DeepSummary
The hosts of The Indicator from Planet Money podcast, Waylon Wong, Darian Woods, and Greg Roselski, discuss three interesting indicators from the week's news. The first indicator is 20,000, which represents the number of electric vehicles that the car rental company Hertz is selling off from its US fleet, as it struggles to make the numbers work on EVs due to higher repair costs and lower consumer demand than expected.
The second indicator is 19.6%, which is the record-breaking vacancy rate for commercial office space in the United States, according to Moody Analytics. This trend is traced back to the 1980s when tax breaks incentivized overbuilding of office spaces, combined with a shift towards open office layouts and reduced demand per worker. The rise of remote work in 2020 further intensified this long-running trend.
The third indicator is $92, which is the amount of money Darian Woods received from Apple as part of a class action lawsuit settlement over the company's practice of slowing down older iPhones through software updates without informing users. The hosts discuss the role of class action lawsuits in addressing small, diffuse harms collectively.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Hertz is selling off a third of its electric vehicle fleet in the US due to higher repair costs and lower consumer demand than expected.
- Office vacancy rates in the US have reached a record high of 19.6%, driven by overbuilding and changing work patterns like the rise of remote work.
- The $92 payout from Apple's class action settlement over software updates slowing down older iPhones illustrates the role of such lawsuits in addressing small, widespread harms.
- Tax breaks and looser lending standards in the 1980s led to an overbuilding of office spaces, setting the stage for the current high vacancy rates.
- The shift towards open office layouts and reduced demand for office space per worker also contributed to the long-term trend of rising office vacancies.
- Consumer demand for electric vehicles is growing, but not at the pace expected by companies like Hertz and automakers.
- Class action lawsuits allow individuals to collectively address small, diffuse harms that would not be worth pursuing individually.
- The rise of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the existing trend of declining demand for office space.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “And Hertz said in a regulatory filing this week that it's going to sell off these cars in an orderly fashion over the course of this year, which I really hope means they're going to drop these cars out of a cargo plane with parachutes like they did in the 7th Fast and the Furious movie.“ by Waylon Wong
- “People are wearing suits with padded shoulders and they're wearing high waisted acid wash jeans. They're spending their nights dancing to new wave and celebrating with cool in the gang.“ by Greg Roselski
- “Class action lawsuit, it's when somebody sues somebody else on behalf of a whole bunch of people, they're often these small, diffuse harms, these kind of annoying things that wouldn't be worth hiring a lawyer for and clogging up the courts for one personal grievance. But you add up millions of iPhone users and you're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars worth of harm, and the litigation costs start to make sense to try to right this.“ by Darian Woods
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Episode Information
The Indicator from Planet Money
NPR
1/12/24
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What could break next? (Apple / Spotify)
How the South is trying to win the EV race (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
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