Make Me Smart May, 12 2023 Transcript

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Kimberly Adams                            

I don’t hear any music. I hear music now.

Kai Ryssdal 

Hey everybody, I’m Kai Ryssdal. Welcome back to make me smart where we make today make sense. It is Friday today. The 12th day of May.

Kimberly Adams 

We made it to Friday. Finally it was it was a slog. I am Kimberly Adams, and thank you for joining us on this Friday, which is economics on tap day, which is the day that we do our YouTube live stream which is up and running. Thanks to everybody who is joining us. And we’re going to have drinks, we’re going to have news fixes, we’re going to have games of half full/half empty and yeah, that’s what we got. Kai.

Kai Ryssdal 

I’m just I’m just looking down at my iPad where I’ve got the YouTube feed up and I’m looking at you and you look spectacular. Well lit, nicely appointed the whole deal. And I’m like red and orange and what the hell? Jesus.

Kimberly Adams 

Just accept that as being like the privilege of a dude. Nobody will be mad. But God forbit I show up without makeup.

Kai Ryssdal 

There is some part of that and I accept my privilege. I just want everybody to know I look like hell. How about that?

Kimberly Adams 

You don’t look like hell. You look wonderful Kai. Very natural and comfortable.

Kai Ryssdal 

Good. Okay, moving on. We’re gonna get to news. I am having a cup of coffee today because I got some things to do. And also I was up stupidly early this morning. This is my favorite mug my Pewabic mug. Thank you for whoever sent us that pronouncer by the way. It holds so much. It drained the coffee pot. Anyway. So I’m having a cup of coffee. What do you have?

Kimberly Adams 

I am having a sage and bourbon cocktail. It’s basically just sage… I had that sage simple syrup that I made last week for the lavender cocktail. And so I use the sage simple syrup and bourbon and some lemon juice. And that’s it and it’s delicious. And it’s sage from my garden still. You know.

Kai Ryssdal 

Have you ever… I was at some fancy restaurant someplace and the guy next to me was having a bourbon but they like put, they got some grass or something and they started it like burning a little bit and then they put glass over that and the glass got filled with smoke and they let it sit there for a minute and then pour the bourbon in the glass. Have you ever had one of those?

Kimberly Adams 

So I have definitely had smoked drinks and something that is peak Kimberly, I actually just last weekend bought a drink smoker, which is this thing that you put on the drink to like smoke the drinks. And I was going nuts on Sunday with my girlfriends over and I was like smoking everybody’s drinks. It was amazing. And I meant to do this one if I had had time. But yeah, it’s a very hip thing to do at the bars here in DC, is to you know, smoke the drinks and give it that extra like earthiness and stuff. But I have to say it does definitely make the drink taste better. And I’m a fan of that.

Kai Ryssdal 

Next time I have the opportunity to… wait, what’s a drink smoker? Like is it like a special piece of equipment?

Kimberly Adams 

It is. It’s it’s like a little wooden disc that has a little hole in the middle with a little basket and you stick little wood shavings down into it. And then you hit him with a blowtorch. And then the smoke falls down to the drink. And then you close it off and then you swirl the drink. And when I went… I bought it at the VA Gold Cup when I went. There was a vendor showed me the whole thing. And so now I have to make a smoked drink at some point in the coming weeks and show it off.

Kai Ryssdal 

All right, let’s do, let’s do some news. What do you like? .

Kimberly Adams 

Yes. So I know we’ve been talking on the news, not necessarily on the show so much, about the exploration of Title 42 or the ending of it, I guess is accurate. And the reversion to Title 8 in terms of immigration law, and you know the Biden administration doing everything that’s doing at the border to try to limit the flow of migrants crossing the border illegally down on our southern border. And now with the expiration of Title 42, they’re going to be a lot stricter about people coming over, putting in new rules that people have to at least try to apply for asylum in other countries. There are lawsuits involved. But the national immigration story is one thing. But there are also a lot of state level immigration stories. And that’s almost where you see these issues playing out more. And case in point, Florida this week, Governor Ron DeSantis, signed into law “Senate Bill 1718” which will make it extremely risky for any undocumented immigrants to work in the state of Florida. When the law goes into effect in July, and I’m reading from local channel here, Click Orlando. “When the law goes into effect in July, businesses could face a $10,000 fine for every undocumented employee found working for them. And the state could revoke their business license, business license.” And the hospitals before they file for Medicaid for people getting treatment, they’re supposed to check the doc, whether or not the people are documented. And there are all of these reports in local news in Florida and all over TikTok, which is how I saw it, about abandoned construction sites and homes that have just… people just stopped showing up for work even though this law is not in effect, yet. People no longer showing up for work and production and construction and home building all over the state just kind of grinding to a halt. And yeah, somebody… Musicthegateway in the YouTube chat was just saying Florida will grind to a halt in July. And, you know, there’s always the argument that people make about immigration when it’s like “they’re taking jobs from American citizens or they’re pushing down wages.” And I imagine we’re going to be hearing very loudly from business owners in Florida in a couple of months that it’s not that Americans don’t want to do these jobs, it’s that they won’t do these jobs. And industries like construction and agriculture rely so much on the labor of undocumented immigrants. Now in an ideal world, there would be a pathway to work visas and documentation for these folks and they be paid livable wages. But the reality of the situation is the reason everybody’s orange juice is so cheap, is because there are undocumented migrants working in orange groves and strawberry fields and all other types of agriculture in this country at wages American workers would not do those jobs for. And I’m not going to say the exact thing but the front end of it, but Florida’s about to do the back half and find out.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yes. Those of you who don’t know what Kimberly’s talking about, text me and we’ll we’ll set you straight. Look, this economy is screaming for workers. It is screaming for workers. And the idea that politicians are taking the short sighted political move. I know I’m expressing what is really false outrage here because I’m not outraged because politicians do this all the time. But it’s just, it’s so self defeating because they are going to get clobbered later on by, as Kimberly said, businesses looking for labor. It’s just amazing. It’s just amazing. Truly.

Kimberly Adams 

Not to mention the you know, the the human part of it, which is that there are going to be people who are big parts of the communities in Florida who’ve been there for a long time working, and now are probably going to leave the state. And that’s, that’s going to be something else. So yeah. All right. What do you got?

Kai Ryssdal 

All right. So I’ve got two, one of which I just kind of love and then the other one of which is more substantive. I love the fact that the other day I reported on Marketplace that olive oil prices are elevated and now today, or was actually earlier this week, comes news out of Italy, that Italian pasta prices are up 16.5% in April over 12 months earlier. Pasta in Italy. 16.5% price increase. That’s double the annual rate of inflation over there. It’s amazing. Pasta producers are apparently saying that it’s because the pasta that’s hitting the market now was made when input prices were a lot higher. And so it’s all going to work itself out.

Kimberly Adams 

Thinking that Ukraine might be baked into that.

Kai Ryssdal 

Right. Exactly, exactly. But wheat prices are falling, wheat prices are falling. So there is some of that. But the Italian government, I’m just gonna read you the lead on the CNN story. “Italy’s government convened crisis talks on Thursday to investigate the reasons behind a surge in prices for pasta.” I mean, come on. Inflation is a global story. That’s all I’m saying. That’s all I’m saying.

Kimberly Adams 

It totally is. I wonder how much Starbucks had to do with the olive oil shortage, you know, since they’ve got they’re new olive oil drink.

Kai Ryssdal 

Have you had one of those?

Kimberly Adams 

I don’t think that would be good for my igestion in a public place.

Kai Ryssdal 

Okay, so for those who don’t know what we’re talking about, Starbucks is advertising, has advertised and is rolling out in selected markets these things called I think they’re called oleatas. They’re coffee drinks with olive oil in them. And I was out with my wife a couple of weeks ago, we were in Old Town Pasadena, and we were killing time befor the movie or whatever the hell we were doing. And we went to Starbucks, and, and a very nice young gentleman behind the counter, sold us on this idea of trying a little shot size thing of these oleatas. My wife had like a vanilla latte with some olive oil in it, and I had a straight up latte with some olive oil in it. 0 out of 10. Do not recommend. That’s just do not do it. Just do not do it. It’s so horrible. And I’m a big olive oil guy. I use olive oil on basically everything. But oh, man, forget it. Not in your coffee. Anyway,

Kimberly Adams 

I’m not a coffee person anyway. So.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah that’s true. That’s true. That’s, that’s fair. Anyway, I just want to… there’s a there’s an article in Bloomberg, one of zillions out there talking about what happens if we do default, or Janet Yellen has to prioritize payments or what, take your pick on whatever might happen. And I just want to point out that things are already happening in this economy. We talked about them I think last week on Marketplace in the Friday rap Kate Davidson brought up the one month treasury bill. So here’s just a quick quote, quote from Beth Hammack. She’s the Co-Head of Global Financing at Goldman Sachs. She said on Bloomberg TV, “you’re finding that investors are preferring to have securities that are going to mature toward the end of May, rather than anything that matures in June,” right, because Janet Yellen said 1 June is conceivably the date. “So you get these dislocations, which are just really inefficient in the markets and create extra cost for the taxpayers.” Taxpayers are now paying a higher rate for issuing one month bills than they really should have to because of this. So even though we’re not seeing it in equities, we’re not seeing it broadly, there are slices of the markets that are already being affected by these inefficiencies and by these frictions. And the idea that we’re just gonna be able to skate out of this, even if a deal happens tomorrow and we’re not a deal is not going to happen tomorrow, simply is not true. And I just, people ought to know that. People ought to know.

Kimberly Adams 

Michael asks in the YouTube chat and in Discord, I see you doubling up there? Whether or not they can even prioritize payments. And yes, they can. If we actually were to breach the debt limit, then they would start spending only what the government brings in in revenue. What do we bring in revenue? So that would be, you know, maturing bonds and things like that, or that’s not right. It’s help me Kai

Kai Ryssdal 

Tax receipts. Tax receipts is what we bring in.

Kimberly Adams 

The tax receipts, thank you. Tax receipts. No, there’s other stuff. Also revenue from things that the government owns. So the government has leases, the government has, you know, even like revenue from Parks and things like that. The government brings in revenue, lots of ways, the main one being yes, tax receipts. They would use those tax receipts to start paying certain bills, whether those be maturing bonds, which is my brain was all mixed up there, whether they be maturing bonds, interest on the national debt, etc. or social security payments or something else. Yeah, they have to pick and choose. Oh, thank you, Steve. Revenue from Pacer, I guess is a government income, didn’t know that thanks. But yeah, so anyway. The government would only be able to spend the money that it’s bringing in in real time. And that’s not enough to cover all the government bills, and therefore they’d have to make some choices.

Kai Ryssdal 

The catch is that… I’m exaggerating here, but not by much. The catch is that when we pay our bills, it’s not like Janet Yellen sits down at her desk and gets a checkbook out and writes it. Looks at a bill and writes a check for that bill and looks at a bill and says, “Oh, no, I’m not doing that.” Right? This is all automated and our systems are designed to pay the bills when they are due, not to have to pick and choose what we’re going to pay. So can we prioritize payments? Sure. Will it be frictionless? No, no, no, no, no, no.

Kimberly Adams 

And it’s sort of like, what are you gonna do about military salaries as someone points out in the chat, you know. They’re probably going to be serving regardless because folks are dedicated to their country. So does that mean they dropped down the priority list in terms of who gets paid right away? It’s going to be unpleasant if it happens. Okay, on that very positive note there. That is it for our news fix. We’re going to take a brief break and when we come back, we’re going to play around of half full/half empty and I hope you all will join in.

Kai Ryssdal 

Alright, half full/half empty. We go through some news topics from the week we tell us how…. we tell you we are feeling about them. Drew Jostad is in charge. You may begin, sir.

Drew Jostad 

Are you have full or half empty on Elon Musk hiring Linda Yaccarino, formerly of NBC Universal as the CEO of is it Twitter? Or is it X?

Kai Ryssdal 

Well, it’s X, a subsidiary of which is Twitter. But that’s… I think. Go ahead. Do you want to go?

Kimberly Adams 

I just don’t care anymore. I was reading this, this week about all of these sort of digital historians are literally trying to archive Black Twitter, because there were so many cultural moments that only existed in that space. And they’re very worried about them going away forever. Right? And so they’re… how do you archive those moments? Half empty. I don’t think it’s salvageable at this point.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah, I’m not sure it is. I think it’s interesting that he has chosen an ad person. She used…. her name is Linda Yaccarino and she used to, until yesterday, be the head of ads at NBC Universal and it’s clear what Musk is trying to do, which is to rehabilitate advertising on that platform. I don’t know that she can do it. I’m a hanger on but obviously, as we’ve talked about, my usage is way down. I’m I’m half. How about that? I’m half. That’s it. That’s what I got.

Kimberly Adams 

Ok. Yeah.

Drew Jostad 

Yeah. All right, half full or half empty on the end of the COVID public health emergency?

Kai Ryssdal 

Look, I’m half full, if we can all remember that, that this disease is still killing hundreds and hundreds of people per week, per month. And it’s it’s still a real challenge for a whole lot of people out there, especially the immunocompromised and other people with with limitations. But I think what’s happened is government policy has caught up with the population, right, because populations over it.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah, I agree with that caveat that you gave. I have to say, even though I know our health insurance will continue to cover the COVID vaccine, I went to get my booster shot a couple days ago, right before the emergency ran out just to make myself feel better. And I felt that booster. But then, this morning, when I woke up, one of the first things I saw on my phone was that the, the proximity alerts were shut were turned off the… what did we call them? The thing on your phone that told you if… exposure alerts, the exposure alerts had been deactivated.

Drew Jostad 

Oh that’s why that happened.

Kimberly Adams 

Yes, yes, because of the end of the public health emergency, the government is no longer paying to maintain those systems, which means the states aren’t going to pay for it. And thank you, Marco for exposure notifications. Yeah. And it was very, like… it was a little moment, you know, almost like a bookend of the feeling that I had when I finally got to go get my Johnson and Johnson vaccine. And that felt like sort of the beginning of what could be the end. And this felt like a little bit of a coda even though I know it’s not really the end. But those were two very distinct moments for me.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah, You know, it’s interesting. So you mentioned booster. I think I’m up to speed on all my boosters, but honestly, I’ve lost track of where we’re supposed to be. So that’s number one. Also, there are a couple of people in the chat Jennifer Pierce says, “No, I got COVID this past weekend at a wedding.” Somebody else to save the scrolling, a family member just got it. So it’s still out there. And it’s still real.

Kimberly Adams 

And Kili Remedios says “my mother just died from COVID, eight weeks ago.” And it’s exactly what Kai said. I’m so sorry for your loss. But yeah, this is still one of the leading causes of death in the country. And I was reading an Axios the other day that we still lead the world in COVID deatgs, which is just awful. And I’m so sorry, Kili.

Kai Ryssdal 

Which one are we on Drew is this four or five?

Drew Jostad 

Three.

Kai Ryssdal 

Nevermind.

Kimberly Adams 

See, this is what happens when you don’t drink Kai.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. That’s right.

Drew Jostad 

At a location in Columbus, Wendy’s is reportedly introducing an AI chat bot to take orders at the drive thru. Are you half full or half empty?

Kimberly Adams 

I’m gonna go half full on that. I think that is a a reasonable use of AI. It’s a low lift. I understand that that will be taking jobs from people who do those jobs. But I think that this is not something that’s gonna go away. We may as well figure out now what those jobs are going to be and start adjusting our economy. And I’d rather it be a job that tends to be a transitional job for a lot of people, than someone’s career job. So I’m gonna go half full.

Kai Ryssdal 

I will I, will go with that. I do wonder how it’s gonna work. You pull up to the Wendy’s drive thru and what happens? Do we know?

Drew Jostad 

No, I don’t think I don’t think we know.

Kai Ryssdal 

All right. Well, you know, whatever. Anyway, yeah. What Kimberly said. Yeah, I agree with everything she said.

Drew Jostad 

All right. Half full or half empty on chocolate for Mother’s Day?

Kai Ryssdal 

What? Oh, man.

Kimberly Adams 

Half full? Unless your mother is diabetic.

Kai Ryssdal 

How can you not like chocolate on Mother’s Day? Yeah unless your mother is diabetic.

Kimberly Adams 

Yes. I see there’s a link. Let me let me, as clearly we’ve missed something. Let me look. Okay. Let’s see…. it looks like Yes. So Americans are expected to spend 35… You did this story yesterday, Kai. I think it was your final or something. Didn’t you do this as a final?

Kai Ryssdal 

Well we’re gonna use that today. We’re gonna spend $36 billion. But I guess I guess Nick wrote it out. Anyway. Sorry.

Kimberly Adams 

Yes. It’s a nice lengthy story there. Expected to spend 35.7 billion on their mother’s… chocolate. Sure. Yeah, half full. If your mom likes chocolate, get it for her. Get her all the things that she wants. And also including, you know, the people who stepped in who may not be biologically your mother’s but helped you out. Give them candy or flowers or other things that they like, time, a phone call, cards, attention, do some yard work? I don’t know. Whatever.

Drew Jostad 

We’re ready with a poll?

Kai Ryssdal 

There we go. We’re ready with poll,

Kimberly Adams 

Ready with the poll. Let’s do it.

Drew Jostad 

Are you half full or half empty on tipping at a self checkout machine?

Kai Ryssdal 

So interesting. I have thoughts. I have thoughts.

Kimberly Adams 

Can you give your thoughts before the poll? Or will it tip the scales.

Kai Ryssdal 

I will not give my thought. It will tip the scales. And we have we have promised not to do that.

Kimberly Adams 

We will not tip the scales. In the meantime, let’s see what everybody else says about it.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah. So for those of you on the livestream weigh in, right? We’re gonna take a little poll on this last one. Kimberly and I will hold our fire until like a minute, minute and a half, whatever. And then once again, we’ll try to figure out how the poll works on this gizmo.

Kimberly Adams 

Oh my gosh, YAmir has some pretty strong feelings about this too. Not tipping clearly. And lots of people are empty on this. Okay. People don’t like the idea of tipping on a self service kiosks. Hmm. Yep. Oh, that’s a interesting point. Debbie Donovan says “can’t we just pay food prep workers enough?” Because there is always the back of the house. But again, livable wages. They’re about to start rolling out the implementation of DC’s tipped minimum wage law which was such a huge deal here because a couple of years back people here voted to raise the tipped minimum wage overtime up to the actual minimum wage. And then the DC City Council overturned the will of the voters because they said it would be too damaging to the restaurant industry. And so then the supporters did another round of ballot measure to get it. They did another round of like signatures to get it back on the ballot again, and it passed with an even higher percentage the second time around. And so over the next couple of years, tipped workers in DC are going to be moving up to the actual minimum wage. And yeah, so that’s happening now.

Kai Ryssdal 

That’s great. The federal tipped minimum wage, by the way, I learned this probably a year or two ago, the tipped minimum wage at the federal level is $2.13 an hour, which blew me away. Blew. me. away.

Kimberly Adams 

It was really interesting watching that debate here, because DC has a lot of very expensive restaurants, and a lot of very rich people who tip very well. And so you had lots of people in the restaurant industry advocating, o pushing you know, advocating against this initiative, because they can easily pull in $1,000 in tips a night, you know, and other people can’t though. So anyway, the poll is done. And it looks like tipping at self checkout… Wow, half empty 91%. Half full at 8%. I don’t know that we’ve ever had that much of a distinct answer. All right. What is your take Mr. Ryssdal?

Kai Ryssdal 

So if it’s truly self service, I will not tip right? I appreciate the back of the house workers. I appreciate all that stuff. If it is Starbucks, and I pay with my card and they turn the thing around and whatever and they ask for tip, I’ll give them 15 or 18%. In person I’m a 20% tipper because my dad was a terrible tipper and I carry some legacy guilt on that one. And that’s where I am.

Kimberly Adams 

My feeling on that is if there is a human that like, is involved in prepping the item, I will tip something. So whether it’s you put my Chipotle burrito together or you mixed my salad or you made a sandwich. Yes, you get a tip. But if I walk into Pret and you hand me a prepared sandwich, and a bag of chips, I’m not going to tip for that.

Kai Ryssdal 

They don’t even hand you the bag of chips and you have to pick it up the shelves. And they hand you the little thing to wave your card out. Right? That’s what they do.

Kimberly Adams 

Well, and I got yelled at when I was at Pret with Nancy Farghalli when she was in DC the last time because I spilled something and they didn’t want to give me napkings. I was like wow. I was like I’m sorry. Anyway. Okay, that is it for us today. Thank you everybody for participating in the poll. Yes, we did it. Made it through. And but we can’t end the show, of course without reminding you that it is day two of our May fundraiser. And we have as we have, as they say done the numbers, pause for you know, slow clap. We’ve done the numbers, we need to raise $350,000 to stay on track for this fiscal year. As Kai mentioned yesterday, you know, you only have to look at the news to see what’s going on in our industry and there have been cuts across the board. And it’s only y’all’s support that keeps us here and in this chair, keeps Jasper fed. And you know we are not immune to the current economic climate and we’re doing the best that we can to keep bringing you the content and the news and the information and the context that matters to you all. So we do recognize that not everybody can give right now, but if you can we would be so grateful and it is really important. And yeah, you can give now to support marketplace, this show in particular if you want to give us our props. You can go to marketplace.org/givesmart and yes of course we have new thank you gifts

Kimberly Adams 

Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Bergsieker. Today’s episode was engineered by Juan Carlos Torrado. Drew Jostad wrote the theme music to Half-Full/Half-Empty. Antonio Barreras is our intern.

Kai Ryssdal 

The team behind our Friday game is Mel Rosenberg, Emily Macune and Antoinette Brock. Marissa Cabrera is our senior producer. Bridget Bodnar is the director of podcasts. And Francesca Levy is the executive director of Digital period. I’m kidding. I’m gonna say Digital and On-Demand because that’s the way I roll. Context come on! Gotta give the full thing.

Kimberly Adams 

Yes, context. Context is key. Happy Friday.

Kai Ryssdal 

Happy Friday everybody.