Trump's tariffs have caused a lot of aggro between Canada and the U.S. But on a personal level, many of us still have friends down south. NPR host Darian Woods with the economics podcast, The Indicator, joins us to talk about covering Trump, how average Americans feel about the tariffs and the state of our cross-border relationship. Fill out our listener survey here. We appreciate your input!

Social insurance numbers are like snowflakes. No two are alike. That's what makes them so valuable to the wrong kind of people. With a stolen SIN, thieves can open bank accounts, take out loans — all in someone else's name. So if SINs are so important to hold close, why are we asked to share them so often?Fill out our listener survey here. We appreciate your input!

John Pasalis says building more housing isn't the only solution to high home prices. It ignores an even bigger problem: investors. He explains how decades of low interest rates and tax policy have turned us into a nation of real estate speculators — and until we fix that, prices aren't going anywhere.Fill out our listener survey here. We appreciate your input!

Growing unemployment, tariffs and flatlining GDP all point in the same concerning direction. Canada may be headed for a recession. Paul Haavarsrud talks to economist Armine Yalnizyan about the economic road ahead.

Germany has Volkswagen. Japan has Toyota. So why doesn't Canada have a car? We explore what it would take to build an all-Canadian automobile.

Prefab housing is getting a lot of attention as a way to solve the housing crisis. But so far, it hasn't caught on in a big way. So what would it take to transform housing construction into something closer to the auto industry?

Leaders in Canada are talking about building a lot of stuff right now: pipelines, ports, railways and highways. As one expert puts it, "We can build anything. But we can't build everything." So what should go ahead? And how much will it cost?

Sure, the internet belongs to everyone. But a handful of big companies exert a tremendous amount of control over it. Now two of them, Meta and Google, face antitrust charges in the United States. So what does this mean for the future of our online experience?

With Canada under pressure to meet its NATO commitments, the Liberals, Conservatives and NDP are making promises to increase military spending. So, could we leverage that money to spur innovation and boost the Canadian economy? 

It's not a trivial question. In fact, how people are feeling about their finances can be a key economic indicator. And right now, that indicator is flashing red. So we thought we'd fan out across the country and ask people — how's it going?

Thirty years ago, the U.S. helped create the World Trade Organization, a group of countries linked by a common set of free trade agreements. But then, starting with the Obama administration, the country turned against the WTO. This leaves a void where there should be a referee to settle trade disputes between countries. On this episode of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money, how American grievances paralyzed the WTO's dispute settlement system and what happens when the U.S. no longer wants to play by the rules it once agreed to.More episodes of The Indicator are available at: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510325/the-indicator-from-planet-money

<p>Economist Justin Wolfers says Trump’s tariffs are "madness" and — on behalf of America — wants to apologize. He tells us why the U.S. president’s zero sum view of economics fails to understand the benefits of global trade.</p>