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Well, I'm in the Friday mood. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make today make sense. Kai is out today, but we have a smiling Sabree Beneshour with us for Economics on Tap. Hey, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our weekly happy hour episode. It is Friday, May 9th. Yes, and it is. And so we are going to do the thing that we normally do on Friday. We're going to do some news. We're going to do some game at the end. Yes. But first, we're going to do drinks. Sabree, what you got?
I am drinking my lunch. This is my smoothie. It doesn't have chicken in it this time. It's just like a bunch of nuts and seeds and fruit. For people who are not present, there was an incident where Sabri was on the show and his smoothie had frozen chunks of cooked chicken in it. And I will never recover from that. But yeah.
You know, that's great. So I have my cross-border cocktail. So I got this bottle of Canadian maple whiskey from the Duty Free shop when I was leaving Canada last week. And I used that Canadian maple whiskey with this Virginia distillery, Malarkey's. Malarkey? Yes, Malarkey.
So I got some stuff from this distillery that's in Virginia, and this is an old-fashioned elixir. So I used the Virginia old-fashioned elixir with the Canadian whiskey to make an old-fashioned. And it's sweet. It's kind of sweet, but it's good. Yes. So it's a very sophisticated drink, I feel. Also very— It's two ingredients put together. Yeah.
Well, yeah. It's also probably a tariff-laden drink soon. No, because I carried that across the border. It was under the limit, and I got it in a duty-free shop, and then the other one is domestic. So at least not yet. All right, Sabree, what you got for news?
For news, I have an article in Reuters detailing how President Trump mentioned maybe the bottom line is maybe he maybe he'll be OK with 80 percent tariffs on China instead of one hundred and forty five percent. He said 80 percent feels right, but it's up to Scott B., meaning Treasury Secretary Scott Besson.
And I picked that because today I spent much of my day talking to small business owners at different points along the supply chain who are dealing with these tariffs. And I can tell you
For small businesses, 145%, 80%, they're both deadly, basically. Yeah, yeah. And, I mean, it was wild. I mean, you know, you have all these businesses that have just stopped ordering, right?
Right. They they they it's not it's not just that they the tariffs are super expensive. It's that they their vendors are also on pause. So sometimes they couldn't buy if they wanted to because their vendors are like, well, we don't know what's going on yet. Others, you know, they they were able to front run tariffs. They were able to, like, get a bunch of stuff ahead of time. But a lot of them can't because.
They don't have the cash flow to buy eight months worth of goods in one month, you know? Of course not. So, yeah, they're really, really hurting. And I mean, I'm talking like manufacturers who make stuff here, but with foreign components, importers who, you know, sell wholesale. You know, I mean, some of them are looking for new jobs, you know?
And one thing that one guy told me that I thought was very interesting, he was like, as much as he is in a bad spot, he doesn't know if his Chinese suppliers are going to still be in business by the end of the year with so many wholesalers not buying from them. So it's, you know, it's rough. Yeah.
We are making a lot of enemies in a lot of places around the world with these policies. And, you know, Amy was talking on the show today about the first container ships with the 145% tariffs coming in to port and
The price changes are already showing up, but they're going to be getting worse. They're going to be getting worse. I had some folks coming in to fix my shades yesterday in my apartment, and they overheard me doing an interview and that I was a journalist. And they were like, so how worried should we be about the dollar? And I was like, worried. And they were like, how worried should we be about these tariffs? I'm like, worried? I mean, I don't know what to say. Yeah.
It's like, ah, anyway. Well, I wanted to go in a little bit of a different direction because we all need our entertainment, but somehow our entertainment is also caught up in legal issues. So first of all, I saw this LA Times article about the Department of Justice and the FTC. This is from a couple of days ago.
They're opening a public inquiry into the live music industry's business practices and issues facing consumers. This comes one month after an executive order from President Trump issued on the advice of Kid Rock to combat ticket scalpers and ordered the government to seek comment from stakeholders across the music industry. The order asked for a report from both federal agencies in six months' time.
Who knows? Maybe they'll take some public comment on regulations.gov at some point. But I think, you know, this is something that has been a long running issue with the ticket pricing and whether they're monopolies and the scalpers and especially with the AI and the bots these days. It's...
You know, it's definitely an industry that needs some additional oversight. And then also on the entertainment beat, you know, I have been so busy covering tariffs and other Trump administration stuff. I totally missed what was a huge story as it was going down, which was this Epic Games versus Apple lawsuit that was all about whether or not Apple could continue to charge these 30 percent fees, you know, or ban people.
places ban companies from the app store and all this stuff. And Epic won the lawsuit and Apple is appealing, but that was a huge case. And so there's a couple of interesting stories about this. The New York Times has some really good coverage of it and how the company is in big trouble with the courts because the court is basically saying that, I'm just gonna read here from a New York Times piece.
The judge's ruling, as well as witness testimony this year and company documents released on Thursday, shows the extraordinary measures that Apple took to keep every penny it collected from the App Store. The decision by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers, who heard the initial lawsuit brought by the video game company Epic Games in 2020, could cast a shadow over Apple's business for years, weakening its credibility as legal scrutiny of its operations intensifies. They're accusing, they're saying that Apple...
manufactured an independent economic study to legitimize its decisions about the App Store and that it withheld thousands of documents under attorney-client privilege.
According to this New York Times story, they looked at the documents. At least one of its executives lied on the witness stand. But meanwhile, Epic Games says that they have applied to get Fortnite back into the App Store. That's a CNBC article reporting on that. And this case, which seems to be going in the direction of Epic Games and Fortnite, is really going to be changing how some of these App Stores operate.
So, yeah, I think it's a pretty interesting story. Richard Finn says, this ruling is huge, by the way. Lots of things we thought of doing stopped dead when we realized we couldn't afford to pay the Apple tax of 30%. And so, like, this is definitely a big barrier for a lot of businesses that would like to be on the App Store, these fees. And so, yeah, it'll be really interesting to see how this plays out. Yeah, I wonder if we're going to see a flood of
niche apps on there, you know, or I wonder if I mean, also, it can be kind of expensive to develop that, although maybe with AI less so now, actually. So maybe we will see a flood of niche apps on there. Yeah, yeah.
Okay, that is it for the news. We are going to take a quick break. But before we go, we are in need of some help. I'm sure you all have seen the news about the efforts to pull fundraising from public media. But we have a fundraiser going. Our May fundraiser kicked off yesterday. We are off to a strong start. We met our early bird challenge from the Investors Challenge Fund, and that helped unlock the
$25,000. So thank you so much to everybody who participated in that. We really appreciate it. It's a really challenging time for public media and we at Marketplace have not been spared from some of the realities of the current economy and federal funding is under threat from a ton of directions. The executive order last week, the budgeting process. So we could really use your support if you're able.
Yeah, yeah, definitely have not been spared. But we are feeling your support and your generosity. It means a lot. We'd love to hear from as many Make Me Smart listeners as possible. And you can show us your support by going to marketplace.org slash give smart, or you can find a link in the show notes. So thank you so much. And we'll be right back. Thank you.
Trading shouldn't have barriers. When Robinhood started, it was built to make trading more accessible. Now, Robinhood offers more sophisticated trading tools. Experience the future of trading on Robinhood Legend, the all-new desktop platform that harnesses intuitive design to deliver a seamless experience for traders, free to use with a Robinhood account.
The future of trading is fast, powerful, and precise. Experience it now on Robinhood Legend. Sign up today. Investing is risky. Robinhood Financial LLC member SIPC is a registered broker-dealer. Other fees may apply.
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All right, we are back for a round of Half Full, Half Empty. Drew Jostev is here to host. Drew, you want to take it away? First topic is going to come from Fortune, where they interviewed some workers about something they called RTO, Return to Office Revenge. That includes taking food home from the office, maybe stretching out a doctor's appointment or leaving the office early. Are you half full or half empty on RTO Revenge?
I mean, obviously half full. I think I technically have to say no. Right? Stealing is bad. It's not stealing. It's just taking over extra snacks. Right? I mean, yeah, I guess if you're working from, if your company, see, this is a really interesting thing. If your company provides snacks, but you're a hybrid, right?
Do the snacks transfer to your house? Like, should you also get your same snacks that you'd get in the office at your house? And if you take the snacks from the office to your house to eat during your workday, is that okay? 100%. Okay. That should have been the poll. Door-dash the food to home. I'm going to say half full. Do whatever you got to do to get to the workday, honestly, especially in these times.
What about you? Oh, yeah. Half full. I mean, we don't get snacks. Not that I go into the office that much, but we don't. Yeah, we don't. We don't get snacks. But if we did, I would consume them very much. I think Marcus just doesn't love you. We got snacks in the D.C. Bureau. Oh, really? We have like little Nescafe pods and that's it. Yeah, no, we get snacks. Hmm.
Interesting. Although for now, we'll see what happens with the CPB funding. All right. What's the next one? Next up, reportedly this week, President Trump asked House Speaker Mike Johnson to make the top tax rate 39.6 percent on income above two and a half million dollars a year, which would be an increase on high income earners. Are you half full or half empty? Hmm.
On the policy, I mean, most of the economists I talk to say that taxing wealthier Americans and actually getting them to pay their taxes is a good way to raise funds.
large amounts of revenue without harming all that many people. So as a policy solution, it's a good way to raise revenue, but I don't know how much I believe that there is a likelihood this will happen, given that Trump's been kind of back and forth on this topic in general. And also there seems to be very little appetite for it on the GOP side in Congress.
But, you know, from a policy perspective, getting wealthier people to pay more in taxes is generally good revenue raising policy. Yes, because we know that trickle down economics doesn't actually work. Well, I'm half full.
for the drama. I just am enjoying the drama of raising taxes on billionaires coming from a Republican administration to a Republican-controlled Congress, and I can only imagine what kind of debates are happening behind closed doors. So I am half full and popping popcorn to watch. Yeah.
And how are they going to enforce it if the IRS budget keeps getting cut? Anyway, next, next, next, next. That part. With Mother's Day this weekend, the biggest day of the year for orchid sales. We got an orchid question. Previously, a luxury high-end plant cloning orchids has made them more affordable in recent years. Are you half full or half empty on the mass production of orchids? I saw this story yesterday.
I feel risky saying half full because I like the idea of people having access to pretty flowers, but I feel like there's probably some terrible environmental toll that I don't know about. But I'm sure you know all about this, Sabree. Tell me all the things because you're the plant person.
No, I mean, I know that Taiwan was a leader in doing this. They made tremendous advances in efficiency of growing orchids and cloning them. No, I'm half full. It's cool. You know, they're not the plants that I go out and buy, but they're really pretty. And yeah.
I also, you know, I love the science behind it, too. I tried to clone plants when I was like 12 and I had like a little agar bottle and everything got contaminated. Of course you did. Moldy. So I've kind of always been fascinated by that. And yeah, I mean, yeah. Let people go get these orchids and not poach them from the forest or whatever. Yes, yes. Much better than like ravaging the Everglades, please. All right. What's next? Next is the audience poll.
All right, everybody get ready. And while you're there, please give us a little like and a follow if you don't already. What's the question? Are you half full or half empty on shifting to a cashless society? Give some context here.
Well, the story this particular week is an interview that David did with Ralph Nader on the Morning Report where they went through some of the maybe pros like you don't have to keep track of all your coins and it's maybe a little more convenient. But as well as the cons being businesses are getting charged swipe fees. It's not necessarily accessible to everybody who doesn't have a bank account.
You have to deal with, you know, credit card interest and all of these things that are maybe not obvious at first glance. This is a tough one because I can see the efficiencies of it, but it makes some systems a lot more vulnerable. And money not being like physically real definitely changes people's spending habits. We have a lot of research on that. Yeah.
Hmm. I want to see what folks are saying in the chat. Uh, let's see. Bill says I was a server in LA. If I don't have cash, I ain't spending. Miles says I like keeping cash on me. Random girl, 808 says she collects pennies. Um, let's see. People should have the option to pay cash is what Pat says. Um,
Ryan Simmons, I refuse to pay for my $6 Diet Coke and croissant with a credit card. Hmm. Stephanie Moore Fuller, I almost never carry cash myself anymore, but I think we should have the choice. Um,
Oh, this is a very interesting point. When everything is cashless, it's easier to track what you're spending on, including the government tracking what you're spending on. Like, this is the thing. Well, that's what I was thinking of. Yeah, yeah, you get. There's some things that you don't want.
Some record of you paying for it. You don't want a paper trail that you bought that. Yeah. So I'm going to go half empty on a cashless society. I would like the option to keep some purchases private. Yes. Ditto. Oh, and 78% half empty. Yeah, that's a pretty strong result. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I get it. I'm with y'all.
All right. That is all for today. We're going to be back on Monday. In the meantime, please keep sending us your comments, your questions, your thoughts on a cashless society and suggestions. We are going to be checking our voicemail, 508-UBSmart. Also, our email, makemesmart at marketplace.org. Send us things. We would love it. Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Bernseker. Our intern is Zoha Mullick. Today's episode was engineered by Juan Carlos Torado.
The team behind our Friday game is Emily McKeown, Jamila Huxtable, and Antoinette Brock. Marissa Cabrera is our senior producer. Bridget Bodner is the director of podcasts. And Francesca Levy is the executive director of digital and on demand. And since the cat was so quiet this whole show, I can get it. Oh, big stretch. Hi, baby. It's very long. Very long cat. Cutie.
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