Happy 4th of July! The U.S. turns 249 this year and there are plenty of economic fireworks to ring in the birthday. After a long and winding road through Capitol Hill, the “Big Beautiful Bill” is poised to be signed by President Trump. The bill is largely an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, and it will have big — and not entirely beautiful — implications for U.S. businesses.

In this week’s episode of Everybody’s Business from Bloomberg Businessweek, hosts Stacey Vanek Smith and Businessweek Editor Brad Stone (filling in for Max Chafkin) break down the bill, which will add an estimated $3.4 trillion to US deficits over the next decade. It’s a mixed bag for businesses: It will save them billions in taxes, but it is also likely to make borrowing money and expanding a lot tougher. Cuts to entitlements included in the bill could also mean US companies have to step in and provide more services for their workers.

After 249 years, the economy is due for a check-up. Dr. Allison Schrager, an economist with the Manhattan Institute and Bloomberg Opinion columnist, joins the podcast to discuss the new and very positive unemployment numbers. In June, the US added 147,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1% — a very clean bill of health. Schrager says the US economy is in its middle-aged man era: generally healthy and strong, but perhaps in need of some lifestyle tweaks (get that ballooning deficit under control).

Finally, it’s time for the underrated story of the week: Media is looking a little less independent this Independence Day. Paramount has settled a lawsuit with President Trump, who accused CBS (which is owned by Paramount) of bias and deceptively editing the 2024 presidential debate. In spite of the fact the suit was almost universally deemed frivolous, Paramount paid out $16 million to make it go away.

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With Stacey Vanek Smith off at the World Economic Forum in China, Max Chafkin is joined by Brad Stone, the editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, and Bloomberg reporter Laura Nahmias. Together, they discuss how significant democratic socialist Zoran Mamdani’s surprising New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary victory could be for Wall Street and the city of New York.

A parallel to Mamdani’s triumph in an increasingly unaffordable city is taking place this week in Venice, where multibillionaire Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos and former broadcast journalist Lauren Sánchez are to be married. With fierce opposition raging in the Italian city, already made crushingly expensive by over-tourism, does this mean disdain for billionaires is at a boiling point? Chafkin and Stone talk it over. Also, the crew sent out a producer to the streets of New York to ask people the question on everyone’s mind: what wedding gift can you possibly get for the man behind the everything store?

Chafkin and Stone then turn their gaze to the movie industry. Technology has been haunting Hollywood for a while now. The internet, file sharing, streaming—the big studios have been playing defense against Silicon Valley since the turn of the century. But now they’re facing a potentially bigger threat: artificial intelligence. Entertainment reporter Lucas Shaw walks us through how the industry is fighting with, and adapting to, this seemingly unstoppable new force.

And to end things, Chafkin brings what he considers the most underrated story of the week: the accidental support of a planned coup in South Sudan by a co-funder of Jane Street.

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As of this writing, Israel’s war with Iran has been underway for close to a week, triggered by a surprise attack ordered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Iranian military and civilian targets. Israel’s waves of strikes have killed hundreds of Iranians while dozens of Israelis have died in Iranian retaliatory volleys. Donald Trump has demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” and indicated that America might join Israel’s bombing campaign. Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rejected the Republican president’s demand.

While acknowledging that this is a bit further afield from the show’s usual fare, Max Chafkin and Stacey Vanek Smith talk through the Mideast conflict and what it means for the global economy—and for everyone. They’re joined by Bloomberg Opinion columnist John Authers, who’s been covering the war and its implications in his newsletter, Point of Return.

Later in the show, Bloomberg Businessweek contributor Megan Greenwell joins Max and Stacey to talk about the economic destruction private equity has wreaked on the US. Greenwell covers this subject in her critically acclaimed book, Bad Company. PE’s effects on working-class communities are on Max and Stacey’s minds as the industry angles for access to Americans’ 401(k)s.

Finally, Stacey digs into Max’s new feature on Mark Cuban, the Shark Tank billionaire who’s been not not-flirting with a run for president in 2028. They discuss Cuban’s healthcare plans, the challenges of fighting “Trumpiness” with “Trumpiness” and pitch a shark tank-like arrangement for congressional bills.

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