Marketplace

The drip-drip-drip of news about Russia and the 2016 election continues today. A week or so ago, Facebook said it sold about $100,000 worth of ads to a so-called Russian "troll farm." Today, the company announced it would show the ads to the government. Meanwhile, the company is working to improve its advertising process after ProPublica revealed users could target ads with anti-Semitic keywords. We'll start today's show by explaining all the fires Facebook is fighting. Then: all of Puerto Rico is still without power today, and it could take months to restore service. The utility was already $9 billion in debt. Plus: Google's latest hardware play.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen gave an update on the economy today, and we'll start the show with the highlights and translated Fed-speak. Then: the latest — and likely last, but who knows anymore — Senate attempt at repealing Obamacare is the Cassidy-Graham bill. It takes the money the federal government spends on Obamacare, and gives it directly to the states to do what they want with it. It's called a block grant, and it sounds simple enough, but it's not. We'll look at how they've worked in the past. Plus: Checking in with a family of Syrian refugees, one year later.

The Federal Reserve has been backstopping the American economy for almost a decade with its $4 trillion pile of bonds and mortgage-backed securities it bought up during and after the financial crisis. The idea was to keep borrowing costs low and goose the whole economy. It's widely expected that the Fed's going to start unwinding its balance sheet tomorrow, letting the economy work a little more normally. So what's going to happen? Then: FEMA says fewer than 20 percent of the homes affected by Harvey carried flood insurance, and that makes recovery all the more difficult. Plus: A new study from Yale University says Americans, mostly white Americans, are just plain out of touch with how economically unequal this country is.

Washington is getting all hot and bothered about health care again, but we're gonna keep our eye on the ball and start our show with the Fed, which is meeting this week. There's going to be a tea leaf reading, and some dot plot reading too. Then: We've been reporting a lot lately on hate groups and where they find homes online. Since Charlottesville, there's been more awareness of these groups, and they've been expelled from a lot of services, but that hasn't stopped other businesses from filling in the gap. Plus: In LA's gentrifying Boyle Heights neighborhood, mariachis struggle to pay rent near a plaza named for them.

Say you're a company that has data on zillions of Americans, like a hospital, or a bank, or, you know, Equifax. Consumers have very little control over those companies, besides trusting them to keep their data safe. How hard can that be? We'll look into it. Facebook is already in some hot water for selling ads to a Russian "troll farm." Now a ProPublica investigation found the site's ad-targeting tools can be used to reach racists and anti-Semites. Plus, we'll look back at all the week's business and economic news. Never a dull moment. Someone should put that on a hat or something.

On Air Force One today, somewhere between D.C. and Naples, Florida, President Trump took credit for the country's economic strength and gave an update on his tax plan. We'll check a few of his claims, in particular that the plan is "revenue neutral" with faster economic growth. Then we'll head back to Florida, which is picking up the pieces after being battered by Hurricane Irma this week. But it's been especially tough for Floridians to get their claims processed — because all the insurance adjusters are still in Houston. Then: you might know Manolo Blahnik the shoes, but Blahnik is also a man, and he's the subject of a new film. We'll talk with the director. 

The timeline for tax cuts and tax reform — one of the big things both Hill and White House Republicans say they want to get done this year — has been flexible, but today House Speaker Paul Ryan said we'll see an outline the week of the 25th. Now, plenty of lawmakers are starting to talk about their vision for taxes, so let's start with Ted Cruz: He wants to file on a postcard, with a flat tax and something called "full and immediate expensing." What's that mean? We'll talk about it. Then: In the wake of Harvey and Irma, the so-called catastrophic bond market's been on a wild ride. We'll talk about what that means. Plus: Dolores Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez in 1962, and she coined the slogan "Si, se puede." You might know it as "Yes, we can" from Obama's 2008 campaign. Carlos Santana and Peter Bratt made a documentary about Huerta and her "riches to rags" story, and we'll talk with them about it.

We say it a lot in our show: context matters. Doing the numbers doesn't do you much good without knowing the bigger picture. To wit: The official poverty rate in this country dropped a full percentage point last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, putting 12.7 percent of Americans under the poverty line. Also, median household income rose a about 3 percent to about $59,000 a year. We'll start out today's show by talking about what that means. Then: We talked yesterday about all the memorials to victims of mass violence being built and financed in this country. Today, we'll take a look at what goes into maintaining them. Plus: Globalization gets a bad rap in the States, but what about emerging economies? They're seeing the benefits and starting to catch up.

Millions of Floridians are still out of their homes in the wake of Hurricane Irma. Much of state is without power, and early damage estimates range from $25 billion to $60 billion. We'll look at how officials start to tally that up, and the lasting problems Floridians face. Then: Since it opened in 2011, more than 30 million people have visited New York's 9/11 memorial. It's maybe the highest-profile memorial to victims of mass violence in this country, but there are plenty of others and more planned in Orlando, Charleston and elsewhere. But the process of designing and financing these memorials isn't easy. Plus, we'll talk with San Diego, California, mayor Kevin Faulconer about NAFTA as negotiations continue.

As Hurricane Irma bears down on Florida, it seems possible that in the worst-case scenario this storm could top $1 trillion in damage, to say nothing of the lives at risk. We'll look at what insurers are watching and how it compares to Harvey, plus the way private companies mobilize to provide disaster relief. Then: Everything you need to know about the massive data breach at Equifax. Finally, as we do every week, we'll wrap up a very odd five days of news.

You could look at the deal President Donald Trump made with leading congressional Democrats yesterday as a sort of butterfly effect situation — a seemingly trivial act that massively alters the country's future. As we broadcast today, a bill just passed the Senate with both the first dose of Hurricane Harvey relief money and government funding for the next three months while raising the debt limit. Those last two were going to suck up a lot of energy later this month. The House still has to vote on it, but it's a big deal, and congressional Republicans are left trying to figure out what it all means for their economic agenda. Then: With the Gulf Coast picking up the pieces after Harvey, and Hurricane Irma bearing down on millions more, we'll take a look at the years-long recovery process after a natural disaster. Plus: What city will land Amazon's second headquarters?

President Trump made a big tax speech in North Dakota today. A key feature in his plan: Cutting the corporate tax rate, which currently sits at 35 percent. It's not clear how much Trump will be able to cut, however: Every percentage point cut in the corporate tax rate would cost the U.S. Treasury an estimated $100 billion over a decade. We'll talk about it, plus the latest departure from the Federal Reserve. Then: We're continuing our series "Trade Off" with a look at retraining. When people lose their jobs to globalization, government programs are meant to get them ready for new jobs. But reinvention is hard. Plus: Why is "'Star Wars' movie director" seemingly one of the highest-turnover jobs in the country?

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced President Donald Trump's decision today to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an Obama-era rule protecting undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Sessions argued, without evidence, that the 800,000 or so Dreamers harmed the labor force. We'll start the show today looking into that claim. Then: Congress is back to work, and topping its long list of priorities is disaster relief. The House is taking up the first bit tomorrow, and we'll talk about what that $7.8 billion will buy. Plus: We hear a lot about tax brackets, but what do you really know about them? We're here to help.

North Korea has ratcheted up tensions again by testing what it called a hydrogen bomb on Sunday. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he's working on plans to further sanction the country and, potentially, one of the United States' biggest trade partners: China. We'll talk with former U.S. ambassador Joe DeThomas about how that might play out. Then: Efforts to boost the minimum wage have gotten a lot of attention lately and proponents have scored some major victories. But workers rights advocates are now asking: What good is a wage boost if workers don’t know how many hours they’re working every week? Oregon is the first state to legislate predicable work schedules, and the movement is gaining traction. Plus: this Labor Day weekend, the summer movie season limped to a close with no new wide releases. So what happened? 

The free market is cold blooded. Under normal circumstances, prices will balance out for supply and demand. Consumers adjust and the economy goes on its way. But what's going on in Houston is not normal, and price gouging is rampant. Economists will tell you those prices make sense, but making business sense is another matter. Then: The Department of Health and Human Services is cutting Obamacare advertising by $90 million. Critics say Trump is trying to sabotage his predecessor's signature legislation, but the administration insists the ads just didn't work. Speaking of ads: TV is starting to take cues from social media, with six-second ads aimed at short attention spans. Finally: Global trade always has winners and losers, and this country has always struggled with thinking about the latter. That's the focus of today's installment of our series Trade Off.