Keyed to President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement today, Kimberly and Sabri unpack some of the messaging about the impact tariffs had during the president’s first term and explain why many of those claims are overblown. Plus, why we’re smiling about Sen. Cory Booker’s historic speech and how Sabri fell victim to April Fools’ Day shenanigans! (Note: This episode was recorded prior to Trump’s speech.) 

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• “Trump’s Tariffs Make the Fed’s Interest Rate Decisions Tougher” from The New York Times
• “Tariffs Work — and President Trump’s First Term Proves It” from The White House
• “Economic View: Tariffs Have Strengthened the U.S. Economy” from the Coalition for a Prosperous America
• “Economic Impact of Section 232 and 301 Tariffs on U.S. Industries” from the United States International Trade Commission
• “ITC Study Proves Effectiveness of China Tariffs on Boosting Domestic Production, Reducing Dependence on Imports” from the Coalition for a Prosperous America
• “Home Depot to Charge For Parking to Combat Inflation” by Pro Tool Reviews
• “Booker sets new record for longest Senate floor speech” from Roll Call
• @kimberlyadams.bsky.social‬ via Bluesky

Got a question or comment for the hosts? Email makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

Corporate dealmakers hoped merger and acquisition ventures would heat up this year. But the first quarter of 2025 saw the slowest M&A activity in more than a decade, according to Dealogic. In this episode, why firms aren’t shelling out billions to buy another company in this economy. Plus: Nintendo announces a new Switch console, Gen Z suffers in a low-hire, low-fire job market, and a new study shows nonwhite bankruptcy filers face a lower likelihood of debt relief.

Carmakers say sales soared last month as buyers snapped up vehicles in attempts to get ahead of the tariffs President Donald Trump is set to announce later today. Vehicle sales could fall after tariffs are implemented and car prices surge. Plus, U.S. businesses went on a hiring spree in March. How exactly can jobs affect interest rates? We’ll discuss. Then, we’ll look at how London’s millennium-old Borough Market has evolved to serve modern tastes.

President Donald Trump is slated to unveil a slew of tariffs today, though we don’t know exactly how high these import taxes will be. What we do know is that a lot of U.S. allies are promising to retaliate in what could be the start of a far-flung trade war. And later: why J&J is in bankruptcy court for its talc suits and how credit card swipe fees are hitting bottom lines.

From the BBC World Service: Finland is planning to boost defense spending by $3.2 billion because of security worries. The Nordic country has seen a boom in its defense tech industry since the start of the war in Ukraine. Plus, we’ve been visiting marketplaces as part of our special “Tricks of the Trade” series. This time, we’re at London’s Borough Market, which attracts 20 million visitors a year.

Registration for the H-1B visa lottery closed last week. The tech industry has long been the biggest beneficiary of this program for specialized workers. But uncertainty has been spreading due to the Trump administration’s restrictive stance on immigration policy. Even legal immigrants have felt the crackdown. It’s led some companies to advise their H-1B holders not to leave the country for fear that they could be barred from returning. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Gerrit De Vynck, who wrote about risks to the visa program for The Washington Post.

Can capitalism save us? In 2020, it seemed like the answer was “possibly.” That year, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink shook up the investment world in his annual letter to companies, in which he made climate change a major focus. On CNBC he stated, “We believe a portfolio that focuses on sustainability and climate change will be a portfolio that outperforms … and it will also help the planet.” But that was before a fierce backlash ensued.

In this season of “How We Survive,” we follow the money — from a gathering of religious investors in New York City to a yacht in the Port of Houston — to trace how climate-conscious investing (the E in ESG) evolved from a small corner of the market, to a mainstream strategy, to a bogeyman of the right. We uncover the ways climate-conscious investing lives on today and ask: Can we invest our way out of the climate crisis?

The idea that the government should be run more like a business isn’t new. But with two businessmen, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, now taking a proverbial chainsaw to the federal bureaucracy all in the name “efficiency,” this theory is being put to the test. While it’s an appealing idea, Philip Joyce, professor of public policy at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, said governments can’t afford to take risks the way businesses can. On the show today, Joyce explains the origins of the idea that the government should be run like a business, how we define “success” differently for the two entities, and how the way Trump and Musk do business is showing up in the White House.

Then, we’ll break down the high stakes of today’s special elections in Wisconsin and Florida. Plus, reflections on serendipitous moments in walkable communities and what we gain by admitting we were wrong.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• “Why Running the Government Like a Business Would Be a Disaster” from The New York Times
• “The US Government Is Not a Startup” from Wired
• “The US Postal Service has been struggling for years. Now Trump’s talking about privatizing it” from AP News
• “DOGE wants businesses to run government services ‘as much as possible’” from The Washington Post
• “UPDATE: RECOVER Long COVID pathobiology grants restored” from The Sick Times
• “NIH restores some long COVID grants” from C&EN
• “What to Watch in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court Election and Florida’s Special Elections” from The New York Times
• “What to watch for Tuesday in Wisconsin’s high-stakes Supreme Court race and special elections in Florida” from CNN Politics
• “Control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court is at stake in race that’s drawn powerful political interests” from AP News
• “Volume 52 | Issue 1 | February 2025” from the American Ethnological Society

Got a question or comment for the hosts? Email makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

People feel richer — and spend accordingly — when their assets rise in value. That’s called the wealth effect. But when folks get their retirement account statements for Q1 of 2025, they may feel the opposite, since most of those accounts lost value. Will Americans pull back on their spending as a result? Plus, subcompact cars steer into the sunset, farmers are pessimistic about tariffs, and very small businesses can be a bellwether of economic trends.

Rocket — the company behind Rocket Mortgage — has struck a $9.5 billion deal to buy Mr. Cooper, a company that focuses mainly on collecting mortgage payments. That comes less than a month after Rocket bought online real estate brokerage Redfin. What’s behind the buying binge? Then, as part of our ongoing Tricks to the Trade series, we hear tips and reflections from flower purveyors at London’s New Covent Garden Market.

Some restaurants are still digging out of the hole the COVID-19 pandemic put them in. Many took on debt to survive the pandemic when they had to shutter; others have debt from before. The costs of those loans are still weighing on many restaurants — especially smaller establishments. We dig in. Also on this morning’s show: the war on ticket scalping, Vietnam’s slashed import duties and a delay in a Panama Canal port deal.