35 Burst results for "Scott Tong"
Marketplace Tech with Molly Wood
"scott tong" Discussed on Marketplace Tech with Molly Wood
"We've got more from Paul keel and his reporting team at ProPublica, which exposed how TurboTax the most popular tax filing software was essentially hiding its free filing system using deceptive design known as dark patterns. As a result of that investigation, into it, the maker of TurboTax agreed last year to pay $90 each to the millions of people who were tricked into paying for TurboTax when they qualified for the free service. The total settlement of a $141 million. We've got more historical context on the complicated relationship the IRS has had with private tax preparers for my former marketplace colleague Scott Tong. Last year on the show, we discussed another attempt by the IRS to modernize its systems that didn't exactly pan out. The agency had partnered with a third party identity recognition software company called ID dot me. It offered facial recognition verification for taxpayers that wanted to access their IRS accounts online. But the agency canceled those plans last year after an uproar over privacy concerns. Rosie Hughes and Daniel Shen produced this episode, I'm Megan mccurdy carino, and that's marketplace tech. This is 8 p.m. this is flee for this little podcast about falling in love with music. I started a nonprofit music school about 20 years ago called the silverlake conservatory of music. The reason that I started doing this podcast was music education, I'll be speaking with Rick Rubin. ThunderCats, Stewart, Copeland, Margo price, Corey Henry, Cynthia erivo, Sheila E. and Patti Smith. Please listen and follow this little light a presentation of cadence 13 on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.
NEWS 88.7
"scott tong" Discussed on NEWS 88.7
"Specializes in l D. Support more at l d bridge dot org. From NPR in W B U R I'm Tanya Mosley. And I'm Scott Tong. It's here and now Okay, Let's talk flooding. Tropical Storm Nicholas today has parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi under flood warnings and climate change is driving up flood risk in general. But an NPR investigation has found that the top federal housing agency is selling flood prone homes without fully disclosing the risk taken. Wendland is lead coastal reporter for member station W W N No, and she's on the investigation team whose report aired yesterday, and she's here with an update. Artie can first. What did your team find? So we're talking about the Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD, which is mainly known for subsidized rental housing, but had also sells homes that were foreclosed on. So NPR analyzed nearly 100,000 homes and found that hug that that had sold between 2017 and 2020. And we found that thousands of those homes around the country are located in flood zones, and the people who buy them generally don't get any information about flood risk until after they've decided to buy, so that raises a lot of questions about how hard it is dealing with climate change. Climate change is caused Residential flooding flood damage in the U. S to skyrocket and Hud's mission is to provide safe, affordable housing. HUD says it's important to sell those homes for low prices and make sure they don't sit vacant, which would contribute to blight. But many of the housing experts that we spoke with said it's really concerning that HUD would be selling homes that are prone to flooding and basically allowing families to move into harm's way. Now, as far as HUD is, it had explicit job to disclose this risk. I mean, we think so, You know, um, over the course of almost four years had sold flood prone homes in almost every state, and we saw that there were some hotspots. Louisiana, Florida and New Jersey really stuck out for the disproportionate number of homes that HUD selling and flood zones. So here in Louisiana 20% of the homes sold by HUD, where in flood zones that's compared to just 200.1% of all homes that were sold in that time. So the data suggests that the homes that had selling are more prone to flooding than the general housing stock. And, uh huh Spokesperson suggested that one reason had homes might be disproportionately located in those flood zones is that it's harder to sell homes that are prone to flooding, so they're harder for banks to sell. So then how it ends up with them. Okay, ending up with these homes and having to sell them. Did you talk to families who purchased these homes about this risk that presumably they found after the fact. Yeah, we interviewed people who bought these homes in a bunch of different states. I spoke to people here in Louisiana, and many of them were surprised by the cost of flood insurance. They're alarmed when they found out about the flood risk. But they kind of went through with the purchase because the house was affordable, so they're basically gambling that the house won't flood while they live there. And that also brings up an environmental justice question. You know, it's hard doing enough to protect low income families from the effects of climate change. Buying a house as a way to build generational wealth in the US and people put their life savings into their homes. The flood can just totally wiped that out. Yeah, yeah, and and finally taken. Is there any sign that had intends to Change its approach to selling homes in these flood zones, because, as we know this risk is just going to go up. Sure. So there are a couple options that housing experts in home owners themselves talked about. First, HUD could disclose flood risk earlier and more fully. So put that flood risk right on the main listing page and explain how likely is it that water is going to end up in the house? How much water How expensive is flood insurance and has the house flooded in the past? That's information that a sister agency FEMA actually already has for many of these homes located in flood zones, and then the other thing that experts said he could do is flood proof homes before selling them. So lift foundations higher, so the water can't get in or automatically give grants to buyers so they can do that kind of work themselves. So that idea was really popular with many of the homeowners that we spoke to Or that is Teagan when land lead coastal reporter for W. W N o part of NPR's investigation into flood into HUD and its sales of homes without fully disclosing The flood risk. Tegan. Thanks for the time. Thanks so much. In Pennsylvania. Black Bears were once rare. But in the last few decades, their population has rebounded. The state keeps track of hundreds of these bears by trapping and tagging them. The Allegheny Front's Reid Frazier went out with the team looking for bears and has our story. On a small forest road. Emily Corolla steers a big pickup truck around a sharp curve, so this spot that we're going to that you'll see it's actually pretty cool. It's got a really good travel corridors, so it's right on off of a power line. Corolla is the black bear biologist for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Today, she and a pair of helpers, state biologist and Forrester are in a forest in central Pennsylvania. She stops the truck near one of her traps. She checks her supplies, which include a bucket full of today's bait doughnuts,.
NEWS 88.7
"scott tong" Discussed on NEWS 88.7
"Reasons other than These rights and benefits of John Kerry was talking about, uh One last quick break here, we will be back to talk about how gay marriage went from something that essentially neither party supported to an issue that's rarely now a part of political debates anymore. And of course, it's legal in every state in the country. You can always let me know your thoughts on the show. I'm on Twitter at Karen with a K. E. Miller. From P R X and GBH and Cara Miller. This is invasion of it. Mm. Great question. That is a great question, And it's a great question. Wow. That's another great question. That's that's a great question. It's a great That's a great question. That is a great question. Great question on fresh air, you'll hear unexpected questions and unexpected answers. Fresh air weeknights. Seven p.m. ON news 88 7. I'm Scott Tong. Half of transgender People report being mistreated by medical professionals. We'll talk with the patient who was considering a colonoscopy gastroenterologist was asking some really unnecessary questions about my sex life. And I ended up canceling the procedure. That is next time and here and now Weekdays at noon. All of us want to know what's going on. But only some of us want to know the why. That's where we come in One day is a place for the curious Daily conversations for those looking to make sense of our world. I'm Jenn White. I hope you'll join me next time for one a One egg weekdays at 11 A.m. News. 88 7 Welcome back to innovation hub Karen Miller in the mid nineties, about a quarter of the country supported gay marriage. 15 years later, those numbers had doubled thing that drew me to the subject at first was having a lot of conversations around 2011 with pollsters who would say over and over again. They never saw opinion on a single issue moved as quickly as I've seen it move on marriage at that point was about four or 5% points a year. Sasha Eisenberg is the author of the book The Engagement. America's Quarter Century.
WBUR
"scott tong" Discussed on WBUR
"Of projects and book appointments at angie dot com. From NPR in W B U R I'm Tanya Mosley. I'm Scott Tong. It's here and now Now that the U. S has left Afghanistan is the war on terror over Well, two decades into it. Our next guest Arab argues, No. We remain in a post 9 11 forever War because the policies and narratives after the attacks, shape the public conversation and eventually led to the rise of one Donald J. Trump. That is, according to investigative journalist Spencer Ackerman. His new book is Reign of Terror, How the 9 11 Era Destabilized America and produced Trump. And Spencer. Let's go straight to the title here. What did 9 11 activate in the culture and in the machinery of government that you say connects to the rise of Donald Trump? From the start, the war on terror functioned as a doorway to the most nativist, the most violent and the most racist aspects of American history gave them a license to pursue power in the atmosphere of righteous patriotic violence and the mechanisms of the government. That are meant to safeguard our freedom. Our rights and our security transformed tremendously so as to provide for extensive suspicionless surveillance, the creation of a large law enforcement informant network in places of worship, such as mosques, the transformation of immigration From a means of producing more Americans into a security context that threatened those that were already here. And so on. Until ultimately, a series of authoritarian possibilities were provided by the war on terror and its culture justified their use. And as you kind of describe in your book, it's permanent. Or now as far as Donald Trump are you arguing that he understood this. Nativist context in this September 12 reality that America is in of we all Remember years ago, he made this Birther claim fact free that Barack Obama was a Muslim born in Kenya. He really understood the subtext of the war on terror better than most politicians, or at least he was the one who wanted to celebrate and exploit that subtext. While more mainstream politicians wanted to kind of ignore it and pretend that it wasn't fair, in addition to Birtherism, which we should have to remember. Gets its forced by the fact that it's calling Barack Obama a secret foreign Muslim at a time when the culture of the war on terror held such people as threats to American security, he was a leading figure, stoking fear amongst New Yorkers against a Muslim cultural center. In downtown Manhattan that he and others referred to as the ground zero mosque and in general while simultaneously supporting and claiming later that he never supported the overseas wars. He consistently referred to how they needed to be fought with ever more brutality. Okay, now you, of course were part were part of the Guardian reporting team that won the Pulitzer for your reporting on Edward Snowden Revelations about the National security Agency. I want to ask you about the role of the security state as I guess kind of a spine of this story. I mean, how is this hyper surveillance justified and how is it endured these decades? Well, certainly it was justified when it became public, which was years after it began on the idea that it was necessary to stop terrorist attacks. George W. Bush called it after the fact the terrorist surveillance program a name that propagandistic Lee suggests that only terrorists were under surveillance. When no such thing happened. Instead, there was an ESA capability unleashed that allowed it to Hoover up without just Discrimination. A tremendous amount of Americans communications data under the name of this emergency, and then over time, the more of it that got exposed. Ultimately, more of it was normalized in in some degree by law in 2000 and eight but more generally The surveillance achieved a kind of escape velocity were the NSA, as it currently stands through a program called Prism that we in the Washington Post exposed thanks to Edward Snowden. The surveillance piggybacks on the servers of major social media and Internet data. Jai's, which basically mediate through everything that you and I use on a daily basis, the kind of cost of doing business in the 21st century economy. So what starts after 9 11 as a frankly illegal and they knew it program no matter how much they wanted a lawyer it away. Now is embedded in the architecture of the 21st century economy. And I want to ask you about I guess your thoughts on the different ways there have been costs of this war on terror. I gather You might consider these American right digital freedoms and liberties part of the cost on this, But more broadly, do you think about the overt and the hidden costs? Two Americans of this Forever war period. So much of what we've experienced after 9 11 has been the steady erosion of democratic safeguards that are meant to keep the freedoms that America distinct they possess in perpetuity. These have just sustained sledgehammer blow after sledgehammer blow, usually from an acquiescent judicial system. Usually from a political and journalistic infrastructure that typically more typically than not goes along with the prerogatives of the war on terror, far more than they challenge it, And as a result, you get a very brittle democracy, deeply divided, lying in wait for an authoritarian figure like Trump and as the war on terror progressives Like future trumps who will take the opportunities presented by both the culture and the institutional structure of the war on terror. What's already been normalized as well as what remains on the horizon and do something with it. And they may turn out to be far more competent than Donald Trump was. Can I come back to this? I guess the cultural framework as part of this you describe Donald Trump and others understanding this nativist framing here, But I think our listeners might be surprised that you're right about the role of others on the left and in the center of the political conversation. How do you think about President Obama's role? In continuing this framing. When the war on terror was established shortly after 9 11. It occurred with overwhelming support and extremely minimal criticism. From the Democratic Party that persisted for a tremendous amount of time and result they voted for the leadership of the Patriot Act. And so many other these authorizations of war. The Iraq war the authorization to use military force that has become a wellspring for all of this Obama site to jettison the Iraq war and jettison Torture by the CIA and the military. Outside of that he was pretty flexible and ended up ratifying much, much more of the war on terror. Then he ended up jettisoning becoming synonymous with drone strikes, returning to war in Iraq and adding Syria onto that list of active battlefields. And finally let me ask you then where do you think this framework of emergency? Goes from here. Does this go on? Or is there a way for some of these forces that are aligned to eventually come to an end? Well, the record over the past 20 years shows that elite politics will only perpetuate the war on terror. If the war on terror is to be stopped. It's got to come from Ordinary American citizens organizing together and demanding a binary choice out of their candidates for political office. Either those candidates can maintain the war on terror, or they can enjoy political power but not oppose. The only thing that is restrained. The war on terror substantively has been politicians feeling the pressure. Of popular anger and frustration over the wars. Biden even while withdrawing from Afghanistan, talks about an enduring counterterrorism capability that spans the world and is unconstrained by any time limitation. That's been a pattern throughout the war on terror. Think about Obama, seeking to withdraw from Iraq while escalating in Afghanistan typically recision On one or other war on terror battlefield is accompanied by escalation elsewhere or even maintenance of the same enterprise from as the Pentagon likes to say over the horizon. The book is Reign of terror of the 9 11 era Destabilized America and produce Trump, the author of Spencer Ackerman and provocative read, Spencer. Thanks very much, Thank you very much for having And you're listening to here and now This.
KQED Radio
"scott tong" Discussed on KQED Radio
"I'm Celeste Hedley. I'm Peter O Dowd. I'm Scott Tong. It's here and now, alright. Brief break from the overwhelming news cycle. The talk a little about books. August can usually be a slow time for new releases. Not this year. We have Petra Mayer of NPR books here to tell us about a few of them. Hey, Petra, Hi. It's always fun to be here with you guys. And what's up with this August? Why the new releases now? You know, I can only say it's maybe that time has no meaning right now, and we're all just stuck inside the endless Whatever. What month is it? I don't know. August is usually pretty dead. But there are a lot of really great releases this month. Interesting. Well, okay onto your selections. First up, we have the book against white feminism. It's by Rafia Zakaria. That's a provocative title. It sure is. That's going to get the hackles up on your inner Karen. But, you know, just sit down, Take a breath and deal with it. All right. Because sure mainstream Western feminism has as refuse. Ikaria is reminding us here it has always been for and about white women are concerns. Our agendas have always have been taken as universal. We have been sidelining and talking over black and brown women for as long as feminism has existed, and that is messed up, and it's done terrible damage in the world, and it needs to be torn down. And Zakaria pretty much lays it out in these eight essays showing how the kind of white feminism that we have today has evolved. And then you know, Zakaria shows us how to break that all down and to rebuild a feminism that includes everyone. That isn't just this default. Women versus men structure that assumes that all the pieces on the border white. It's not a comfortable book. But who needs to be comfortable But a book for the moment? Armaments? Exactly. You also have a memoir seeing ghosts by Kat Chow. An exploration of grief and the lives of several generations in her Chinese family. I actually this is a topic I know about. I've written a book about this as well. Why does this appeal to you? I have to say this is NPR's own cat Chow. Um, I have to disclose my own personal interest because I love cat. She's a wonderful person and are really great writer. Yeah, I kind of can't wait to see what you think of this book. You know, I was a show producer for a long time on NPR. And all those years I couldn't listen to public radio because it was like To close. But I think that you will love this book, because, actually, it's cats experience. I think in radio that makes it so lovely to read. She puts you in the scene so directly. I mean, this is a story about coming to terms with, you know her grief for her mother's death and will been through it. Is the story of her mother's life and her marriage, and this could be a heavy story. But it's got this marvelous mixture of poetry and dry humor. You know, it's like it starts with this story about. She's a little kid, and they're in Maine on vacation. And they're at l. L bean and she gets scared by the taxidermy bear that's at the L. L. Bean in Maine and her mom is like you know what? I die? Well, you stuff me. Oh, and then she sort of has this idea about like being a grown up and like drinking orange juice in her kitchen with her taxidermy them all. Yeah, but it's also beautifully evocative, right like and coming back to this idea of being a radio writer, radio writers put you in the scene and reading her book. You can taste that orange juice. You can hear the newspaper Russell. You can Feel the living room carpet under your hand. This is just a lovely, lovely book. Yeah, well, all right, So you and I will gather to talk after I read this. And share our our thoughts. Okay, Let's turn a fiction here on your list. You have my heart is a chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones. Okay. What a title. Yeah. Even if you don't like horror, which I super do not you should still make time for Stephen Graham Jones book. And this one is great. It's about a girl named jade and living in a small rural lake town. She's half Native American. Her father is an abuse of jerk. Her mom is gone. She's kind of an outcast, and all she cares about in life is slasher movies. They're like the frame that she sees her whole life through and she like, narrates her whole life as a slasher movie. Right? So you know that. Of course, there's actually going to be a murder, you know, and it's going to hit like the rich people that live in the gentrified end of her town, and she's seen so many slasher movies that she like immediately assumes that something Terrible is going on beyond just a murder, and she figures out what's actually going to happen, and Stephen Graham Jones does something that's super genius here, which is that like if you haven't seen any horror movies, it doesn't matter because jade Is always like recognizing and calling out the troops that she sees happening. I love stuff, right if you don't have the narrative arc, she gives it to right. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, I still don't like horror movies, though. I mean, I'm awards. They give me nightmares, but I'll read a Stephen Graham Jones book any day. Yeah, I'm with you on yesterday book and no to the film's Okay, Now I understand you're a fan of sci fi fantasy. You betcha. In your next pick by Jordan. If Lecco falls into that basket, what stands out here? Okay, So I have to cop to the fact that they're only halfway through this book because I wanna tell it's only on the radio. Yeah, because I love the main character carry size so much, and I'm at that part of any fantasy sequel where everything is going wrong, and it looks bad and it's so stressful and I can't bear it. Had to put the book down and go do something else. But the reviewer that I have assigned to this book just emailed me, and they said they're going to file their peace soon and they loved the book. So I'm feeling encouraged. I'm going to go back to it soon. Yeah. What's going to make you get back to it? What is going to allow you back in? Ray bearer, which is the first book came out last summer. It was one of those occasional books that fall through the cracks. And when I discovered it weeks after everyone else did I wanted to kick myself because it's this brilliant, fresh young adult fantasy from a Nigerian American author. It's about a girl. Whose mysterious mother sends her to kill the crown prince of their country, And instead she discovers her own powers, and she ends up becoming the empress alongside him. And that's where we find her in the second book. Only now, Of course, she's having to actually rule and she's dealing with this dangerous treaty that she made in the first book and Angry spirits and her friends are all getting weird, And that's kind of where I know it out. So, like stressful like, please be okay, Terrace. I please be okay. Well, you know, it's so much easier to take power. Yeah, right now you have to deal with it. Now you're in charge. Yeah, but I'm going to come back to it because I know that this character is so Interesting and complex and well rounded underneath it all smart and competent that I know she can do it, so I'll come back to watch her handle things on the topic of sci fi and fantasy..
WBUR
"scott tong" Discussed on WBUR
"I'm Celeste Hedley. I'm Peter O Dowd. I'm Scott Tong. It's here and now, alright, brief break from the overwhelming news cycle to talk A little about books. August can usually be a slow time for new releases. But not this year. We have Petra Mayer of NPR books here to tell us about a few of them. Hey, Petra, Hi. It's always fun to be here with you guys. And what's up with this? Saugus? Why the new releases now? You know, I can only say it's maybe that time has no meaning right now, and we're all just stuck inside the endless Whatever. What month is it? I don't know. August is usually pretty dead. But there are a lot of really great releases this month. Interesting. Well, okay onto your selections. First up, we have the book against white feminism. It's by Rafia Zakaria er, That's a provocative title. It sure is. That's going to get the hackles up on your inner Karen. But, you know, just sit down, Take a breath and deal with it. All right. I mean, because short, mainstream Western feminism has as refuse Ikaria is reminding us here it has always been for and about white women are concerns or agendas have always have been taken as universal. We have been sidelining and talking over black and brown women for as long as feminism has existed, and That is messed up, and it's done terrible damage in the world, and it needs to be torn down. And Zakaria pretty much lays it out in these eight essays showing how the kind of white feminism that we have today has evolved. And then you know, Zakaria shows us how to break that all down and to rebuild a feminism that includes everyone that isn't just this default, women versus men structure that assumes that all the pieces on the border white. It's not a comfortable book, but who needs to be comfortable but a book for the moment. Yes, exactly. You also have a memoir, Seeing ghosts by Kat Chow, an exploration of grief and the lives of several generations in her Chinese family. I have to tell you, this is Topic I know about. I've written a book about this as well. Why does this appeal to you? I have to say this is NPR's own cat Chow. I have to disclose my own personal interest because I love cat. She's a wonderful person. And a really great writer. Yeah, I kind of can't wait to see what you think of this book. You know, I was a show producer for a long time on NPR. And all those years I couldn't listen to public radio because it was like To close. But I think that you will love this book, because, actually, it's cats experience. I think in radio that makes it so lovely to read. She puts you in the scene so directly. I mean first, this is a story about coming to terms with, you know her grief for her mother's death and woven through it. Is the story of her mother's life and her marriage, and this could be a heavy story. But it's got this marvelous mixture of poetry and dry humor. You know, it's like it starts with this story about she's a little kid, and they're in Maine on vacation. And they're at l. L bean and she gets scared by the taxidermy bear. That's at the L L bean. Me. Her mom is like you know what? I die? Well, you stuff me. Oh, and then she sort of has this idea about like being a grown up and like drinking orange juice in her kitchen with her taxidermy mom. Yeah, but it's also beautifully evocative, right? Like And coming back to this idea of being a radio writer. Radio writers put you in the scene and reading her book. You can Taste that orange juice. You can hear the newspaper Russell. You can feel the living room carpet under your hand. This is Just a lovely, lovely book. Yeah, well, all right, So you and I will gather to talk after I read this, uh and share our thoughts. Okay, Let's turn a fiction here on your list You have my heart is a chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones. Okay. What a title. Yeah, even if you don't like horror, which I super do not. You should still make time for Stephen Graham Jones book And this one is great. It's about a girl named jade and living in a small rural lake town as she is half native American. Her father is an abusive jerk. Her mom is gone. She's kind of an outcast, and all she cares about in life is slasher movies. They're like the frame that she sees her whole life through. And she like narrates her whole life as a slasher movie. Right. So you know the Of course, there's actually going to be a murder, you know, and it's going to hit like the rich people that live in the gentrified end of her town, and she's seen so many slasher movies that she like immediately assumes that something Terrible is going on beyond just a murder, and she figures out what's actually going to happen? And Stephen Graham Jones does something that's super genius here, which is that like if you haven't seen any horror movies, it doesn't matter because Jade is always like recognizing and calling out the troops that she sees happening. I love stuff like Yeah, right. If you don't have the narrative arc, she gives it to you, right? Yeah, Yeah. Yeah, I still don't like horror movies, though. I mean, I'm a once they give me nightmares, but I'll read a Stephen Graham Jones book any day. Yeah, I'm with you on yesterday book and no to the film's Okay, Now I understand you're a fan of sci fi fantasy. You betcha. In your next pick by Jordan. If Lecco falls into that basket, what stands out here? Okay, So, um, I have to cop to the fact that they're only halfway through this book because I won't tell. It's only on the radio. Yeah, because I love the main character tarry size so much, and I'm at that part of any fantasy sequel where everything is going wrong, and it looks bad and it's so stressful and I can't bear it and had to put the book down and go do something else. But the reviewer that I have assigned to this book just emailed me, and they said they're going to file their peace soon and they loved the book. So I'm feeling encouraged me to go back to it soon. Yeah. What's going to make you get back to it? What is gonna well back in Ray bearer, which is the first book came out last summer. It was one of those occasional books that fall through the cracks..
Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
"scott tong" Discussed on Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
"You know sometimes you make a promise with the best of intentions but then events just conspire against you. Such is the case today with me and this program and inflation been trying my darnedest not to overwhelm things with inflation stories. But we'll get the latest reading on the. I word tomorrow morning. When the bureau of labor statistics grace's us with the consumer price index for june. May as you might or might not remember showed biggest annual increase in consumer prices. Four point nine percent in thirteen years and here is why. I'm telling you this. Housing is part of the cpi consumer price index and housing. Prices have been rising like crazy as you know. So you think you might see that reflected in the monthly number but the shelter component of inflation as it's called has actually stayed pretty steady for the past decade marketplace's. Amy scott went to try to figure out why to understand how the b. l. s. measures housing inflation. I went straight to the source. I'm steve i'm an economist. And the information analysis. A section of the consumer price index program at the bureau of labor statistics has that for a government title. Reads job is to explain the cpi and the data behind it to the public. He says the goal of the cpi is to measure changes in the cost of living over time to do that. It tracks prices for a bunch of different things like gas groceries clothes and housing. The overall housing category includes furniture appliances and utilities even lodging away from home but the biggest component is what we pay for our primary residence. The price of rental housing is easy. The index looks at changes in monthly rents but most americans own their homes. And that's where it gets tricky when you purchase a home. A large aspect of that purchases is an investment aspect. It's not a consumption aspect and we are trying to measure the price change for consumption to do that. The bureau uses a calculation known as owners equivalent. Rent the idea. There is that if you're living in your home your cost of sort of consuming the shelter provided that at home is what you're forgoing by not renting it to somebody else. The cpi estimates owners equivalent rent by looking at actual rents for comparable homes in the same area but remember. Housing is just one item in that basket of goods and because it takes up a bigger chunk of most of our budgets it carries a bigger weight in the overall measure of inflation real rents and would be rents. Make up about a third of the cpi to come up with that weight the b. l. s. surveys us about how much we spend on the items in the basket including rant and for homeowners. That's where we have to ask this question if you were torrential house. How much can rent for seeing as how most homeowners probably don't spend a lot of time thinking about renting out their homes. They guess you may think all that guessing is why some economists have a problem with the way the cpi measures housing inflation is always around two point five percent regardless of economic conditions. Jiro yoshida is a business professor at penn state university. He says it's not the guesses. It's the hard numbers the ones based on actual rents that distort the inflation rate renters. Who stay in the same place for a long time. Typically only see small increases every year but when they move out rents often jump a lot for the next tenant. Yoshida's thinks the cpi has too few of those renters in the mix that appreciation rate tend to be underestimating the reality because that survey misses the huge adjustment between long term tenants yoshida and some colleagues created a different measure of housing inflation based on new leases and voila between april. And may we have eight point. Four percent annualized inflation that is significantly higher than two point five percent. Cpi rent and if you plugged that bigger housing number into the overall cpi inflation in may would have been nearly half a percent higher not a small thing if you're on social security and your cost of living increase is pegged to the cpi or if it determines your annual raise at work. The ls has tweaked. Its formula but not enough. Yoshida says and if you're wondering how all this measures up for the fed it uses a different index which yoshida says also underestimates housing inflation. But we've done enough for today. Maybe next time. I'm amy scott for marketplace final note on the way today saw this on. Cnbc data from the national association of colleges and employers paid internship pay it turns out the highest. It's ever been twenty dollars and seventy six cents an hour. That is the good news. Some are twenty twenty data by the way. The bad news is that fully. Forty percent of internships are still unpaid. All right. we gotta go. Here is your moment of economic context before we do. Though vaguely i word based but in a news you can use kind of way. Bond yields as we have mentioned a couple of times past couple of weeks have fallen quite a bit since inflation became a thing and people started talking about it back in february one way that decline manifests is in mortgage rates. Freddie mac says a thirty year fixed rate mortgage can be had on average at a rate of two point nine zero percent. that's the lowest rates of been since coincidentally february when inflation became a thing when people started talking about our daily production team includes unease. I mean andy corbin richard cunningham. Riyan horst sean mckenry blasios and minju park one last thing to do today that i meant to do on friday but honestly it kind of got away from me. We said goodbye last week to scott tong. after sixteen years with martin place. He opened our shanghai bureau back in the day. He has reported far and wide force. Ever since on virtually everything this program covers now is on to do something else. We wish him well of course and we'll miss him. I'm kai result. We will see you tomorrow. Everybody this is apn. Hey it's jed. Kim post a million bazillion million brazilian is a podcast for kids families. That helps dollars make more sense in each episode. We tackle the tricky questions that your kids have about money. Like how is it made. Is there a factory somewhere that makes it. Or what determines the price of pizza and we're back with all new episodes. That's more answers to the questions. Your kids wanna know thoughtful ones. The silly ones and the really hard. To answer one's million. Zillion listen wherever you get your podcast..
WBUR
"scott tong" Discussed on WBUR
"Now no more originally dreamed up to bring Canadian oil down to refineries in the United States. The pipeline has been officially cancelled by its developer. Fossil fuel opponents are celebrating on the assumption that that Canadian oil is now stuck and can't get the market. But you know what happens when you assume right Because as challenging as the oil business is right now, there might be some workarounds happening as marketplaces, Scott Tongue reports. Western Canadian crude is known as oil sands. It's thick like peanut butter and takes a lot of work to bring up. But for oil companies, that's the easy part. The headaches are what they call above ground risks politicians, investors markets and they're growing. Back in 2000 and eight when the Keystone XL pipeline was first drawn up. Oil companies were flocking to Alberta where it was supposed to start, says analyst Thomas Lyles. At Rice Dead energy, You know, we were obviously an entire oil price environment and oil sounds economics were pretty lofty at those times. But crude prices have cratered twice since then, in pipelines to take oil sands to refineries have been increasing Opposition I just Keystone XL to the South. There's another fight over a proposed pipeline from Alberta to Canada's west Coast. Robert Ours is a consultant at Turner Mason. They've still got a lot of opposition, particularly in the Vancouver, British Columbia area where it terminates, and there's a lot of First Nations groups that have opposed it. Still, he thinks this pipeline and a second one will get approved in the next three years. But there's another risk. Wall Street. Dozens of institutional investors worried that with climate rules and electric cars coming, will there be demand for oil? And it's making companies hesitant to invest in new production. And that's particularly true in western Canada, where these are very long term investments. Hours thinks that for all the challenges oil sands production will still grow, but slowly, I'm Scott Tong for Marketplace. I had a conversation a couple of days ago with a guy named Dwayne Goldman doctor. Wayne Goldman. He's the senior adviser for racial equity at the Department of Agriculture, also a farmer himself. And we got him on the phone. First of all, because the Biden administration announced a debt relief plan last month specifically for black and minority farmers, but also because historically, black farmers have been left out sometimes intentionally. The government's agriculture sport programs. So we got Dr Goldman on the phone for a chat. As a farmer myself. I can say with a lot of confidence that we would much prefer To get paid from fair market pricing versus some kind of subsidy that is used to supplement Unfair pricing if you will, or downward pressure on on on markets. And so there are some pretty glaring discrepancies that exist in the support or the subsidies paid to black farmers versus the white neighbors. And so the awareness about the old situation is pretty hard. What winds up happening then? As as black farmers and other farmers of color face those price pressures is that their debt mounts and the Biden administration has launched a plan for debt relief for black farmers. And I wonder. What your response is to white farmers who say in essence, Can't do that man. If you're going to provide that relief, it's got to be for everybody. Well, one would argue logically that well, we've had, uh, cases that were supposed to deal with that. And they were supposed to deal with that. But they failed to address those cumulative impacts. If you just look at the the coronavirus payments alone. You find yourself in a situation where almost 10% of the farmers those are the farmers of color? Uh 10% of the farmers received only 1% of the benefit. And you say, What's the big deal? Well, when you're talking about a total of 24 $26 billion And 10% is only guarding 1% of the payment. I think as a department, we should be more equitable than that. So the American rescue plans said Okay, okay? We now have a better understanding of this chemical impact of prior discrimination. We get it and so paying the debt, uh, is really a critical first step. In making these farmers hold so they can be more competitive and we can continue to move forward the better service to all of our customers. So? So this is, um This is a little bit sideways, Dr Goldman. But come along with me on this one, and and I want to see what you say about it. You know, there's it's tricky now for Farmers, all farmers. Um, but, you know, my experience in reporting has been mostly white farmers to be completely candid. It's tricky enough. It's tricky enough for farmers to get their kids and the next generation to come along, right because it's a hard life. You're depending on a lot of things. It's just there's a lot going on in farming. I wonder what you think the future of black agriculture is in the United States. Thank you. And if I can go back a little bit to come forward, Yeah. I would add that I mean, I can look at myself as an example. I'm 10 of 11 kids. Mom and Dad raised our family on a 300 acre farm. And so we worked a lot. We grew first market venture was cotton and soybeans. And I grew up in a community where there was some pretty prominent black farmers. But Let's take another deeper dive. And I can remember as a kid that there were things that would be a little perplexing to me. And and some of those things and to do with wire black farmers in our community operated at a significant disadvantage to white farmers to a large part. There was a period there where black farmers will it discouraged their kids from continued in the far but let's fast forward to today, this group that you're talking about farmers in America. Pick up about 2% of population of the American population. Yeah, I farmers make up a little less than 2% of that. So we're talking about a pretty small sliver of folks in the grand scheme of things. But when you look at the impact that these folks have on diversity.
KQED Radio
"scott tong" Discussed on KQED Radio
"In North Carolina and nearly 70% of the pumps in Washington, D. C. This comes five days after the colonial pipeline resumed operations after a ransomware hack forced a shutdown. Tomorrow, Congress will launch a pipeline security bill to prevent future outages, But critics say it's still missing some major safeguards. Marketplaces. Scott Tom kicks us off when something goes wrong with the pipeline like the Colonial pipeline hat companies do not have to tell the government what happened. Electricity companies do and if there's a plane incident, airlines have to open up the government investigators says Rob Can AKI is a former top cyber security aide to President Obama. They will be doing everything they could to understand what happened, and then they would rapidly be sharing that information with other airlines so those airlines could prevent the same thing from happening. To that. That's not at all what's happening with this pipeline incident. Instead, it's a voluntary system of protecting data and sharing information. There are no government mandates for finds just recommendations. In the bill in Congress would keep it That way. Thing is a recent survey of pipeline companies found that just 8% actively share information with the rest of the industry and the government. That's a woefully low number. Andy Lee at the law firm Jones Walker did the survey. There's not enough carriage and there are too few sticks to ensure that Our pipeline industry. Stakeholders are actively engaging in the budgets fan to make sure that they're safe. This isn't a new fight. Nine years ago, oil and gas lobbyist fought off mandatory rules and now energy trade groups are against, saying the industry should oversee itself. Mark Weatherford is dubious his strategy head at the National Cybersecurity Center, which advises government officials. I am not a fan of regulation, and he'd just say it like this, but you know, it's been proven over and over again that Companies are simply not going to self regulate. When the public safety is at stake, he says. The government needs a bigger role in Washington. I'm Scott Tong for Marketplace..
Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
Pipeline Companies Try to Avoid Regulation, Despite Major Hack
"More than eleven thousand gas stations across the southeast. Remain out of gas panic. Buying has drained over half the stations in north carolina and nearly seventy percent of the pumps in washington. Dc this comes. Five days after the colonial pipeline resumed operations after a ransomware hack forced shutdown tomorrow congress will launch a pipeline security bill to prevent future outages. But critics say. It's still missing. Some major safeguards marketplace's scott. Tong kicks us off when something goes wrong with the pipeline like the colonial pipeline hack companies. Do not have to tell the government electricity companies to and if there's a plane incident airlines have to open up the government. Investigators says rob kentucky is a former top cybersecurity as to president obama. They will be doing everything they could to understand what happened. And then they would rapidly sharing that information with other airlines so those airlines could prevent the same thing from happening to that. That's not at all what's happening with this pipeline incident instead. It's a volunteer system of protecting data and sharing information. There are no government mandates or fines just recommendations in the bill in congress would keep it that way thing is a recent survey of pipeline companies. Found that just eight percent actively share information with the rest of the industry and the government that's a woefully low number indie lee at the law firm jones walker. Did this survey. There's not enough charity. And there are too few sticks to ensure that our pipeline industry stakeholders are actively engaging in the budget fan to make sure that they are say. This isn't a new fight nine years ago. Oil and gas lobbyists fought off mandatory rules and now energy trade groups are again. Seeing the industry should oversee itself mark weatherford is dubious strategy head at the national cyber security center which advises government officials. I am not a fan of regulation. And i hate to say this. But you know it's been proven over and over again. That companies are simply not going to self regulate when the public safety is at stake. He says the government needs a bigger role
KCRW
"scott tong" Discussed on KCRW
"More than 11,000. Gas stations across the Southeast remain out of gas. Panic buying has drained over half the stations in North Carolina and as much as 90% of the pumps in Washington, D. C. This all comes five days after the colonial pipeline resumed operations after a ransomware hack forced a shutdown. Tomorrow, Congress will launch a pipeline security bill to prevent future outages, But critics say it's missing some major safeguards. Marketplaces. Scott Tom kicks us off when something goes wrong with the pipeline, like the Colonial pipeline hacked companies do not have to tell the government what happened. Electricity companies do and if there's a plane incident, airlines have to open up the government investigators says Rob Can AKI is a former top cyber security aide to President Obama. They will be doing everything they could to understand what happened, and then they would rapidly be sharing that information with other airlines so those airlines could prevent the same thing from happening. To them. That's not at all what's happening with this pipeline incident. Instead, it's a voluntary system of protecting data and sharing information. There are no government mandates or finds just recommendations in the bill in Congress would keep it that way. Thing is a recent survey of pipeline companies found that just 8% actively share information with the rest of the industry and the government. That's a woefully low number. Andy Lee at the law firm Jones Walker did the survey. There's not enough carriage and there are too few sticks to ensure that our pipeline industry stakeholders Are actively engaging in the budget, spend to make sure that they're safe. This isn't a new fight. Nine years ago, oil and gas lobbyist fought off mandatory rules and now energy trade groups are against, saying the industry should oversee itself. Mark Weatherford is dubious his strategy head at the National Cybersecurity Center, which advises government officials. I am not a fan of regulation, and I hate to say it like this, but you know, it's been proven over and over again back Companies are simply not going to self regulate. When the public safety is at stake, he says. The government needs a bigger role in Washington. I'm Scott Tong for Marketplace. Big Media News today, a TNT and Discovery announced they're forming a new company made up of their entertainment news and sports assets. The spinoff will put HBO, CNN and TBS under the same roof as the Discovery Channel, HD TV and the Food network. 18 t get some ownership in the new content giant and also gets out from under that $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner Back in 2016 marketplaces Justin Ho has more on what's driving the steel 80, and he has a lot going on. In addition to its media business, the companies in the middle of rolling out a nationwide five G network and fiber broadband, it's also competing for wireless phone subscribers. Each of those is an expensive proposition. So for 18 90, they just didn't have the money to fight three wars at once. Craig Moffett is the founder of the research outfit Moffett. Nathan sent Meanwhile, he says Discovery is trying to boost its own programming with a new streaming service called Discovery. Plus, but I think it's pretty clear that's not large enough on its own to be fully competitive with Disney and Netflix going forward. Disney and Netflix air, pouring billions of dollars into new content this year in order to learn new streaming subscribers. Jeffrey Cole directs the center for the digital future at USC. If a TNT and discovery want to compete, he says, the only answer Is to put billions into content, and I think you need ambassador economic engine to do that which the merged company would have, says analyst Jim Nail, with Forrester Research, combining a TNT offerings like HBO and CNN with discovery content like H G T V and the Food network, he says. There's kind of something for everybody, so that may be a good justification for household to spend whatever they're going to price it at. He says. One big challenge will be marketing the company and convincing users to sign up for yet another streaming service. I'm Justin. How for marketplace? On Wall Street today. Elon Musk and Bitcoin are having a super messy break up on Twitter, and it is some investment drama. Other market details when we do the numbers So it is clear after the last 14 months or so that broadband Internet access is essential. It's also clear that a whole lot of Americans don't have it. Closing the digital divide depends on knowing where access is available and where it isn't. The Federal Communications Commission is the agency charged with mapping the country's broadband access. But its maps are not great. Congress passed a law last year asking the agency to correct that. Which leads me to Jessica Rosenworcel. She's the new acting chair of the FCC. I had her on the line earlier this month, and I asked her what action she was taking to address the mapping issue. In light of the law Congress passed, which is called the Broadband Data Act. I set up a task force that is looking at all the changes we can make in the short term, but also how we're gonna have really accurate maps in the long term, and what's most important here. We can't just take in data from the carriers and assume it's correct. We have to go to individuals, local officials and state officials and asked them what's really happening in their own backyard. I mean, it sounds like you're describing a little bit of a broadband census. I think we need it. When you think about how as a nation we've moved so much online during this pandemic. We've got to figure out how to get this service in a robust way everywhere, and I think it's appropriate to think about it that way. I wonder now, though, we're at this moment where there's a lot of money, all of a sudden between the cares Act and the American Rescue Plan Act. We're seeing hundreds of millions of dollars going to municipalities and Some are using it to increase broadband access. You know, without waiting for new federal maps like is the landscape changing even as your undertaking this effort? Yes, We have a lot of interest in this issue. You know, Broadband's gone from nice to have to need to have and everyone knows that not just Congress. And I don't want to tell the people who don't have service, you know? Just no wait for until we have pristine data. We're gonna have to sort of build this plane while it's in the air, and I think speed here matters. We don't want everyone to wait for us to have just perfect information. Before we start doing real things on the ground to connect more people. I also just wonder about the power shift. As you see this money flowing into municipalities. I think that there has been a sense that in some ways The conversation has been dominated by what big telecom companies have been willing to invest in. And where Do you have a sense that that power balance is shifting a little bit? Yeah, I think that, um One of the realities of this infrastructure. Is there really high sunken fixed costs and as a result, it gets deployed in places where companies can recover those costs faster. Those are often urban, suburban, more populated areas. So we're gonna have to look at other alternatives other ways. Other technologies to make sure we serve 100% of us. And those might involve, you know small local companies that might involve fixed wireless or electric co ops. Gonna have to get creative to make sure we get service everywhere. Let's shift gears and talk about cost. Congress created a $3 billion fund for low income Americans to receive $50 a month for broadband service. How will that also impact this landscape, especially as you are seeking other ways to lower costs? Yeah, The program you mentioned is called the emergency broadband benefit, And it's a really big deal because the United States has never had a big broadband affordability program. And so for the first time ever, we're going to be offering help the households where you know there. There's job loss or students around the free and reduced lunch program..
KQED Radio
"scott tong" Discussed on KQED Radio
"Megan is always to have you along everybody. The business and economic news of this Wednesday. Comes in bite sized chunks. You might say a little bit here a little bit there. Starting with this from Katherine tied the U. S trade representative. I'm just gonna read her statement to you. The administration That would be the body Administration, of course, believes strongly in intellectual property protections, Ambassador ties said. But in service of ending this pandemic, it supports the waiver of those protections for covert 19 vaccines. That's all about the patents that Fizer and Madonna and the rest of them hold on their vaccines. In the name of getting more shots in more arms globally. The United States had been against a proposal at the World Trade Organization to do what the White House now says it wants to do. Ah, whole lot of negotiation yet. Come on lifting those patent protections. Of course, investors didn't really take much note. Visor shares flat on the day Facebook investors a little bit put off by the news of their company that CEO Mark Zuckerberg is gonna have to be a little bit more specific. Thank you very much, says the company's quasi independent oversight board. If it wants to keep that ban on former President Trump in place. You've heard that news, of course, Ticker Symbol F B today. Out about 1% or so final little news junk before we really get going with things, the private payroll processor ADP said this morning, the economy added 742,000 jobs last month. The official government report comes out on Friday morning. The whisper number on that one. A million new jobs, maybe more that be big, very big. Lot of those jobs. Most new jobs in this economy actually come from small businesses. And there's a report out today from the New York Fed, looking at small businesses in the service sector and how likely they were to have been able to make it through the pandemic. This marketplace is Nancy Marshall Ginza reports. Timing was everything. Businesses they closed early in the pandemic. Have a problem now. New York Fed economists WWL Con Ji says their customers forgot about them the longer than the establishment remains closed, the more it loses touch with respect to their to their customers. Firms that didn't have to close right away might have been healthier to begin with, and Didn't lose touch. Jessica Warden Wyler is co owner of the Tin Smith Ah wedding venue in Madison, Wisconsin. It never officially closed even though most of its weddings were canceled. I was definitely still working every day, you know, corresponding with the book couples that we had in terms of what's going on with restrictions. Can we have our wedding? Warden. Weiler says she and her partner were able to sell some property toe limp through last year, and that gave them a cash cushion. But wouldn't Wyler wasn't able to get a P P p loan because her business wasn't open in 2019? Businesses that closed in March of last year were also out of luck because the P P p program didn't start until April of 2020 Amanda Fisher at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, says many businesses owned by people of color fit the description of these service sector firms that closed early No P P p loan and no cash cushion. As we know. People of car in the United States have last accumulated wealth because of systemic discrimination over decades and decades. There's more discrimination in the banking sector, so they have fewer lines of credit to draw from. And the New York Fed says each additional week of businesses closed reduces its chances of reopening by 2% points. I'm Nancy Marshall. Denser for marketplace, Not for the first time In this pandemic, the global supply apparatus is having outsized influence. We're talking minerals and metals here that will be key to a greener economy, more wind turbines and electric cars and batteries, less oil and gas. So lithium for batteries Copper, for instance, to rewire the power grid, but his marketplaces Scott Tongue reports, a new report out suggests there is a growing mismatch between demand for those materials. And their supply. An electric vehicle requires six times a critical minerals of a gas car. The world's need for lithium for batteries may surge by 75 fold that is the green future, according to today's report from the International Energy Agency. Executive director Fatty Bureau said in a webinar today that governments and investors need to pony up to extract those materials otherwise crashes off those critical mirrors with increase sharply. And the clean energy it transitions may well be costlier and therefore slower, and he suggested stockpiling key elements. Some countries would built voluntary strategic stocks. For some of the critical militarists. It would be a huge lift to bring enough copper, nickel and rare earth elements out of the ground for a green transition, says Michael Clare, He's emeritus and security studies at Hampshire College. A lot of the minds are located in places that's difficult to get access to their in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has all kinds of Political problems and environmental problems, and it's not just a mining issue. Critical minerals need to be processed and purified a sector where China leads in America lags. But the White House infrastructure plan would put billions into this space. Amy Myers, Jaffe teaches climate issues that toughs. Her new book is Energies Digital Future, just as the U. S government gave alone to test let's open their first factory. We should be thinking about who are the players out there that the U. S government could support in lithium processing in rare earth processing these air the essential businesses of the future, she says. Scott Tong for Marketplace on Wall Street Day limit up a little bit down. Now, much enthusiasm in either direction really will have the details when we do the numbers. So I mentioned the ABP news on new jobs in the April unemployment report coming out on Friday. There is also Labor market indicator wise online job sites that can offer a whole lot of insight.
KQED Radio
"scott tong" Discussed on KQED Radio
"Makes a final decision in Washington. I'm Kimberly Adams for marketplace. There's a new study out that puts a different kind of price tag on the economic benefits of our current energy infrastructure, which is to say for now. Fossil fuels oil and gas and coal. We get modern transportation out of it. We get electricity and heating. It's a lot of benefits. But there are a lot of costs, too, to be sure, often talent in dollars and cents and increasingly in climate costs. And consider this 8.7 million premature deaths every year globally from air pollution from coal plants and tailpipes. Marketplaces got tongue has the details and the economic policy implications. 8.7 million premature deaths from fossil fuel pollution, the study from the journal Environmental Research notes That's double previous estimates. I don't think we weren't necessarily anticipating. An estimate as high as we did study co author Elouise Marie Researches air pollution at University College London, she says diesel trucks, gas cars and coal plant spit out Tenney particles often called shoot that we inhale. Those particles hang out in the atmosphere up to 1 to 2 weeks. As a result of this persistent they can also be transported long distances. Do you may not live next door to a power plant, but you can still be impacted by it. For instance, Marie says people in the UK can inhale pollutants from Continental Europe. Co author Joel Schwartz and environmental epidemiologist at Harvard says scientists knew this suit was deadly and now they know even a little bit in the atmosphere can kill. So once we did studies at lower concentrations, we discovered whoa. The effects, the larger these revelations should resonate with government's considering fossil fuel investments. That's economist Garnet Wagner it and why you We are doing lots of things to avoid death from covert 19. One of the worst things we could be doing is stimulating our economy with measures that then lead to more death on the fossil fuel front. To him. The better policy is green energy. I'm Scott Tong from Marketplace..
WNYC 93.9 FM
"scott tong" Discussed on WNYC 93.9 FM
"Scott Tong Marketplace If you have somehow yet not hurt it. Might I recommend the marketplace? Morning report tomorrow morning, David Brancaccio in the gang on the early shift everything you need to know. Start your economic day. Coming up. I want it to be fair to everyone, including May, as they say all is fair in love and vaccine wars, but first, let's do the numbers. Industrials. Little changed today shaved off nine points closed at 3 31,075 NASDAQ tacked down about 20 a 10th or so percent 14,000 00 70 S and P 500 subtracted four points. Gonna wash 39 11 their heads Brands reported strong quarterly earnings, boosted by sales of outerwear and its champion brand, Haynes added nearly 25% today. Haynes, by the way, based in Winston Salem, North Carolina, employs about 65,000 people around the world. The mall operators Simon Property Group sounded kind of optimistic about 2021 on the call with analysts yesterday said it expects a recovery in occupancy and rent collection rates. Today. Shares up 3.6% couple of media reports say most workers at San Francisco's biggest private employer that be Salesforce, we're gonna work remotely, at least part time after this is all said and done. The pandemic company operates the city's tallest building. You might know that Salesforce Tower Shares, though, went the other way dipped 9/10 of 1%..
KCRW
"scott tong" Discussed on KCRW
"Final decision in Washington. I'm Kimberly Adams for marketplace. There's a new study out that puts a different kind of price tag on the economic benefits of our current energy infrastructure, which is to say for now. Fossil fuels oil and gas and coal. We get modern transportation out of it. We get electricity and heating. It's a lot of benefits. But there are a lot of costs, too, to be sure, often talent in dollars and cents and increasingly in climate costs. And consider this 8.7 million premature deaths every year globally from air pollution from coal plants and tailpipes. Marketplaces got tongue has the details and the economic policy implications. 8.7 million premature deaths from fossil fuel pollution, the study from the journal Environmental Research notes That's double previous estimates. I don't think we weren't necessarily anticipating. An estimate as high as we did study co author Elouise Marie Researches air pollution at University College London, she says diesel trucks, gas cars and coal plant spit out Tenney particles called shoot that we inhale and those particles hang out in the atmosphere. Up to 1 to 2 weeks. As a result of this persistent they can also be transported long distances. So you may not live next door to a power plant, but you can still be impacted by it. For instance, Marie says people in the UK can inhale pollutants from Continental Europe. Co author Joel Schwartz and environmental epidemiologist at Harvard says scientists knew this suit was deadly. And now they know even a little bit in the atmosphere can kill. So once we did studies at lower concentrations, we discovered Whoa! The effects are larger. These revelations should resonate with government's considering fossil fuel investments, says economist Garnet Wagner. It and why you we are doing lots of things to avoid death from covert 19. One of the worst things we could be doing is stimulating our economy with measures that then lead to more death on the fossil fuel front. Him. The better policy is green energy. I'm Scott Tong Marketplace.
WNYC 93.9 FM
"scott tong" Discussed on WNYC 93.9 FM
"Networks. You need fast devices like you're seeing from Apple. And you need compelling APS things like Tic tac networks for five G need wireless airwaves, which is now being auctioned off at the FCC. And the bids from mobile giants like Verizon and 18 T are through the roof totalling $80 billion So far, it's that valuable to them the wireless equivalent of beachfront property. If you want to be on the sea front with the best view, you've got to pay for it. There is concern that the carriers will get financially overstretched. But the five G mood is mostly optimistic. The new iPhone 12 became the world's best selling five g smartphone in just two weeks. And smartphone suppliers are raising their revenue outlook's because we to consumers Air Ga Ga for five G, right. This is between you and me and your listeners. Five. He's not driving anything right now. Analyst John Strand. That Strand consult says consumers may not know exactly what five G is. But basically you say it's better to be safe than sorry. You feel like an idiot If you don't buy a five few phone If you don't have a fight, she feels okay. Well, whatever the motivation, five D devices, air moving, and by some estimates, half a billion will sell worldwide in 2021. And Scott Tong for Marketplace the gears of this economy grind on for now, whatever the state of our democracy specifically in this instance Capital markets, the stock exchanges there has been a concerted effort over the past year or so by the White House and Congress to get certain Chinese companies kicked out of US stock exchanges. Delisted is the technical term. New York Stock Exchange has delisted and then listed again and then at the urging of the Trump administration delisted yet again. Bunch of Chinese firms. Three of technically, the latest is they will be kicked out as of January, the 11th and now, according to The Wall Street Journal, the administration is debating whether to also push the New York Stock Exchange to remove Ali Baba and 10 Cent. You've heard of them? I'm sure Cause they're the biggest of Chinese technology companies. Marketplaces replenish your Looked at what the end game might be here. So there are a few different motivations here. Congress in a bill signed in December, went after Chinese companies that don't meet US accounting standards but still sell stocks in the U. S Paltry Olo is with Eurasia Group. It can't go on right now means Chinese companies really gonna be listening in on us like a change. They have to abide by these rules. The president's rationale has been something very different. He wants companies delisted if they're too close to the Chinese military. David Dollar is a senior fellow at Brookings. It's an effort on the part of the administration. Make sure that American investor money is not going to companies that are seeing is helping the Chinese military and security apparatus. But it's not clear that all the company's being targeted actually have much of a connection to the military or the government, which paltry, Olo says, calls into question the effectiveness of the president's policy. What's the goal here? I mean, is the listing some Chinese telecommunications company really have any impact on China's military modernization? No, says David Dollar. I think it's a minor annoyance for China. These companies conduct capital elsewhere, potentially from U. S allies exchanges. Stephanie Siegel is with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, she says. If that happens, we will have undercut US investors but not ultimately discouraged investment in the company that we're worried about. Siegel says. The Biden administration is very likely to reevaluate this approach. The New York Times to prevent ashore for marketplace. Mostly at a necessity because nine months of this right Ah lot of families have worked out some kind.
WNYC 93.9 FM
"scott tong" Discussed on WNYC 93.9 FM
"It's centralized buying of materials so companies and states didn't compete with one another. That was a problem in a previous war, historian Mark Wilson at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte says in the Civil war Purchasing agents from different states in the North, all fended for themselves so they might go to London. And there might be agents from 10 different states trying to scare up some scarce muskets, and they'd be competing against one another for scarce supplies. As for the Biden team, it has given few specifics on its testing plan. One option on the table is to build factories for test kits and machines. The feds did that in World War two to jump start production of synthetic rubber. They owned a massive amount of new industrial plant and they turned to private companies to manager operate these plants and to get testing companies to make more products. The government can also promise to buy them all. After Erwin read letter advices the Biden team and he heads Columbia University's Pandemic Resource and Response Initiative, he says guaranteed buying would really benefit small innovators. Start us that are working on things like new testing. They do not have the financial wherewithal to make those investments about a guaranteed buyer, which should be government. Of course, tests can't be processed without essential materials like test tubes and nasal swabs, which are once they get hard to find. University health policy scholar. Kristina's Silk Cock says the supply chain is murky and the government could help clear things up, making sure that we are keeping track of which supplies are getting low, communicating effectively so that states and localities and people are using these tests really plan around potential shortages. Were controversial. E. Washington can also force companies to give it what it wants. If the government wants to buy testing machines from a certain company right now it can jury. McGuinn is a former head of contracting at the Pentagon. It jumps the line in prioritizes that Production and be done first before anything else. That's been something regular used throughout the big network. Still, interventions in the economy can bring tradeoffs say if a company expands production now what happens after the pandemic? Is a smooth transition back to normal. Guaranteed. You know, I think the answer for you know, I mean, after what were two, we ramp down just dramatically. Companies have been building ships. Sure they had to laugh Workforce and some of it's unavoidable even in wartime company executives have been leery of a pushy government in an aggressive Biden team on testing could come as a shock. In the past generation. Both parties have embraced the less visible hand of government in the economy. I'm Scott Tong for Marketplace. It's an economic truism that women and women of color in particular have been at the pointy end of this pandemic Recession both because of the kind of jobs they have. And the jobs they have at home, the childcare in the home schooling and all of that, and all of that. Started conversations about women of color in this economy. KOA Beck used to be the editor in chief at Jezebel. She's now an author. Her new book is called White Feminism from the suffragettes to influencers and who they leave Behind Co Welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. Maybe we should start with the definition, right white feminism. Mm. White feminism is a very specific ideology and approach to achieving gender parity and gender equality broadly. White feminism as an ideology and as a practice originated in what we would think of now is the modern suffrage era. So the middle to upper class white suffragettes who were pushing and organizing for the right to vote. But the more modern very much you know, Fourth wave presence of white feminism is be explicit partnering with brands and so you see this a lot with like, branded like Feminist and empowerment conferences and co working spaces and speaking events that use the F word very much as a brand. Not so much. A discussion of like policies are How to, you know, eradicate exploited of labor and your point really, really, really broadly speaking here, because obviously there's a multi 100 page book that you've written on this topic and we're gonna do it in, like four minutes. But the point is, that is that white feminism? And the brand of it has worked to the exclusion on you say oppression of other women in the society very, very much, So I think that The white feminist ideology that was laid out by the suffragettes that does carry through to now they were very clear these women and activists that what they were hoping to achieve and what their template for women's equality was to replicate exactly what their husbands had with their brothers had Andre throughout history, if you necessarily like, want to be, you know, a big CEO of a company or you want a sprawling enterprise. You will rely on the low wages generally of women of color to make that happen. You know, it's funny. We have had many conversations the past 68 months on this program. About centering black women. In this economy and what that will do, and I wonder if this is the Theoretical flips out of that, If that makes any sense, Yeah, I think that one of the things I enjoyed most about this book was showing how many other movements of women and marginalized genders have interpreted feminism. Black feminism and black lesbian. Feminism specifically has had all kinds of theories for decades about how to center black women on did it does not square with a white feminist approach to feminism? Yeah, there's a there's a great line in this book are great thought that that basically white feminism is trickle down economics for feminism. The catch, of course, is the trickle down economics economics. Doesn't work, And it's much the same in in this in this slice of society as well. Yeah, white feminism of now and and your has been very successful in Centralizing and investing all of our energies into one specific woman and white feminism can be practiced by anyone of any racial background of any orientation of any class. But throughout much of white feminism, there is a very specific white woman who is, you know, breaking a glass ceiling, quote unquote, and that change comes one woman at a time. When when you look out at other movements like black feminism and Chicana, feminism and indigenous women's rights and organizations in this country change does not come one woman at a time. It comes as a collective movement. Can you talk for a second about about white feminism and its history and its roots actually in consumerism in just flat out buying stuff right? Because there's a hole there's old chunk of that. Yeah. Essentially when suffragettes were sitting down Torun eyes, you know how they would push for the vote. They encountered a very big PR problem and that at the time, you know, this is kind of turn of the century ish. Women who spoke publicly who you know, had opinions that weren't thought of their husbands or their families. You know, these were deviant women. These were not women who you listen.
Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
"scott tong" Discussed on Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
"After decades of debate the trump administration next week is planning to auction off drilling rights in alaska. More specifically alaska's national wildlife refuge those against drilling say they want to protect the land which is home to some two hundred and fifty animal species including caribous and wolverines. But here's what you may find surprising. And this long-awaited bidding process turns out. There's not a lot of interest. Here's marketplace's scott tong. A lot of things were in fashion in the mid eighties. Big hair fanny packs and oil giants wanting to drill in alaska. National wildlife refuge an. I'll have mostly gone out of style. Tim brasher co publishes the alaska economic report. One thing that is really interesting. A lot of us in alaska who follow these things is how embitterment the major oil companies have been an war for years. That could be because they sense. The toxic politics decades of environmental opposition media risk of lawsuits against oil companies. Considering in war plus corporate reputational risk readdress and drilling in remote alaska is not cheap. Warns energy and lawyer. David hayes a former top official at the interior department. The price of oil is not high. The expense of drilling at alaska is high. Meanwhile there are many places in the world that are much cheaper to drill for oil than the alaskan arctic. So most if not all oil giants are expected to sit out the bidding which would mean lowest prices in measly royalties for the government. Now at exactly what. Congress predicted three years ago. When an authorized leasing assumed a billion dollars in royalties the bids that are put in are going to be nowhere near what congress said would occur. Low bids mean drilling rights could go for bargain. Prices though and radner at the alaska economic report predicts some interest perhaps among state and local players. The geology does look very good and even given all the bad pr and the politics. I just can't imagine that somebody maybe just individuals aren't going to submit bids perhaps anticipating lukewarm interest alaska state development commission. Just got the okay to itself to make a grab for potentially valuable land and eventually flip it or partner with oil. Companies deadline for bids came yesterday and wednesday. They'll be unsealed
Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
Trump administration to auction oil drilling rights in all federal lands of ANWR coastal plain
"After decades of debate the trump administration next week is planning to auction off drilling rights in alaska. More specifically alaska's national wildlife refuge those against drilling say they want to protect the land which is home to some two hundred and fifty animal species including caribous and wolverines. But here's what you may find surprising. And this long-awaited bidding process turns out. There's not a lot of interest. Here's marketplace's scott tong. A lot of things were in fashion in the mid eighties. Big hair fanny packs and oil giants wanting to drill in alaska. National wildlife refuge an. I'll have mostly gone out of style. Tim brasher co publishes the alaska economic report. One thing that is really interesting. A lot of us in alaska who follow these things is how embitterment the major oil companies have been an war for years. That could be because they sense. The toxic politics decades of environmental opposition media risk of lawsuits against oil companies. Considering in war plus corporate reputational risk readdress and drilling in remote alaska is not cheap. Warns energy and lawyer. David hayes a former top official at the interior department. The price of oil is not high. The expense of drilling at alaska is high. Meanwhile there are many places in the world that are much cheaper to drill for oil than the alaskan arctic. So most if not all oil giants are expected to sit out the bidding which would mean lowest prices in measly royalties for the government. Now at exactly what. Congress predicted three years ago. When an authorized leasing assumed a billion dollars in royalties the bids that are put in are going to be nowhere near what congress said would occur. Low bids mean drilling rights could go for bargain. Prices though and radner at the alaska economic report predicts some interest perhaps among state and local players. The geology does look very good and even given all the bad pr and the politics. I just can't imagine that somebody maybe just individuals aren't going to submit bids perhaps anticipating lukewarm interest alaska state development commission. Just got the okay to itself to make a grab for potentially valuable land and eventually flip it or partner with oil. Companies deadline for bids came yesterday and wednesday. They'll be unsealed
Marketplace Tech with Molly Wood
There's not enough internet for remote learning to go around
"This fall, we've been talking every Monday about education and technology during this pandemic including how access to high speed Internet and devices is just not cutting it across the country and there's new data on this in our latest marketplace Edison Research poll thirty percent of parents or guardians with kids. Online and making less than fifty thousand dollars say their Internet access is inadequate for online school marketplace's Scott Tong reports from Virginia on the broadband gap in central Virginia's Louisa County working mom Megan duck gets her two daughters online for school. By getting in the car they drive to a Wifi. Spot School district has set up in the Strip mall parking lot and here you can see a small jury rig flatbed trailer with solar panels powering electronics that send out an internet signal and from the car they log on the zoom. If we know like if their teachers say we have to do something we have to go to the Wifi spot because you couldn't even begin to logging on the website. Not. From home where they have just one choice for Internet service satellite, it's costly and it's not reliable doesn't work if it wind blows that doesn't work also at the hotspot. Today is fifth grader oriented Nestor Riding Shotgun next to her grandma in their suv, her online class. Let's her message the teacher for the box. It just POPs up on your computer win where at school it got good editor at their. At you need help you get acid they'll bested U. back. When your home. Do. You ever wish you could send a message yes I do. Her family has no broadband at home a reality for one third of rural Americans according to a recent
Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
Thousands of workers are literally stuck at sea
"The CEOS of some of the largest consumer products, companies, Unilever procter, and Gamble Johnson and Johnson are weighing in on what they say is a question of Human Rights on the high seas because of Corona virus measures some three, hundred thousand people who work on commercial vessels you know the kind that carry food and Health, and hygiene products among other things are stuck on their ships unable to leave governments around the world of closed ports, borders, and other travel facilities that allow crew changes and not being able to change crews on these ships is a problem for the health and safety of workers, as well as a pretty good way to clog up supply chains from Washington marketplace's Scott Tong, reports typically commercial ship workers signed contracts of six or ten or twelve months, and when that's up the ship swapped crews at the next port. But whenever they came near the boards, the poor is not allowing any Gano. Bronco Berlin is with the International Transport Workers Federation. He says some workers have been stuck on board for seventeen months in that some ports except products but not people in one case, several ports refuse to take the body of ship worker who died, and then we actually find the way that the body was taken in Singapore, and after fifteen days on board the ship, the issue over work crews is clogging up the supply chain. Tom. Dairy CEO of the Institute for Supply. Management says officials in places like Australia are now starting to ban improperly staff ships from sailing because we're seeing these ships were taken out of circulation as it were. We've seen rates for freight crossing the Pacific. Were than quadruple since June he says, delays are causing fridge and dishwasher shortages in the US and keeping goods moving is critical to the multinational firms that are now pressuring the UN to get involved. The group is the consumer goods forum. In Da Berge Array is director we call face the risk of global relations. Jing. Disrupted and all of this expense of Lucas wellbeing meantime the workers remain mostly invisible says Andrew. Kinsey is marine risk consultant at the user alliens when you go into a store and you look at items on the shelves, their way got to that shelf. Was via. As a consumer, we're blind to it but eighty percent of the goods in the world are delivered by see I'm Scott Tong for
Marketplace Tech with Molly Wood
Ransomware attacks against hospitals are on the rise
"The FBI and Homeland Security warned that Chinese hackers are trying to break into us. Companies and health organizations to steal research and intellectual property related to the new corona virus and international authorities have been warning for weeks that militias. Hackers are stepping up ransomware attacks against hospitals and healthcare providers that's when they break into networks and hold data hostage until the organizations pay. Let's dig into all of this and quality assurance the segment where we take a deeper look at big tech story. Marketplace's Scott Tong has been reporting on this from Washington. Inter poll the US government. Google Microsoft. All come out and said you know. There's a lot more attempts to get into hospitals healthcare networks drug companies working on a vaccine all of that. Take your data steal it or locked up so you can't get access to it so it certainly seems like. It is a heightened threat. There's more going on so about these warnings. Do we have a sense of what hackers are trying to get at? When they attacked these healthcare organizations the wordings have not been very specific as to what they're trying to get but what they say. Is You know. Be careful if you are a company working on a new technology a vaccine or testing technology. You should be worried so it kind of implies that's what the bad guys would naturally be after what are the attack methods. One of them is the software to get somebody in organization. Click the wrong thing as spoken to some cyber analysts. Say there's a website that looks really similar to that Johns Hopkins Global Map of the Corona virus that so many of us have clicked on if you click on the wrong thing share than the malware kind gets into your computer. There's also the fake emails and and some of them out there pretend to be from the boss of a company and then there's tools to candidate in just by hacking weak spots in a company network. And then there's another one to Kinda Rome inside the network to see what's there and another tool to lock up the data and then you can notify the people at the company the Organization to say well you know it. You don't have access to your data anymore at now you have to pay. Do we have any sense of of weather like these organizations are more or less secure? Are they in any way equipped to sort of hand deal with this at the same time that they're dealing with a massive public health crisis well people who have watched this and spoken to one person who actually negotiates on behalf of healthcare organizations and hospitals When they get hacked in this way and in what they described as many hospitals in general they don't have the latest version of software. A lot of hospitals and diagnostic machines are running on windows. Xp and they have a lot of people coming in and they're just crazy busy right now even though the authorities say well don't WanNa pay the ransom because you're rewarding bad behavior. Well if you have lives to save you might be a little bit more inclined to pay even if you're not supposed to
Climate Cast
How a drop in oil prices today could fuel tomorrow's energy transition
"Oil prices take a roller coaster. Ride I'm NPR. Chief meteorologist Paul Hotter here with climate. Castor oil prices fell below zero this week as much of the world shelters in place but the pandemic may also feel a six percent drop in greenhouse gas emissions. This year that's the biggest drop emissions since World War Two. So what does it mean for greenhouse gas emissions and energy as we rebuild the global economy marketplace correspondent Scott? Tong focuses on climate and Energy Scott. Welcome to climate cast. Paul needs to be with you so oil prices dipped into negative territory this week and then they spiked again. Put this into perspective. What's going on with the oil market so demand for the world's oil which until now had been kind of steady by one hundred million barrels of oil every day worldwide. That's fallen by thirty percent and now markets are Kinda flipping out trying to adjust to this whatever you call it. This pandemic normal were in now. Scott the lack of oil demand is also translating into a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions the world meteorological organization now predicts a greenhouse gas emissions will be down about six percent this year and the UN estimates global emissions must fall by around seven and a half percent every year from now until twenty thirty to stay within that one point five degrees Celsius goal on global temperature rise. How can we keep some of these emissions cuts and get the economy working again? I think there are opportunities in. There are also some challenges here. We've lost one in twenty million jobs you know. That's about one. Out of eight of us in the workforce so something has to change but the opportunity is to lock in some telecommute. You know we've learned that a lot of us can do most of our jobs Without having to commute to work there also might be an opportunity as far as our use of oil in the market right now. A lot of oil companies are in tough shape and so they're not investing in finding more oil. So what happens down? The road is if they don't find as much in demand comes back then. The kind of won't be enough in prices are GONNA go up. Then that makes it more affordable to find cheaper greener option. Say to buy electric vehicles and that kind of thing. I understand that if you shut off a well it's not easy to bring back on. Can that push markets in a cleaner greener direction right now in the oilfields of West Texas? They don't make money at the price where it is now. And so those wells are shutting down and a lot of other places that's happening to and for the older oil wells right. They need pressure from underground bringing oil. Backup and if you turn it off. In some cases it doesn't turn back on if oil. Some of that oil has to stay in the ground. Then we kind of have a scenario like Europe right where we're gasoline is just expensive by policy and in places where gasoline at tends to be more expensive greener options become much more affordable and we've seen renewable energy jobs booming. We know that climate solutions can produce jobs. Of course now. We see the oil sector jobs in kind of a bus cycle. So are we likely to see more job shocks and transitions going forward? As our energy balance changes we've seen a lot of oil jobs disappear already. I've done some reporting long distance reporting talking folks in the Permian Basin in West Texas where there had been a lot of energy jobs in those drying up pretty quickly so there are going to be winners and losers in every kind of transition for sure. The job search going to migrate to the industry's tomorrow. Marketplace correspondent Scott Tong. Thanks for sharing your perspective on climate cast today. Of Course Ball. Nice to be with you. That's climate cast. I'm NPR chief meteorologist Paul.
Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
How worried should we be about COVID-19 and the economy?
"You know. Much as stock markets have built circuit breakers to put a stop to panic selling and recalibrate the mood. Which by the way happened today. Not Long. After the open when the S. and P. Five hundred hit seven percent on the downside. So too will we use the program today to recalibrate the mood to explain. Why all of a sudden the economic realities of the corona virus seemed to have gotten so much more real to start us off economists making green from the Harvard Kennedy School Megan's to have you back on the program. Thanks for having me. Why as best you can figure out did. The bottom seemingly fallout today. What happened so I think it was a confluence of two things? Mainly one is northern northern Italy. Pretty much shut down so it just fed the idea that even if cases or slowing down within China they're actually accelerating outside of China. And that's a big deal and then the second issue actually isn't directly related to the corona virus. It's more related to the OPEC meeting on Friday where Saudi and Russia decided to flood the market with oil. And so I'M OIL. Prices of fallen pretty precipitously and that creates huge credit problems for a lot of companies related to the energy industry which are actually pretty highly leveraged inert generally rated just above junk level. And so if you start seeing defaults than they'll be downgraded and there will be four selling so that's also provided a lot of drama today highly leveraged lots of borrowing more on oil coming up from Scott Tong in a minute. Let me ask you about a word you use though Things are accelerating outside China. Speaking broadly are you surprised at the speed with which this whole thing has come to this moment. Sue Him nine just given how incredibly interconnected. The world is both in terms of global supply chains but also more importantly in this case in terms of people traveling around and I think that China really did great work in buying the rest of us time In that they had really draconian measures to try to keep people in their own towns in their own buildings. It's much more than most people realize. In addition to quarantining and social distancing. You know there's an APP that the government runs where you can see you as corona virus. So that enforces social distancing so China about us a lot of time and a lot of us could have completely squandered it most of all the US so our response to this crisis has been pretty embarrassing. I think for a developed country with a highly competent health system. How much of that American response contributes to what I perceived to be the changing nature of this crisis. It's going from a supply shock which we talked about when apple had its earnings warning to now people worried about demand shock and the credit markets. And all of that. So the demand shock. I think we're really worried about and rightly so but we don't actually have any data that suggesting it's happen. So the demand shock we know is coming out of China Rate. The second largest economy in the entire world was at a standstill for at least five weeks for for the. Us demand shock at home. It's just perceived at this point right it involves people not going out to dinner not going out and spending and we can certainly get there but at the moment I think it's just concern about. It's not we're not getting any data that suggesting that that's the case really It's just something that seems like it might be coming and I think it's absolutely reasonable for us to worry about this. And then that's feeding over into the financial markets of course is confidence is is been bled from them. And so you've seen these huge moves over the past couple days if and let stress that this is a big if but if we do turn into a recession in this economy given the underlying fundamentals as politicians like to say we're strong right. The labor market strong consumers are really confident. What might a recovery look like on the other end of this thing depends entirely on epidemiology and None of us really have answers there so it really depends on how far this virus spreads if the viruses eventually contained and we have inappropriate policy response with some fiscal stimulus. You know a year from now the we might remember this entire experience but know we'll have forgotten about the economic implications of it traits. So it could just be transitive. We saw that. With the SARS virus for example. There is a big drop off in demand and then you know it picked up pretty immediately once the virus was contained. So that could be the case here but if it actually is spread further and is more deadly than of course we might not get a v-shaped recovery. It might be much more gradual and require more policy intervention Megan Green and economist. Also a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Thanks a lot of really. Appreciate your time and your
Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
What's causing volatility in the stock market?
"Here is what I would like you to do today as we get going unfocused your eyes if you would figuratively of course like you do when you drop something or your pattern rug and how that can help you find what you're looking for. Do the same for me now. With the admittedly nutty stock market gyrations the past couple of weeks ups and downs of three or four five percent or more focused not on the actual movements but on the underlying phenomenon the volatility marketplace's got tongue explains why it's happening and what it tells us by one. Measure stocks have not been this volatile since the financial crisis a decade ago. Surely it's the fear of Corona virus but for traders addicted data. There's not enough of it. How long will the outbreak last are the Chinese factories back? How was hit company? Earnings at Charles Schwab one of our underwriters. Strategist Liz end. Sandra says many companies have gone silence. They're just saying we're not even giving guidance because we have no idea what is going to happen so in terms of how Wall Street kind of prices stocks and markets analysts. You know have their hands in the air. Then there's election year uncertainty as the market swings based on which candidate is up the moment now when markets struggled to predict the future. Which is their job. They gyrate according to George Perks. Bespoke investment group. He says it can go like this. When investors sell and expect the worst a little ray of hope can change everything if every piece of news is bad for awhile. Expectations come down and so now that expectations are down. It doesn't take much good news for everything flip in reverse often. It's consumer stocks doing the Bungee up and down. That's because consumption is the big unknown now says Scott Wren at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute. What are it's apparel devices online? Entertainment streaming if consumers are more willing to spend money on that because they're less fearful of catching the virus Then those who tended to do better mud finding specific causes of volatility only gets a so far. The market's a big complicated place. Study suggests long periods of calm somehow lead to volatility in the markets bounce up and down the more. They get driven by emotion. I'm Scott Tong for
Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
Apple warns on revenue guidance due to production delays in China because of coronavirus
"Apple has let it be known. It's not going to make its earnings numbers. This quarter. Because it's mostly china-based supply chain has been slower to bounce back than the company had been guessing. Nintendo is worried as well. Nissan and Hyundai have closed down entire car plants. Because they can't get the parts they need from China. And the longer this goes the more these shortages become a big deal which gets us and marketplace's Scott Tong to the phrase that is on a whole lot of people's lips supply shock every day. Four million smartphones get sold somewhere in the world half a million. Tv's changed hands. So what happens if the supply of saw for for a long enough time economists? Carmen reinhart teaches at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. The way supply shocks work is they have a negative effect on quantity and a positive effect on price. The most notorious of the supply shocks of course was the oil shock. Goes the seventies the oil embargo against the US quadruple? Desperate and fuelled hyper inflation now. Hardly anyone expects that kind of impact at least for now but cornell economist. Issoire things price tags could go up for certain products namely Electron IX cell phones and other wireless devices as well as TVs computers. Those sorts of things that are almost certainly going to be affected if the epidemic last into the spring there could be a longer term supply shock multinational firms could revamp their supply chains away from China which could raise costs and prices for all kinds of things. Agathe Demery forecaster at the economist. Intelligence unit is watching closely. We don't see any signs at the moment that Western companies are going to go out of China that being said if the outbreak is not contained by end March it will be much more difficult to address for global companies. Demery is monitoring ships leaving Chinese ports. Right now she says some are just ten percent full. I'm Scott Tong for
Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
Oil Prices Slide Into Bear Market on Coronavirus Concern
"Are chosen in point of entry to the global economy story of the day today. The spread of and the uncertainty about the corona virus comes to us from the commodities markets oil specifically specifically the global benchmark Brent North Sea. It's called fell another two and a half percent today down twenty two percent just since the beginning of the a year. The supply demand equation on that goes like this. China is the world's biggest oil importer and as the bad virus. News continued over the weekend. People began to realize the Chinese demand could be cratering which since oil is a global commodity means not great things globally. Perhaps even more telling though is this. There is buzz today about OPEC and Russia calling an emergency meeting to talk over a huge cut in oil supply to prevent a free fall in prices from Washington. Marketplace's Scott Tong. Its is going oil. Traders already knew that driving an air travel and China had fallen off. They knew that. Oil Shipments China. We're being resold elsewhere. Then head-spinning head-spinning Bloomberg News report on China's falling demand. Situation Says Ellen Wall that transversal consulting one of the things that hit the market this morning. Was this report that Chinese demand maybe down as much as three million barrels of oil per day if true that would be a huge and sudden drop off for China enough to tumble prices at that point were came that OPEC and Russia were considering an emergency meeting next week to cut supply up to one million barrels per day and bring supply lie closer to demand. Normally you'd hear news of million barrel-per-day cut and oil prices would go up. Didn't happen nervous. Traders are selling oil oil contracts. I and asking questions later says research director Michael Herbert at the National Bureau of Asian Research. He says official data on China won't come out for a month. Maybe three Chinese oil demand. Statistics are a little fuzzy much more opaque than say the US market European now where this viruses viruses evolving so quickly. We're all in a lot of ways in the dark when the numbers do come. Markets may come down a bit. But there's still a big unknown. Says is Roger De wine at IHS market and that's how long the Chinese slow-down will last and nothing is that part which is a right now. Fraying nerves in the market doc. We don't have some other week another four weeks six weeks which leaves a lot of time for potential panic. Some banks suggest a barrel of crude oil could fall to around forty eighty dollars and that translates into. US Gas prices going from an average two fifty a gallon. Two two dollars flat. I'm Scott Tong for marketplace. We'll get to American stock markets in a bid. But it's worth a note here coming out of Scott's piece that when Chinese stocks opening day for the first time since things got bad over there they promptly fell almost to what's known as Limit Down Circuit. Breakers that stop a runaway decline or run away on the upside to in different circumstances anyway. The main Shanghai index is down almost eight eight percent on the day to
Marketplace Tech with Molly Wood
Is there a way to use facial recognition that isnt a dystopian nightmare?
"This week. We're talking with marketplace reporters about what tech topics. They're watching on their beats as we look ahead to twenty twenty one issue. We can expect to be in the news. A lot is facial recognition in two thousand nineteen San Francisco Band police and public agencies from using it over civil rights fears But it's become widespread in China where it's used for daily surveillance and to track and detain the minority Muslim population there known as the workers. Marketplace's marketplace's Scott. Tong was based in China for years. He's now in our Washington DC bureau. And he's been tracking facial recognition tech in China and here in the US. And I asked him if China I know represents a worst case example of how this can be misused. You know China can be a pretty opaque place but this is what we know about how this technology is being used in western China. The the province of Xinjiang were the most of the week. It's connected to a centralized database so it's used to trap people it's used as a digital dole tether so if you go say three hundred yards away from where you're going at the technology knows that this facial recognition technology knows that So it sure seems like this technology could be used in these camps right to make sure people don't go very far away from where they're supposed to be and that is you know as we said. That is the nightmare scenario. It's it's also a scenario that people a lot of people immediately go to San Francisco has already essentially said no way. Can you deploy this technology on the streets of an American city. But I mean clearly. There are uses for this. That don't involve US living in an Orwellian nightmare right. Like what are the most promising uses of the technology that don't involve a civil rights. Violation law enforcement says this can be used to find missing people missing children if you have them into database and people are walking in by it can find those people The police in the state of Maryland used this. There was a shooting at a newspaper. The Capital Gazette in Annapolis Maryland and the police use use the image from the security camera and compared it to millions and millions of photos of known offenders and then. FBI Database and the driver's license licensed database and they were able to identify the suspected shooter. There was a shooting at a mall in Nairobi several years ago attributed to this extremist group. And now this mall has this. This technology and proponents say that the incidence of crime have gone way down so yes public security and governments. I think are at the center of of this technology story but as proponents put it it surely can be used in a lot of ways that helps society to your knowledge. Is there regulation around the use use in the US other than San Francisco at a national level. I don't think there is because we do know that Microsoft and other companies have have come to Washington and
Morning Edition
Exxon, New York prosecutors face off in climate change fraud trial
"I'm David Brancaccio in New York and Exxon Mobil trials at the start of New York today has to do with climate change but maybe not in the way that you might think the state of New York argues Exxon defrauded its investors misleading them about the value of the stock by telling them one thing and perhaps doing another from the market places than ability desk Scott Tong has this preview the accusation is Exxon Mobil use two sets of books on climate change and its risk the plaintiff the Attorney General of New York argues that the company told investors that it's all a future with lots of carbon regulations and cost to the company David Shapiro at the John Jay college of criminal justice says that sent a certain message to Exxon stockholders they would say Hey Exxon is accounting for what we anticipate is going to be a dramatic change in how governments approach climate risk in other words Exxon was clear eyed about taxes and regulations on fossil fuel use but in private the plaintiff says the company's actions were altogether different the internal reports effectively is safe well we don't anticipate much in the way of additional costs based on a climate risk regulation the problem with that as the argument goes is Exxon Mobil made oil and gas decisions that were too risky and hid it from investors but Exxon Mobil calls that a baseless theory and then it used to different cost assumptions because they're apples and oranges it makes sense to marched ocal CEO of Adam's funds which holds Exxon stock one you've got actual hard cost you can actually consider the second is a bunch of assumptions you have to make on demand many years down the road I'm not sure that's fraud he says analysts who follow Exxon aren't even talking about this case and if the company were to lose the amount would be negligible but litigation analyst Brandon Barnes of Bloomberg intelligence the state attorneys general and others bringing energy and climate lawsuits see today's case much differently I think it's part of a much broader effort to figure out a way to address climate change when there's a perception that the federal government is moving fast enough the Exxon Mobil trial could provide drama in the form of emails a pretrial investigation found that rex teller sin who was CEO for the period in this case used to email addresses at work one under his name one under an alias the company says the second email was created for quote secure communications I'm Scott Tong for
Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
Oil Prices Close 15% Higher On Record Trading Day Due To Risk Premium
"Will do oil. I I guess because because both the US benchmark West Texas intermediate it's called and the global indicator known as Brent crude ended the day up just shy of fifteen percent but here's the deal there is plenty of oil on the shelves as it were Saudi. Arabia has got some the US and other countries have their own reserves. There is supply to meet demand demand those higher prices then reflect something that maybe we ought to get used to talk about in global energy markets. Something called the risk premium from Washington marketplace's marketplace's. Scott Tong gets is going to some analysts oil buyers and sellers have been kind of asleep to energy risks in the Middle East in the past month tankers were attacked and pipelines pipelines were struck not much reaction until Saturday strike in Saudi Arabia says Halima Croft at RBC capital markets the market was very complacent place it about the degree of risk in this standoff involving Iran and the US allies and the RIM now. I almost cannot say how serious ethicist Saturday's apparently surgical strike on this essential artery creates one of the biggest disruptions ever to world supply jean-francois says neck at the Atlantic Council Council think tank says the attack warns oil markets that whoever targeted this fortified facility could hit it again the three different rings of defence and Al Qaeda never managed to past the first one I would imagine and that's the big surprises that they would be protected by Patriot missiles and they have not another risk is how long the Saudi facilities stays off line for the next three or four weeks. There's plenty in reserve but for a world that drinks one hundred million barrels of oil every day that cushion could go quickly says Jacques Rousseau at clearview energy partners. You know if this starts to drag into next year the world will have taken down their inventories. He's very substantially if world supply is still short then oil pump prices could double by some estimates and that's the new risk built into the higher price of oil what some call the Gulf premium on Scott Tong for
Morning Edition
Oil prices fall on weak global economic data
"Later this week the oil producers cartel OPEC issues a monthly assessment the price of oil today is down three point six percent on the bet that a slower world economy will use less oil market places Katong has more what a difference four months makes in the oil market back in April the world fear they didn't have enough oil could producer Venezuela was falling apart in Iran's exports were being sanctioned this sense at the end of April that OPEC might need to put more brought on the market the channels to Lima Crofton RBC capital markets then she says a tweet in may a president trump up the tariffs on China suggesting economic pain there China has been such a big buyer in the first half of the year and there was a real concern that if Chinese buying flows at the real killer that was holding up this oil market is going to collapse will has dropped from nearly ninety dollars a barrel last fall to fifty something today in OPEC is nervous already it is joined forces with Russia to cut supply in trying to boost price but the price hasn't cooperated so now everyone is watching OPEC's de facto leader Saudi Arabia says Fuhrman **** and S. and P. global plats there doesn't seem to be much appetite for deepening the amount of cuts so the question is with Saudi Arabia go it alone when they cut unilaterally that's what we really don't know if the Saudis drill less they would sell less so that hurts and there's no guarantee that the price of rice because U. S. shale oil from fracking could fill the gap in supply analysts Jamie Webster is with the Boston consulting group this is not just from U. S. shale this is from Norway this is from Brazil several other countries that are going to be bringing on additional supply my his numbers world supply will grow twice as fast as demand next year and he says low prices may be a longer term problem over the next decade companies are getting much faster it bringing on supply projects you see costs have come down you've got concerns about that long term demand growth it's a complicated oil market with new technology new sellers a lot of crude out there and for sellers like OPEC a question of whether there are enough buyers I'm Scott Tong for
Morning Edition
Oil prices fall on weak global economic data
"It is a down day for the oil market benchmark crude in New York down one point six percent fifty six twenty one a barrel is the contraction of the German economy just mention in concern about China's economy for both its own internal reasons and the US China trade war there was news today that unemployment in Chinese cities at the highest level since officials started tracking this data up later this week the oil producers cartel OPEC issues a monthly assessment market place's Scott Tom reports now on what is an energy source a commodity and economic indicator what a difference four months makes in the oil market back in April the world fear they didn't have enough oil could producer Venezuela was falling apart in Iran's exports were being sanctioned this sense at the end of April that OPEC might need to put more brought on the market the channels to Lima Crofton RBC capital markets then she says a tweet in may president trump up the tariffs on China suggesting economic pain there China has been such a big buyer in the first half of the year and there was a real concern that if Chinese buying flows at the real hell or that was holding up this oil market is going to collapse will has dropped from nearly ninety dollars a barrel last fall to fifty something today in OPEC is nervous already it is joined forces with Russia to cut supply in trying to boost price but the price hasn't cooperated so now everyone is watching OPEC's de facto leader Saudi Arabia says Fuhrman **** and S. and P. global plaques there doesn't seem to be much appetite for deepening the amount of cuts so the question is with Saudi Arabia go it alone when they cut unilaterally that's what we really don't know if the Saudis drill less they would sell less so that hurts and there's no guarantee that the price of rice because U. S. shale oil from fracking could fill the gap in supply analysts Jamie Webster is with the Boston consulting group this is not just from U. S. shale this is from Norway this is from Brazil several other countries that are going to be bringing on additional supply my his numbers world supply will grow twice as fast as demand next year and he says low prices may be a longer term problem over the next decade companies are getting much faster bringing on supply projects you see costs have come down you've got concerns about that long term demand growth it's a complicated oil market with new technology new sellers a lot of crude out there and for sellers like OPEC a question of whether there are enough buyers I'm Scott Tong for market
Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
By blacklisting Huawei, the US could be shooting itself in the foot
"There's an interesting observation to be made here about the global economy, things that usually happened really, really slowly. Until they happen. Really, really fast. Oh, explain from American public media. This is marketplace. In Los Angeles. I'm KAI Ryssdal. It is Thursday. Today, the sixteenth of mega is always to have you along, everybody. We begin today with this ten days ago, Amir week and a half. Every indication was that the trade mad disagreements between the United States and China were all but solved couple more meetings, a quick Trump's, she phone call done and done. Now. It's tariffs as far as the I can see. And as of yesterday quite possibly a breakdown in the heavily, integrated and extremely globalized technology supply chain, we refer here, of course, to the Trump administration, effectively blacklisting, the Chinese technology, giant hallway, which will cut that company off from its American suppliers, chips, from Qualcomm and phone software from Google to name. Just a couple. You're all that in with bands on while way in other countries. And as marketplace's Scott Tong reports now from Washington, there does seem to be something of a digital iron curtain descending if the US shoe. Hallway, it also hits its own foot inside while we gadgets are innards from firms, like Intel, oracle and Western Digital but tech firms sensing the crossfire are trying to get out of the way and avoid partnering with companies subject to bands in retaliation says Linley Gwen app of the Linley group. I think that companies are trying to reduce their exposure to the band, and by fewer components from countries that could be affected the word decoupling is being whispered in the US and China that is each country may develop its own separate supply, chain, while we has long been on Washington's hitlist and is trying to make parts semiconductors in house. Business professor at ten Wong judge young university has a new book on wall way. He says the company can be self sufficient that can make it south. Maybe he's not as good as the US components, but it's not much worse. They still can't sell products so that prepare for these more than ten years, while ways, DIY project. Could accelerate Chinese innovation? And in areas like wireless, five G many see hallway as already ahead. So the US might not want to cut itself off says, political scientists Abraham Newman at Georgetown, France in the nineteen eighties tried to develop its own internet, and it was kind of ridiculous, and the risk is that we end up with a new version of that a lesser. They un-filed g network. He says the US is weaponising interdependence and could unravel a global tech supply chain that took a generation to come together. I'm Scott Tong for marketplace. You can argue till the cows come home about tariffs who wins who loses who pays wait. No, you can't consumers pay and nobody wins. But there is at least one agreed upon reality. When it comes to what tariffs due to an economy, the way things normally work don't work anymore. Marketplace's refinish your explains that one I don't know if you've ever grown plants in a terrarium they love it in there because they're protect. But when you take them, out and expose them to the outside world, they don't always do out there, not strong. It breeds a kind of laziness here Simon Lester is with the Cato Institute and he's not talking about terrariums. He's talking about tariffs tariffs that protect some US businesses from foreign competition. You don't have to compete with the best in the world, just sort of relax. You don't have to work that hard, you're not gonna face any competition. US steel companies, for example, don't face as much pressure to upgrade plants now they can in our raising prices without competition from foreign steel producers. Ultimately, I think if you want to sessile businesses, you want them competing in order to, you know me as a fishing has possible Chinese goods. Don't usually compete with US goods head on. We don't make a lot of the same stuff, but many goods that are made in America are made with Chinese parts tariffs. Make those parts more expensive Tim Keough teaches economics at the university of Minnesota gonna make things to the US shell the rest of the world. Be more expensive than we're gonna lose market share because of that. But the. Disadvantages go beyond that, take the tariffs on steel aluminum. The metal that would be going into the US now goes to global markets increasing supply and depressing prices outside the US Rufus York's is president of the national Foreign Trade Council. Many of my manufacturers say that this has a direct impact on their competitiveness. Not only because their costs go up, but actually their foreign competitors costs. Go down your says the morn industries protected the less productive, it's likely to become in New York. I'm Sabrina sure for marketplace. In higher education news on this Thursday, three much reviled letters. S A N, t the college board purveyor of the aforementioned exam is adding a new score to it math, reading, and writing the optional essay and now adversity as in the hurdles like neighborhood crime, and poverty, that students might have dealt with getting into college. It's yet another attempt by the college board to keep its core product, the SAT, relevant as the idea. Of who gets in wear gets more attention. Marketplace's Amy Scott has more on that when Scott vers, I'll was weighing student applications. This college admission season he had another tool to consider. He's dean of undergraduate admissions at the university of South Carolina, along with grades and essays and test scores and environmental context. Dashboard. Offer details like family and housing stability access to AP classes and neighborhood poverty, and crime. And that did help us find some students that we would probably would otherwise not considered the university was one of fifty testing out the dashboard. This year, the college board will roll it out to all schools next year, and it'll be free, but SAT critic Robert Shafer with fair test says it's a business move with selective colleges under pressure to admit more students of color and low income students. More of them are making standardized tests. Optional people have long known that head scores were a excellent. Mega of accumulated advantage. And now, the college board is going to admit it by thing. You can't use raw scores. You have to examine them in context. The college board has tried something like this, in the past in the late nineteen nineties, it's so-called strivers program aimed to take socioeconomic factors including race into account. But Shaffer says critics accused the college board of back door affirmative action, and the program was dropped Tiffany Jones directs higher, Ed policy at the education trust advocacy group. She says the dashboard doesn't include race without looking at race explicitly. It's very difficult to try to account for racial inequality. Students also won't know their scores adding another layer of mystery to the college admissions process. I'm Amy Scott for marketplace. There was a fairly brief, but all important announcement from Boeing today, a quick four paragraphs, the first sentence of which read Boeing has completed development of the updated software for the seven. Thirty seven max, which is big the company says it's working with the FAA to get the planes back in the air. Investors were reassured Boeing shares up two point three percent day. The broader markets up as well. Not as much though. We'll have the details when we do the numbers.
Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
Is the trade war the new normal?
"Trump is downplaying trade tensions with China after Beijing announced higher tariffs on US imports and response to those just imposed by Washington on Chinese goods. Trump said today, he'll meet with Chinese president Xi Jingping next month and expects the talks to be very fruitful markets, though, not so sure China's currency fell to its lowest level since Christmas here in the US. Stocks were down. Remember markets. Do go down, but beyond the short term pain. There's now talk that a tense U S, China relationship could be the new normal or at least the emerging normal. Marketplace's Scott Tong has more when terrorist broke out last fall business professor Aroon soon garage in at NYU predicted. It would last at expected the effects of. This trade water gonna lost at least ten years. Wow. That's based on game theory away to test and understand human behavior. Now, according to game theory tariffs are the normal state of things they serve the self interest of people and nations, and when you're in a trade war. He said today, it gets harder and harder to de escalate it is more likely to happen. If there is a high level of trust between the two countries. And this is what makes me a little pessimistic. These days there's a broad lack of trust says, former U S, China trade negotiator, Claire read at Arnold and porter. There are spats over telecom investments spying, but at the center, she says is China's tech policy pours laughs of government resources into selected strategic industries and really has been quite consistent about keeping their market closed to protect any other growing, national champions. She says she doesn't expect China to change which makes the US China trade conflict, potentially. Intractable and for those longing for the quote, normal days of free trade think again says Harvard government professor Jeffrey freidan, globalization is fragile and it is not the normal and natural state of the world. It's something that is typically adopted by governments and it can be rolled back by governments very easily. If along trade wars ahead, it wouldn't be the first time. He says the US had high tariffs from the civil war all the way to the nineteen
Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal
Trump's Latest Oil Market Gamble
"We begin today with commodities oil, specifically to note that crude oil rose three percent today on news. The White House is cracking down on Iranian oil sales for a year. Now, the Trump administration has slowly been squeezing off Tehran's access to the global oil market threatening sanctions on countries that by Iranian crude, even US allies effective nine days from now the White House is going to stop giving waivers even to those allies, and it turned out oil markets were not expecting an actual no tolerance policy from the Trump administration. Marketplace Scott Tong, it's going crude oil rose two bucks today to its highest level of the year, which is market speak for. Whoa. I think everybody has been surprised. Yes. And kind of shock that's Iran, Oil consultant, Sarah shui at s v energy international. Traders aren't just worried that cutting off Iranian oil will crimp world supply. She says they're also spooked by Tehran's response. Iran threatened that if their export britches two zero they're going to close straight of her moose. They might Trittin tankers with missiles or at threat of attack on the energy facilities in the neighboring countries. So the talk is tougher the State Department calls this maximum pressure on Ron six months after applying gentler kinder pressure, and allowing exports to eight countries, but today's zero tolerance may be hard to enforce analyst Stephen Schork thinks some Iranian oil will keep leaking out to China and India at a cut price Iran now becomes desperate seller. What does that mean that means that they're going to have to take whatever price China and India are willing to pay for the oil any Iran? Oil that leaves the market could get replaced by Saudi Arabia still that least precious spare oil in the market for surprise shocks in say, Libya or Venezuela and that nervousness means higher oil and gas prices says Tom closer at oil price information service. The game has changed for gasoline prices in the summer driving season, you're putting three dollars in play for places like Michigan, Pennsylvania for sure Wisconsin. In fact, pump prices are already approaching three bucks in those places. But that's a psychological line. For drivers in swing states close a says, and if it's crossed he expects the administration to go a little softer on Iranian oil. Once again,