The Indicator from Planet Money - Southwest surprises, tariff guac shock, and fraud flourishes

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

It's Indicators of the Week! Our weekly look at interesting numbers from the news. On today's show, we have Southwest Airlines changing course on their free checked bag policy, skyrocketing fraud, and Americans' insatiable appetite for avocados. Related episodes:More fraud, higher bond yields, and faster airline boardingFor sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong here with Daryan Woods. Howdy? And we also have Kenny Malone from Planet Money. Kenny! Hey, everybody. I'm always happy to be here. Happy to have you. So I'm going to say indicators of the week, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now... I've never gotten to say it. Can I just... Can I do the... Yes. I'm here because it's the... Do it. Indicators of the week.

Oh, yes. That's right. It is our weekly look at interesting... numbers from the news, and this week we have a big jump in losses due to fraud. Uh-oh. I am going to dive into a bowl of guacamole. That sounds horrible, like Scrooge McDuck, but awful. And delicious. And it's the end of an era, the great unbundling, the paying for bags. No! After the break.

Indicators of the week, Waylon, would you like to begin? I would. My indicator is $12.5 billion. that is how much people lost to fraud in 2024, according to data released this week by the Federal Trade Commission. And that's a 25% increase from the previous year. So, I don't know, do you guys think we're in a golden age of scamming? I just listened to this amazing podcast series that The Economist did on scams. It's called Scam Inc. And an expert that they interviewed there said that you should actually multiply the numbers because of underreporting.

Like a lot of victims of fraud don't file a report with an age. agency like the FTC. And I will say this FTC report is pretty grim throughout. The agency says more people lost a lot more money last year versus the previous year. The median loss for 2024 was around $500. And what are we talking about like stolen credit cards, like people getting called and handing over shoeboxes full of money in parks? Like what are we doing here? It's closer to the latter. Oh, really? Yes. The FTC says the most commonly reported category is something called an imposter scam. An example of this is when you get a phone call from someone, they say they've detected suspicious activity with your bank account, and they'll say, we're going to help you

just transfer your money into this other bank account or into this cryptocurrency account or go to the ATM and get cash out and put it in a shoebox and meet us at the park. Very normal. Is it possible that some of the federal cuts will impede the FTC's ability to, I don't know, like track these down, stop these? Like, What do we know about that? Yeah, it looks like the FTC is maybe having staffing issues. I read some news reports this week that there's this one case it's pursuing in federal court against a company. And initially, it asked the judge to delay the trial because of an extreme shortfall in money and staff.

But then consistent with some of the back and forth and back again, we're seeing on so many things these days. The FTC later reverse this request. It's a bit fine. So I don't know. These are confusing times. Oh, man, I am so scared of getting defrauded, I'll be honest. Just don't answer your phone. Don't answer your phone. Honestly, I think that's about where I'm at, yes.

Well, you know, because actually the FTC says people lose more money when they interact with scammers over the phone versus text or emails. The median loss for a phone scam is $1,500, which is way more than the overall median loss. Once somebody called me and they said that from the Department of Homeland Security, and I said, really? And the guy said, yes, and then hug up. Jesus. Okay, that's not a very good scammer.

Extremely convincing liar over here. Kenny, tell us about bag fees. My indicator this week is two, because that is the number of suitcases that you will not get to check for free anymore at Southwest Airlines. Now, I flew Southwest with my kids on Monday, literally this week,

in part because kids require an annoying amount of, luggage and Southwest has a bags fly-free policy. And then literally the next day, on Tuesday, they announced a new policy, actually not all bags fly-free. Yeah. That's a less catchy policy name, I will say. Well, that is, those words are mine, I suppose. But the news here is that Southwest was like the last holdout, the last airline letting all

passengers check bags for free. But now only passengers with fancy tickets or Southwest credit cards or special status. will get free-checked bags. And the reason that this is noteworthy is because not doing this kind of stuff was Southwest's identity. They even coined and trademarked a term, are you ready for it? Transferency. Transferency.

Yeah? A transparent fare. Yes, that's right. Like, basically, they were saying that, like, we're not the other airlines who are breaking apart the flying experience into all its parts and then asking travelers to pay for things like bags or picking better seats or whatever. whatever it may be. Okay, so this is the unbundling trend that has taken over airlines and actually a lot of products.

A lot of things, yeah. That is exactly right. But Southwest has been under pressure to increase profits. They announced big layoffs. And last year, they even said that they would stop doing their famous open seating policy. And now, with the bags not flying free for everyone, I think you can argue that, like, the great unbundling of air travel is complete. We have reached it.

It's a milestone. If you do want to fly for free with a Southwest bag, you do have a chance. Like, the new rules will only apply to flights booked on or after May 28th. Get planning, get booking, or, I guess, get more efficient in your packing. Or get rid of your kids. Don't bring the kids. Give you the other advice, yes. For our final indicator, Darian Woods, what have you brought us?

My indicator is 3 billion pounds of avocados. That's how much avocado Americans are eating each year. Oh, that's a good amount. What is that? That's like nine or ten pounds of avocados per American. Is that right? Yeah, how many avocados is that? How much is an avocado weigh? They kind of weigh a lot. I give it a quarter pound, half a pound. They're half a two. I actually looked this up. It's about half a pound. And so if you multiply that nine or ten by two, you get maybe a little less than 20 avocados a year per person. I'm doing way more than 20 avocados a year. And some people probably don't eat any avocados.

Who are these feet from? I feel like I didn't eat an avocado until college. It was probably at a Chipotle or something, you know? You paid extra for the avocado. I paid. Guac is extra. Gwak is extra. That's what we call the great bundling.

In New Words alone, Whalen, basically in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, you had a huge rocketing up of avocado imports into the U.S. That 3 billion pounds of avocado consumption is up from only like 4 or 500 million pounds a year in the 80s and 90s. So we are eating more avocados. That is the indicator that you brought us, or is there a newspeg to this? Maybe tariff-related, I assume.

Oh, yes. As you may have guessed, it's a tariff-related story. We've had all kinds of trade war news this week. The U.S. slapsed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum. There's been retaliatory tariffs from Canada and the European Union. And the Trump administration is still threatening a 25% tariff on everything from Canada and Mexico, including avocados. Well, so you're saying that we've become addicted to avocados

and now tariffs are going to raise the price of avocados? Yeah, I read in the Wall Street Journal this week that the whole reason we had that rise of avocado culture in America was that Mexico was only allowed to export to the U.S. in 1997. Oh, well, that makes sense why, you know, I don't even remember seeing them at the grocery store so much, you know? I live in the Midwest. We don't grow avocados here locally, so.

Not with that attitude, you don't. But I also, you will remember there was a huge marketing campaign, too. It was avocados from Mexico. It was like a whole thing. Oh, I don't remember that. It was a big huge campaign on the Super Bowl, et cetera. It was like a big effort to get Americans into avocados because they're awesome. Well, it works.

It worked like gangbusters. Goodness. Yeah. It did work very well. And now it appears we are going to pay the price because like 80% of hoss avocados or something come from Mexico. Is that right? Yeah, that's correct. And so for now the widespread tariffs on Mexico are on.

pause until April 2nd. We will have to see whether the White House and Mexico can make a deal that keeps avagados cheap and plentiful. Well, I mean, let me just say there are other avocados. I was in Florida for a long time. Everybody hates the Florida avocado, but maybe it's the moment. Maybe it's the Florida avocado moment. They're gigantic.

They just need a jingle, I think. What do you think? Avocados from Broward County. Good, good. Very catchy. Nope, not quite the same. Avocados from New Jersey. Or New Jersey.

Thank you so much, Kenny. This was Indicators of the Week. Pack your bags full of avocados and check them while you can. And don't get scammed. And don't get scammed. This episode was produced by Angel Caretas with engineering by Krasi Lee. It was fact-checked by Cyril Juarez. Kekin Canon edits the show and The Indicator is a production of NPR.