Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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On the program today, a look at the job market, how kids are getting allowances these days, and the latest on our relationship status with the EU. From American Public Media, this is Marketplace. From Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland, I'm Rima Grace in for Kai Rizdal. It is Monday, January 19th, Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Good to have you with us.
As part of his push to buy Greenland, President Trump is promising new tariffs. In a post on Truth Social this weekend, the president said that starting February 1st, The U.S. will impose new 10 percent tariffs on Denmark, which Greenland is a part of, along with seven other European countries that have opposed a U.S. takeover of the territory.
He said that tariff will go up to 25 percent on June 1st and will stay in place until the U.S. has reached a deal to buy Greenland. Marketplace's Stephanie Hughes looks at what this could mean for the relationship with one of our biggest trading partners. The U.S. and the EU are the world's two largest economies. And for decades, we've traded pretty well together.
There have been little trade disputes, like siblings fighting in the backseat of a car. Emily Blanchard studies international economic policy at Dartmouth. She says, like siblings, we trade just about everything. Fun stuff like French wine and Kentucky bourbon, but more so big, heavy stuff. Industrial machinery, airplane parts, cars, services like banking.
Even after the Trump administration imposed widespread tariffs last year, it reached a preliminary trade deal with the EU. So we've been in a sort of... cool detente since summer. But now, with these new threatened tariffs over Greenland, Blanchard says that trade truce is almost certainly on pause, if not out the window. And Europe could retaliate.
So you may have heard the term of bazooka.
Uri Maitien is an analyst with the European Policy Center in Brussels. The trade bazooka is more formally known as Europe's anti-coercion instrument.
Maitien describes it as a regulation that says if another country is putting some kind of financial pressure on the EU to force a policy change, the EU, which is not known for being quick, can quickly hit back, unleashing tariffs against certain goods or even restricting certain companies from operating in Europe.
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Chapter 2: What new tariffs has President Trump announced regarding the EU?
And when rules or deals get ignored, it's a lot harder to play nicely, or even at all. I'm Stephanie Hughes for Marketplace. U.S. markets were closed today for the holiday, so we'll do a spin around the world with a look at global equities. We'll have the details when we do the numbers. The World Economic Forum kicked off today in Davos, Switzerland.
President Trump is scheduled to speak there on Wednesday. And reports say he's expected to announce a plan that would let Americans tap their 401ks for a home down payment without a penalty. A lot of economists are skeptical that this would actually make housing more affordable, just like they've been with some of the president's other recent ideas.
So Marketplace's Samantha Fields asks, what would bring down the cost of housing? Trump has proposed several ideas in the last few months. 50-year mortgages, a ban on institutional investors buying single-family homes, and now letting people take money out of their 401ks to buy a house.
It makes a lot of sense that all these proposals are just coming out right now because we are in the midst of a housing affordability crisis. Chris Salviati, chief economist at ApartmentList, says housing has been an issue for a long time, but it's gotten increasingly unattainable for many people in the last five years.
Now, more than probably at any time in recent memory, housing affordability is kind of a top of mind issue. But he says some of the proposals the president has thrown out so far could actually exacerbate the problem by giving people more purchasing power. And that would, if anything, potentially even drive prices up further by bringing more demand into the market.
And there's already more demand for housing than supply. Jenny Schutz at Arnold Ventures says that's why it's gotten so expensive to buy.
There aren't enough homes to go around. The problem that the federal government has, both the administration and Congress, is that they don't have a lot of levers over supply.
Local governments and cities and towns are the ones with the most control over how much housing gets built. And Vanessa Perry at the George Washington University School of Business says local officials could help improve housing affordability by making it easier to build more homes more quickly.
Anything that could be done to remove some of the zoning restrictions that exist in many markets across the United States. that would have a major impact. It would allow developers to come in and be able to increase the density, use land more efficiently.
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Chapter 3: How might the EU retaliate against U.S. tariffs?
Over in Asia, Japan's Nikkei fell two-thirds of one percent. The Shanghai Composite gained three-tenths percent. The Hang Seng lost one and one-tenth percent. In Europe, Britain's FTSE dipped four-tenths percent. Francis CAC 40 dropped one and eight-tenths percent. Germany's DAX gave back one and a third percent. When U.S.
markets return tomorrow, they'll be looking ahead to some more belated releases from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. We'll get an updated estimate for the third quarter GDP on Thursday. Also, we'll get PCE data from November, which can give us a sense of inflation across a wide range of personal consumption items.
The last available number was from September, which showed an inflation rate of 2.8 percent. You're listening to Marketplace. This Marketplace podcast is supported by Fay Greedrinker, one of the largest law firms in Minnesota. With nearly 300 Minneapolis attorneys helping clients solve complex legal issues and meeting their goals in the Twin Cities and beyond, FayGreedrinker.com.
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For a lot of families, giving kids an allowance is kind of a milestone, first attempt at teaching them how money works. A Wells Fargo survey from last year found that more than 70 percent of respondents gave their kids some type of allowance. Though as times change, so too do the forms of payment. Michael Waters is an author and journalist who had a story in The Atlantic titled The New Allowance.
Michael, thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. Okay, so I don't know about you, but my memory of an allowance was my parents handing me, you know, five, ten dollars every few weeks. It sounds like these days some families are using apps that are making allowances a lot more financially involved. What sorts of things are we seeing?
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Chapter 4: How do Trump's housing proposals address affordability issues?
His proposed Truth in Job Advertising Act would require expiration dates, proof a role is legitimate and penalties for employers who aren't transparent. He's also launched a petition which now has more than 50,000 signatures.
It took my breath away and was a little overwhelming to know that I wasn't alone in the dark. I was so happy to get 50 people because I felt that I was screaming into the dark at one point.
In the UK, Eilish, who works in marketing and was made redundant last year, says she's faced similar issues. I've been ghosted by small businesses and I've also been ghosted by big corporations. Hiring platform Greenhouse estimates a third of postings in the UK show signs of being ghost jobs. Eilish explains she was once offered an interview but didn't ever hear back from the hiring manager.
It does just knock you down when you've
built your confidence back up with the potential of an interview to then be completely left in the dark.
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Chapter 5: What are the criticisms of Trump's housing affordability proposals?
Career coach and recruitment expert Dr. Jasmine Escalera, who is based in Miami, has surveyed hiring managers on why they offer ghost roles.
They might be posting these positions to actually create a talent pool. it isn't that they don't want to hire, but they may not be hiring immediately. But they also could potentially be inflating numbers. So trying to show that the company or organization is growing when they're actually not.
She's concerned ghost jobs may be misleading the data that governments rely on.
We use this data to develop policy. And so if that data is somehow skewed,
then we're not really able to create the policies or the support that job seekers and employees need right now. In Canada, some politicians are taking action. From January, employers in Ontario with at least 25 staff must update candidates within 45 days of an interview and state whether a job is genuinely being filled. Hopefully most employers will comply.
Here's Toronto-based employment lawyer Deborah Hudson. My cynical side, just because I've been doing this for almost 20 years, says like, how are they actually going to monitor and regulate this? I don't think that the government has resources to be having investigations on what's happening or not. However, if people see an issue, they can make a complaint and it will be looked into.
Until measures come into place, career experts suggest job seekers should watch for red flags, roles reposted again and again, or listings left open for months. In Toronto, I'm the BBC's Megan Lawton for Marketplace.
This final note on the way out can file it under, yeah, that's what we've been saying. Start off the show talking about President Trump's new tariff proposals. Well, a new study found that Americans are, in fact, bearing nearly all the cost of Trump's tariffs.
The research comes from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, and it shows that foreign companies are covering just about 4 percent of the tariff bill. The rest? Shows up here on American Importers, for domestic customers, and of course, on U.S. consumers. Amir Rabawi, Caitlin Esch, John Gordon, Noya Karr, and Stephanie Sieck are the Marketplace Editing staff.
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