Small talk: Kickstarter consultants, counterfeit bills
Tess Vigeland: And this final note, a look back at the news of the week that didn’t quite make the headlines. It comes courtesy of Brendan Francis Newnam and Rico Gagliano with some help from the Marketplace staff.
Rico Gagliano: Millie Jefferson, director, what story are you going to be talking about this weekend?
Millie Jefferson: So the headline that grabbed my attention this week is: Missile Defense staff warned to stop surfing porn sites.
Gagliano: Now why would that catch your attention? Wow. So was it an epidemic of this?
Jefferson: Well to be fair, there are 8,000 employees that work for the Missile Defense Agency at the Pentagon. Less than half a dozen people’s computers showed that they had accessed these kind of sites.
Gagliano: OK. And actually, didn’t the Department of Defense kind of invent the Internet, like the early Internet?
Jefferson: That’s a good point. You reap what you sow.
Gagliano: Yeah, you made this sleazy bed, DOD.
Brendan Newnam: Mark Garrison, New York reporter, what story are you going to be talking about this weekend?
Mark Garrison: A story I read in BuzzFeed. It’s about Kickstarter, a very popular, crowd-sourced, online funding — good to raise some money to do a movie or that kind of thing. It has gotten so popular that it has spawned an entire industry of consultants who would help you raise money on Kickstarter.
Newnam: So let me raise this straight: If you wanted to raise money on Kickstarter, you would pay me money to help you raise money on Kickstarter?
Garrison: Yeah, but you may actually have to start your own Kickstarter campaign so that you can fund your consultancy to then charge me.
Newnam: So eventually you’re going to need a Kickstarer campaign for your legal defense fund because you’re running a Ponzi scheme.
Gagliano: Shereen Marisol Meraji, Wealth and Poverty reporter, what story are you going to be talking about this weekend?
Shereen Marisol Meraji: In Prescott, Ariz., police were called in because someone tried to buy stuff with counterfeit $100 bills.
Gagliano: OK, so?
Meraji: Well what tipped them off is there was Lincoln on the $100 bill instead of Benjamin. It’s all about the Lincolns.
Gagliano: Did they get him?
Meraji: So far they haven’t caught him.
Gagliano: I hope that the cops are looking also for whoever sold this guy his counterfeit education.
Vigeland: Rico and Brendan do a radio show, it’s called The Dinner Party.
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