0:00

This Marketplace podcast is supported by

0:02

Disney. On April 3, Disney will

0:04

be hosting its annual meeting of shareholders. Learn

0:07

more about how to vote along with a

0:09

list of all Disney nominees at votedisney.com. There's

0:14

still no prediction when the Port of Baltimore

0:16

might reopen to cargo ships. I'm

0:19

David Brunkaccio in New York. The Port of

0:21

Baltimore remains cut off today from the major

0:23

shipping channel following this week's collapse of the

0:25

Key Bridge. supply chains are

0:28

shifting, with economists predicting limited effect

0:30

on the economy nationally. But for

0:32

workers at the port and the

0:34

economic ecosystem in the region, the

0:36

effects of the disaster could be

0:38

long-term. Marketplace's Henry Epp reports.

0:41

A lot of work needs to

0:43

be done in the immediate aftermath

0:45

of the ship crash and bridge

0:47

collapse, says Darius Irani, chief economist

0:49

at Towson University's Regional Economic Studies

0:51

Institute. Recovery efforts, investigations, cleanup of

0:53

the bridge debris. Those are

0:55

all going to determine how long the port will

0:57

be closed, and then we'll determine sort of ultimately

0:59

will this be sort of a transitional blip, or

1:01

will this be a major

1:04

economic impact? Right now, there's no good

1:06

estimate of how long the shutdown might

1:08

last. But for the moment, there's still

1:10

some work at the port, freight for

1:12

dock workers to unload and for truckers

1:14

to pick up, says Lewis Campion, president

1:16

of the Maryland Motor Truck Association. But

1:19

that will only be for probably the

1:21

next week before that

1:23

freight is gone. At which

1:25

point, work could dry up or shift away

1:27

from Baltimore for the tens of thousands of

1:29

people whose jobs are tied to the port.

1:32

Truckers, for example, could have to travel farther

1:34

to pick up from other parts of the

1:36

Eastern Seaboard, Campion says. That's

1:38

going to be a very difficult challenge for

1:41

some of our companies to figure out how

1:43

to manage the freight

1:45

that is available, but no longer available

1:47

in Baltimore. Truck losses in

1:49

the region could total $10 to $15 million

1:52

a day, says Darius Arani at Towson,

1:54

and that'll take a hit on state

1:56

and local governments, too, up to $1.5

1:58

million day and

2:00

lost tax revenue. I'm Henry Abb for

2:03

Marketplace. A new report

2:05

from the Federal Reserve Bank of San

2:07

Francisco finds that U.S. households accumulated a

2:09

lot more wealth during the recovery from

2:11

the pandemic than would have been expected.

2:14

For more, let's check in with Diane

2:16

Swank, chief economist at the audit, tax

2:18

and advisory firm KPMG. Morning, Diane. Good

2:21

morning. We didn't want the

2:23

pandemic. Let me just stipulate. But

2:26

for many, it brought with it

2:28

money that they wouldn't normally have

2:30

had, according to this Fed San

2:32

Francisco study. Yes. What they looked

2:34

at is how much excess wealth did

2:36

the pandemic generate for households and what

2:39

we saw is 27 trillion more than

2:41

we would have expected pre-pandemic. And that

2:43

really is quite a significant uptick, both

2:45

to everything from the stock market recovering

2:47

to the surge in home value. So

2:50

the wealth was more shared than it

2:52

has been in the past. That doesn't

2:54

mean that we don't have inequality. We

2:56

do. And that doesn't mean that there's

2:58

a lot of excessive wealth out there

3:00

as well. There is. But what is

3:03

interesting is how much wealth we've

3:05

seen in recent years. Was

3:07

this stimulus payments from the government to

3:10

people or the ability to somehow save

3:12

more because we were stuck inside? Much

3:15

more than that. It also was everything from

3:18

the demand for housing that spiked as interest

3:20

rates went to zero and people wanted bigger

3:22

homes as they had to work from home

3:25

and the value of housing going

3:27

up along with the remarkable

3:30

performance of equities over the

3:32

last several years. Diane

3:34

Swank, chief economist, KPMG. Thank you.

3:37

Thank you. The convicted crypto

3:39

fraudster, Sam Bankman-Fried, gets sentenced in

3:41

New York today. As lawyers argue,

3:43

he's a first-time nonviolent offender and

3:46

should get maybe six years. Prosecutors

3:48

are reportedly pushing for between 40

3:50

or 50 years given the large number

3:53

of victims. The

4:12

Marketplace podcast is supported by

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Palo Alto Networks. As.

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You innovate to transform your business

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in today's digital world. How do

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you see secure. At

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Palo Alto Networks our mission is

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to protect your digital way of

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life. Whether it's unprecedented, opportunity is,

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or uncertainties with a I and

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whatever comes next, we continually deliver

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innovation to make each day safer

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and more secure than the one

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before. More. At Palo

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Alto networks.com A lot of people

4:43

spend a lot of money on

4:45

things like skincare, fast fashion, and

4:47

even surgery. All in the name

4:50

of self improvement. but as the price

4:52

of perfection rises and at the time

4:54

to quote. I'm

4:56

at he must raise hosts of

4:58

this is Uncomfortable a podcast for

5:00

Marketplace this season we dig deep

5:02

into the financial trappings of self

5:05

care and the real motivation behind

5:07

are spending choices. Listen to this

5:09

is uncomfortable wherever you get your

5:11

podcast. In.

5:14

A first: the Biden demonstration is

5:16

lending one and a half billion

5:18

dollars to restart a nuclear power

5:21

plant in south western Michigan that

5:23

was set for dismantling. the Palisades.

5:25

Plans on the lake east of

5:27

Kalamazoo was closed and twenty twenty

5:30

two inspections, testing, and approval from

5:32

the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or still

5:34

required prefer hydroelectric dams. production fell

5:36

eleven percent last year to a

5:39

twenty two year low. Climate change

5:41

is making hydro power less reliable.

5:43

Marketplaces. Savannah Mar reports. About

5:46

half of the country's hydro power

5:48

is generated in the Pacific Northwest.

5:50

The region saw hi spring temperatures

5:52

and early snow melt last year.

5:55

Earlier melt net we've been seeing for quite

5:58

a while is a. It

6:00

heavily clear climate change signal. Adrian

6:02

Marshall is a hydrologist at the

6:05

Colorado School of Mines. She.

6:07

Says early rapid run off

6:09

makes it harder to store

6:11

water and generate hydroelectricity year

6:13

round, so utilities turn to

6:15

other power sources we send

6:17

in the neighborhood. Of a hundred

6:19

million dollars purchasing supplemental power for

6:21

our customers last year. Kirsty

6:23

Granger is the Cfl of Seattle

6:25

City like the city's electric utility.

6:28

To make up for the hydro

6:30

deficit, she says it bought natural

6:32

gas power which emits more carbon

6:34

than hydro does, plus some solar

6:36

energy. So. It increase rates for all

6:38

of our customers by. Four percent, she

6:41

says, Seattle is working to

6:43

diversify its energy portfolio as

6:45

hydro power gets less reliable

6:47

and Savannah, Mar. Marketplace.

6:50

Last. Week Tennessee Home of Music

6:53

Helps Nashville and Memphis became the

6:55

first day to pass a law

6:57

targeting artificial intelligence that clones musicians

7:00

voices. Last year's on featuring a

7:02

I clones of Drake in the

7:04

weekend went viral until record labels

7:06

threatened action. Marketplaces met Levin. Fourth,

7:09

the. Internet Love

7:11

Ai Johnny Cash

7:13

Authority your authority

7:15

world loves his

7:18

Love. For.

7:22

Recording Industry Association of America

7:24

Ceo Mids Glazer says he

7:26

thought the Barbie Girl Folsom

7:28

Prison Blues Massa was pretty

7:30

funny. I still think the Johnny

7:32

Cash to stay get to decide whether they

7:34

used his voice on something, but the ideas

7:36

are very clever and to me that says

7:38

that there's a marketplace out there. That.

7:41

Marketplaces Basically how much listeners and

7:43

tech companies my pay for a

7:45

license to use and orders voice.

7:48

So. If you have a Rian a

7:50

voice clone singing you a personalized rendition

7:53

of happy Birthday, Be Human Rian I

7:55

gets paid. Which. Is partly why

7:57

the record labels pushed so hard for that

7:59

Tennessee. law. One of the

8:01

reasons why we're acting so fast is we don't

8:04

want those markets undermined before they have a chance

8:06

to take off. The Tennessee

8:08

Act updates the state's right to

8:10

publicity law, a statute pretty much

8:12

every state has that says actors

8:15

or musicians or even us lowly

8:17

non-celebrities have control over our name

8:19

or image or likeness. U

8:21

Penn law professor Jennifer Rothman says the

8:24

new Tennessee law is pretty aggressive in

8:26

who might be found liable for using

8:28

voice clones. I don't think

8:30

people even realize how broad it is.

8:33

It could potentially be

8:35

a teenager messing around in their

8:37

bedroom and just putting something on

8:39

Instagram. States across the country

8:41

are updating their rights to publicity laws

8:43

and Congress is working on a federal

8:46

version. AI music expert

8:48

Ed Newton Rex at the nonprofit group

8:50

Fairly Trained says it's a step in

8:52

the right direction, but he

8:54

says the bigger issue is how these AI

8:56

music models get created in the first place.

8:59

The really pernicious threat that this

9:01

doesn't cover is training

9:03

these models at all

9:05

on a bunch of

9:07

people's work without their consent. In

9:10

other words, even if you can't use Johnny

9:12

Cash's voice, you could use AI that was

9:14

built on his music to make a new

9:16

country song and his estate wouldn't see

9:19

a dime for that. I'm Matt

9:21

Levin for Marketplace. From

9:49

APM American Public Media. Mayan-Bazillion

10:01

Academy. In this new

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and improved course, we'll help your kids

10:05

learn about crypto, credit cards, and

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inflation in just six weeks. Each

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10:12

cartoon, discussion questions, and an activity that lets

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kids apply what they're learning in the real

10:16

world. You can start at

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any time and work at your own

10:21

pace. Sign up today at marketplace.org/academy.