The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which monitors foreign investments in this country, usually keeps its work secret. But during today’s congressional TikTok hearing, it released a statement saying that it takes data security seriously. The unusual comment, and how the federal government has been dealing with TikTok, has us wondering: What are we missing? Plus, we become nostalgic for Blockbuster and its catchy jingle.
Here’s everything we talked about today:
“With no merger deal, failed SPAC faces lawsuit over legal fees” from Reuters
“Will ChatGPT Break Notice and Comment for Regulations?” from George Washington University
“US Regulator Warns About Data Security During TikTok Hearing” from Bloomberg
“The internet rediscovered Blockbuster’s website. Press play on nostalgia.” from The Washington Post
“Washington’s cherry blossoms are in peak bloom” from The Washington Post
Join us tomorrow for Economics on Tap. The YouTube livestream starts at 3:30 p.m. PT / 6:30 p.m. ET. We’ll have news, drinks, a game and more.
Make Me Smart March 23, 2023 Transcript
Note: Marketplace podcasts are meant to be heard, with emphasis, tone and audio elements a transcript can’t capture. Transcripts are generated using a combination of automated software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting it.
Jay Siebold
Alright. So before we get started, I just wanted to say one thing, which is (plays theme music) (Both Kai and Kimberly laugh)
Kimberly Adams
Wow.
Kai Ryssdal
Jay Siebold. Just messing with us. We got to make sure that that’s like on the tape. Hey everyone I’m Kai Ryssdal. Welcome back to make me smart. Today is Thursday, the 23rd of March, making the day make sense. Oh I stole your line. I’m sorry. Here I am thinking I’m being like the only host
Kimberly Adams
That’s okay. I thought, well, I thought that you were doing your PM line. Since you know you’re so used to doing the date at the top. Anyway, it is Thursday. And I’m Kimberly Adams. Thank you for joining us. And today we are going to do the basic stuff. We’re going to unpack some news of the day and then get smiley by the end. And let us get to it. Kai, why don’t you go first?
Kai Ryssdal
So there was a hearing today up on Capitol Hill with the CEO of TikTok, which is as we have talked about on this podcast, in the crosshairs for a whole lot of reasons. The reason I bring that up is not to point out that as a news item, because it has been everywhere. Rightly so because it’s a big deal. But to point out that during that hearing, the Treasury Department specifically the Committee on Foreign investment in the United States, which is abbreviated or summarized, or acronym-ized as CIFIUS put out a statement, unbidden, unprompted un-anything, it just “oh, by the way, we’re going to put out this statement” that says: we take data privacy very seriously. We don’t mess around with this. And we will take all appropriate actions necessary to ensure data privacy in this economy. Now CIFIUS is the Committee on Foreign investment in the United States, as I said, which reviews, all the big would be deals and mergers and investments and everything in the United States. It is very far reaching. A little bit secretive. And it’s a very big deal for this committee in the middle of this hearing to have said, “Oh, yeah, nothing to see here. But we’re keeping an eye on privacy.” It’s it was really interesting, I thought.
Kimberly Adams
Watching that hearing and listening to the members of you know, the Senators, talk and… it was the Senate, wasn’t it? Yes.
Kai Ryssdal
No, I was just gonna say it was the House. Yes.
Kimberly Adams
It was the House. It was the House today. Yes God. All those rooms look the same. Watching that hearing and just in general, watching how the federal government is dealing with Tiktok, you have to wonder what they have that they’re not sharing. Right? Because they are so adamant that this is a problem. And, you know, as our guest, the other Tuesday said, you know, we don’t have any evidence that TikTok is sharing information. WE don’t have any evidence. But everyone across the government seems very, very sure. And I was watching a bit of the hearing today and one of the Republicans after yelling at the CEO of TikTok was like, you know, I hope you’re enjoying your time at the most bipartisan committee in Congress.
Kai Ryssdal
That’s pretty pretty good. That’s pretty funny.
Kimberly Adams
And it’s like, yeah, there’s gotta be something going down at the private briefings that has everyone very, very concerned.
Kai Ryssdal
There has to be. I was totally, totally agree. Totally agree. I was I was flipping through the channels on the TV in my office today. And I came across Mark Warner, the chairman of the Senate, the Senate Intelligence Committee on Fox News, and the snippet that I heard with him saying “yes we want to declassify as much as we can so everybody can understand what’s going on.” So more to come. More to come.
Kimberly Adams
It’s basically like “if you knew what we knew, you woulnd’t put TikTok on your phone either.”
Kai Ryssdal
Righ, right, right. Totally, totally, totally. Yeah.
Kimberly Adams
One of the one of the House members, think it was Crenshaw said today that, you know, in response to, you know, all the kids being like, “Wait, you’re just trying to ruin our fun.” And he’s like, I know, it seems like we’re just trying to come after your favorite app. But you may not care about your privacy now, but you might care about it later. Like, it doesn’t matter until you’re applying for a job and something comes up. Anyway. I listened with great interest to your interview today about the chat bots on the evening show. And as I was listening to it, and thinking because I was also looking earlier today at a couple of rundowns of just what Chat-GPT can do well at this point, and what it can’t. And because I’m an epic nerd, one of my favorite spots on the internet to go is regulations.gov, to look at public comments,
Kai Ryssdal
Oh, my lord.
Kimberly Adams
I know, I know, it’s really…
Kai Ryssdal
You’re saying… You understand that we’re recording this, right? I mean people are going to hear you say that.
Kimberly Adams
It’s ok. I know myself, and I love myself, and I’m okay with who I am. Anyway, regulations.gov, which is where you can go to submit public comment on regulations as they’re in development, or in proposal or once they’ve written a draft, and they want to see what the public thinks about it. It’s a big site for government transparency, and anybody can submit a public comment. This site already has a problem with sort of mass commenting where someone will create like an online form, send it out to all the members of say an advocacy group and be like, “fill out this form and we’ll submit the comment for you.” Which ends up kind of spamming the system with a lot of comments that look the same on big pieces of regulation that are moving through That’s already an issue. I was like, man, what is Chat GPT going to do to regulations and the regulatory process and public comments? Because if I’m a, you know, lobbying group or an advocacy group, it’s going to be real tempting to just tell Chet GPT “Hey, submit 5,000 comments telling different stories about how such and such affected me.” And that could shape our laws. And I was like, oh, no, oh, no. So some people have already started looking at this. There’s a researcher at George Washington University, who had a paper out or commentary out in January with the title “Will chat GPT, break notice and comment for regulations.” So people are already thinking about this. I have to imagine that the federal government is thinking about this and worrying about it. So it will be very fascinating to see how they figure out a way to respond to this.
Kai Ryssdal
Absolutely.
Kimberly Adams
Okay, that’s one of them. The other one was just something that kind of made me chuckle a little bit. So we reported at great length on SPACs at Marketplace over the last couple of years, which are special of God, what did that even stand for? Special help me Kai
Kai Ryssdal
Oh Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation or company.
Kimberly Adams
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So it was basically this thing where you create a shell company, and you know, you could list it on the stock market and, you know, put whatever you wanted into it. It was a way to very quickly bring private companies to the public market without as much oversight, right? And they were very popular for a bit until they weren’t anymore for a variety of reasons. However, one of them kind of fell apart at the last minute. And it was called Colonnade Acquisition Corp. And it was supposed to be, you know, this umbrella for whatever companies that was going to buy up and list on the stock exchange. Anyway, it didn’t work. They never acquired anything. And so slowly, but surely, this, this company has fallen apart. And they have decided to not pay their lawyers.
Kai Ryssdal
Oh, man.
Kimberly Adams
Because they’re arguing that since they never acquired anything, and didn’t have any mergers or acquisitions, that they shouldn’t have to pay their years of legal fees. Even though they had this big IP IPO where they raised like $300 million, and they’ve been winding things down. And you know, what happens when you don’t pay lawyers is that they sue you. And they usually have lots of documents. So now, this law firm is suing the company and said that they are owed fees and upwards of $8 million. I just thought it was so such a perfect bowtie on the end of the SPAC trend of, you know, now they’re not paying their legal fees, because they just don’t feel like. Wow. Anyway, yeah,
Kai Ryssdal
That’s great. It is perfect. It is the perfect bow on the end of the SPAC mania of a year ago. Totally. All right. I’ll go first, just because. I found this article in the Washington Post today that brought me back a sense of nostalgia like I can’t even tell you and clearly it worked for one Kimberly Adams as well. Because when I sat down in the shed today and put my headphones on what did I hear but Kimberly Adams singing the Blockbuster jingle.
Kimberly Adams
(singing) “Wow what difference Blockbuster Video.”
Kai Ryssdal
Amazing, amazing. So the Post has an article today the headline of which is “the internet rediscovered blockbusters website. Press play on nostalgia.” We should say that there is no indication that blockbuster is coming back to life. It is down to, 9,000 down from, rather 9000 stores to one in Bend, Oregon. But it does have a website blockbuster.com. It is alive and it says we are rewinding… “we are working on rewinding your movie.” Now, apparently, a lot of people think that means Blockbuster is coming back. And the sense of nostalgia really is is kind of real because I remember well, number one when I was growing up, and number two, when I had my kids and they were little and I was desperate for something to do with them on a Friday night, we would go to Blockbuster and wander up and down the aisles for a good you know, half hour, 40 minutes while they picked a movie or do a piece. And it was amazing. And it was you know, Netflix before Netflix was this thing that just showed up in your house. It was cool. It was cool. Anyway, I love that little article.
Kimberly Adams
That was fun. That was fun. And clearly it’s like the nostalgia things are just enjoyable sometimes.
Kai Ryssdal
Yeah, totally
Kimberly Adams
Depending on them. Anyway. Um, mine is the same as it was last year which is: peak bloom peak bloom peak bloom. Cherry blossoms are in peak bloom here in DC, which is wonderful for the visuals. It is terrible for my allergies. But I have definitely enjoyed looking at the cherry blossoms. They look beautiful. There’s a live stream online if you want to see them. And that is all. That is what made me smile. Flowers.
Kai Ryssdal
Flowers. They’re supposed to be beautiful. But if you’re a native Washingtonian stay away because It’s pandemonium. That’s all I’m saying.
Kimberly Adams
You know, weekdays if you’re a native Washingtonian can are, you know, not so bad. But this weekend. It’s going to be a nightmare. Absolute nightmare.
Kai Ryssdal
Absolute nightmare. All right. And on that we go out. We’re done. Back tomorrow for economics on tap. 6:30 Eastern 3:30 Pacific. We’ll do some drinks, news and around a half full half empty.
Kimberly Adams
Yes. And in the meantime, we are taking voicemails at 508-U-B-SMART and voice memos at mark
Kai Ryssdal
I can explain what those are now if people are curious. No, it’s makemesmart@marketplace.org
Kimberly Adams
Make me smart. Yeah. Makemesmart@marketplace.org. Anyway, that’s what I’m saying.
Kai Ryssdal
Make Me Smart, which is the podcast you’re listening to, is produced by is produced by Courtney Bergsieker. Today’s episode was engineered by Jay Siebold. Our intern is Antonio Barreras
Kimberly Adams
Ellen Rolfes writes our newsletter. Marissa Cabrera is our acting senior producer. Bridget Bodnar is the director of podcasts. And Francesca Levy is the executive director of Digital.
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