Washington’s looming deadlines (note the plural)

Make Me Smart September 29, 2023 Transcript

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Kai Ryssdal 

And there’s Bons right on cue. Way to go dog, way to go. Freaking unbelievable.

Kimberly Adams 

We need our sound effects. We need our sound effects.

Kai Ryssdal 

Hi everybody I’m Kai Ryssdal. Welcome back to Make Me Smart where we make today make sense. It is 29 September Friday.

Kimberly Adams 

And I’m Kimberly Adams and thank you everybody for joining us for our podcast as well as those who joined us on the YouTube live stream it’s Friday and that means we are here for economics on tap our weekly happy hour episode.

Kai Ryssdal 

We’re gonna do some news. We’ll take a break we’ll do a little half full, half empty with Drew Jostad but we will do as we always do on a Friday drinks. I’m having nothing I have nothing going on here at number one because I’ve been drinking water all day and I’m a little over hydrated. And number and number two Kimberly Adams What are you drinking?

Kimberly Adams 

Are you gonna need another mid show bathroom break like during the live show?

Kai Ryssdal 

Well there are no speakers in the bathroom in my house, so it could be a little challenging. Also, this should only be like 20 minutes that show went forever.

Kimberly Adams 

Fair, fair it did go forever. I’m having yet another one of my kitchen cocktails. I smoked my glass in advance I’ve decided that this is a thing I like to do. Oh my I’m sorry. Jasper peering over my shoulder at you guys where he you’re like his Henry Cavill to your you know Rory or whatever. So anyway,

Kai Ryssdal 

I wonder if smoking the glass is a less icky taste than smoking the drink remember because when I did it that one time I really didn’t like that whole like cigar aftertaste thing.

Kimberly Adams 

Because you had the sheen on it and I think smoking the glass it mixes in a little bit better. So anyway, this cocktail is peach tamarind shrub with bourbon and peach juice. And it’s delicious.

Kai Ryssdal 

When I know I’ve asked you this before I just don’t remember what the answer is. So shrub is like a cocktail fixing that you can buy

Kimberly Adams 

Yes it is it’s like usually a vinegar based something and gives like an it’s infused with various flavors and things.

Kai Ryssdal 

Gotcha all right, make much more sense.

Kimberly Adams 

A lemon shrub if Robin

Kai Ryssdal 

Let’s see there’s a lot of Jasper love in the in the in the conversation right now. Seltzer black cherry. Let’s see Yellowstone bourbon on the rocks for Armgil. Exploiting the watermelon whatever ayasanco is drinking. Smirnoff Ice and tonic water because just because.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah, Tamra has a diet raspberry Snapple, Michael in Houston doing a four roses old fashioned. Jack in Dallas has a bottle of white Australian wine. I love that. Um, let’s see. Yeah, everybody’s doing a lot today. Okay, love it. Um, before we get to the news, I want to do a clarification and a mia culpa. So on our Thursday show, when we played at the top of the show that clip from Romina Boccia at the Cato Institute, I was deep into the conversation, so I didn’t quite realize how it was going to sound. She said that sometimes the minority party chooses to latch on to these kind of moments to try to get things done. She wasn’t actually talking about the Democrats. She was not blaming the Democrats for the shutdown. In the broader context of that conversation. She was actually talking about how Republicans because they only have the house and not the Senate and the White House. Therefore, they and specifically the Freedom Caucus, were latching on to this moment. So some folks in the Discord, thank you very much for flagging that. That’s not she was not trying to blame the Democrats for the shutdown, because nobody would. You know, I was caught up in the larger point. Anyhow. But while we’re on the shutdown, I discovered today, thanks to some conversations that I was having, that we are not only approaching a government shutdown, which was avoidable and could have not happened, but it’s going to happen now. There are also other things expiring right around the same time that will cause additional problems for us. So for example, of the FAA authorization is also running out this weekend. And so I’m just going to read from this Politico article, the FAA statutory authorization, which primarily allows it to collect and spend tax revenues used to run the aviation system is due to expire to 11:59pm on Saturday. And that’s by coincidence, the same moment that the agency and the rest of the federal government would shut down. And that will, you know, skim skim skim, “the FAA said it will lose an estimated $54 million dollars in excise tax revenues every day, if Congress doesn’t act.” Now, airlines apparently kind of have the option to either pocket that money that they would have normally been paying in taxes or lower the ticket prices, I’m sure we can all guess what they’re probably going to do. Because it’s a tax on airline tickets and fuel that cannot be collected. So when we’re calculating the cost of the government shutdown, it’s worth calculating the loss in revenue, which exacerbates all of the other problems. And let’s see, what’s the other one I pointed out the farm bill authorization also running out. And so this is a once every five years thing. Several programs tied to the farm bill are set to lapse. And this could affect again, from Politico everything from subsidies for inflation, stressed farmers to nutrition programs for low income families. And I think also some flood insurance programs are running out, which could I think what I was looking at the National Association of Realtors, earlier today, they said it could hold up something like 13 transact, 1,300 sales a day because you have to get a sign off from the National Flood Insurance Program in order to close your deal. So I imagine a lot of people are going to be trying to rush closings tomorrow to get ahead of that if you’re in an area where you require that. So yeah Congress you not only dropped the ball, I’m sorry. Yay, Republicans in Congress, you not only dropped the ball on this, but everything else too. It’s gonna be a great weekend.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah, Congress. So 2, 3 things. Number one, shutdowns always wind up costing the government money. They always wind up costing the government that’s the number one. Thing number two, for those of you who are into, you know, randomly arcane government financing trivia, here’s one, the Federal Reserve is self-funding. So they’re not going to shut down, just so we all know. And number three members of Congress who are making great show of saying they’re not going to take a paycheck during the shutdown, it doesn’t work that way. 27th Amendment to the Constitution says you may not alter Congress people’s pay during the term to which they are elected. So they get paid anyway, just for the record, their staff,

Kimberly Adams 

Oh, yes. Their staffs are not, their interns do not what our DC intern was telling me that some of the people that she knows who are other interns on the Hill, they’re going to be screwed, because not only do they not get paid, but they came all the way to Washington for these internships and they won’t be able to go to work because they’re not I mean, unless the interns are deemed essential staff. And so they’re getting their experience ruined too. And as someone pointed out, in as Bob points out in the discord, we’re also going to be missing out on Fat Bear Week, because the people who run the social media accounts for Fat Bear Week are not going to be able to work. And I was there was a very funny article on The Hill today about it where somebody asked somebody at the Department of Interior about what’s going to happen to Fat Bear Week. And they’re saying, you know, the bears will continue to be fat without our monitoring.

Kai Ryssdal 

Right, right. Alright, so there’s a couple of couple of things in the live chat that I need to address here. Number one, Nick Zonn said the Federal Reserve might not shut down but the data they rely on does that is absolutely true. The Census Bureau the BA all of those they are going to be shut down come Monday. Come tomorrow midnight, actually. Number two Nisha Kumar says, wait a minute, so the Federal Reserve can print currency during a shutdown. Excellent point. We’ve talked many times on this podcast about Jay Powell secret keyboard, which he uses to create money. The catch is that that all goes through the Treasury Department. And the Treasury Department will be closed. So it doesn’t work that way. Yeah. So any who. Any who. Okay, so with that? We’re gonna take a quick break before we quick break rather sorry, before we do.

Kimberly Adams

Wait did you have a story?

Kai Ryssdal

Oh, I do. Sorry. Sorry. So well, I got caught up in the live chat. And you know that. Yeah. I just I want to point out there are actually two speeches this week that I think are of note number one was President Biden’s speech yesterday at the John McCain National Library, the establishment thereof, just what the President of the United States thinks about democracy in this country. I think it’s worth a listen. But also today, General Mark Milley retires at midnight, the former chairman of that is soon to be former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff now that his replacement has been confirmed by the Senate. Thank you very little Senator Tuberville. Anyway, he gave what I think you can only call a blistering speech today on his way out about the military, about where its loyalty lies. And where the paralyzed members of the military who forget that now we have to be clear on a couple of things. Number one, Millie blew it in Lafayette Square walking across with President Trump to St. John’s Church about two three years ago in in his uniform, that was just a huge mistake. And Millie has owned that. Also, he shows up very conveniently in many Washington books because he’s willing to talk to people off the record and he often comes out the hero that said, he’s had a really tricky time as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He has been beat up he has been figuratively, by the former president United States. He has been threatened by the former president of the United States who has said he ought to be put to death. So he does this with some amount of of physical danger. But that’s another speech that’s worth a read. Especially if you’re interested in national security or if you are in or contemplating a service career. It is something you I mean, that’s what I got. Yeah, that’s it. Okay, now…

Kimberly Adams 

Now you can do the other.

Kai Ryssdal 

Okay, now. So we’re done with the news. We’re going to take a quick break, as we always do first, though, we got to pay some bills. And here’s the deal. We are in our fall fundraiser. We’re over halfway to the goal. The goal, of course, was 2,000. donors. We are over 1,000 now participating, we really appreciate that we got one week left, so don’t delay. Climb on. It is marketplace.org/givesmart. But here’s Kimberly Adams with a special treat.

Kimberly Adams 

Yes, here’s our big announcement for today. If we hit this goal of hearing from another 1,000 of you, we are going to do another Make Me Smart virtual trivia night. We did one a while back and it was super fun and lots of people joined in. And if you give $5 or more right now, you will be eligible to join the trivia night if we hit that goal. So you know, join yourself and then pressure others so that way we can have trivia. Pressure others yes. Again, it’s yeah, nicely, like not the way that we try to pressure Congress to do its job much nicer than that. But anyway, again, marketplace.org/givesmart and thank give smart. And thanks to all these folks who have already donated and mentioned make me smart in their donor comments. We have Kirk in Tucson, Arizona, Jane in San Bruno, California, Anthony and Rio Vista, Cal, California. Janet in Springfield, Virginia, Nancy in Boone, North Carolina, Steve in Cincinnati, Ohio and your name to on that list if you join them and chip in please and thank you.

Kai Ryssdal 

Please marketplace.org/givesmart. We’ll be back. Half full, half empty is the game we play on Fridays. Drew Jostad is the guy who’s in charge most Fridays. Drew, here you go.

Drew Jostad 

All right. Are you half full or half empty on The Golden Bachelor?

Kai Ryssdal

Oh this is so interesting.

Kimberly Adams 

Gosh, so so full. I want to watch it. I haven’t yet but I’ve been like reading about it. I have had zero interest in any of The Bachelor or Bachelorette content in all of these years that it has been on. I want to watch this show. I want to and I will when I am not in shutdown life.

Kai Ryssdal 

I’m half full mostly because he’s a hottie. Have you looked at him? He’s 70 years old, and he is smokin hot.

Kimberly Adams 

He’s taken, he’s taken good care of himself.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yes, he has made me wish I took better care of myself. But yeah, yeah I’m half full.

Kimberly Adams

I should have gotten my grandma on that show.

Kai Ryssdal

More power to the Golden bachelor.

Drew Jostad 

I would be remiss if I didn’t take this chance to point out to the last season of This Is Uncomfortable, we had a season about we had a show about reality TV.

Kai Ryssdal

Oh there you go.

Drew Jostad

From a Bachelor producer, anyway. You know. In a recent survey of 1,500, business leaders 45% of companies said they’re offering office etiquette training. Are you half full or half empty?

Kai Ryssdal 

This this was a story Meghan McCarty Carino did for us. It was, it’s really interesting, because especially now with, you know, three ish years of people who are newish to the workforce, not having had real office environments, it can be a real challenge. It was great piece. I don’t think it’s a bad idea. And I’m half full.

Kimberly Adams 

I am half full as well, because you know, I have a I have a good friend back in Missouri. And she always complains about when I mention her on the show, but I’m gonna talk about her anyway, because she had jury duty this week. And she was telling me how nobody knew how to dress for jury duty, who was like under a certain age. And people were showing up in like basketball shorts and the judge is like absolutely not. And it was right about the time that that story came out. And I was like, yeah, they apparently are having to train people now because they’re just not used to it. So I’m hopeful on anything that, you know, helps level the playing field because to harken back to another This Is Uncomfortable episode, you know, where the woman was talking about, you know, these kind of markers of poverty or economic inequality. And there was a story about this woman who went to out to dinner with some colleagues, and they asked her how she wanted her hamburger done. And she didn’t know how to answer that question of whether it should be like rare or medium or whatever, because it’s a hamburger. You know, she’d never had one that’s been done differently. And so, you know, it was just one of these things that if you don’t know, you don’t know and then it makes you look silly or bad. And, you know, we don’t we shouldn’t all have to conform, but I’m half full on things that help level things out.

Kai Ryssdal 

Right, right. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Drew Jostad 

Okay, Kansas City Chiefs tight and Travis Kelsey has recently gained 300,000 social media followers and a 400% increase in merch sales. Are you half full or half empty on a Taylor Swift effect?

Kai Ryssdal 

Taylor Swift is the most powerful economic force on this planet. It’s the most amazing freakin thing she’s going to see the Chiefs play the Jets this weekend ticket prices are up it’s remarkable. Whatever works here’s what I really hope though actually, I hope those two dig each other and and really enjoy each other’s company and want to make this thing work. I hope all this freakin circus doesn’t just wreck it for him. That’s what I hope.

Kimberly Adams 

I am still waiting on data about whether Taylor Swift or Beyonce as tour has a larger economic impact. Because I didn’t see people buying, like full on silver glitter outfits for Taylor Swift. Maybe they did. I don’t know. I’m half empty. I’m kind of over it. I am. I have complicated feelings about Taylor Swift that I don’t need to get into here. Mainly because I don’t want her people coming after me. So I’m just gonna go half empty and leave it there.

Kai Ryssdal 

Fair enough. Fair enough.

Drew Jostad 

Next. All right. We got a poll on this one.

Kimberly Adams 

All right. Let’s do the poll. Everybody in the YouTube chat, get ready and yeah, Jasper did leave. I found out from the chat that Jasper has gone Great. Okay. Anyway, in the poll. Yes, please. We will vamp for a bit but I want you all to vote please. If you are able, let’s go.

Drew Jostad 

Are you half full or half empty on 6pm dinner reservations.

Kimberly Adams

Do you want to explain that story?

Kai Ryssdal 

So it’s, god remind me what it was. It was on my show. Sorry. I know. I know. I know. I know, oh Kristin Schwab did this story about Yes, Kristin Schwab, the the story about how according to Yelp or OpenTable, data, dinner reservations in the 4 to 6pm hours is up some astronomical amount, while dinner reservations in the 6pm to midnight hours are down some astronomical amount. And and Kristin, who is I have no idea how old she is. But she is not very old. said in our morning meeting in the morning, we were talking about the story. She said, You know, I’m good with being home and in bed in my PJs by like 9:30. And I was like, Wow, holy cow. That’s kind of amazing. So that’s the story. People are going to dinner earlier. And going home getting into bed and going night nights earlier as well. It’s just totally interesting.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah, there’s a whole meme on, you know, the Tik Toks, the reels, the YouTube shorts, whatever you want to call it, where the joke is that someone’s like, “Hey, do you want to meet up tonight?” They’re like, “sure what time?” and they’re like, “nine.” And the guy’s like, pm?”. Right. You know, I have friends. I have my I find myself, you know, doing versions of that. They’re like, oh, let’s go clubbing and I’m like, that club isn’t even going to be good until like, 10. And I’m going to be tired.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah, totally.

Kimberly Adams 

And it’s like, I had to bail on Mitchell. It’s not, it’s not, see Mitchell Hartman. Because last time he was in town I had to bail

Kai Ryssdal 

That’s true. That’s true. That’s true. Mitch, Mitchell, I think is a breed apart, right? I mean, Mitchell would go all night so I don’t I don’t think..

Kimberly Adams 

I I had to tap out early. I couldn’t I couldn’t hang out. Right. Gotta be up in the morning. Yeah.

Kai Ryssdal 

Totally, totally. Totally. All right. Well,

Kimberly Adams 

Let’s read some of these comments. Let’s see Jennifer. Jennifer Pierre says, working from home and I am now a 10am and a 6pm, two meal a day plan. Fair. Amy says her circadian rhythm is night owl so she’s barely having lunch by six. Okay. Ah, let’s see. Evilgenius007 says Kimberly are we the olds? Yes. Yes, we are the old and it’s okay.

Kai Ryssdal

It’s okay. It’s totally okay. Yes.

Kimberly Adams 

The vampires who rule the world brainwash people into wanting to stay up late. Exactly. All right. Here is the poll results for 6pm dinner reservations half full, all of us who are tired, 83%.

Kai Ryssdal 

Wow overwhelmingly half full, holy cow.

Kimberly Adams 

We like sleep. We like comfy pajamas on and being home. I’m here for it. I’m here for it.

Kai Ryssdal 

Totally fair. Totally fair. That’s so funny. That’s so funny. All right. I believe that’s that’s the end of the, that’s the end of the game.

Kimberly Adams

That’s it. That’s all we got.

Kai Ryssdal 

Charlton Thorp, we’re waiting on you. There we go. There we go. Alright, we’re done for the day. Questions, comments, you know how to get a hold of us, voicemail is 508-U-B-SMART. Email is makemesmart@marketplace.org. We read them all.

Kimberly Adams 

And please don’t forget our newsletter. Ellen works really hard on it. You should read it. That is where we share our reading recommendations for the week. Sometimes some cocktail and beer recommendations from yours truly and the wonderful Kai Ryssdal you can sign up at marketplace.org/newsletters.

Kai Ryssdal 

Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Bergsieker. Today’s episode was engineered by Charlton Thorp. Niloufar Shahbandi is our intern. Drew Jostad wrote the theme music for the game that we play with him half full, half empty.

Kimberly Adams 

The team behind half full, half empty is Emily Macune and Antoinette Brock. Marissa Cabrera is the senior producer of the show. And Bridget Bodnar is the director of podcast. Francesca Levy is the Executive Director of Digital and today on demand as well.

Kai Ryssdal

Today only though.

Kimberly Adams

Today only.

Kai Ryssdal 

And not for the first time I wonder why Neil Scarbrough is not in the Friday credits but is in the Tuesday credits. Don’t get it.

Kimberly Adams 

It’s good to mix it up. Keep people on their toes. Fair enough.