Marketplace

... But we are going to talk about the PR nightmare hitting United today, after videos of a passenger being forcibly removed from an overbooked flight went viral, and get to the bottom of why airlines sell too many seats in the first place. Plus, we'll look at the slew of foreign carmakers reinvesting in American factories just as Washington contemplates tax reform. Then: Five years ago, our own David Brancaccio drove across the country without talking to a single human being. It was for a series all about how robots are taking jobs. This year, he hit the road again to figure out which jobs are "robot-proof," and they're not the ones you think.

The full global political reaction to last night's U.S. airstrikes on a Syrian air base remains to be seen, but the impact on Russia’s economic ties to Syria will only heighten tense relations. Russia, as President Bashar Assad’s staunchest ally, has boosted the Syrian government’s military might in its civil war and in turn profited from billions of dollars in arms and equipment sales. Let's face it, there's no easy transition to our next story, where we meet Mark Wagner, the New York-based collage artist who deconstructs dollar bills to make portraits of presidents and re-create famous paintings. And, as always, we'll wrap up the week in business and economic news.

Yesterday we were talking about how bank ethicists measure success (by boredom), today we're looking at a way President Trump and Republicans could actually make banking a little more boring. Gary Cohn, one of Trump's economic advisers, told Bloomberg he'd be OK with the financial sector going back to the days when investment banks did trading and underwriting of securities, and commercial banks did banking as the rest of us know it. We'll talk about it, plus the unusual way Spotify could go public and injecting a little geographic diversity in the startup world.

The New York Fed reports that total outstanding household debt in this country is juuuust about where it was in 2008. Remember 2008? We're thinking about debt a little differently now, though. Then, a conversation with a big bank ethicist, who tells us what he does and how he measures success. Plus, why Panera's worth $7.2 billion to the equity group JAB, and another dispatch from Erie, Pennsylvania. 

The conventional wisdom about a lot of Rust Belt cities in this country is, well, look at the name. Their economies are shot, thanks to the steady loss of manufacturing jobs, and voters there are counting on President Trump to bring them back. It's the premise of our series "The Big Promise." But in Erie, Pennsylvania, there's something else going on. Plus, we'll look at the growing list of advertisers pulling away from "The O'Reilly Factor" and Jenna Lyons' departure from J.Crew. 

President Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan is still in the nascent stages, but it’s a key part of his promise to create millions of jobs. Once upon a time, infrastructure was this country’s job. After the Great Depression, the government put millions of Americans to work building stuff. We'll look back at that history and what lessons it might hold for Trump's ambitious infrastructure plan. Plus: Auto earnings, Trump's visit from Xi Jinping and an exit interview with Fed Gov. Daniel Tarullo.

More than a dozen major disasters — mudslides, floods, a huge bridge collapse in Atlanta this week — have hit the U.S. since President Donald Trump took office. There are a few federal agencies in charge of cleanup and relief, but it's not yet clear how they'll change in this new administration. For example, FEMA doesn't have a director yet, even as Trump has proposed hundreds of millions in cuts. Plus: A Federal Reserve governor visits West Virginia and the latest on Trump's executive orders. And, as always, we'll wrap up the week in business and economic news.

Ivanka Trump has officially become and unpaid assistant to the president with an office in the White House and a security clearance. But what does it take to get security clearance? How much does it cost to grant security clearance? We got some answers. Also from Washington: The Congressional Budget Office released a report today projecting the United States reaching a record level of publicly held debt by 2017. We take a look at how demographic shifts have contributed to this problem. We also talk with NFL players Malcolm Jenkins and Anquan Boldin, about their campaign for criminal justice reform. 

After more than four decades of membership with the European Union , the British government has officially notified its European partners that the U.K. is leaving the bloc. Marketplace’s London Bureau Chief Stephen Beard looks at how global banks and financial institutions based in the city of London are preparing for Brexit. Also on today's show, we take a look at how Virtual Private Network (VPN) services are looking to capitalize on the recent move in Congress to repeal rules aimed at protecting online privacy. Plus, Marketplace host Molly Wood talks to Stacy Smith, the executive vice president leading manufacturing, operations and sales at Intel, about why he thinks computing power will continue to advance despite barriers.

Obamacare is the law of the land, so now the GOP is moving on to the federal budget. Easy enough, right? Um, no. Then: President Donald Trump's latest executive order rolls back several climate regulations. But can deregulation alone save coal? (No, it can't.) Plus, the latest on Brexit and robots that may be able to predict your death. Happy Tuesday.

What now? That's the question after House Republicans last week failed to pass a repeal-and-replacement bill for the Affordable Care Act. We take a look at what might happen to state and federal insurance exchanges in 2018. We also re-visit the question "Can the government really act like a business?" President Trump seems to think so. Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, will head a new department with an old concept: use data-driven business practices and apply them to government. Lastly, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is a major proponent of school choice, but that program could put some rural districts at risk of losing funds.

Well then. Seven years and one day after the Affordable Care Act became law, after more than 50 votes to repeal and one tense, go-for-broke replacement attempt under President Donald Trump, Republicans backed off their health care plan. We'll leave the political post-mortems to others, and instead just focus on the economy and tax reform, which the GOP says is next on their agenda. Plus, we have a double-dose of Disney stories (one in the boardroom, another at the theater) and the thrilling conclusion of our NAFTA series.

So, no vote on the big GOP health care bill today. There might be one tomorrow, depending on whether you listen to the White House or to Republican leaders in Congress. The latest carrot they're using to win votes is scrapping an Obamacare provision that standardized insurance policies. We'll talk about "health care a la carte." Plus, a NAFTA thought experiment and the latest in our My Economy series.

We've been talking a lot about NAFTA this week, but let's get down to brass tacks:  What did the North American Free Trade Agreement do? President Donald Trump (not to mention Sen. Bernie Sanders) made NAFTA as a favorite target during the presidential campaign. They'll both tell you it was a “disaster” for the U.S. economy, that it cost the United States hundreds of thousands of jobs. The reality is not nearly as dramatic or tidy a story. Then, we'll look at how negotiating NAFTA could affect your happy hour. Plus, the latest on Sears' financial woes and more from our series in Erie, Pennsylvania.

It's NAFTA week here, so today we're heading to the Midwest. The trade deal opened up the Mexican market to American farmers, who enjoyed billions in exports. But Mexican farmers couldn't compete, and many of them immigrated to the U.S. illegally after going out of business. Then: We'll talk with the American and Canadian architects of NAFTA about how they negotiated the agreement in the first place. Plus, we'll unpack the latest travel restriction's impact on business travelers and look ahead to the House's big health care vote.