Marketplace

Coronavirus cases are surging in Arizona, Florida, Texas and California, and hospitals are becoming overwhelmed with patients. Other parts of the country have been there — and we all saw what happened. Today, we spend some time checking in on N95 masks, gowns and other protective gear. Plus: The latest Paycheck Protection Program loan deadline and what it’s like reopening a museum right now.

As we continue exploring structural economic racism, today we’re looking at a huge source of the wealth gap between Black and white Americans: homeownership. Plus: Facebook’s about-face on ads and Texas’ influx of Californians.

Systemic economic racism is fundamental to understanding this moment, so why not teach it that way? Today, we talk with Gary Hoover, chair of the economics department at the University of Oklahoma, about why he folds race into his intro courses. Plus: Virginia is set to become the first state mandating COVID-19 workplace safety measures, and bars are adapting to takeout cocktails.

Arizona, Florida, California, Texas and other states are seeing sharp increases in coronavirus cases as they reopen restaurants and other businesses. So what happens when those places have to shut their doors all over again? Today we look at it. Plus: The IMF’s grim forecast, unemployment data as sound and “The Great Indoors.”

We’ve said it before: Immigration is a labor force story. So today we’re going to look at the ways the White House’s new restrictions on H-1B visas could ripple through this economy: offshoring jobs, worker shortages and so on. Plus, a look at the history of discriminatory and family-based immigration policies in the 20th century.

Those big online groups are giving themselves some credit for spamming ticket reservations and driving down attendance at President Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, this weekend. It’s not clear how much that (and COVID-19 fears) depressed turnout, but they definitely did give the Trump campaign a whole lot of bad data. Today we look at how expensive that data is to clean up. Plus: drive-ins across the pond, racist film classics and “Diversity, Inc.”

The fiscal relief for the coronavirus pandemic is set to run out at the end of July, but many Americans are still out of work. Today, we’ll look at what could happen to this economy if Congress allows that aid to expire. Plus: How companies decide which holidays, like Juneteenth, to take off and Tulsa’s eviction problem.

The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the White House’s effort to end legal protections for 650,000 young immigrants today. We’re going to look at the role those Dreamers play in this economy. Plus: Checking in on the financial health of historically black colleges and universities, and we talk with Howard University professor William Spriggs about his open letter to economists about systemic racism in their field.

The CBS soap “The Bold and the Beautiful” was one of the first scripted series to turn cameras back on after officials allowed filming to resume in Los Angeles with restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19. But movies and TV produced during a pandemic will look a little different. Plus: Racism in tech, unemployment in the U.K. and the difference between the debt and the deficit.

Just down the road from the Smithfield pork-processing plant where hundreds of employees are off the job after a coronavirus outbreak is Grand Prairie Foods. They make eggs and breakfast sandwiches for hotel chains and convenience stores. Today, we’ll talk with the CEO about how they’re managing, along with a Black business owner in Utah who’s seeing a boom. Plus: Chinese unemployment and why the Fed started buying corporate bonds.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic wrote recently that “systemic racism is a yoke that drags on the American economy.” We’ll spend much of today’s show talking with Bostic about that essay and what’s next for the economy in a turbulent year. Plus, today’s big Supreme Court ruling on LGBTQ workplace discrimination, online internships and the transparency (or lack thereof) around who gets half a trillion in Paycheck Protection Program money.

The national outcry over systemic racism has pushed employers big and small to examine their own failings in diversity and inclusion. Today, we’ll look at why so many companies’ efforts haven’t worked — some have even made things worse — and whether this time could be any different. Plus: Some people are getting lax on masks even as COVID-19 cases rise, and we’re short on contact tracers.

It’s not just big corporations feeling the pressure to respond to the protests against police violence around the country — small businesses are trying to figure out what to do, too. And, oh yeah, there’s still a pandemic going on. Today we’ll follow two different businesses to see how they’re managing. Plus: cops on TV, Zoom in China and annualized GDP, explained.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, all other research froze. Some scientists packed it in, others pivoted to searching for a vaccine. Now, along with the rest of the economy, labs across the country are looking to reopen. Today, we’ll look at what that means. Plus: Hollywood inequality past and present, and a recap of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference.

In order to understand the structural economic racism that lead to this moment, you need to know your history. So today we head to Thomas Jefferson’s plantation to look at business strategies of slaveholders, and the legacy of those strategies today. Plus: How the National Bureau of Economic Research makes a call on what’s a recession, and the racial wage gaps at Bon Appetit and beyond.