*Looks at stock market* Everyone, take a deep breath.

Make Me Smart May 5, 2022 transcript

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Kimberly Adams: That actually snuck up on me this time.

Kai Ryssdal: No joke, an important event is gonna be delayed 30 seconds while I get my hmm hmm hmm together.

Kimberly Adams: Well I’ll get started, I’m Kimberly Adams.

Kai Ryssdal: Hey everybody, I’m Kai Ryssdal. Go ahead, no you go.

Kimberly Adams: I was trying to be helpful. I’m Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart where we try to make today make sense.

Kai Ryssdal: I am, I think Kai Ryssdal. Thanks for joining us on this Thursday. We’re gonna do the news. Wrap things up with a little bit of Make Me Smiles and get on our merry way. Oh, man, oh, man. Oh, man. Okay, so, so let’s see. So I’ll go first I’ve got I got two things, one of which you will have heard and seen everywhere and the other one which you might not have, and which is loaded and dripping with corporate cynicism. So the first one is, oh, my God, the markets. So look, I need everybody to take a really deep breath because with the major indices up like two and a half 3% yesterday, and then down  – thank you very much. And then down three and a half to 5% today, markets go up and markets go down. This is what happens. To quote Sudeep Reddy from Politico who I had on Marketplace this afternoon. At which I tossed him the question, “What the hell is going on?” He was like, “This is what happens when the Fed takes the punch bowl away.” Everybody’s been having a party for a very long time with free money. And we’re trying to adjust. So don’t check your 401 K’s don’t do anything stupid. Don’t sell on a crazy down day and don’t you know, don’t sell on a crazy high day and don’t buy on a crazy down day. Just hang man because this is going to happen for a while until the market figures things out. And everybody just needs to know that. That’s my – that’s my calming advice for the day. Deep breath.

Kimberly Adams: Whoosah. Whoosah.

Kai Ryssdal: That’s right. That’s right. Item number two. So midday or so whatever I’m, you know, glued to my computer because that’s my life these days. Everybody’s life I suppose, who works a white collar job. And across my Twitter feed flashes this item from the Wall Street Journal that Boeing is going to move its corporate headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia. Okay. And my first reaction was, oh, my God Boeing just moved from Seattle like a couple of years ago. And I tweeted something to the to that effect. And everybody quite properly piled on and said “no, you moron. That was 20 years ago.” So first of all, holy cow time, flies. Number one.

Kimberly Adams: I mean, if it makes you feel any better I thought Boeing was still operating out of the McDonnell Douglas headquarters in St. Louis. No one even knows who McDonnell Douglas. That’s a deep cut.

Kai Ryssdal:  Right there. Holy cow, holy cow. Yeah. All right. So that’s item number one, time flies and Kimberly and I are old. So that’s that’s one thing. Number two. Is, is this: deep down, not deep down, a little bit down in the Wall Street Journal article is basically half of the reason for this move. And I’ll just quote you. “Military sale – military contracts accounted for more than half of Boeing’s $62.3 billion in sales last year.” So Boeing not being a corporate idiot, and honestly in some corporate trouble with the 737 max and all the rest of it is moving to where the money is. They are moving to where the money is. So that’s item number one. Item number two in the deep corporate cynicism, of – vein of the day is this and this was pointed out by Jon Ostroker, who’s a when when I say crack, I mean crack aviation reporter who runs his own website called the Air Current, and if you are a fan of of aviation as an industry, you should go and subscribe to the air current because John’s really good. Anyway, John pointed out this afternoon that Boeing’s tax breaks that it got for moving from Seattle to Chicago in the state of Illinois expired when last year. So ta-da. So I wonder if they asked for the Amazon deal cuz , um the building where Boeing is because I was over there pre-pandemic on a – on a date walking around that area. And that building is massive. And it’s right in the same area, where if I’m remembering it correctly, where the new Amazon headquarters are going to be, let me double check a   map and make sure I’m not telling stories. I think it’s right there. No, it’s, it’s literally right near the Pentagon and Crystal City and Pentagon City and all that, right.

Kimberly Adams: Yeah, it’s right there. And it’s massive, and there’s like parks and stuff around it. And, and that’s right, where the Amazon headquarters are gonna be, or the, you know, HQ, whatever, thing that was. But yeah, all of that is like, within walking distance of the Pentagon and this big military industrial zone, because a lot of Amazon’s business comes from the military as well.

Kai Ryssdal: Yep. For sure. So that’s what I got.

Kimberly Adams:  Okay, well, I guess we’re staying on military stories. But mine’s a little bit more international in nature, which is this news about Sweden. And I think Finland also basically tiptoeing into joining NATO, because they’re scared of Russia. But one of the things that was holding Sweden and Finland back from joining NATO work, and one of the things was a concern that during this sort of gray period, while they were going to be waiting for their application to be approved, that they might be vulnerable to an attack from Russia. And so apparently, Sweden has received assurances, whatever that means from the United States that it would receive – and I’m reading from a Reuters piece here. “Sweden has received assurances from the United States that it,” excuse me, “would receive support during the period of potential application to join NATO is processed by the 30 nations in the Alliance. Sweden and neighbor Finland stayed out of NATO during the Cold War, but Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and its invasion of Ukraine have led the countries to rethink their security policies and NATO membership is looking increasingly likely.” Of course, at the same time, Russia is now making way more like nuclear moves and warnings about any – NATO getting any bigger. So as was predicted very early in this conflict, it’s getting bigger, and starting to encompass more and more parts of Europe. And as we also said earlier in this conflict, European land wars tend not to stay in Europe.

Kai Ryssdal: Yeah, I love how the whole containing NATO thing has absolutely backfired on Putin. And if you look at a map, right, Finland has ginormous –

Kimberly Adams: You should explain that a little bit.

Kai Ryssdal:  Well, so look. Alright, so after the Soviet Union fell apart, one of the deals that was you know, nominally made was that  NATO wasn’t necessarily going to expand so much, right. And that was Putin’s understanding of it. George Bush, then invite – George W. Bush invites other nations to join NATO, the Russians get nervous, it becomes a big issue. And ta-da, here we are with Ukraine. And Putin has said repeatedly, “it is not cool. I do not want NATO on my doorstep, please back off,” right. And now it’s bigger. It’s lots bigger. The catch here, of course, is that Finland and Russia have a huge land border, check a map, right? They have an enormous land border. And so if the Russians get cranky, let’s all remember Article Five, right? And that’s the challenge on this thing. Article Five is the whole attack on one and is an attack on all thing. So there’s lots going on here, but it’s definitely Vladimir Putin having not really done his homework

Kimberly Adams: Or just vastly miscalculated.

Kai Ryssdal: Yeah, yeah. Well, look, I think his miscalculations are self-evident, right, just on what’s been going on in Ukraine. And testament to the Ukrainians, too.

Kimberly Adams: Oh, yeah, they’re, they’re, they’re fighting like nobody’s business. Okay. Well, smile.

Kai Ryssdal:  Let’s. Let’s. Alright, go ahead.

Kimberly Adams: So my niece is going to be in a production of “Annie” and so now whatever we do the Make Me Smiles. I’m thinking that “You’re never fully dressed without a smile” song. It’s going to be in my head forever.

Kai Ryssdal: There you go.

Kimberly Adams:  Okay. My Make Me Smile also has to do with children and it comes courtesy of our newsletter writer, Ellen Rothfuss, who sent this a few days ago and I’ve been holding on to it, which is that in New Mexico, they are going to be or I should say the New Mexican – New Mexican government is going to be offering a year of free child care to most of the residents. And this is a story in the Washington Post, that New Mexico is going to cover the cost of child care for most residents through June of 2023, four families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level, which according to this article, makes New Mexico the first state to offer no cost care over such a broad range of incomes. This is a huge deal, because the lack of access to affordable childcare has been a huge issue holding people back from rejoining the workforce. And I will be so fascinated to see the research that has done about this, that in terms of what this does for labor force participation, what it does for economic growth in New Mexico, and what it does for sort of family and child well-being because, you know, you would know, I would not, not having kids, being at home with children when you’d rather be at work or trying to work. And you have small children at home, from what I understand is quite the struggle.

Kai Ryssdal:  Yeah, yeah. It’s also worth pointing out here, just, you know, on the news of the week, that the governor of New Mexico has promised to keep abortion available in New Mexico. And so that’s another part of this entire puzzle isn’t the right word, but it’s an interlocking set of social needs. That this state, you know, is is, is prioritizing.

Kimberly Adams: It’ll be very fascinating then to look at sort of comparisons over the next few years between New Mexico and Texas. And, you know, since reproductive health services have, as we’ve said, and childcare services, and abortion are all economic issues as well, what will be different in these two states as these policies play out?

Kai Ryssdal: Many, many things. Okay, so mine is more feel goodie than smile. I follow on Twitter, a guy by the name of Neil King, who used to write for the Wall Street Journal. And since leaving the Wall Street Journal has founded a website called the Gotham Canoe. And it’s about the outdoors and time and walking and nature and all kinds of really cool stuff. It’s really cool. And so he wrote a post, I guess it was today I came across my feed today. And it’s about a boat that he bought a gorgeous, gorgeous, I will describe it for you. And we’ll put this picture on our on our show page.

Kimberly Adams: It’s very pretty, I’m looking at it now.

Kai Ryssdal: Yeah, it’s really pretty. Sixteen foot, mahogany lapstrake guide boat with a four foot beam meticulously crafted in Ontario in 1978. I don’t know what what any of those words mean, except like 16 foot and boat, but it’s, but it’s really, really pretty. And he wrote a little essay about having bought this boat, and then never haven’t used it and selling it to a guy who’s going to use it.

Kimberly Adams: Aw.

Kai Ryssdal: Yeah, it’s, it’s really touching. It’s really touching. And so if you’re in the mood for that kind of writing, Gotham Canoe is where to go, Neil King, he just took a walk actually from Washington, DC to New York City. And he blogged about it, or I guess tweeted about it. He’s gonna write a book about it, which is coming out and I will buy it and read it. And yeah, anyway, Gotham Canoe. Check it out. Check it out.

Kimberly Adams: That’s really beautiful to let go of something that’s special to you just so that somebody else can can use it. That’s that’s kind of how I got my motorcycle. It had been sitting in somebody’s garage for –

Kai Ryssdal: Oh is that right?

Kimberly Adams: Yeah, for years.

Kai Ryssdal: Oh, that’s great.

Kimberly Adams: A guy bought it for his wife hoping that she would ride with him. And they got it like all like tricked out and ready to go. And it just sat there and sat there and sat there. And so what he ended up doing was getting her like one of those three-wheeled trikes instead, which was more her speed and then sold the bike and it was sort of like, you know, when you want something for somebody else more than they want it for themselves, and then you kind of just have to readjust to get what that person actually needs. But then I got a motorcycle out of it, and I love it.

Kai Ryssdal: And I’ll bet you this guy who bought this boats gonna like –  In fact, if you read the base, he’s got plans for it. It’s really cool. It’s a great little story. Check it out. Alright.

Kimberly Adams: Yeah that’s nice, that made me smile.

Kai Ryssdal: Yeah, it’s great. Good. Good, good. Good. Super quick before we go. It is fundraising season here at Marketplace world headquarters. And this kind of a big one. We’re going to start with a $60,000 match thanks to Tim Ranzetta at Next Gen Personal Finance. And it’s a match for Marketplace’s financial literacy programs, the premiere of which is a little thing that Bridget Bodnar does on the side called Million Bazillion. It’s a show for kids and families. It’s actually not on the side, it probably takes like 90% of her time and we get the other 10%. Anyway, so it’s a match from Tim Ranzatta up to $60,000. Your gift goes twice as far if you give it today, so we’d appreciate it if you do that.

Kimberly Adams: Yes, please. And thank you and that – you do, you donating helps us take on other like really big ambitious projects that we want to do. Million Bazillion was a huge deal for marketplace to step into kids programming. And we’ve had so much fun with like, I’ve had little cameos in it, where I get to be a superhero, which has been fun and lots of the other Marketplace reporters have participated and it’s been really great like hearing from kids and families how much that program means to them. And so your donations help fuel that and of course, you know, Kai and I making fun of each other on a daily basis. And so thank you very much. If you can give anything plus there is always the swag. We have the return of the Kai-PA glass with a snazzy new design.

Kai Ryssdal: Yeah buddy.

Kimberly Adams:  Which I’m very excited to see.

Kai Ryssdal: I’m looking at it now.

Kimberly Adams: Oh, really? What’s it like?

Kai Ryssdal: I will put it on camera tomorrow. I’m not gonna tell ya, I’m gonna put on camera tomorrow.

Kimberly Adams: It’s gonna be a surprise. But what you won’t see on camera tomorrow just because I don’t even have it yet. But I’m super excited. Is the, I guess like the Kimberley version of the swag? We have a new insulated – wait for it. Wine tumbler, of course because it’s me.

Kai Ryssdal: It gets better. It gets better. Come on, tell ’em the rest of it.

Kimberly Adams: It’s it’s a wine tumbler that says Make Me Smart on one side and Make Me Smile on the other side with a little illustration of Jasper on it. It’s so cute it even as his little bell and it really looks like him with the crazy look that he gives me all the time. So you can see these gifts at marketplace.org/givesmart and you know the wine tumbler can also hold cocktails if that is what you prefer or mocktails all of the drinks. So please try to make a gift while these lasts and match lasts. Yes the match in particular.

Kai Ryssdal: The match is the key part. Tim Ranzatta at Next Gen Finance, Next Gen Personal Finance rather are the ones who are helping us out with that. Alright, we’re done for today. Back tomorrow, Economics on Tap. Me and my new Kai-PA glass. We’ll have a drink talking about the news, play a game. It’s all live streamed on YouTube. We would love for you to join us 3:30 Eastern, no 3:30 Pacific, 630 Eastern. Time zones are hard.

Kimberly Adams: They are. The other thing that can be hard but it doesn’t have to be is bringing your very best Mint Julep recipe because the Kentucky Derby is this weekend. And so I will personally be showing up to Economics on Tap with a hat and with my Mint Julep in tow. And I will be very curious. I learned today from another Washington Post article that there are many different types of juleps not just a mint julep. So I encourage folks to bring all of their juleps and also you can send us your thoughts, questions and you know, general feelings about the world our email is makemesmart@marketplace.org. You can leave us your message and five away you’d be smart. You can also tell us what do you think of the Jasper tumbler which I think is adorbs but whatevs.

Kai Ryssdal: You get a vote on adorbs tumblers I get a vote on Kai-PA glasses. Make Me Smart is produced by Marissa Cabrera with help from our intern Tiffany Bui. Today’s episode was engineered by Juan Carlos Torrado.

Kimberly Adams: Bridget Bodnar is a senior producer and of course the co-host of Million Bazillion and the director of On Demand is Donna Tam

Kai Ryssdal: Saw Bridget gettin’ all prettied up for some social media videos the other day. Look for that in your feeds, look for that in your feeds is all I’m sayin’.