Consumers are still living it up

Make Me Smart October 2, 2023 Transcript

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Kimberly Adams 

Shall we begin?

Kai Ryssdal 

Let’s begin. Hey, everybody, I’m Kai Ryssdal. Welcome back to Make Me Smart where we make today make sense.

Kimberly Adams 

And I’m Kimberly Adams, welcome, everyone. And thank you for joining us on this Monday, October the second when we are not in a government shutdown, surprisingly.

Kai Ryssdal 

Not in a government shutdown. I am I am, I’m completely surprised. Of course, there are many twists and turns yet to come. And the fallout from not being in a shutdown is going to come sooner rather than later, I think for Mr. McCarthy. But wow, that was a newsie weekend, wasn’t it?

Kimberly Adams 

It was indeed. And I mean, as late as Saturday, mid-morning, I was like yup so so much for the last ditch strategies, but I mean, he’s, he’s called the bluff. Let’s see if it was really a bluff. So for people who have actively chosen not to pay attention to this, to get out to avoid a government shutdown, McCarthy made a deal with the Democrats. And they’re the ones who pulled him over the finish line to get a continuing resolution passed to the house. Matt Gaetz and others had threatened if he were to do such a thing, they would file a motion to vacate and try to kick him out of the seat. And now they’re, Matt Gaetz in particular, is saying that he will do that thing. But you know, we’ll see. And we’ll see how that goes. Yeah, we’ll see at this point, I think that’s all any of us can say. Right. But anyway, you probably have other news.

Kai Ryssdal 

Well, I do. But you’ve got news. Yeah, I’ll do mine real quick. Look, and I just it’s it struck me there’s an article in the in The Wall Street Journal from this weekend, talking about consumer spending in this economy and how Americans are spending, the headline is, “Americans are still spending like there is no tomorrow.” There, of course, is always a tomorrow. But consumers typically haven’t cared. But here’s why it matters so much. This economy is driven as we know, spending by or on behalf of consumers to 70% of the economy. I’ve been saying for a very long time, how much longer can that last? And everybody I’ve talked to said, you know, we’ll see, I think we’re at the “we’ll see” moment, because we are still spending even though COVID related checks are no longer with us. The money we saved during the pandemic is gone. Inflation, while falling prices are still elevated. I just look out for consumers who and spending coming to a screeching halt. That’s all I want to say it’s going to be one of those. We knew it was coming but still has somehow it’s a shock to the economic system when everybody goes, “Oh, my God, what happened to consumers?” I’m going to be like, yeah, I told you.

Kimberly Adams 

You know, I don’t know. I mean, I think the argument laid out in this Journal piece, I’ve heard quite a bit, which is that there are consumers, particularly millennials and younger, who feel that the housing market is hopeless, that they’re probably never really going to get ahead in this economy. So they may as well live it up. And I have a beloved relative who has said to me many times, I’m probably going to be in debt to somebody for the rest of my life. So I may as well be in debt, living the life that I want. And that’s, that’s, that’s a way to to do it. Some people are okay with debt, because, you know, if you feel the system is rigged against you, and you’re going to be in debt, you know, so you just live with it and try to keep it manageable, but live a quality of life. You know, I think people are still struggling to achieve the same quality of life as their parents when they’re doing the same kind of work even though the economy doesn’t work that way anymore. So I don’t know if it’s gonna come to a screeching halt as much as you know, people may just end up living with unsustainable debt, kind of like the federal government.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yes, but the federal debt, sorry, I was I was sort of with you until right there. We all know that the federal government is not a household

Kimberly Adams 

It was a joke. Yeah it was a joke. Yeah, I wasn’t serious. No, we can’t print our own money. And no household budgeting is not the same as federal budgeting. It was a joke, but okay. But anyway, but no, in all seriousness, I think it’s okay. It’s okay. But in all seriousness, I think that there are a lot of people in this economy who are just like I give up, I give up on trying to beat the system. And so I am going to live the best life I can within the bounds of manageable debt. And just call it a day and maybe, you know, file for bankruptcy at some point, wait for some debt to get written off refinance, take out loans, whatever, but just live.

Kai Ryssdal 

I think you should put that on your feature list. For reals.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah. Okay. I mean, it’s the same thing.

Kai Ryssdal 

I think I think you have to report it out.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah. Yeah. I can see how many people are doing that. Yeah. Right. Right. Add it to the list with all the interesting, exciting politics stories. Yeah, it’s, it’s the vibe, it’s the vibe, okay. I have kind of been passing on much of the news of Donald Trump’s trials and travails. Even though they are, you know, quite newsy. And especially the cases in New York, which could potentially end up with him not being able to do business in New York, when all is said and done and potentially losing property, which is his claim to fame, even if vastly overvalued, as we have since learned. I did think this article, though, is an analysis piece by Philip bump in the Washington Post was so fascinating, because it looks at the the headline is great, Trump’s understandable surprise at seeing his company in court. And it talks about how white-collar crime in this country is so under prosecuted, and most of the time, people who do the things that Trump is accused of doing with his companies get away with it. And it you know, and this whole argument about, you know, him being targeted as a political figure and things like that, you know, it could carry some water in that white collar crime is typically under prosecuted. Now, here’s what his alleged crimes were particularly egregious. But here’s some of the numbers from this. Over the past 20 years, the number of federal white-collar prosecutions fell by more than 50%, from nearly 10,000 in 2002, to just 4,000 in 2022, according to data from Syracuse University’s track reports, usually those prosecutors, prosecutions, target individuals, not company, not companies. But at the same time, like the share of white-collar jobs, I’m not reading anymore of the share of white collar jobs, making up the workforce has increased as these prosecutions have decreased. So going back to those track numbers, in 2002, there were about 20, federal white-collar prosecutions for every 100,000 professional workers in 2022, there were about six. And as we look at where we focus our prosecutorial resources, it’s interesting.

Kai Ryssdal 

Well, let me let me I don’t, I’m not are you saying Trump should not be prosecuted?

Kimberly Adams 

Not at all, I am saying that the reason that he’s surprised is because people who do these things allegedly, typically get away with them. And so for the people who want to claim that he’s being unfairly targeted, they can look at the fact that these crimes are under prosecuted, and he is being prosecuted for them if he committed these crimes, and the allegations are pretty solid, you know, I’m all for getting people you know, charged with the things that they did, but this is just an interesting highlight of how not good of a job we do in this country of prosecuting crimes that are done a lot.

Kai Ryssdal 

By rich white guys by rich white guys.

Kimberly Adams

Yes that too.

Kai Ryssdal

That’s what it is. That’s exactly what it is. And look it’s the it is and that’s the flip side of the we prosecute too many young black men in this economy and and that is apt both of those statements are true. And here’s part of how it plays out in real life. I totally agree. I totally agree. Yeah.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah, and there’s just some really interesting data in here and you know, good luck getting a bigger budget for you know, the Justice Department to go after white collar crime because lobbying. The that’s that’s the news. Let’s get some smiles good here okay, my weekend was a journey, cuz, you know, I was doing, you know, C-SPAN stuff Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon I went on a motorcycle ride with two of my friends. We went out to my uncle’s house, we were picking paw paws in the forest. And then Sunday, I went to a candle making workshop. And then there was a pop up shop nearby, with like all these other people selling their own candles, and I saw a beautiful, like a beautiful example of people latching on to the moment, I saw a woman who had a government shutdown candle. Now this particular company, which is called district heroines, they have all these branded candles and let me find I already had one of the candles, let me find it. The one that I already had, is called, let’s see, DC dating. And the vibe of the thing. The thing with these candles is they all have a description of what they smell like, right? So DC dating, smells like moderates, cringy apps and a non-existent work life balance. Right so this is this is a this is a brand. So anyway, the government shutdown candle smells like backpay, Happy Hour deals, and a lack of bipartisanship. Yeah. And so lady was sitting there at her booth, and I was like, well, what is this was like, right after this was the day after everything had, you know, gone through, I was like, well, what are you going to do now? And she’s like, I’m gonna sell it for 45 days and see what happens.

Kai Ryssdal 

Right? Yeah, totally. There look, there’s a market for everything. There’s a market for everything.

Kimberly Adams

I was very entertained by it.

Kai Ryssdal

Totally should have been. Yeah that’s great I love that.

Kimberly Adams

Anyway, all right. What’s yours?

Kai Ryssdal

Alright, so mine, mine actually came across my social feed early early this morning. It’s from a guy by the name of Robbie Andrew, who’s a senior scientist at the Norwegian Climate Center. In the month of September, for new car registrations in Norway, 87% of new car registrations were battery electric, which is amazeballs only 2.3% of new car registrations in Norway in September of 2023 did not have an electric motor. That is to say they were gas or diesel internal combustion. That’s amazing. Now sadly, most of them are Tesla’s but I know, right? But Norway’s basically getting rid of internal combustion engine cars slowly, the new ones, you know, will not appease, the old ones that are on the streets for a while. But holy cow, almost 90% are battery electric. That’s amazing. It’s amazing. Wow. That was I thought that was I thought that was super cool.

Kimberly Adams 

And I’m looking in and I’m looking at the rest of that thread. The Transport Agency in Oslo region now has 24 depots for fast charging its electric buses. You know, wow. It can be done. It can

Kai Ryssdal 

It can be done. And look, the government is trying to do it very slowly. And, you know, not big enough, but they’re trying to do it. We’re trying to get there.

Kimberly Adams 

All right. Yeah. All right, Baby steps.

Kai Ryssdal 

Baby steps baby steps. Tomorrow. We are doing a Tuesday show, single show single topic. FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried goes on trial starts tomorrow. I believe fraud conspiracy, a bunch of stuff crypto related. We’re gonna talk about all that because one might say and some some people who know more than I do have said that it’s crypto that’s kind of on trial here.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah, we haven’t talked about crypto in a while so until then, keep your questions and comments coming. If you have questions about you know, crypto as well maybe if you can get them in quickly, we can ask the guest where it makesmesmart@marketplace.org also at 508-U-B-SMART.

Kai Ryssdal 

Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Bergsieker. Today’s episode was engineered by Charlton Thorp. Ellen Rolfes writes our newsletter or intern is Niloufar Shahbandi.

Kimberly Adams 

Marissa Cabrera is our senior producer. Bridget Bodnar is the director of podcast and Francesca Levy is the executive director of Digital. Just realized that after our discussion the other day about loud shirts I wore one of my loud shirts.

Kai Ryssdal

There you go.