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Hello, everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make today make sense. Kai is out today. So host of Marketplace's This Is Uncomfortable podcast, Rima Kreis is here with us today. Hey, Rima. Hey, how's it going? It's good to be back. Thanks for joining us on this Wednesday, May 7th.
Right. So today we're going to do some news and some smiles. Rima, what caught your news? What news in particular caught your eye today? All right. So a couple of things. I've been, you know, housing has been on my mind a lot lately. And there are two stories in the news this week that stood out to me or rather this morning. So the first one is.
The Trump administration, it released its quote unquote skinny budget proposal, right? Last Friday. And one of the big headlines is a massive proposed cut to federal housing assistance. We're talking like more than $26 million that would be slashed from programs like Section 8, which is about like a 40% proposed cut.
And the administration says it would want to give more control to states under this proposal. So states would have a greater responsibility, but less money to design their own programs. You know, and I keep saying proposed because they're just proposed, but they would have huge impacts on rental aid programs, public housing, housing for people with disabilities and for older adults. According to what I read, I think in the Washington Post this morning, it would affect more than three and a half million people. But, you know, again, these slashes might not actually happen because, you know,
Congress has the power to say, no, we're not doing this. Um, but I do think it makes, I think it makes very clear the administration's priorities when it comes to housing, right? Like we've seen the administration already push out thousands of HUD employees. It's canceled contracts that support low income housing. Um, and it's obviously spooking people in the housing industry. Um,
And, you know, we're obviously we're dealing with the housing affordability crisis right now. Rents are, you know, we've already have been dealing with it for a while. Rents are going up. They keep going up. Evictions keep going up. And right now, federal rental assistant programs, they help roughly 10 million people afford housing. And so that's the first news story that I just wanted to flag. Yeah.
to keep an eye on. Yeah, it's always interesting with the budget proposals because like the White House sends out sort of these top lines of like, this is what we want. And it usually ends up like,
It'll be really interesting to see how closely this particular Congress adheres to what the White House says, because usually they're just like, that's nice that you want that, whatever, we're going to do our own thing when it comes to setting policy. But this particular Congress has definitely been much more taking the lead of the White House. And of course, they're
working on this huge continuing resolution that includes like changes to the tax law and potentially the extension of the tax cuts. And so a lot of this stuff could end up getting folded in to this big piece of legislation. But like, yeah, I'll be very fascinated to see how closely this Congress in particular actually ends up adhering to what the White House lays out compared to previous, you know, versions where they're just like, yeah, that's nice. We're going to do what we want to do.
Yeah, I'm curious, too, because I think from what I've read Congress, they will likely not want to do this, but they also are under pressure to find, you know, deep savings. So, you know, we'll see. So that's that's the first story to keep an eye on. And then I saw another housing story this morning. This is on the other end of the housing spectrum. And, you know, I shouldn't be surprised by these reports whenever I see them. But it was a new report out from Zillow.
that found that a typical starter home, emphasis being on starter, it now costs more than a million dollars in 230 cities. And five years ago, there were like just 85 cities where your typical starter home was worth at least a million. And you know, we're not, yeah, and it's like, we're not talking about like luxury homes, like these are, according to this report, starter home refers to
homes that are in the bottom third of the market prices in a given area. So it's, you know, it's like very much entry level tier. And, you know, it does represent a small portion of the American real estate, but half of all states now have at least one city with million dollar starter homes. You know, the median age of first time buyers is pushing 40. Now, I don't know about you, Kimberly, I'm in my mid 30s. But I feel like increasingly, I'm having conversations with people who
are just like, "No, I'm just gonna rent forever." And not because they want to, right? It's because they have to. And homes just feel so unbelievably unaffordable. I mean, everybody I know in their 30s and even early 40s who bought a home in the last like decade or something
like personally who I know, they either had support from their family or they come from some kind of like they actually got direct financial help from their parents or they come from some sort of like generational wealth or like, you know, in my case, the literal only reason I was able to buy my home is because I wasn't carrying any student loan debt only because my parents refused to let me take any out.
When I was in college, it's like this decision that I was so mad about when I was younger. I was like, I want to go to the fancier school. And they're like, no, we're not co-signing any student loans for you. I had the same experience.
Exactly. Like that's the only reason that then in my 30s, I was actually able to buy my place because I wasn't I didn't have that, you know, kind of hanging over my head in these years when I was finally in a position to buy. And also, I was lucky to get in in the era of low interest rates. And we have to keep in mind that now.
These interest rates like I probably could not afford my home now at my interest rates that are available and like I feel for folks and and if you didn't happen to get into that interest rate, you know now it just feels impossible. I know dude That's the position that we're in from like the other day. I was like, are we just gonna keep renting forever? Maybe but yeah, all of this was also on my mind because I
I recently, so we have a mini season of This is Uncomfortable out. We released our first episode last week. And one of the stories... You can find it wherever you get your podcasts. Yes. Give me that plug. Yeah. And...
One of the stories we're currently working on, it'll come out later this month, it features a newlywed couple out of Seattle who they reached out to us actually to share their contentious journey to buying their dream home. And similar to what you said, like one of them was like, we need to buy a nap before interest rates go up, like before we get priced out. And then her husband was like, no, let's wait, let's budget and save more. And they went back and forth for a really long time. They saw more than 100 houses. And
escalated. I won't give away the ending, but it escalated and led to like ultimatums and just got really messy. And I, you know, really struck me just how honest they were about the emotional toll of buying a home. But yeah, it's gets more at the emotional side of buying a house. It's very intimate. And it brings up, I think, some of these deeper questions around values and security and
And so I'm excited for folks to hear that.
I mean, I think you're absolutely right. I think when I was married, I think one of the most challenging moments we had in the marriage was around whether or not to buy a house and how to decide what kind of house to buy and what priorities we had in choosing where we live and the style of the house and what were the most important things around it. And it got so bad that we ended up just not buying a house. Really? Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, it was really it was I never expected it to be that challenging and that emotional. And I have to say it was much easier when I got to like buy my house by myself. You're like, I'm doing this by myself. I don't have to consult anyone. Exactly. But yeah, it's a real challenging thing. And it really like lays bare your values. Yeah, dude. Definitely. Yeah.
So, yeah, that'll come out later this month. Folks want to hear that. But, yeah, why don't you share your news? What are you going to talk about? My news is so nerdy and wonky, but it's more fallout from the trade war. So we've talked a bunch on this show about how this tariff policy and the back and forth and just sort of the way that the Trump government is operating.
going about rolling out its foreign policy and trade policy is causing a lot of the rest of the world to kind of give us the side eye in terms of how reliable the U.S. is as an ally and how stable the U.S. economy is as a place to put money and to keep money. And this was really held up in an interesting story that we've gotten the show notes, a story from Axios that Neil Irwin did that I think is a really good
Right up and also the Wall Street Journal. So basically what happened is that in Taiwan, and I'm just going to read from Axios here, the Taiwanese dollar surged 10% relative to the U.S. dollar between last Thursday and Monday. It has partially receded since, but it's still a much bigger and faster move than is usually seen in currency markets.
And what was happening is that Taiwan, which does a ton of trade with the U.S., semiconductor chips and all sorts of other things,
They treat U.S. Treasury bonds just like a lot of U.S. investors treat Treasury bonds, like safest of the safe things. Let's put our pension fund money in there, our life insurance fund money in there. It's our safe asset. And as they're looking at the trade war and as they're looking at the government and the way that it's carrying itself, people started panicking. And so here's how The Wall Street Journal wrote it up.
U.S. Treasury debt in particular is thought to be so safe that default isn't even seen as a one in a trillion, a hundred trillion possibility by foreign investors. America borrows in dollars and has a printing press after all. But the trade war naturally focuses attention on the elephant in the room, what the real value of those dollars will be in the future.
And so this has really freaked out foreign investors and made them kind of like panic sell all these U.S. Treasury bonds. And that helped drive up the Taiwanese dollar. Right. And I bring this up. It's super wonky and it's very complicated. You should read Smarter People Than Me on, you know, exactly the moves of currency flows.
But it is another example of how this trade war is reshaping the global economy and the view of the United States in the eyes of global investors. And that's why you saw Treasury Secretary Scott Besson out at some conference the other day talking about, yeah, the U.S. is a great
place to invest. Now's the best time to be investing in the United States." And he's speaking to the billionaires in the room trying to keep the money coming in because everybody's giving us the side eye now. And I think that this is one of many examples we're going to be seeing in the coming weeks and months of just the rest of the world looking differently at the United States.
as a place to invest. And who knows, maybe they'll think more positively as the regulatory framework eases up, 'cause the Trump administration is definitely trying to roll back some regulations that they say are holding back business and industry. And maybe the tariffs will actually create the incentives for foreign companies to set up shop here. It'll take a while, but in the meantime, it just looks frightening to a lot of foreign investors.
And to your point, like it does so much of it come down to trust and perception, right? Like it does show when countries or investors feel nervous or uncertain about US policies, they start moving their money around. And, and it feels like it feels like a textbook example of just how interconnected our global economy is like you pull one lever, one policy lever, and it sets off everything.
a chain reaction, a domino effect, not just in trade flows, but in currency markets or investment strategies. And so I think that's a good example to highlight. And I'm also curious what else it'll set off with currency markets. All right, let's shift over to our smiles. Let's do it.
I love that both of us picked science smiles today. I know I was going to say the same thing. That's like my go to when I just want to like, not think about the world. So mine is about it's in the Smithsonian. It's very cute. It's about how scientists taught pet parrots to video call each other. Did you see this story?
I did not until you linked it. Yeah. And apparently, so some researchers from Northeastern University, University of Glasgow, MIT, they found that domesticated parrots can learn to initiate video chats with other pet parrots, which
Which just seems so silly and cute. But it also makes sense because in the wild, parrots usually live together in these large flocks. So you've got a lot of like sad and bored and lonely parrots out there with some like behavioral and psychological issues. Yeah.
And so anyway, researchers taught them how to like ring a bell to indicate that they wanted to chat with a parrot friend. And they can even like point on the tablet which parrot they want to talk to. And then they like apparently like would teach each other things like they would sometimes like sing or show off their toys or like some parrots even like developed like some they bonded with the
owner of like the other pets um with other parrots if that makes sense um and so it's just it's so it's so fascinating to me um and i thought it was a really cute story there's like a video too that you can watch with it it's on the smithsonian um and it's yeah insert audio of parents parrots squawking at each other and neighbors getting angry um
Well, my science story is more climate related. I'm sure you've seen all the stories about like the microplastics in everything and in our brains and whatever, which is a real downer. But, you know, who knows? Maybe it's scary. Preserve our skin or something. Making that up. Not at all true. Not real science. Real science is what's been done by some researchers in Texas and a few other places. This was a research published in
in the American Chemical Society Omega, which is a peer-reviewed journal, that the substance, I'm reading here, the substances behind the slimy strings from okra and the gel from fenugreek seeds could trap microplastics better than a commonly used synthetic polymer. Previously, researchers proposed using these sticky natural polymers to clean up water. Now they report in ACS Omega that
okra and/or fenugreek extracts attracted and removed up to 90% of microplastics in ocean water, freshwater, and groundwater. And these researchers were looking for non-toxic plant-based approaches to attract and remove contaminants in water. And the
they found it. And I think that this is wonderful. Yay, science saving us from the microplastics. Hopefully, this research turns into something that's usable to help clean up a real issue. So that made me smile. That's really cool.
I love that. Yeah, I love this. I this is also on theme with like what's going on in my life right now all this like science and nature talk I just started taking this like nature journaling class at a community college. My first class was yesterday. And it's just giving me such a deeper appreciation for the natural world already. Yeah.
Like, what does that mean? What does that mean, nature drawing? You know, I didn't know what that meant either until I signed up for this class. I thought it meant one thing. And then when I sat in the class yesterday, I was like, oh, this is something else, which I like even more. It's basically the practice of observing the natural world and recording what you see and hear and feel. And so this class in particular is about sketching. So you look very intently at the plant or whatever it is that you're interested in, and you sketch it out. And you can also write some observations about
What sticks out to you. And the whole point is just to like slow down and appreciate the beauty that is nature. But I'm excited to keep learning and seeing what happens. That's super cool. Yeah, it should be fun. A couple of years ago, I took a short story writing class, like short fiction writing class. Oh, fun.
It was it was really fun. And, you know, there were all these like writing exercises to just kind of stretch your brain and get you to think outside of your normal self. And I think whenever you get the chance to do those kinds of things, it's really cool. I know it feels a little indulgent, but it also necessary. I'm like, I just I want this time to to to just slow down and do something different. Yeah.
Yeah. All right. That is it. Kimberly and I will be back tomorrow. In the meantime, keep sending us your comments, your questions. You can also drop a note at makemesmartatmarketplace.org. You can also leave a voicemail over at 508-UBSMART. Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Bergseger. Our intern is Zoha Mullick. And today's program was engineered by Jake Cherry.
Ben Tolliday and Daniel Ramirez composed our theme music. Our senior producer is Marcia Cabrera. Bridget Bonner is director of podcasts. Francesca Levy is the executive director of digital. ♪
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