Planet Money - Our 2023 valentines

Episode Date: February 11, 2023

Every Valentine's Day, we at Planet Money consider the things that we love, the things that we can't stop talking about, the things that get our hearts racing...in a good way. And we give them valentines!This year our valentines go out to:ImportYeti, a website that lets you see exactly where U.S. companies are importing goods from.Economic data revisions, those tweaks to the data that make things like the jobs numbers even more accurate.The office (the place, not the show).Audio description, narration designed to make TV and movies more accessible to people who are blind or low-vision, but which offers benefits to the sighted as well.This show was produced by Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Keith Romer, and engineered by Robert Rodriguez. Jess Jiang is our acting Executive Producer.Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This is Planet Money from NPR. Every February, as we get closer to Valentine's Day, we at Planet Money take a deep breath and we think, what do we love? What can't we stop talking about? What gets our heart racing in a good way? All right, all right, all right. OK, OK. You just want me to start? Do it. OK, OK, OK. Things that I love. Things that I love. OK.

This is Planet Money host Jeff Guo, who kind of embodies the spirit of our annual Valentine's Day show. Year round, he wants to share the things he feels strongly about. Oh, I am obsessed with it. OK, it's this law. I'm obsessed with this law. It's called the Robinson-Patman Act. And it's like one of like those big antitrust laws. And there are many things he feels strongly about. Let me tell you some more things about things I love. I love the Journal of Economic Literature. This is like a journal that's put out. He will bring up these ideas with pretty much anyone who will listen. Someone invented this amazing analogy for inflation,

and it's think about the economy as like people in a stadium. This show is about all of our strong feelings. There is nothing in our lives that is as underappreciated, other than like maybe Kelly Clarkson. People do not love her enough. As underappreciated as microchips. Microchips, Kelly Clarkson. People should be singing their praises.

They need to be getting the Nobel Prize. About the things we think people should be singing the praises of. I'm truly obsessed with this. No, no, no, no, no. I'm truly obsessed with this. Okay, we're going to have to cut you off at some point. Okay, what else, what else, what else, what else? Wait, do you want to hear about the radical history of quilting?

Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Erika Barris. Today on the show, Planet Money Valentines. Our appreciation for a supply chain demystifier. Our admiration for statistical revisions. And a love letter for the way we worked. And maybe we'll let Jeff share one more thing he loves. Like, really, really, really loves. I got a couple more.

I know we're running out of time, but I got a lot more. Nick Fountain. Hey. Welcome to the Valentine Show. What's your Valentine? My Valentine this year goes out to a website that I love. It is called Import Yeti. Import Yeti.

Okay. So, Erica, as you know, one of the things I love to do on this show and just in life in general is to take an inanimate object, a seemingly boring object, and bring it to life by telling the story behind it, by figuring out how it fits into the global supply chain and what that reveals about our world. And Import Yeti is like a cheat code that makes that so much easier. It makes it possible to do that kind of from my couch. Basically what it does is it allows me to see

where U.S. companies are importing stuff from, but it's so much more than that. I love it. But don't we know where things are made? Like, aren't they stamped with a little sign that says, like, made in China? Yes, but like China is big, right? So one of the things that Import Yeti lets you do is figure out where in china something is made before you buy it so for example right now i'm in the market for a new cast iron pan love those and i was looking at one made by this company called tramantina and it was like made in china and i was like but where so i'm gonna share. Can you see this? I'm looking at your screen. So this is like a search engine.

Right. So I type in Tramontina. And if you scroll down a little bit, you can see their cast iron pans are made in this factory in Qingtai, China, called Sansha Cast Iron. And I can click through to Sansha's page on Import Yeti. And, like, look at this. Do you see all these names? Do you see everyone who Sancha supplies? I'm looking at Target, Walmart.

Yes. Amazon. Yes. Even Lodge Cast Iron. What? Which I always thought was made in the USA. But all these companies have used this supplier of cast iron. And I can also find Sanchez's website.

I can go on a factory tour. There's like this amazing YouTube video that only 36 people have ever watched before me. It's amazing. Okay. All right. And then I can go to Google Maps and I can be like, okay, what is this town like that their cast iron is made at? And like is that smoked chicken place down the street good? Do the workers ever get lunch there?

I'm going to stop you right here because I feel like this could go on forever. Let me see if I get this straight. Okay. So you have this tool. It's like a search engine. It lets you go down some like fun international supply chain rabbit holes. Oh, come on. It is so much more than that.

It unleashes the stories that are just hiding in plain sight all around us. And to try to understand how Import Yeti can do all this, I called up his founder. Are you the Yeti? I am the Yeti. He also goes by Dave Applegate. by Dave Applegate. And Dave told me that Import Yeti is built off this secret, maybe not so secret,

piece of customs paperwork that importers have to file when they bring stuff into the country on boats. They're called bills of lading. Okay. Do you know what the word, like I've never heard the word lading before. Yeah.

You know, at first, I thought it was bill of landing. People kept on correcting me. L-A-D-I-N-G. Apparently, it means the act of loading a ship. Anyways, Dave told me that when somebody's looking to source a product in, say, China,

when they're looking to find a factory, they'll go pull all the bills of lading from one of their competitors. And boom, now they know a factory that they can call today and they will be able to make their goods. Is that legal? I think so. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure.

And so Dave built this tool that compiles all these bills of lading, all this trade data for e-commerce professionals, but also for people just like me who are fascinated by this stuff. And I should say there are other sites that do this. His is just the most free and easy to use and I adore it. Nick, did you tell Dave how much you love this site? Of course I did. That was like most of the interview. So we're going to put this in a show that we put out for Valentine's Day. this in a show that we put out for Valentine's Day. And I'm going to give a valentine to your

website, Import Yeti. And it just exactly pushes the right buttons for me. So thank you. Oh, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Nick, happy Valentine's to you. And to you, Erica. Thanks for having me on. Bye. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. One more thing. I have a little something I need

you to go do for me. I have this favorite muffin tin and I want you to find out where the people who made it eat lunch every day. Can you go do that for me? I could try. But also now you can do that. You have the tool. You have Import Yeti. Hi, Amanda. Hello, Erica. How are you?

For our next Valentine, Amanda Aronchik wanted to try something different. Her plan was to keep calling me all day as she delivered her Valentine. It sounds so cold and windy wherever you are and loud and noisy. What's happening? It is very cold. It is very windy. I'm in Midtown New York. Oh. I am here to tell you my Valentine. Okay. Are you ready? Do you want to know what my Valentine is?

I am so curious. What is it? This year, 2023, I am giving my Valentine to the office. Our office. Of all the places in the world. The office. So, yeah. And the reason I am going to the office is because I don't know what will happen. And at home, I know exactly what's going to happen.

Amanda is one of the few people at Planet Money who stayed in New York during the pandemic, almost entirely working from home. I don't live in New York, so I can't go meet her. But as she went into our old office, I heard from her a lot over the course of the day. She wanted to share every minute of her day with me, including buying donuts. Erica, I'm back. It's Amanda again. Hey, Amanda. What are you up to now? All right. I'm crossing the street. I see Dunkin' Donuts.

Okay. Hey, how are you? Can I get a dozen donuts for my coworkers, please? Can you pick the ones that look sort of Valentine-y, like the pink ones and the sparkly ones and the heart ones? That would be good. At this point, it was early in her day. Amanda was feeling good. Erica, I am now walking down the street like a boss with my box of a dozen valentine-themed donuts. Wait till I walk out of the office and everyone's going to be like, Yay! Amanda! You're amazing!

That's totally what it's going to be like. Totally what it's going to be like. For Amanda, the dream of the office was about people. She's an extrovert. She likes to lean over that cubicle wall, ask you about lunch, about the weather, about what the bond market's doing. I'm in the elevator. Elevator A4, going up.

Okay, here we go. Door's closing. Hey, how you doing? Do you want a donut? Are you sure? They're really good. Yeah, here, hold on one second. Erica, I'm talking too much to people.

So Amanda did convince Gregory, she says that's Elevator Guy's name, to take a donut. It was a pretty big deal for her. I don't know. I made a friend on the floor. He works on the floor. I have a new friend. He took a donut. I'm so happy. I'm going to cry. After that, I didn't hear from Amanda for a few hours. Then towards the end of the day, she gave me one last call. And the thrill of meeting Elevator Gregory had kind of worn off. Hello?

Hey, it's Amanda. Okay. Erica, hold on one second. I'm going to go into the studio at the office. Okay, hold on one second. Okay. All right, I'm going to sit down and use the, hold on one second. Okay. All right, I'm gonna sit down and use the good mic. One second. Okay, I have my headphones. Okay, can you can you hear me now? Yeah, perfectly clear. So how was your day at the office? You know, look, I am the only Planet Money host still in New York, as you know,

and the team here in New York is pretty small. Everybody moved away. Everybody scattered all over the country. So I came into the office today, but all of my meetings were on Zoom. And yeah, I met Gregory in the elevator. That was amazing. But the excitement and the chaos and the joy of actually interacting with real people that like barely happened here today. Oh. So did anyone eat the donuts? When I came back and looked at the box, six were gone. So I guess, I don't know, five people plus Gregory grabbed them. I just ended up putting the rest in the freezer.

I don't know if they'll last, but it just seemed better than throwing them away. That sounds like a really sad Valentine. I mean, I just realized that I maybe have my Valentine slightly wrong, that I'm actually giving my Valentine not to the office as it is now, but as it was. So this year, my Valentine goes to the office of February 2020, frozen in time, what the office used to be before the pandemic broke it. We had a good run.

Well, happy Valentine's Day, Amanda. Happy Valentine's Day, Erica. I hope we get to see each other in person in 2023. Willa Rubin, Planet Money producer. Hey, Erika Barris. So what's your Valentine this year? So brace yourself. My Valentine is for the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Reports Monthly Revisions. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Slow it down. Say that one more time.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Reports Monthly Revisions. Okay. So kind of a mouthful, but here's what you need to know. The BLS puts out this big report every month, and this report has tons of data all about what the economy looked like in the past month. So, you know, how your favorite newspaper, they're going to change. A lot of those numbers are preliminary. They'll get revised. So like take the jobs report that came out last week. It had all these estimates for wage growth, for jobs added, things like that, all for the month of January. But then they also had all these revised numbers for November and December. Originally in December, they said that there were 223,000 jobs added to the economy. But then last week they were like, actually, no, it was 260,000 jobs added that month.

These revisions, Erica, I love them. Ah, these revisions, Erica, I love them. Aw, so, okay, so the jobs added numbers are the one you love. Uh, I mean, I love them all. I love the revisions to average hourly earnings. I love the revisions to average number of hours worked. But, yeah, I mean, I guess if I had to choose, I'm most enamored of jobs added. Because while every revision tells you a story about the economy, I think you can really feel the weight of that story in the jobs added numbers. Because like

those numbers, yeah, sure, they tend to be a bit larger. But also that indicator tells you if the economy is expanding, which is like high stakes. But like love, Willa? Like love, love? I can sense maybe a smidge of skepticism. I know that there might not be tons of people who love revisions quite as much as I do. But I did find one person, Erica Groschen. She was the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the BLS, during President Obama's second term. I'm so excited to speak to someone such as you who is also so excited about revision.

You should know, though, that early on in my tenure as commissioner, I was told by the chair of the Council of Economic Advisors at the time that the revisions gave President Obama heartburn. So you love something that gave the president heartburn. Wow. I mean, I just I appreciate the revisions a lot. I mean, they are getting you closer to what really happened during a month. Like, I don't know, maybe the numbers, maybe they don't look great at first, but then they turn out to be better. A little fairytale ending. Or maybe it's the other way around.

Maybe the initial number looks really promising and then the revisions make that picture look bleaker. Every revision is a good thing, right? You're getting closer to accuracy. These revisions happen for a bunch of reasons. Maybe the BLS doesn't get the right data in time or the BLS has to tweak their own formulas. The point is the data isn't necessarily perfect the first time they get those numbers.

So these revisions are just the BLS fixing their mistakes then? I take offense to the word mistakes because it's not that they were wrong. They were getting it right with the information that they had at the time. But then that information changed and I don't know, it feels kind of like life. We're all trying to make the best decisions that we can. And sometimes we have to choose what to do right now, even if we don't know as much as we would like. And then there are other times when we can afford to wait and like, make sure that that information is right. And Erica from the BLS says that revisions are a way for us to kind of split

the difference between our desire to have data about the economy right now and our desire to have the most accurate data possible. And revisions are a way of saying, okay, I'm going to give you the most timely information I can. That's as accurate as it can be given that timeliness. And then later, I'm going to give you data that isn't as timely, but it is more accurate. If you are making decisions about the economy or your business, you want to know as soon as you can that in December, the economy added 223,000 jobs. But also, you want to know that the right number turned out to be 260,000 jobs. And that is why we have revisions. And it's why I love them.

Willa Rubin, thank you. Erica Barris, thank you. After the break, we go back to Jeff so he can give his one and only Valentine. Democracy and capitalism. It's kind of a modern experiment to pair these things up. To say, sure, billionaires can exist, but their vote is not worth anything more than yours. That's a very beautiful idea, but it's also, I think, a fragile idea. A fragile idea that only works if democracy and capitalism stay balanced. But this balance that we need has gone wrong, so we have to consider change.

An argument for repairing the relationship between democracy and capitalism in our recent bonus episode. That's if you're a Planet Money Plus listener. Details are in our episode notes. Jeff Guo, welcome back to the Valentine's Day show. Great to be back. So we heard like, you know, a few things that maybe were going to be your Valentine. Can you tell us what your real, official, patented 2023 Valentine is? I'm going to do better than tell you. I'm going to show you. Okay. You ready? I think so.

Okay. I want you to just do me a favor. Close your eyes. Tell me what you hear. Later, Maverick, Goose, Iceman, and Slider play beach volleyball. Maverick checks his watch. Let's go! Okay, ice out! Maverick handles a serve from Iceman. The four men continue bumping, setting and spiking the ball in the bright sunlight. They're all shirtlessless except for Goose.

Maverick and Goose high five. Jeff, is that the volleyball scene from Top Gun? It is. It is the volleyball scene from Top Gun. Iconic, right? Oh my goodness. But you may have noticed that someone was narrating everything that happened on screen

that wasn't in the original movie. They added that later. That is called audio description. And it is my new favorite thing. It's my Valentine for 2023. Audio description. Okay, so it's like a sports play-by-play for movies? Yes. Okay.

Yes, movies and TV. It's designed for people who are blind or have low vision. But a couple years ago, I accidentally turned it on. I don't know how I did it. I think it's like in the settings next to subtitles or something. And I just can't imagine watching TV without it anymore. Why? Why?

What do you get out of it? I got many reasons. All right. One, it helps you catch stuff that you may have missed. So, you know, like all of these Marvel movies with all these fight scenes, I cannot keep track of what the heck is going on, right? Same. But listen, listen to this clip from the latest Black Panther movie.

As the mercenaries open fire, the Dora walk out to meet them calmly. The undercover warrior activates a shield as her cohorts stab their electric shock spears into the intruders. Amazing. Right? Amazing. Right? Amazing.

Right? Yeah, it sounds kind of like a podcast. It is. It is. It turns every movie into a podcast. And, you know, I love podcasts. We're podcast people. And this is another reason why I love this stuff is because I can be cooking or changing the litter box and still catch up on the latest episode of The Bachelor. Zach picks up a rose, looking over the women. Katie. Katie beams in burgundy sequins.

Come on, that writing. Katie beams in burgundy sequins. I love it. Burgundy sequins. Like, I have like that exact image in my head. So does like every show have audio description these days? Like how did that happen? When did this happen? Almost every show has it nowadays. It's thanks to these increasingly stringent regulations that are making TV and movie producers put in audio description tracks. And the funny thing is it's been like

this two decades long fight because Hollywood did not want to do this at first. They even sued the government so they wouldn't have to do this because adding all this audio description costs money. Right. But I am here to say that there are positive externalities to audio description. I would say audio description. It's almost it's almost like a public good. Right. Because it benefits us all.

It's like clean air. It's like the Coast Guard. It's like clean air. It's like the Coast Guard. It's like Yosemite National Park. It makes everybody's life better. I hear that. Yeah. But that is not even the main reason why I love audio description. You know, I binged a lot of television during the pandemic, just a lot of it. And with audio description, it really felt like I was watching with a friend. Like, listen to this. This is one of my favorite narrators. She does the show Black-ish.

Bo points at something behind Dre. It's enough. Look at that. Across the room, Michelle Obama shakes hands with the event host. Sweet black Jesus. I just feel like her voice is like this warm hug. That was so lovely. I know.

I've watched so many of her episodes at this point that I kind of feel like we know each other. Like, we've been through so much together. So, I did a little research the other day, found out her name is April Watts. She is a voice actor in St. Louis. And the other day, I called her up. Well, hello, Jeff.

How's it going? It is going amazing. Oh, my goodness. It was like talking to a long-lost friend. And as we were talking, I realized the secret to what makes her work so special, like what makes her voice stand out, is that you can tell she loves these shows, too. Like Like she loves these characters just as much as I do. Sometimes there's almost even a little chuckle in your voice, especially when they do something that's really, really funny. It's okay to do that in audio description. It

doesn't have to be dry and boring. But I will say the real reason I called her up is I kind of wanted to know what it would feel like to be part of her world. So I made a little video of myself. It's just like 50 seconds long. I was wondering if you might narrate it for us. I can try it. I mean, I'm doing it cold, but I could definitely try it. Are you ready for this?

I'm ready for this. Am I going to see this video? No, no, no. You just have to hear it. I just have to hear it, of course. In the kitchen, Jeff, an Asian man with brown glasses, holds a cat. Something falls. He picks up a spray bottle. He brushes his hair back, picks his cat up again. They dance together with the cat facing the camera. Jeff smiles. He swings the cat back and forth. He puts the cat down on the counter. He picks the cat up again and holds him like a baby.

The cat paws towards his glasses. This has made my entire day. Holy crap. I felt like I was in a movie. I felt like I was in a real movie. That was just winging it. I didn't take any notes. I had my pen, but I'm like, okay, I'll just give it a try.

Oh my gosh. It just felt very special to be narrated. Well, you are special. Only my mom says that. Jeff, you got your Valentine. I'm still glowing. Happy Valentine's Day, Erica. Happy Valentine's Day, Erica. Happy Valentine's Day. Today's show was produced by Emma Peasley. It was edited by Keith Romer, engineered by Robert Rodriguez. Jess Chang is our acting executive producer.

Thanks to Shane Haley and Lawrence Carter-Long. I'm Erika Barris. This is NPR. Thanks for listening. Wait, no, I have a lot. I have a lot more. Do you want to go faster? I've definitely ranted at you about this many times. Chips are, I know you're just trying to provoke me, but chips are

literally everything. Maybe the most important idea of the 20th century. I know I've said this a lot, but this is it. This was our generation's moonshot, Erica. You want more? Picture this. A droplet is falling in the air, and then at just the right moment, a giant laser beam just like, bam, like, bam, zaps it.

And it's funny because I remember, like, I took an anxious... Sorry, I can't breathe. I'm not breathing. Take two breaths. One, two. Hold on, hold on, hold on. And a special thanks to our funder, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, for helping to support this podcast.