Economy & Business

Since Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico in September 2017, thousands of people have fled the island to come to the mainland. Many of them — some 1,600 families — have been staying at hotels paid for by the Transitional Shelter Assistance program from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But the program will expire at the end of June. In Florida, about 600 families are in the program.

The U.S. is facing a national trucker shortage. With the economy in an upswing, there’s more of a demand for goods than there are people to transport them. As carriers try to attract drivers with perks and pay raises, companies that rely on shipping say an unexpected rise in shipping costs has forced them to raise prices for consumers. Marketplace Weekend host Lizzie O’Leary spoke about the dilemma with truck driver John Lex and with Avery Vise, vice president of trucking research at FTR Transportation Intelligence. 

U.S. tariffs announced today will affect more than 800 products from China, everything from aircraft tires and boat motors to cranes and bulldozers. Government officials say they'll give U.S. companies the chance to request that certain products they import from China be excluded from the tariffs. Already, thousands of companies have filed applications with the Commerce Department to be excused from steel and aluminum tariffs announced earlier this year.

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Is the sky blue? Kai catches us up on our current trade relationship with China and all the events that got us here. We follow that up with the Weekly Wrap. This time we're joined by Rachel Abrams from the New York Times and Dion Rabouin from Yahoo Finance. And in non-trade news: We talk to director Hiro Murai. You probably know him from his collaborations with Donald Glover on FX’s “Atlanta” and Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.” (06/15/18)

Did you know there's a shortage of truck drivers? What that means for them and for the prices of products we buy. Plus, after a week of negotiations between world leaders, we take a dive into what it takes to be good at diplomacy. Then, futboool!!! The World Cup just started. It's arguably the biggest sporting event in the world — and a multibillion-dollar business that's rife with corruption. How U.S. prosecutors finally caught corrupt FIFA leaders, and what it means for the future of the sport. (06/15/2018)

It's wedding season, and while personal finance isn't the most romantic thing, it's important to talk about this time of year.

To get some tips on nuptials and money, we spoke with Beth Kobliner, a personal finance writer and author of the book "Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties." This transcript has condensed and edited for clarity.

China’s government responded quickly to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff hike on Chinese goods by announcing Friday it will immediately impose penalties of “equal strength” on U.S. products.

The Commerce Ministry said it also was scrapping deals to buy more American farm goods and other exports as part of efforts to defuse a sprawling dispute over its trade surplus and technology policy.