Today, we’re talking about two different kinds of bans. As expected, President Joe Biden signed the TikTok sell-or-ban bill. But first, guest host Meghan McCarty Carino breaks down the Federal Trade Commission’s decision to ban noncompete agreements and their impact on workers and innovation. Plus, we’ll smile about Emily Dickinson and her newfound love of exclamation points!!! And how “old” is “old”? Here’s everything we talked about today: “Business Groups Race to Block FTC’s Ban on Noncompete Agreements” from The Wall Street Journal “FTC Bans Noncompete Agreements That Restrict Job Switching” from The Wall Street Journal “Did California’s Noncompete Ban Fuel Silicon Valley Innovation?” from Bloomberg Law “Banning Noncompetes Is Good for Innovation” from Harvard Business Review “TikTok may be banned in the US. Here’s what happened when India did it” from The Associated Press “U.S. Approves Sale of Dating App Whose Owners Were Probed by National Security Officials” from The Wall Street Journal “Grindr sold by Chinese owner after US raised national security concerns” from TechCrunch “People think ‘old age’ starts later than it used to, study finds” from the American Psychological Association “Eternity Only Will Answer” from Poetry Foundation Want more Make Me Smart in your life? Sign up for our newsletter at marketplace.org/smarter.

Today, President Joe Biden took a decisive step by signing a bill that could ban TikTok in the U.S. unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, divests from the company within nine months. This move echoes a long history of limiting foreign ownership of communications companies, dating back to the founding of this country. Also in this episode: Boeing’s financial woes, the NBA’s media bidding war and New England’s free college frenzy.

Stocks close mixed; Boeing slows production of 737 MAX planes; mortgage rates at highest level since November; durable goods orders rise.

Congress passed the measure, and Biden has vowed to sign it; Tesla profit falls in Q1; Boeing reports $355 million quarterly loss; Norfolk Southern report meager profit after train derailment settlement; Visa revenues beat forecasts as consumers spent; Labor Department increases overtime eligibility.

Call it a manufacturing resurrection: Orders for durable goods — big-ticket items from washing machines to airplanes — rose 2.6% in March. It’s a sign that manufacturing is coming back online and the economy is getting get back to where the Fed wants it to be. Plus, it’s earnings season. How are companies doing so far? Then, we head to the Spanish city of Algeciras, where one out of four people is unemployed.

The Joe Biden administration has announced a pair of new measures to strengthen worker protections. It’s widening eligibility for overtime, bringing in millions of more employees, and is looking to largely ban on noncompete agreements, which bar workers from joining competing companies. We’ll hear more. We’ll also hear more about what all is included in the $95 billion foreign aid package and how internet providers have been lobbying against lower broadband prices.

From the BBC World Service: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in China with a long list of global issues on his agenda: There’s conflict in the Middle East, America’s support for Taiwan and the way China supplies crucial technology to Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. Also: key issues for women voting in India’s general election and southern Spain’s struggle with the highest unemployment rate in Europe.

Imagine you’re a national security official tasked with monitoring activity off the coast of your fictitious country. Suddenly, a large tanker ship in your area goes silent. Its location sensor is offline, and it’s not responding to radio communication. What do you do? It’s a question Francesca de Rosa, chief scientist for gaming at the Center for Advanced Preparedness and Threat Response Simulation, poses in the Reliability Game, which she designed. It’s part of a genre known as “serious games.” De Rosa told Marketplace’s Lily Jamali that while serious games can be fun, they’re really meant to prepare people to handle all kinds of situations.

Several American dollar store chains have been down bad these days. Dollar Tree, Family Dollar and 99 Cents Only have all recently announced store closures. On the other hand, Dollar General is poised to expand. This has us wondering: What’s going on with the dollar store business model? Has today’s inflationary economy broken it? On the show today, Sandro Steinbach, professor of agribusiness and applied economics at North Dakota State University, explains the economics behind dollar stores, how they keep prices so low, and the impact they have on different communities. Then, we’ll discuss privacy risks while using popular dating apps. And, what the Australian kids’ show “Bluey” can teach us about the economy. Here’s everything we talked about: Video: “How can dollar stores still sell things for a dollar?” from Marketplace “Why are discounters like 99 Cents Only Stores in dire straits?” from Marketplace “Here’s How Dollar General Keeps Its Prices at Rock-Bottom” from Business Insider “The Dollar-Store Showdown Comes Down to Real Estate” from The Wall Street Journal “Dollar store expansion and independent grocery retailer contraction” from Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy “The American dollar store has fallen on hard times” from CNBC “Dating apps are collecting more of your information than you think” from The Washington Post “Justice Department Reaches Civil Settlement with Hundreds of Victims Abused by Lawrence Nassar” from the Department of Justice “Justice Department settles with Larry Nassar victims for $138.7 million” from The Washington Post “Historical U.S. Trade Deficits” from The St. Louis Fed Want more Make Me Smart in your life? Sigh up for our newsletter at marketplace.org/smarter.

Expand, slow down, contract and recover. Businesses tend to make decisions based on what stage of the business cycle the economy’s in. The problem is, that doesn’t work so well anymore. We’ll get into it. Also: The hot U.S. dollar causes trouble overseas, college grad unemployment is up, and what other food programs can learn from WIC.