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How does China’s social credit system work?

Feb 13, 2018
With a lack of financial data to assess creditworthiness, citizens are being rewarded for honesty and punish misdeeds, which are digitally archived.
In Shanghai, jaywalking could be recorded on your social credit file, along with refusing to visit elderly parents or not sorting your garbage into the appropriate bins.
Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

On infrastructure, Donald Trump has a math problem

Feb 12, 2018
Today, the White House outlined a $1.5 trillion plan to deal with our nation’s infrastructure problems — everything from waterways to highways to commercial space infrastructure. But the federal government plans to provide just $200 billion of that $1.5 trillion. Where would the rest come from? Mostly from state and local governments, who already feel burdened […]

Behind all this market volatility, there’s another storm brewing

Feb 6, 2018
How does fiscal policy play into what's happening in the markets?
“I'm not concerned about market volatility. The fundamentals are quite strong,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said today during testimony before the House Financial Services Committee after two days of historic losses in the stock markets.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

What's on the Republican economic agenda in the coming year?

Jan 17, 2018
One economist argues immigration reform is essential to kick-starting productivity.
President Trump shakes hands with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as he meets with Republican congressional leaders in the Roosevelt Room at the White House.
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

Trump's support of earmarks gets a mixed reception

Jan 10, 2018
President Donald Trump, at a bipartisan meeting on immigration yesterday, voiced support for earmarks – the system, effectively banned by the GOP back in 2010, which allowed members of Congress to attach special language to funding bills to direct money to their pet projects. How did earmarks get such a bad reputation in the first […]

The U.S. is rolling back transparency rules in the bribe-prone oil industry

Jan 5, 2018
The industry says disclosure puts it at a competitive disadvantage.
David McNew/Getty Images

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Unusual freezing weather means extra costs for Southern states

Jan 4, 2018
A powerful winter storm — or bomb cyclone — is expected to engulf the East Coast today, dumping feet of snow in New England and carrying winds up to 50 miles an hour. But it’s not just the usual suspects in the Northeast who are feeling the effects of this winter weather — Southern states […]

As refugee admissions fall, nonprofits lay off staff

Jan 3, 2018
Nonprofits worry about the loss of institutional knowledge as offices are forced to close amid a slow down in refugee admissions.
After he was laid off in August, Todd Miller left refugee resettlement work to teach English as a second language at a local university. 
Emma Jacobs/ for Marketplace

U.S. government shutdown a possibility if Congress can’t compromise on contentious issues

Jan 2, 2018
Congress has to pass legislation to fund the government by Jan. 19. Otherwise, there will be a partial government shutdown.  And some policy analysts believe there’s a good chance a partial shutdown is coming.  That’s because Democrats and Republicans are far apart on issues like immigration, and the ratio of defense and non-defense spending. They […]