The Monday Moneybeat

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, June 4th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It, the Monday Moneybeat.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday new information about the way Facebook sold user information to select companies.

Facebook has said it shut off developer access to user data in 2015. But the Journal revealed the social-media giant had struck data-sharing deals well after that point.

The newspaper said the disclosures raise questions about who has access to Facebook user data, and why, at a time when Congress is demanding answers about social-media privacy.

Meantime, Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg delivered MIT’s commencement address. And in her 20-minute remarks, she offered a candid assessment of Facebook’s recent privacy missteps. She said they are a lesson in accountability.

SANDBERG: I am proud of what Facebook has done around the … world. But at Facebook, we didn’t see all the risks coming, and we didn’t do enough to stop them. It’s painful when you miss something, when you make the mistake of believing so much in the good you are seeing that you don’t see the bad. It’s hard when you know that you let people down.

Sandberg is Facebook’s chief operating officer, and she addressed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday.

REICHARD: Also Friday, President Donald Trump said he was open to easing the federal ban on marijuana.

Right now, federal law treats marijuana no differently from LSD and heroin. And that’s created a conflict with about 30 states that have legalized pot in some form.

Last Thursday, congressional lawmakers introduced a bill that would ensure states have the right to determine the best approach to marijuana within their borders. The chief sponsor is Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, a state that has legalized recreational marijuana use.

Here’s President Trump, before leaving the White House on Friday, about to take off on the Marine One helicopter.

TRUMP: I support Senator Gardner. I know exactly what he’s doing. We’re looking at it. But I probably will end up supporting that, yes.

EICHER: Major banks have been reluctant to do business with marijuana companies, fearing possible prosecution. Even in California, many marijuana-related deals have to be done in cash, even the paying of taxes. Gardner’s bill includes language to address financial issues caused by the federal ban.

REICHARD: South Korean carmaker Kia is recalling over a half-million cars and minivans in this country because the air bags may not work in a crash.

The recall apparently is related to federal investigation into four deaths linked to air-bag failures in Kia and partner Hyundai vehicles.

EICHER: On Wall Street, another winning week for the major stock indexes. All four of them finished higher.

So far this year, the Standard and Poor’s 500 is up almost 4 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 2.4 percent. The smaller company index, the Russell 2000, is almost 9 percent higher, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq is up more than 10 percent at about the halfway point of the year.

And that’s today’s Monday Moneybeat.

(AP Photo/Mathew Sumner, File) In this Jan. 1, 2018 file photo, various types of marijuana are on display at Harborside marijuana dispensary in Oakland, Calif. 

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