Small talk: Rewards, lawns, reading
Marketplace's Brendan Newnam and Rico Gagliano chat with fellow staffers about their favorite under-the-radar business stories from this week: a surge in criminal rewards, lawn paint for foreclosed homes, and how reading is becoming more expensive.
On the air radio microphone (iStockPhoto)
More on Odds And Ends, Dinner Party Download: Small Talk
Links
TEXT OF STORY
KAI RYSSDAL: This final note today. We spend most of our time on the bigger economic stories. Most of our time, that is, except for a minute and a half every other Friday. When Rico Gagliano and Brendan Newnam interview the Marketplace staff about the other stuff. You know, the news you might talk about at a dinner party.
Brendan Newnam: Phyllis Owens, commentary editor at Marketplace, what are you going to be talking about this weekend?
Phyllis Owens: Well, apparently in the UK the recession has an upside. There's been a surge, apparently, in the number of people reporting criminals to claim rewards from this charity called Crime Stoppers.
Newnam: So what you're saying is now that people don't have money, they're turning people in for money?
Owens: Right.
Newnam: That means that when times were good, people weren't turning people in.
Owens: Well, maybe they held back just a little.
Newnam: So before it didn't bother me that you were a serial killer, but $35 is $35.
Rico Gagliano: George Judson, managing editor, what are you going to be talking about this weekend?
George Judson: Well, in most parts of the country when a house if foreclosed on you can tell because their lawn is foot high in weeds. In California, where we are, the lawn dies. So one town here has figured out, let's paint those lawns.
Gagliano: With actual paint?
Judson: It's some kind of biodegradable paint-like thing.
Gagliano: Don't you wish you could paint over all of your problems, like you just wake up in the morning and paint your bed made?
Judson: I would like to paint myself awake in the morning.
Gagliano: I want to paint my 401(k) valuable.
Newnam: Stacey Vanek-Smith, senior reporter at Marketplace, what story are you going to be talking about this weekend?
Vanek-Smith: Well, reading is getting really expensive. This week The New York Times announced that it's raising its price, again -- 33 percent. And Amazon just unveiled its new Kindle, big-screen Kindle reader, which is sort of like an iPod for books. It's almost $500.
Newnam: This actually doesn't surprise me. I ruined my credit reading "Anna Karenina" actually. I think we should buy futures in haiku.
Comments
Comment | Refresh
From Blacksburg, VA, 05/09/2009
While I can't argue about the price of the NYT, reading is no more expensive than it used to be, in fact it is cheaper. Hardbacks at a used bookstore go for $5 and most paperbacks for $2. There are online used bookstores like paperbackswap.com and bookmooch.com which is a trading system so books cost the price of postage. You don't need a Kindle to read a book so save the $500 (disclaimer, I bought one for my wife a few weeks ago and love it). What's wrong with curling up with a used paperback on the couch or reading on the beach from something that cost you $2.58 to get through media mail?
Post a Comment: Please be civil, brief and relevant.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. All comments are moderated. Marketplace reserves the right to edit any comments on this site and to read them on the air if they are extra-interesting. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting.
You must be 13 or over to submit information to American Public Media. The information entered into this form will not be used to send unsolicited email and will not be sold to a third party. For more information see Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.