World leaders are gathered in Indonesia for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to discuss how to improve economies amid the sputtering global recovery. Because of the government shutdown, President Obama decided not to attend.

Renee Montagne talks to David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, about the cost of the government shutdown, and the dangers of the threatened government default.

Millions of U.S. factory jobs have been lost in the past decade. Now, in North Carolina, high school students are being encouraged to think about taking manufacturing jobs. But this isn't the furniture-making or textile labor of generations past — it's a new kind of highly technical work in aviation.

Pirate Joe's, the Vancouver store that sells Trader Joe's products in Canada, has won a battle in its legal fight against the supermarket chain. A U.S. district court judge dismissed a trademark infringement lawsuit this week.

"Starting a conversation about capitalism is like walking up to a stranger and asking, 'Can I talk to you about Jesus?'" says artist Steve Lambert. The best way to talk about the C-word, he says, is to make it personal. His giant art installation in New York challenges passers-by to weigh in.

With the federal government partially shut down there was no September jobs report Friday, leaving some economists suffering data withdrawal. But sorting through unofficial numbers, most economists are fairly sure the labor market continued its steady, modest growth last month, adding perhaps as many as 180,000 jobs.

As the budgetary stalemate in Washington continues, many federally funded science projects are now on hold. Matthew Hourihan of the American Association for the Advancement of Science describes some of the effects of the funding impasse on research programs, from the CDC to NASA.

The debate over the Affordable Care Act has been at the heart of the government shutdown. Host Michel Martin asks two conservative thinkers why they think shutting down the government is a better option than allowing Obamacare to kick in.

After years of discrimination from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, black farmers are now getting a $1.25 billion settlement. Founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association John Boyd tells host Michel Martin what this settlement means for farmers and their families.