It's the latest development  after years of negative stories about the company's corporate culture and business practices. Now, questions turn to what's next for the ride-hailing app that had dreams of changing the face of transportation. This week on Money Talking, Host Charlie Herman talks with Sheelah Kolhatkar with The New Yorker and Reeves Wiedeman with New York Magazine about the future of Uber and what it says about Silicon Valley.

The Trump administration is proposing to revise and change banking regulations that were put in place after the financial crisis. On Monday, the Treasury Department released a report outlining it's plans to do so. This comes after House Republicans last week passed a bill — the Financial CHOICE Act — that would roll back regulations even further. The bill, which was introduced by the Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas, would weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Financial Stability Oversight Council and gut the Dodd-Frank financial reform law passed in the aftermath of the financial crash. The bill is headed to the Senate for consideration. This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman talks with Rana Foroohar from the Financial Times and Sheelah Kolhatkar from the New Yorker about the President's plans and the House bill, and what these changes could mean for the economy and consumers' pocketbooks?

This week, testimony by former FBI Director James Comey dominated the headlines. For President Trump, however, it was Infrastructure Week. He spent several days promoting his plan to rebuild the nation's roads and highways. And the key to making it happen is getting billions of dollars in private investments. But how exactly would that work? This week on Money Talking, Host Charlie Herman talks with WNYC's Andrea Bernstein and Richard Beales with Reuters Breakingviews about the President's plans and whether or not it's likely to happen.

When President Donald Trump visited Saudi Arabia last month, one of the first accomplishments he announced was a $110 billion agreement to sell advanced weapons to the desert kingdom. The point man on that agreement was Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, whose background is in real-estate. But another businessman — and one of the masters of international finance — was there, too. Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO and co-founder of Blackstone, secured a $20 billion investment from the Saudis in his company's new U.S. infrastructure fund. This week on Money Talking, Caleb Melby with Bloomberg News, who wrote about the two deals, speaks wth WNYC's Ilya Marritz about the blurry lines between business and government in the Trump administration.

It’s an oddity about covering President Trump’s potential conflicts of interest: certain names keeping coming up. For example, Elliott Broidy.  In April, the Republican National Committee announced the appointment of three national deputy finance chairmen: President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen, North Carolina businessman Louis DeJoy and Broidy.  What went unnoted, according to a search of stories published at that time, was that Broidy had pled guilty eight years earlier in a pay-to-play scheme involving public pension investments. Broidy’s 2009 guilty plea was spectacular news: then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo had caught former New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi in a kickback scheme involving the state’s retirement fund for public sector workers. According to his guilty plea, Broidy gave Hevesi $1 million in gifts “as a reward for giving preferential treatment” to Broidy’s investment fund, Markstone Capital Partners. As Cuomo described it, Broidy paid for five personal trips for Hevesi and his family to places like Israel and Italy — trips that included airfare, luxury hotel suites and a helicopter tour. Broidy even invested in an obscure movie called Chooch produced by a pension official’s brother. In 2012, a judge reduced his felony plea to a misdemeanor after he repaid $18 million to the state. Broidy also left Markstone. He currently runs his own firm, Broidy Capital. We were reminded of Broidy’s run-ins with the while we were reporting about the CIM Group, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm that has played a key role in real estate deals involving Donald Trump and his son-in-law, and now White House adviser, Jared Kushner. CIM handles investments from public pension funds: Reuters reported that at least seven state pensions have provided money to the company. When New York officials were investigating the pay-to-play scheme in their state, Broidy was also a member of the city of Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension Board. According to a Los Angeles Times investigation, Broidy voted to invest $30 million of pension funds with CIM, without disclosing that his own private equity fund had received $500,000 from the firm. The Securities and Exchange Commission investigated Broidy for fraud in California. As part of that investigation, court records show, the SEC asked Broidy to disclose his communications with CIM. In a statement issued to WNYC after publication of this article, an attorney for CIM said, "To the best of CIM's knowledge, it has never been investigated by the SEC for fraud nor was it the subject of any SEC investigation into matters related to Mr. Broidy." Broidy was not sanctioned for his actions in California. Several years later, Broidy is now one of the most significant fundraisers for the Republican National Committee. He was a major fundraiser for Trump’s inaugural committee. And during the presidential campaign, he raised money for Trump’s Victory Fund, a joint Trump/RNC fundraising committee. This places Broidy, once convicted of bribing government officials to enrich his own company, in the position of soliciting giant donations for Republican causes and candidates. The inaugural committee, which is separate from the RNC and the presidential campaign, broke records for fundraising. According to an analysis by the nonpartisan OpenSecrets.org, most of the $107 million raised came from industries that stand to gain from Trump administration priorities. Asked about Broidy’s previous role in the pay-to-play prosecution in New York and his current role as a political fundraiser, a spokesman declined to comment. Ryan Mahoney, a spokesman for the RNC said, “This is well documented and in the past. There's a point at which somebody has paid their debt to society and Elliott has done that.” Editor's note: This story has been updated from its original version to more clearly describe the Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation and to include a statement from CIM’s attorney concerning the investigation.

Executives from the major television networks came to New York City this week to promote their shows for the fall in what's known as the upfront. The networks hold big, swanky presentations and exclusive parties to lure advertisers, who are expected to spend billions of dollars on these shows — even as ratings are falling and users are increasingly turning to streaming services like Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix.  This week on Money Talking, Host Charlie Herman talks with John Koblin of The New York Times and Joe Adalian, with New York Magazine's Vulture.com, on whether ratings matter, as well as how network TV is changing. 

Just a few years ago, J. Crew was admired for attiring Michelle Obama, and for delivering solid profits. But now, the company is cutting jobs. The Wall Street Journal reports "sales at its stores open at a least a year have fallen for the past 10 quarters." In other retail news, Abercrombie & Fitch is looking to sell itself, after its share price dropped by half. Ralph Lauren has closed its Fifth Avenue flagship store, suggesting that even upscale retailers can no longer afford upscale rents. The New Yorker's Joshua Rothman has been trying to figure out what's happening to branded fashion, and writes about J. Crew in his piece "Why J. Crew's Vision of Preppy America Failed." This week on WNYC's Money Talking, host Ilya Marritz talks with Rothman about what's ailing J. Crew, and what it means for everyone else who's trying to lure humans into little boxes to pick up threads and put them on plastic.

France is getting ready to vote for its next president on Sunday, May 7. The choice is between independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, or far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen. And while there are many echoes in this presidential campaign of the recent presidential election in the United States, there are a lot of differences, too. The French are also facing a choice about how much they support the European Union, or, if they chose Le Pen, are looking for the Frexit. This week on WNYC's Money Talking, host Charlie Herman talks with Rana Foroohar with The Financial Times and Rob Cox with Reuters about what the French election means, especially for the U.S. 

President Donald Trump unveiled his tax reform plan this week, promising more details in the weeks ahead. He wants to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, saying it will unleash economic growth. But it remains to be seen whether that will actually create more jobs. The president also wants to eliminate deductions, like those that individuals take for paying state and local taxes — a proposal that could hurt residents of New York and New Jersey. There are also questions about how the administration will pay for the plan and who stands to benefit the most. Although there's little chance of everything being proposing getting through Congress, this is a president who likes to negotiate. This week on WNYC's Money Talking, host Charlie Herman talks with Ben White, chief economic correspondent for Politico, to find out what we can learn from Trump's opening bid.

President Donald Trump is quickly approaching his 100th day in office. Get ready for the White House (and the media) to take stock. The benchmark itself is a bit of construct that goes back to FDR and the Great Depression; however, it's become a measure to assess a president's leadership style, as well as his early successes and failures. In his first 100 days, Trump has signed executive orders on immigration and climate change. He's also been defeated in his attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare. But he successfully appointed a Supreme Court justice to the court. This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman talks with Rick Newman of Yahoo Finance and Catherine Rampell of The Washington Post about whether or not Trump has lived up to the promises he made voters on what he'd accomplish in his first 100 days.

Retailers are falling on hard times. Giants like Macy’s, Sears and J.C. Penney are closing hundreds of shops, leaving empty shopping malls and vacant storefronts in cities and suburbs throughout the country. While the economy continues to recover from the recession and consumer spending slowly rises, the future of brick-and-mortar shops that cater to the middle class remains unclear — hobbled by online retail and a population that's choosing to spend more money on travel and dining.  And not only do ghost town malls hurt the prosperity of surrounding communities, when shopping centers default on loans they risk setting off a chain reaction on Wall Street, with echoes of the housing crisis.  This week on Money Talking, Derek Thompson of The Atlantic and Hayley Peterson of Business Insider take a look at the future of malls — and the effect new shopping habits are having on the economy.

With the deadline approaching for high school seniors to pick which college to attend, students — and their parents — are considering how they will pay for the financial burden of higher education.  The cost of private and public college tuition has been rising faster than inflation in recent years, even as financial support from state governments has declined. While individuals and society largely benefit from a college-educated workforce, a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found too much debt might have long term consequences. Student debt totaled $1.3 trillion at the end of last year, more than double what it was 10 years ago. The Federal Reserve found mounting debt could ultimately hurt consumer spending, home ownership and the upward mobility of low income students. This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman takes a look at the long term effects of student debt with Rana Foroohar of the Financial Times. 

After the attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare failed last week, there was a lot of discussion about what this meant for President Trump's future agenda: how it could complicate tax reform or get in the way of an infrastructure spending bill. Lost in all the political noise was the fact that millions of Americans are still covered under the plan, and its future rests largely in the hands of the Republican administration and Congress. The House, for example, could refuse to provide subsidies to insurance companies so they can offer plans to low-income people. Without that financial assistance, insurers might stop offering coverage. It's the kind of uncertainty that could drive insurers out the marketplace in many states.   This week on Money Talking, Tami Luhby of CNNMoney and Jeffrey Young with the Huffington Post discuss what's next for the Affordable Care Act. 

Before landing a position as a White House senior adviser, Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, worked on making a name for himself in Manhattan real estate. And in 2007 he purchased a skyscraper on Fifth Avenue for $1.8 billion — at the time, a record deal for a single office tower. A few years after the financial crisis, 666 Fifth Ave. ran into financial problems and was eventually able to refinance its debt. After joining the president's team, Kushner sold his ownership stake in the building to a family trust and resigned as CEO of Kushner Companies.  Last week, Bloomberg reported that the Chinese firm Anbang Insurance Group has been talking with Kushner Companies about a possible $4 billion investment deal in the building. Anbang has said it had not invested in the building. This week on Money Talking, David Kocieniewski with Bloomberg News and Hiten Samtani with the Real Deal review the history of the skyscraper and why Anbang might be interested in investing in it.

The Congressional Budget Office this week concluded that 24 million Americans stand to lose their health insurance by 2026 if the Republican plan to revise Obamacare is approved. Many of the plan's supporters didn’t like what they heard, so they criticized the CBO and its numbers. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said "If you’re looking at the CBO for accuracy, you’re looking in the wrong place." Former Speaker of the House and Trump administration supporter Newt Gingrich said "They should abolish the Congressional Budget Office. It is corrupt. It is dishonest." It's not the first time the Trump administration has responded to inconvenient news by attacking government statistics. When asked about the most recent jobs report last week, Spicer said the numbers "may have been phony in the past" but were "very real" this time. This week on Money Talking, Cardiff Garcia, U.S. Editor with the Financial Time’s Alphaville blog, and Stan Collender, a federal budget expert with Qorvis MSLGROUP, take a look at what happens when officials openly dismiss numbers from independent government agencies.

Is your 401(k) looking great lately? You can thank President Donald Trump. Wall Street seems unfazed by alleged ties between Russia and the Trump Administration or the president's freewheeling Twitter account — stocks have been steadily rising and breaking records ever since he took office. Markets are also going strong despite rising interest rates on the horizon and the U.S. government scheduled to hit the debt ceiling next week.  Yet some investors, like unpaid Trump advisor Carl Icahn, are betting the market could drop. So what's going on?  This week on Money Talking, Rana Foroohar of the Financial Times and Ben White of Politico talk about what’s causing the surge and if Americans should brace for a drop.   

There was a lot of excitement about Snapchat’s parent company going public yesterday, but not everything's rosy in Silicon Valley. Uber has been facing a string of problems: drivers and users protesting the CEO's membership in an advisory group counseling President Trump, claims of sexual harassment, and allegations Uber stole self-driving technology from Google.  And then just this week, a daschcam video showed Uber CEO Travis Kalanick getting into an argument with Fawzi Kamel, an Uber Black driver who confronted the CEO for dropping prices and leaving workers like him out to dry. It didn’t end well. This Week on Money Talking, Sheelah Kolhatkar of The New Yorker and Joe Nocera of Bloomberg View look at where the company and its CEO stand, and whether they can drive through the storm.    

Many Republicans in Congress have spent years fighting to roll back or abolish the Dodd-Frank Act, enacted after the 2008 recession to rein in risky behavior in the financial industry and to end "too big to fail." Now that President Donald Trump is in charge, those opposed to the law are acting. Among the most reviled parts of Dodd-Frank was the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or CFPB. Republican senator David Perdue from Georgia and Representative Jeb Hensarling have gone as far as calling it a rogue agency at odds with the very meaning of America. Last week, Texas Senator Ted Cruz introduced a bill to eliminate the CFPB.  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman takes a look at the future of financial regulations and the CFPB with Gillian B. White, senior associate editor at The Atlantic.

Among the projects that are big on President Donald Trump's to-do list are repealing Obamacare, spending about a trillion dollars on the country’s infrastructure and cutting taxes. But it’s looking like the first two goals might take longer than expected, even with a Republican majority in Congress. House Republicans have yet to introduce a replacement for the Affordable Care Act (though there might be a bill coming after the congressional break), and the president hasn't offered spending specifics for his infrastructure plan. So, with the support of Republican legislators who have long been looking to slash taxes, reforms could be coming this year. This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman takes a look at the probability of tax reform and its possible effects with Rick Newman, a columnist with Yahoo Finance and Rana Foroohar, global economic columnist for the Financial Times.

Ajit Pai, President Donald Trump's choice to lead the Federal Communications Commission, is taking a page from his boss' book and moving quickly to roll back regulations. In the process, he's raising questions about the future of equal access to the internet. That equal access is known as "net neutrality." Pai's actions, within days of becoming chairman — plus previous comments he made when he was a commissioner at the FCC during the Obama administration — have consumer advocates worried. Previously, the FCC had approved nine companies to provide low-income people with discounted internet service, but he reversed that decision, saying it had been rushed through before the election. But he has also taken steps that could increase transparency at the independent agency, which regulates television, radio, cable and wireless service. This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman discusses the new chairman and the future of internet access with Cecilia Kang of The New York Times and Brian Fung with The Washington Post.  

First, Twitter erupted with calls to #BoycottUber. Then came similar demands to #BoycottStarbucks. Both were responses from either side of the political aisle after President Donald Trump's executive order temporarily blocking immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations. Two weeks into the new administration, it seems like CEO's of the country's biggest companies are under pressure to declare political alliances and take moral stands, or risk public outrage. But businesses not only respond to consumers, they're also affected by employees, shareholders and, yes, the government. This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman discusses whether business and politics should remain separate and the role CEO’s will play in the coming years with Sheelah Kolhatkar of The New Yorker and Joe Nocera of Bloomberg View.

President Donald Trump is taking aim at what he considers the culprits of the nation's disappearing jobs: international trade agreements and fleeing U.S. companies. This week, Trump signed a memo withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and met with the CEO's of companies like General Motors and Whirlpool to discuss keeping jobs stateside. But technology, not globalization, may be having a bigger effect on the workforce. A recent McKinsey Global Institute report found over half of job activities are susceptible to automation. (That’s not actual jobs, but what people do at their jobs: like data processing or product assembly.) This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman discusses how new technologies are changing the workforce, and what's being done about it, with Claire Cain Miller, a reporter with “The Upshot” for the New York Times.

The businessmen President-elect Donald Trump picked to lead the country's economic team testified before the Senate in their confirmation hearings this week, giving a preview of how they might run the county's finances, and whether they're in line with the policies of their soon-to-be boss. During his hearing, Commerce Secretary nominee Wilbur Ross, who made money buying and then later selling failing businesses, told senators he wasn't against international trade, but he would consider tariffs that ensured the U.S. didn't get the short end of the deal. Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs backer, said that while he wasn't against regulation, he was for loosening limits on banks, especially small to medium-sized ones.  This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman takes a look what the hearings revealed about Trump's picks with Sheelah Kolhatkar of The New Yorker and Jesse Eisinger of ProPublica.  

It might be hard to remember what it felt like back in January 2009 when Barack Obama became the nation's 44th president: Wall Street and the auto industry needed billion dollar bailouts, the Dow Jones hovered around 8,000 and the unemployment rate was steadily rising — reaching 10 percent at the end of the year. With just over a week left before the end of his administration, President Obama summed up the past eight years in a farewell speech in Chicago and, no surprise, the economy was a central topic. This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman discusses the state of the economy Obama is handing over to president-elect Donald Trump with Gillian B. White, senior associate editor at The Atlantic. 

The Federal Reserve says there is "considerable uncertainty" understanding how president-elect Donald Trump's proposed policies of tax cuts and infrastructure spending will affect the U.S. economy.  In the minutes released Wednesday from the bank's most recent policy meeting in December, participants said "it was too early to know what changes in these policies would be implemented and how such changes might alter the economic outlook." One concern is rising inflation. Should that happen, it's very likely the Federal Reserve will try to tamp down rising prices through higher interest rates. And if higher rates slow down economic growth, that in turn might not please the new President. When Trump was a candidate, he often criticized the chair of the Federal Reserve for keeping rates low during President Obama's time in office. "Janet Yellen, for political reasons, is keeping interest rates so low that the next guy or person who takes over as president could have a real problem," Trump told Bloomberg News. This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman talks with James Surowiecki from the New Yorker and Catherine Rampell with the Washington Post about the possible conflicts between the new President and the bank, and what it means for the economy and consumers.

This was the year that defied predictions — the United Kingdom did indeed vote to leave the European Union, Donald Trump will be the country's 45th president and the stock market is soaring. With the economy still going steady (GDP increased at rate of 3.5 percent and consumer spending is up), the incoming president's challenge will be to keep growth strong. And with Germany, France and the Netherlands holding elections next year, the future of the European Union remains murky. This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman looks at some of the biggest business and economic trends of 2016, and what’s in store for the next year, with  Rob Cox from Reuters Breaking Views and Rana Foroohar, author of “Makers & Takers: The Rise of Finance & the Fall of American Business."

This week, Amazon revealed plans for a brick and mortar convenience store without checkout lines — customers just swipe an app as they walk in, get what they need and then leave.  The move may very well be part of the company's plan to dominate every inch of consumers' lives. But it also reflects the country's overall trend toward automation, leaving the incoming president to deal with more than offshoring when it comes to saving jobs. This week on Money Talking, Rick Newman of Yahoo Finance and Timothy Lee of Vox take a look at the future of retailing and what it means for jobs.  

Whether it's reports that the Secret Service might rent office space from Trump Towers in Manhattan, or Donald Trump suing Washington, D.C. to lower taxes on his new hotel, the president-elect has a great deal of business conflicts to resolve before entering the White House. But if Trump doesn't keep his promise to sever all business ties, he risks setting an ethically ambiguous tone for the rest of his administration. With that in mind, Money Talking host Charlie Herman discusses whose interests some of Trump's appointees will represent with Jesse Eisinger of ProPublica and Rick Newman of Yahoo Finance.

Wall Street never really embraced Donald Trump during the presidential race, directing most of their money and support to Hillary Clinton. Perhaps for good reason — while on the campaign trail,  Trump pledged to get rid of tax loopholes that favor hedge fund managers and even called to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. But now that the election has passed and president-Elect Trump struggles to fill his administration with appointed officials and cabinet secretaries, some people in New York are already getting on-board: Wall Street. You can see it not only in the rising stock market, but in recent comments from leaders of the financial industry. This week on Money Talking, Sheelah Kolhatkar of The New Yorker and Aaron Elstein with Crain's New York Business discuss Wall Street’s new found love for Trump, and what that could mean for his presidency. 

President-elect Donald Trump is calling for swift action to enact his plans for growth. Since Congress is also controlled by Republicans, it could signal a busy start to 2017. Ending regulations put in place by the Obama administration; reforming the tax code; investing in infrastructure projects; revising trade deals; appointing new members to the Federal Reserve; ending Obamacare; those are just some of the items on Trump's economic to-do list. This week on Money Talking, Rana Foroohar, author of "Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance & the Fall of American Business" and Rob Cox, global editor for Reuters Breaking Views, explain what "Trumponomics" might look like in the first 100 days of his administration — who wins, who loses and what it could mean for the American economy.

If you’re planning on watching — or running in — the New York City Marathon this weekend, you’re going to see Airbnb's corporate logo all over the place. The home sharing company is sponsoring the race for the third year. But whatever warm, fuzzy feelings it hoped to generate, Airbnb is on the defensive in New York — fighting a new law signed last week that will drastically restrict its business model by fining users up $7,500 for posting illegal listings on the site. Airbnb's fight with Albany resembles another tech company's clash with the city: Uber. The ride-hailing service launched in New York City in 2011 and was met by wary legislators and a hostile taxi industry. But Uber's bad days seem to be mostly behind the company. This week on Money Talking, host Ilya Marritz speaks to Dana Rubinstein of Politico New York about what Uber got right, and what Airbnb may still be getting wrong.  

Once again, the Affordable Care Act appears to be in trouble. This week, the Obama administration announced premiums will rise an average of 22 percent next year and that many insurers are leaving the marketplace.  The announcement, just days before the election, put the future of the President’s signature piece of legislation back into the conversation on the campaign trail — and leading many to show their support (or dismay) on Twitter with the trending hashtag  #ObamacareInThreeWords. #ObamacareInThreeWords: Pre-existing conditions — lifesaving. — Bill Madden (@activist360) October 26, 2016 #ObamaCareInThreeWords biggest scam ever. We are broke. . The president lied. It's all Democrats. Send Dems packing pic.twitter.com/j2TFCeVue8 — deplorable hockeyman (@cheaptrickone) October 26, 2016 20 million covered. #ObamaCareInThreeWords pic.twitter.com/7OGTlEVIrB — Jason Sparks (@sparksjls) October 26, 2016 REPEAL AND REPLACE!!! #ObamaCareInThreeWords — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2016 This week on Money Talking, Jonathan Cohn with the Huffington Post and Tami Luhby of CNNMoney discuss whether things are as bad as they seem for Affordable Care Act with host Charlie Herman.

The presidential election is dominating the news and conversations — even if people say they are tired of talking about what feels like an endless campaign. But there is one place that's free of politics: the office. Yeah, right. That's probably what you hope for because who wants to argue with their coworkers? In reality, though, you've probably heard someone talking about the latest debate just before a meeting starts or walked into the break room as people were talking about what's in the latest batch of hacked emails. So if you are just dying to bring up this year's presidential campaign, how do you do it? "I think the most important thing, first of all, is to look for and watch for the signs of people who are interested and willing to exchange in talking about politics," said Liane Davey, co-founder of 3COze Inc which works with corporate teams. "If you start to broach it or someone else broaches it and they drop their eye contact or look at their phone, that’s a good sign that they are not comfortable." Davey spoke to Money Talking host Charlie Herman about some of the dos and don'ts when it comes to talking about politics at work (that's the presidential kind) and provided some specific steps for the Harvard Business Review.

Those calling for Hillary Clinton to release more information about her paid speeches to Wall Street executives got a small victory after WikiLeaks published what appear to be full transcripts of three speaking engagements with Goldman Sachs back in 2013. (Read the full transcripts here.) The documents came from a hack of the email account of John Podesta, chairman of Clinton's presidential campaign, and WikiLeaks had been releasing excerpts for a week before revealing them entirely. The Clinton campaign hasn't verified the transcripts' authenticity. This week on Money Talking business writer William D. Cohan and Sheelah Kolhatkar of The New Yorker discuss what Clinton apparently said to wealthy financiers behind closed doors.

Tuesday, the Tax Policy Center analyzed the tax plans of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton — and as the director of the Center put it, the plans are practically mirror images of one another. While Trump’s plan would cut taxes for the top 1 percent by an average of $215,000, Clinton’s would increase their taxes by about $118,000; Trump would cut taxes for business, Clinton would raise them; and over 10 years, Trump’s tax cuts would total $6.2 trillion while Clinton’s would increase taxes by $1.4 trillion. This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman takes a closer look at each candidate's tax proposal and how it could affect Americans with Catherine Rampell of The Washington Post and Rob Cox of Reuters BreakingViews.

This week Google unveiled a slew of new hardware products, including it’s own smartphone, the Pixel. But the piece that most stood out was Google Assistant — part of the growing fight for who's going to be everyone's personal digital assistant. All the major tech companies are making big bets on artificial intelligence: Apple has Siri, Amazon has Alexa and Windows has Cortana. All of them all looking to get into people's home, chat with them on their phones and help them out with just about everything. This week on Money Talking, Mike Isaac of The New York Times and Hayley Tsukayama of The Washington Post discuss how companies like Google and Amazon are looking to become more than search engines and online shopping sites — what that means for people's privacy and how'll they'll make money in the process.

John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo, faced another round of criticism, outrage and anger during a Congressional hearing Thursday. It was his second trip to Capitol Hill after the bank agreed to pay $185 million to settle accusations it had engaged in illegal banking activities — specifically, opening more than 2 million accounts on behalf of customers without their knowledge. The bank continues to deny any wrongdoing, but Stumpf is now forfeit $41 million in stock awards and any bonuses this year. Carrie Tolstedt, the executive who ran the branch in question and retired this summer with $124.6 million in stock and options, will have to give up $19 million in stock awards. This week on Money Talking, Rana Foroohar, author of "Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance & the Fall of American Business" and Sheelah Kolhatkar, staff writer at The New Yorker, take a second look at the increasing anger towards the bank and its consequences.

Legislators across the country are trying to regulate companies like Airbnb, but a law passed 20 years ago is making it tough. So lawmakers in places like New York are turning their attention to Airbnb users — looking to penalize people who list their homes on the site. One of the reasons users can be slapped with fines while Airbnb avoids penalties is a clause in the Communications Decency Act — a set of federal laws passed in 1996 — that says internet companies like Airbnb cannot be held responsible for whatever users post on their sites. This week on Money Talking, Tony Romm, senior technology reporter for Politico, and Olivier Sylvain, a law professor at Fordham University, discuss how a law passed before Airbnb existed shaped internet companies' ability to do business, and why it's making some lawmakers very frustrated.    

Remembering terrible bosses is easy. I bet you can still list everything they did wrong years after having worked for them. But what about the really good bosses? How did they manage to bring out the best in you and could you become one? There’s actually a name for this kind of leader: the "superboss." "A superboss is a leader, a boss, a manager, who helps other people accomplish more than they ever thought possible," said Sydney Finkelstein, professor of management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and the man who coined the phrase. "As a result, they accelerate the careers of those people that work for them." Finkelstein, author of “Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Manage the Flow of Talent,” spoke to Money Talking host Charlie Herman about the qualities superbosses have and why their hiring practices can make for a better workplace. Finkelstein also wrote about the subject for the Harvard Business Review, "Secrets of the Superbosses." Here are some ways they do it: 1. They generate a talent network. They surround themselves with good people and therefore create a better work environment. And by helping other people do well and move up in their careers, they generate a network of former employees who can help them out in the future. 2. They're always on the lookout for talent. "Wherever they're going, they got their opportunity antenna up." Finkelstein said. Which also means they create jobs for people they like, even if they aren't looking to fill a specific spot. And they're not afraid to hire people who are smarter than them. 3. They hire outside the box. Superbosses, like chef Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, look for unusual people and talents despite experience. "She'd hire people who sometimes didn't even work as a chef in the past," Finkelstein said. "Because she thought they had that something special." 4. They move employees around. They make employees try different positions within workplace. Finkelstein said Gene Roberts, executive editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, used to move reporters from the sports desk to the investigative department. "This is in the DNA of superbosses," Finkelstein said. "And anyone can replicate that idea." 5. They look to inspire. Superbosses create an team environment where everybody counts. That keeps employees motivated and engaged. 6. They focus on performance. While managers tend to be more focused on efficiency, superbosses prioritize performance and effectiveness. 7. They don't focus on being nice or keeping thing easy. Working for a superboss isn't for everyone. "Not everybody wants to work that hard," Finkelstein said. "Not everybody has that type of aspiration." Find out if you're a superboss with this test.

Another bank is in the headlines, paying millions of dollars in fines to settle charges of illegal banking practices. This time, it’s Wells Fargo. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), employees at the bank opened accounts and applied for credit cards in the name of existing customers for years without their consent. Wells Fargo didn't admit or deny wrongdoing, but it will pay $100 million in fines to the CFPB — the largest penalty the federal agency has ever imposed. It will also pay an extra $35 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and $50 million to the City and County of Los Angeles, according to an CFPB statement. The fines amount to a bit more than the $124.6 million in stock and options Carrie Tolstedt, the former executive who headed the unit under question, left with when she retired this summer. Now the bank is reported to be facing investigations by the U.S. Attorneys in New York and California. And CEO John Stumpf is to testify before the Senate banking committee next week. This week on Money Talking, Rana Foroohar of Time Magazine and Sheelah Kolhatkar of The New Yorker look at what Wells Fargo's behavior says about the country's banking culture and what repercussions there could be for the financial sector.

In the years after the September 11th terrorist attacks, New York City undertook the enormous and complicated task of rebuilding the World Trade Center site and revitalizing Lower Manhattan. Today, skyscrapers once again tower over the neighborhood. There's a sparkling white transit hub, an underground retail mall and a performing arts center is scheduled to open early 2020. There are also a lot more people. Since 2000, the residential population has more than doubled — going from just over 22,000 to 49,000 in 2014, according to city numbers. And the economy has diversified, with the financial sector no longer accounting for over half the jobs. This week, Money Talking looks at what it took to rebuild Ground Zero and what the future holds for Lower Manhattan with Lynne Sagalyn, emeritus professor of real estate at Columbia Business School and author of “Power at Ground Zero, Politics Money and the Remaking of Lower Manhattan.”  

If coming up with a brilliant idea is hard, getting people to agree with you can prove just as difficult.  "We operate under this assumption that the world will magically see how great our idea is, but great ideas get rejected all the time," said David Burkus, author of The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies and People Generate Great Ideas.  Burkus, who also teaches creativity and innovation courses at Oral Roberts University, spoke to Money Talking host Charlie Herman about how to recognize and pitch great ideas. He suggested a five criteria checklist for structuring a pitch or judging which idea to invest time in. 1. Relative advantage: Ask yourself if your idea has an easy to see advantage over an existing product or process. "That’s the thing that gets people excited even when it’s our idea," Burkus said. 2. Compatibility: How much  does your idea build off something people already know? If there's a huge cost to trying it because it’s a totally new thing, then people won't give it a shot. But if it's seen as the next step in a process people are already familiar with, then you have a chance.  3. Complexity: "If you have to explain the punchline of a joke, it’s not funny," Burkus said. Same goes for your idea. If people can't understand it, they won't buy into it. 4. Trialability: How low is the bar  to trying your idea? "If there’s a steep cost involved in somebody adopting or it testing it, then it’s less likely [to] see the light of day," Burkus said. 5. Observability: How easy is it to see the results from people who've tried your idea out? "That’s why there’s a before-and-after shot on fitness products," Burkus said. People are more inclined to try something that's worked for someone else. Extra advice: Think of your idea as a prototype. Burkus said the biggest harm you can do to yourself is thinking your idea has to be implemented 100 percent as you initially conceived it. "Let your idea change as other people get a hold of it," he said. For more, check out Burkus’ article on pitching your "crazy" ideas for the Harvard Business Review.

Organized labor seems to be in trouble. Union membership in the country has been on a slow decline since its peak in the 1950s. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 11.1 percent of the country's workers were unionized in 2015, compared to almost 35 percent in 1954. For some, this is a good thing. As an example, they point to what they see as over-generous pensions that drain government budgets. But others disagree, claiming a direct link between the decline of the middle class and the disappearing union job. This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman takes at look the future of organized labor, and what that could mean for all workers, with Ruth Milkman, professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center and Lydia DePillis, economics reporter with the Houston Chronicle.

Another big pharmaceutical company CEO is in the hot seat. This time it's Heather Bresch of Mylan Laboratories who's explaining why the price for an EpiPen 2-Pak has gone from about $100 to nearly $600 in just a few years.  On Thursday, the company said it'd offer a savings card to cover up to $300 for the auto-injector, which is used to reverse life-threatening allergic reactions. But consumers and legislators are still outraged and asking Bresch to go beyond offering subsidies and lower EpiPen's cost. Mylan joins the ranks of other drug companies like Valeant and Turing, which have been criticized for similar price hikes. Most recently, former Turing CEO Martin Shkreli came under fire for raising the price of a drug for AIDS and cancer patients from $13.50 a pill to $750. This week on Money Talking, host Charlie Herman talks to Business Insider's Linette Lopez and Rob Cox of Reuters Breakingviews about the EpiPen price hike and the effect expensive drugs have on the country’s healthcare system.

Obamacare seems to be in trouble again — but this time it's not because another legal challenge is before the Supreme Court or Republicans in Congress are voting to repeal it. Aetna, one of the nation’s largest healthcare companies, announced this week it's going to dramatically cut back its participation in the law because it's costing the company too much money. The Obama administration may have seen this decision coming. Wednesday, the Huffington Post reported Aetna had threatened to stop offering insurance through Obamacare if the Justice Department blocked its plan to merge with health insurer Humana — which it did in July.  If Aetna follows through, thousands of people who currently have health care will to have to scramble to find coverage next year.  This week on Money Talking, Jonathan Cohn of the Huffington Post and Tami Luhby of CNNMoney discuss whether Aetna's move means real trouble for one of President's biggest legacies, or if the Affordable Care Act is merely suffering growing pains.