Harris VP Pick, Market Instability, Google Antitrust Ruling, Tropical Storm Debby

What will he bring the ticket?

And financial markets in Europe and Asia are beginning to rebound after taking a major

tumble.

Google is so dominant, Merriam-Webster considers it a verb with a lowercase g, but a judge

says they grew that status illegally.

for global efforts to control big tech.

Coastal communities are on high alert.

Stay with us.

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familiar to the campaign tells NPR.

The last-minute decision follows a whirlwind couple of weeks for Harris.

Here to discuss the choice is NPR's senior political editor and correspondent, Domenico

Montanaro.

So, it was a battle between two governors, Walz from Minnesota and then Shapiro from

Pennsylvania.

What do you think Walz got the nod to Domenico?

He's a happy warrior.

People seem to get along with him.

They like him quite a lot.

Certainly Capitol Hill progressives were pushing for him to be the person.

This was said to be about vibes, and we know that Harris met with the finalists, and it

seemed that sleeping on it, she got along with Walz and had a good feeling about it

and picked him.

Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.

So, tell us about Tim Walz.

Who is he?

He was born and raised in rural Nebraska.

He's in his second term as Minnesota governor.

He's the head of the Democratic Governors Association, so there's some thought that

he has some ability to raise some money, bring some cash to the ticket as well.

He's a veteran of the Army National Guard.

And we know he didn't really know Harris very well before these past couple of weeks, but

impressed her.

And he does have these connections on Capitol Hill, so he's also kind of a governing pick

as well.

And really, as you noted him coining this phrase weird, a lot of this is about messaging.

He's very good at it, and he's really somebody who two weeks ago was not on the tips of people's

lips for who could get this job, but clearly talked his way into it with that and with

his personality.

for Kamala Harris, so what does Tim Walz do for her chances?

Minnesota's not a swing state necessarily, but the hope for Democrats is that he can

appeal to white, middle-of-the-road voters in places like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania,

which make up that blue wall, and if Harris is able to hold those states, then she would

very likely win the presidency.

These are the very voters who are key to really winning in the blue wall.

Harris and Trump right now tied in these places.

When I looked at the electoral map this week, Democrats hope that they can provide a contrast

also with the Trump and J.D. Vance ticket, and it's ironic because Vance was picked to

try to appeal to these very same voters, but he's had a rough go these first couple weeks,

and the first rule of being a vice presidential running mate is do no harm, and his, right

now his favorability rating is not very good.

Our latest NPR PBS News Marist poll that's out this morning, 55% of independents have

an unfavorable rating of Vance.

For Tim Walz, he's far less known.

71% in our poll said that they don't have an opinion of who he is or are unsure of him,

and that means these next couple of weeks are going to be big before the Democratic

Convention, crucial not just to finding him, but in who this new Harris-Walz ticket is.

Starting now.

Big travel week coming up.

They're going to be hitting all seven of the big states, the three blue wall states we

mentioned, as well as the four Sunbelt states, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina.

We're going to be watching to see their dynamic together and with voters, and if he can make

that appeal outside of just progressives.

Thanks a lot.

on Monday.

S&P 500 index dropped by 3%.

Japan's stock market also fell sharply on Monday, but recovered much of that ground

overnight.

The market volatility has raised questions about the staying power of the U.S. economy,

which had been a pillar of global growth since the pandemic.

Scott, I mentioned that investors are nervous.

How worried should everyone else be?

The economy isn't growing as fast as it had been.

It's not adding jobs at the pace it was a year or two ago.

But we're not on the brink of recession, either, which is what you might think if you just

looked at the stock ticker.

The unemployment rate rose last month, but not because a lot of people got laid off,

but rather because a lot of new people came into the job market.

Now that said, it's possible the market downturn itself could do some damage to the economy.

For example, economist Kathy Pasciancic of Nationwide says rich people who own a lot

of stocks might check their portfolios and decide maybe we'll be a little more careful

with our spending this year.

They could pull back on spending, and that's one way you have that negative feedback.

The other one is that businesses are concerned about the carnage in the financial markets,

and therefore that also could curtail business investment.

GDP grew in the second quarter at a pretty good clip.

But that could change in the last half of the year if this market route continues.

The Nikkei average suffered its biggest drop since 1987.

That's a long time ago, before I even graduated high school.

Scott, so what's going on here?

bank raised rates last week.

That's putting upward pressure on the Japanese currency.

As a result, some speculators, who had been borrowing at very low interest rates in Japan

to invest elsewhere, were forced to unload stocks.

But Schanzig says that was one of several global factors that contributed to yesterday's

big sell-off.

of war in the Middle East, and also uncertainty about the presidential election.

of that loss.

The Nikkei average rose more than 10% today.

what's the Federal Reserve going to do?

What are they going to respond to all this?

about stock prices, but because it wants to make sure the financial system is functioning

smoothly.

The Fed did not cut interest rates when it met last week.

Some now see that as a missed opportunity.

And expectations are that the Fed will cut rates at its next meeting in September.

Before that, though, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is set to speak later this month at the annual

economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

That is always an event with high altitude and high expectations.

And this week's market turbulence will just put an even brighter spotlight on the talking

heads in the Tetons.

Thanks a lot, Scott.

A federal judge ruled that Google acted illegally to ensure the company dominated the search

engine market.

is and what it could mean for the future of Google.

Derek, sounds like a big loss for Google.

Tell us more about the judge's ruling.

So this is the first major antitrust lawsuit against a tech company to go to trial in decades.

If you remember, the last one was against Microsoft in the 1990s, and the government

won that case.

So for this Google case, the Justice Department used Microsoft as a template, and it worked.

In his nearly 300-page ruling, Judge Amit Mehta straight out called Google a monopolist.

And he said it acted illegally to make sure it stayed a monopoly.

He noted in his ruling how Google was once a scrappy startup founded by two Stanford

students in a rented garage, and now has become one of the world's most valuable companies.

And he suggested that dominance wasn't by accident.

When I called up former chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Bill Kovacic, he could not

overstate how important this ruling was.

It's a very significant outcome for the Department of Justice, not just for U.S. policy, but

for global efforts to control big tech.

So the ripple effects, A, could be very huge here.

So what does that mean for the company going forward?

The company's president of global affairs said in a statement that Google is the best

search engine, and the judge recognized that.

But the judge also said that Google had a major advantage over its rivals.

That advantage is exclusive agreements with device makers like Apple and Samsung.

Google has paid those companies billions of dollars to be the default search engine on

their phones and computers.

During the trial, we learned that in one year alone, Google paid more than $26 billion for

that privilege.

So now, going forward, it's hard to know what's going to happen to Google.

And that's because in his decision, the judge didn't address remedies for the company.

Instead, there's going to be a whole separate other trial where he will decide those.

I spoke to one of the top antitrust experts in the country, George Hay, about what the

judge might mandate.

Hay is a former chief economist for the Justice Department's Antitrust Division.

The remedy here is pretty obvious.

He's going to say those contracts with Apple and Samsung have to go away.

No contracts means Google likely won't be the default search engine.

But Hay says we're a long way from that because of the whole appeals process.

the government has brought against big tech?

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission have sued Facebook parent company

and there's Amazon and that sued Apple and some other small tech companies, too.

And it's clear the Justice Department is emboldened by this ruling and celebrating their win against

Google in a statement.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said, quote, no company, no matter how large or influential,

is above the law.

And the experts I spoke to agree.

They say this ruling could pave the way for similar rulings on those other lawsuits.

So this push to break up the power of big tech seems like something that's just going to continue.

Thanks, Dara.

Thank you.

And a note here, Google is a financial sponsor of NPR, but we cover them like we would anyone else.

In South Carolina, people are being urged to stay home and off the roads.

rain, especially along the coast.

Charleston, about a mile from the beach.

Victoria, what are you seeing this morning?

In fact, it was so heavy at times overnight, it was kind of tough to sleep.

Now, we did have a tornado touchdown just south of Charleston, which damaged homes.

And we're under a flash flood warning for much of the morning.

The problem is this storm is expected to creep along our coast.

The National Weather Service in Charleston says anywhere from 10 to 20 inches of rain

is likely, with the possibility of up to 30 inches in some places.

So, to give you some perspective, we typically get 50 to 60 inches of rain a year, so we

could see half that in just a matter of days.

Not to mention, we are expecting a storm surge of two to four feet.

That means even more water will push onshore, giving all this rain little place to go.

How are state and local leaders preparing?

I mean, they know it's coming, so are they evacuating people?

Essentially, they closed the peninsula beginning at 11 p.m. until later this morning when they

planned to reassess.

Here's Mayor William Cogswell at a press conference last night.

Do not go out.

This is a lot of water coming our way, and we need to take it very, very seriously.

storms.

Now, high water rescue vehicles and boats, they are ready in case people do, in fact,

need help.

And shelters have opened across the state for those who know their homes flood.

Again, city and state leaders are urging people just to stay home.

And yes, people have been preparing, getting supplies, and sandbagging their homes.

I caught up with Kathy Evans at a grocery store during a break in the rain yesterday.

She's lived in Charleston for nearly 30 years now, and she does what many of us do.

She prepares for the worst, and she hopes for the best.

And she says absolutely she is staying home, even if it's for days until this storm passes.

fire department to save me because I didn't listen.

And then they put their lives at risk.

recently and the addition of so many new homes.

That means there's less open land to absorb all that water.

What do you worry about?

We had what they call historic floods in 2015, which just dumped a substantial amount of

rain on us, more than 20 inches.

At that time, my backyard probably took in about three feet of water.

I checked this morning.

That's not the case.

But the frogs are very lively is the only thing I can say.

It was very, very loud outside my window last night.

So, you know, again, I think a lot of us just don't know what to expect.

It depends upon how long, you know, this storm kind of hovers over us.

And then there's a possibility that it could go back out into the Atlantic and then make

landfall again before heading to North Carolina.

Victoria, thank you.

I'm Amy Martinez.

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