economics and the shot heard round the world 250 years ago tomorrow.

I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles.

First, despite a pushback in court, the Trump administration has moved again to fire most staffers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

That's the agency set up after the 2008 financial crisis to keep banks, credit card, and mortgage companies from taking advantage of consumers.

Here's Marketplace's Henry Epp.

A federal judge will hold a hearing later this morning over whether the new firings violated her earlier order to halt layoffs at the CFPB.

Last week, an appeals court allowed some firings to go forward, but lawyers for CFPB staff

say the new round of layoffs go well beyond what that court allowed. For now, up to 1,500

CFPB workers are said to lose access to computer systems this evening. And in a memo seen by

multiple media outlets, the agency's chief legal officer told employees the Bureau would deprioritize regulation of some areas.

Those include medical debt, student loans, and digital payment platforms.

The CFPB was created to centralize federal regulation of consumer financial products, which was previously spread out across the government.

It's returned over $21 billion to consumers since its launch in 2011. For much of that time, it's also come under fire

from parts of Wall Street and Silicon Valley, which have accused the agency of overreach.

I'm Henry App for Marketplace. President Trump is showing concern that his high tariffs on China

might raise prices in a way that could make people stop buying imports. He told reporters yesterday

he may not want to keep responding to China's countermoves because at a certain point,

he said people don't buy. All this suggests a fading appetite for higher tariffs in general.

U.S. tariffs are at 145% on China,

but some Chinese goods now get a 245% combined import tax. China also said in the last day it now plans to ignore U.S.

quote, tariff's numbers game. Since its peak in 2011, making electricity by burning coal has fallen by

nearly half and it will keep declining, according to a new calculation from the Institute for Energy

...