Marketplace American Public Media

A lot happened this week. We had some Fed Chair Jerome Powell, a little bit of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and, of course, the whole GameStop-Reddit-Wall-Street story. On today’s show: We’re looking back at the week and trying to make sense of it. Plus, unprecedented congestion at America’s ports and how the pandemic has changed bartending.

Several new viral variants of the coronavirus are spreading across the globe, and experts are urging the public to start wearing better masks. Disposable N95 masks are still better reserved for health care workers, since they’re in limited supply, but there are smart alternatives to just cloth. “Any mask is better than no mask,” one expert said. “But there’s a hierarchy of different solutions.” On today’s show: the call for more effective face masks. Plus, more on the bonkers GameStop stock situation and regrettable pandemic-inspired home renovations.

GameStop — yes, the video game store disappearing from shopping malls across the country — is making big news these days. The company’s stock has jumped 1,700% since the beginning of the year, due almost entirely to a forum on Reddit called r/WallStreetBets. On today’s show: We got Emily Stewart, business and politics reporter at Vox, to explain what is going on. Plus, a new study on the deadliest jobs during the pandemic and how government policies can lead to economic discrimination.

Running the economy hot means everyone who wants a job has a job. And the people who benefit most are those at the low end of wage distribution. The concern, though, is that a hot economy can cause a whole lot of inflation. But that’s just not happening. On today’s show: What we’ve learned in the past decade about letting an economy run hot. Plus, 71% of parents who work full time have kids who are attending school in person and a look at the shoe economy almost a year into the pandemic.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Monday promising that federal dollars will be used to purchase American-made products. The Trump administration basically promised the same, and there have been laws requiring such action for decades. But the Biden administration argues this time will be different. On today’s show: Why is it so hard to keep that promise? Plus, the difference that extra $300 in federal unemployment benefits made and why some brands are sitting out Super Bowl ads this year.

If you closely read the directives coming out of the Biden administration, you’ll see that they’re mostly instructions for various federal agencies to do things — a bureaucratic to-do list, if you will. The problem is there are roughly 4,000 political appointments to be made in the federal government at the start of a new administration, 1,300 of which require Senate confirmation. On today’s show: the strange way we hand over control of the government. Plus, Biden moves to raise  federal workers’ minimum wage to $15 and the complications of getting vaccines into Americans’ arms.