March 29, 2022 • 19 mins
Inflation continues to be a problem with a not so easy solution. Part of the problem is not everyone agrees on the absolute causes so the fixes are also not agreed upon. Most can agree that supply chain issues, rising oil prices and shifting consumer demands are all contributors. While the Fed and the White House try to help, they are limited in what they can do. Emily Stewart, senior correspondent at Vox, joins us for the complicated issue.
Next, a new supply chain issue could be on its way soon to one of the busiest ports in the world. New contract negotiations for more than 22,000 union dockworkers will begin soon and if history is any indicator, we are in for some disruptions. These workers have been working around the clock for most of the pandemic and some points of resistance could be more automation at the ports. Peter Goodman, global economics correspondent at the NY Times, joins us for this possible supply chain risk.
Finally, crime concerns in Los Angeles are leading to wealthier homeowners to seek out panic room installs in their homes. Depending on the build-out, the price can range anywhere from $100,000 to a million dollars. These safe rooms can be outfitted with biometric scans for entry and even with high-end amenities. Hadley Meares, contributor to the Hollywood Reporter, joins us for the rising demand for safe rooms.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Tuesday, March twenty nine. I'm Oscar Ramiers in Los
Angeles and this is the daily dive. Inflation continues to
be a problem with a not so easy solution. Part
of the problem is not everyone agrees on the absolute causes,
so the fixes are also not agreed upon. Most can
(00:20):
agree that supply chain issues, rising oil prices, and shifting
consumer demands are all contributors. While the Fed in the
White House try to help, they are limited in what
they can do. Emily Stewart, senior correspondent at Vox joins
US for the complicated issue. Next, a new supply chain
issue could be on its way soon to one of
the busiest ports in the world. New contract negotiations for
(00:42):
more than union dock workers will be going on soon,
and if history is any indicator, we are in for
some disruptions. These workers have been working around the clock
for most of the pandemic, and some points of resistance
could be more automation at the ports. Peter Goodman, global
economic correspondent at The New York Times joins US for
this possible supply chain risk. Finally, crime concerns in Los
(01:06):
Angeles are leading to wealthier homeowners to seek out panic
room installs in their house. Depending on the build out,
the price can range anywhere from one thousand to a
million dollars. Had Lee Mears, contributor to The Hollywood Reporter,
joins us for the rising demand for safe rooms. It's
news without the noise. Let's dive in. You know, there's
(01:27):
some other stuff that's that's going on that's kind of
outside of the United States. Obviously, we have fresh as
more on Ukraine that is going to push up prices
even more. That's COVID hits China hard, that's going to
cause supply chain issues. So it's a lot of things
that are going on. Joining us now is Emily Stewart,
senior correspondent at Vox. Thanks for joining us, Emily, thanks
for having me. Well, let's talk a little bit about inflation. Obviously,
(01:51):
it's a huge problem. It's the highest that's been in
forty years. We're seeing prices of everything going up right now.
As you know, we're also seeing gas prices go up
to record highs too. One of the big problems with
this is inflation always takes a little bit of time
to work itself out, and right now we're in this
kind of special position where nobody really knows exactly what
(02:11):
it is to blame. There's some consensus on a couple
of things, but not everybody agrees, and that means that
not everybody agrees on what the solution to fixing inflation
is also, so it's a very complicated situation. The main
things we have our supply chain issues, rising oil prices,
shifting consumer demands. But Emily, what are we seeing with
is how do we fix this? Yeah, I do think
(02:33):
in terms of because it's you know, it's tricky. There
are some other people really have like a pretty decent consensus.
Songs you mentioned, like we all know, like the supply
chain stuff has been a problem for quite some time.
We know that the economy has just been a little
bit wonky in terms of demand. You know, the US
is a service based economy right during the pandemic, a
much more good focus. So people have a lot of
(02:53):
money to spend on goods that they're having a hard
time getting those goods, and when they get them, you know,
maybe they're a little bit prisier. We're seeing that cars,
for example, a lot both new and used cars are
very expensive now because if you have a newer, used
car to sell. You can tell it for a lot
of money if you want, because a lot of people
want to buy. You know, There's some other stuff that's
that's going on that's kind of outside of the United States. Obviously,
(03:14):
we have fresh as more on Ukraine that is going
to push up prices even more. That COVID hits China hard,
that's going to cause supply chain issues. So it's a
lot of things that are going on, which then of
course gets to why it's so hard to fix this
stuff because a lot of it's hard problems to fix them.
It's a lot of problems to fix. A lot of
it is kind of out of our hands in that sense.
(03:36):
There's little limited things, let's say that the Fed can
do or the White House can do to just bring
prices down right away. It's all these external factors, this
global economy that we live and operate in now, and
that's why things take time. And there we just can't
raise the interest rate, which we've done already, right, and
it's going to change everything right away, right, Some of
(03:56):
the stuff is going to take some time to shake
itself out. You know, one person that I talked to
jokes with me that if the White House had a
button to stock the place, and they would you know,
they know that it's bad and that it bothers people,
but they're doing kind of what they can do. You
don't want to economify touch you, but listen, Like a
good thing that the White House is doing is that
they're kind of leveling with people. They're like, hey, this stuff,
(04:17):
We know you're gonna be here for a while. And
you know, we do have the Fed starting to raise
interest rates, but that's going to take time. And you know,
it's also important to remember that again, like said, it's
stuffs outside of the United States is controlled. The US
has nothing to know say in what happens in China.
The US has made the decision to other huntries connect
sanctions against Russia. It's going to making you know worse.
(04:40):
That's the decision that we may even kind of a
trede off as the government thinks it's worth it. But
you also can't control that Russia has invaded Ukraine obviously,
um and all of that stuff. It's going to take time.
You know a lot of people that I talked to
you also said maybe there's a moment to really take
a look at how our supply chains work and how
our infrastructure works and our economy works and makes them
investment that we've needed to make for a long time.
(05:03):
A lot of this was precarious before the pandemic hits,
and we've seen that there's much precarity across the economy.
So maybe in a different world, or maybe in the future,
there will be some investments made so that if there
is another pandemic or when there are disruptions things like that,
that the situation wouldn't be so dire. And you write
in your latest article that we are kind of going
(05:26):
through this recovery after the pandemic and the economy is
doing kind of good. That's why it's so weird to
be talking about all of this. People do have extra
money and all because of stimulus payments. People suggest that
could also be causing the inflation. But that's one thing
that's so weird about is the economy is doing okay.
It's just all this other stuff is still keeping prices high, right,
(05:47):
and it's hard to tell people not to feel how
they feel like inflation stuck. But I think it's also
important to remember, you know, the economy is much better
than it was a couple of years ago. For unemployment
is getting much better. Obviously it was two years ago.
And some of those are just a symptom of the
economy being better. Young people do have more money to spend,
(06:08):
like you said, because the stimular checks. Also because people
weren't spending money a year or two. No, I wasn't
going to restaurants now I am. Again, some of them
is going to shake itself out, but it's just not
a satisfying answer obviously. Emily Stewart, senior correspondent at Vox,
thank you very much for joining us. Thanks for having me.
(06:34):
Negotiating a new contract which hasn't happened yet that I'll
probably start sometime in May. That could be a pretty
bumpy ride. And if if they don't agree, if there's
any kind of impass, were in the worst case scenario,
a strike, yeah, that could be hugely disruptive, not just
in the US but really around the world. Joining us
now is Peter Goodman, global economics correspondent at The New
(06:57):
York Times and author of Davos Man How the Billionaires
Devoured the World. Thanks for joining us, Peter, Thanks for
having me. Well, let's talk a little bit about some
possible supply chain issues that could be coming our way.
We've been talking a lot about inflation all the things
that impact that. The supply chain issues have been one
of those things that a lot of people point to.
(07:20):
And you know, we saw just a month or a
few months ago. You know, all the hassle that was
going on at the ports of l A. You know,
all these shipping containers and big ships just having just
tons of products on there not being able to be
offloaded because of all the delays and things that were happening. Well,
there's a worry that this could be happening again, as
a lot of the dock workers are coming very soon
(07:42):
to their contract negotiations, and if a strike could happen,
we could be in for it all over again. So Peter,
help us walk through some of this. What are we seeing? Well,
first of all, we're still in it. You still have
as we speak, several dozen ships that are floating in
the Pacific off the ports of l A and Long Beach,
which collectively are the gateway for something like of all
(08:04):
imports coming into the US from Asia. We're not in
anything that looks like normal in terms of the supply chain.
You've still got truck drivers waiting for hours at the
gates of both ports to pick up containers. You've got
huge stacks of containers. I mean it takes weeks for
a ship to unload that comes in with a bunch
of imports from Asia. So that's the backdrop. Meanwhile, the
(08:27):
dock workers were talking twenty two thousand union dock workers
who work at twenty nine ports along the West Coast,
and roughly three four of them at those two incredibly
important ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Their contract
expires at the end of June, and if history is
any guide, negotiating a new contract, which hasn't happened yet
(08:49):
that I'll probably start sometime in May. That could be
a pretty bumpy ride. And if if they don't agree,
if there's any kind of impass or in the worst
case scenario, a strike, yeah, I could be hugely disruptive,
not just in the US, but really around the world
because these two ports are just so important that once
(09:10):
you shut down the system, or even slow down the system,
that will have ripple effects as far as Rotterdam, Europe's
largest port, all the ports in China. The consequences could
lead to more product shortages and continued increases in prices
for a whole range of consumer goods. So, I mean,
what would be a big sticking point and all this,
(09:30):
especially if maybe negotiations haven't completely started yet. Well they
haven't started at all. I mean, the union won't talk
about their demands, though it's clear that automation is likely
to be a sticking point because the so called terminal operators,
I mean, these are the companies that operate the shipping terminals.
They're eager to bring in more robots automate more jobs.
(09:52):
The union sees that as a threat to the paychecks
for their members in places like l A and Long Beach,
where you don't have a lot extra land. We're talking
about reports that are right in the middle of very
dense urban communities. The only way to process more cargo
to move faster is so called productivity gains. You've got
to do stuff more efficiently and quicker, and automation is
(10:15):
part of that. Now, the dock workers position is, hey,
don't look at us in terms of talking about slowdowns
and delays. But I mean they worked straight on through
the worst pandemic in a century. At least two dozen
members died of COVID according to reports to the union,
and they say, look, it's the terminal operators who are
(10:35):
in many cases controlled by these shipping carriers. These are
multinational conglomerates that are charging, you know, ten times as
much to move a container from factory towns in China
to the West coast of the United States is before
the pandemic. They're the ones benefiting from all this chaos.
They lack incentive to invest in things like more people,
(10:58):
better equipment, to cleaning up this mess. They like the
status quo. So the dock workers will say, yeah, we
make no apologies for being extremely well paid. But their
position is if you're looking at us as the problem
in the supply chain, then you're you're just accepting that
huge swaths of the American workforce have been downgraded over decades.
And this is the benefit of having a union. We
(11:20):
stick together and we're doing vital work at a time
when it's clear, given the supply chain problems, that our
work is more vital than ever. But of course, if
you're just thinking about how do I get stuff off
a ship and into stores? This is a volatile dynamic
because the shipping companies are making record profits and the
dock workers are aware of that, and they're aware that
they have high leverage given that any kind of impass
(11:43):
would have real economic consequences. And a big worry is
because if you look to the past, there have been
disruptions anytime, you know, contract negotiations come up. So I
get a lot of people are looking towards that as
a guideline, saying, well, we might be in for some problems. Yeah.
I mean there's a lot of friger pointing right, Like
if you go back the last time the contract ran
out in the dock workers say that they got set
(12:06):
up for accusations of slow down, that the terminal operators
suddenly would say things like, hey, you see that container
that's like stacked right at the bottom of a six
container stack. We need that one right now, And then
they would say, oh, look, the dock workers are going slower.
The terminal operators say that the dock workers are going slower,
(12:27):
and the truck drivers waiting for the containers, who tend
not to have very good relationships with dock workers, blame
the doc wors. Yeah, you know, if the history tells
us that when there's a contract negotiation, both sides will
engage in various shenanigans to boost their leverage and make
the other side look like the bad guys. Peter Goodman,
(12:48):
global economics correspondent at The New York Times and author
of Davos Man How the Billionaires Devoured the World. Thank
you very much for joining us. Thanks so much. One
man I talked to you said that they have seen
over a thousand percent increase in inquiries about building Titanic
(13:13):
room in the past few months. Joining us now is
Hadley Meres, contributor to The Hollywood Reporter. Thanks for joining us,
sadly my pleasure. Thanks for having me on. Well, you
wrote an interesting article, Demand for safe rooms skyrocket in
Los Angeles, and I do live in Los Angeles. That's
where we do the podcast from. You know, there's been
a lot of stuff going on out here, a lot
of concerns about crime. We've had, you know, rash of
(13:35):
different little crime waves going on, and um, I think
even today, the day of this recording, the l a
p D Chief had called a press conference to talk
about crime going on in in neighborhood. So it is
a concern that's going on right now. But what we're
also seeing is, you know, some homeowners on the wealthier
side obviously installing panic rooms, these safe rooms that can
(13:56):
run up to a million dollars, hundreds of thousands of
dollars or more. Some are set ups, and you spoke
to a couple of people that build these rooms out
and uh, they were telling you about the experience, so
hardly tell us a little bit more. Yeah, it's pretty fascinating.
I mean, safe rooms have been a thing that the
ultra wealthy and billionaire has had for decades, but more
(14:17):
and more we're seeing the safe rooms or panic rooms.
I think they like to call them safe rooms because
it doesn't sound quite as scary being installed in homes
that are going, you know, at a four or five
million dollar price point, which of course, as we know
in l A is not usually that extravagant a home,
sadly because of housing prices. So you're just seeing this
huge increase. One man I talked to you said that
(14:39):
they have seen over a thousand percent increase in inquiries
about building Titanic room in the past few months. So
it really is just kind of going out of control,
in my opinion, the way that people are dealing with
these different crime waves or perceived crime waves that are
happening in l A. So for this story, you spoke
(15:00):
to building consensus panic room. This is this is the business.
They've been doing it for twenty five years. They build rooms, uh,
you know on a security level one to eight and
each room obviously increasing. I'll cost more money, but the
protection is obviously better too. Yeah, it's really fascinating when
you told me about that kind of one to eight scale.
And so one maybe you know, is a room that
(15:24):
has keV lar and is safe, but not as safe
as one might think. It costs about a hundred fifty dollars,
and eight is encased in thousands of towns of steel.
You know, you're using a retina scan to get in
a lot of times, there's your own HVAC system in there,
you've got your own plumbing system, You've got everything you
(15:45):
would need to survive for days at a time. So
the scale really slides depending on what you're willing to spend.
And you know, they're also really increasingly using them kind
of as a bunkers, like prepper bunkers. So you're seeing
places with a lot of ammunition, a lot of guns,
a lot of food, places people can hunker down for
(16:06):
a long time real estate agents. They know obviously what's
inside the house, it has the safe room all that,
but maybe for a casual buyer they even say, you know,
we can't really tell everybody what it is, because what
if somebody's chasing it out for you know, maybe I'm
gonna commit a crime you know, down the road once
we somebody settles in here. Um, so it's kind of
(16:27):
like this little play that they have to do, maybe
not telling certain people, or when people are coming to
inspect the house, they can't let them know as well. Yeah,
I love that story. To One of the agents I
was speaking with told me about how they had an
appraiser come out and he was measuring this house and
he kept saying, I can't figure out why there's this
dead space, you know, why why is there this space?
(16:48):
And they couldn't tell them what it was, right, They
couldn't say it was a panic room. And they also
made a really good point that you know, they don't
always know exactly who is looking at homes, especially homes
at lower price points where there's no kind of pre
evaluation or qualification. So the worst thing they could possibly
do is show a potential burglar where the safe room
(17:08):
is and how to get in. So it's kind of
this cat mouse game that folks are playing with each
other for this amenity that is increasingly in demand and
wanted by a lot of people who are buying these phones.
There are concerns about crime going on in the city
and people's homes. People want to protect themselves all that,
but this is also a very l a story. When
(17:29):
we're talking about a million dollar homes. You know, safe
rooms that cost hundred thousands of dollars to a million dollars,
and you know they're not your run of the mill
safe rooms, right, It's not just a cold steel room
with some supplies and as you mentioned earlier, maybe Ammo
and things like that, these are really like everyday living spaces.
The way they design these things out, oh absolutely. And
(17:50):
I spoke with folks that said people have their interior
designers designed them. They almost always have a you know,
a TV, a state of the art radio system, a
comfortable couch. Some of the we're having beds now, most
of them are having toilets now, and some kind of
shower situation. So they're really trying to make these rooms,
especially the higher end rooms, feel like just another room,
(18:12):
just another din that someone can relax in while they
are hiding from a potential burglar or murderer. And it's
so funny because when I was posting this article social media,
I was saying, you know, these safe rooms which are
bigger than my entire apartment by three times over right,
and this is just one little blip in these people's homes.
(18:33):
It is kind of that feeling that this is not
just something that's going away or just kind of flashing
the pan style thing. They think homes above a certain
price level are probably gonna just kind of start becoming
outfitted with certain things like this. Maybe not a full room,
but at least saves things like that, just looking for
that security beyond even just looking for extra security. The
(18:55):
name of the game right now and high end l
A real estate is amenities, because if your selling houses
for this a ridiculous amount of money, you've got to
give a reason for people to want them. So you're
seeing more and more Jim's pools, movie rooms, all these
different amenities, and I think a safe room is now
just going to become kind of organically another amenity for
homes above a certain price point. Had Lemire's contributor to
(19:19):
The Hollywood Reporter. Thank you very much for joining us.
My pleasure, thanks for having me. That's it for today.
Join us on social media at Daily Dive Pod on
both Twitter and Instagram. Leave us a comment, give us
a rating, and tell us the stories that you're interested in.
(19:41):
Follow us and I heard radio or subscribe whatever you
get your podcast. This episode of The Daily Divers produced
by Vicker Wright and engineered by Tony Sarentino. I'm Oscar
Ramirez and this was her Daily Dive
It's Tuesday, March twenty nine. I'm Oscar Ramiers in Los
Angeles and this is the daily dive. Inflation continues to
be a problem with a not so easy solution. Part
of the problem is not everyone agrees on the absolute causes,
so the fixes are also not agreed upon. Most can
(00:20):
agree that supply chain issues, rising oil prices, and shifting
consumer demands are all contributors. While the Fed in the
White House try to help, they are limited in what
they can do. Emily Stewart, senior correspondent at Vox joins
US for the complicated issue. Next, a new supply chain
issue could be on its way soon to one of
the busiest ports in the world. New contract negotiations for
(00:42):
more than union dock workers will be going on soon,
and if history is any indicator, we are in for
some disruptions. These workers have been working around the clock
for most of the pandemic, and some points of resistance
could be more automation at the ports. Peter Goodman, global
economic correspondent at The New York Times joins US for
this possible supply chain risk. Finally, crime concerns in Los
(01:06):
Angeles are leading to wealthier homeowners to seek out panic
room installs in their house. Depending on the build out,
the price can range anywhere from one thousand to a
million dollars. Had Lee Mears, contributor to The Hollywood Reporter,
joins us for the rising demand for safe rooms. It's
news without the noise. Let's dive in. You know, there's
(01:27):
some other stuff that's that's going on that's kind of
outside of the United States. Obviously, we have fresh as
more on Ukraine that is going to push up prices
even more. That's COVID hits China hard, that's going to
cause supply chain issues. So it's a lot of things
that are going on. Joining us now is Emily Stewart,
senior correspondent at Vox. Thanks for joining us, Emily, thanks
for having me. Well, let's talk a little bit about inflation. Obviously,
(01:51):
it's a huge problem. It's the highest that's been in
forty years. We're seeing prices of everything going up right now.
As you know, we're also seeing gas prices go up
to record highs too. One of the big problems with
this is inflation always takes a little bit of time
to work itself out, and right now we're in this
kind of special position where nobody really knows exactly what
(02:11):
it is to blame. There's some consensus on a couple
of things, but not everybody agrees, and that means that
not everybody agrees on what the solution to fixing inflation
is also, so it's a very complicated situation. The main
things we have our supply chain issues, rising oil prices,
shifting consumer demands. But Emily, what are we seeing with
is how do we fix this? Yeah, I do think
(02:33):
in terms of because it's you know, it's tricky. There
are some other people really have like a pretty decent consensus.
Songs you mentioned, like we all know, like the supply
chain stuff has been a problem for quite some time.
We know that the economy has just been a little
bit wonky in terms of demand. You know, the US
is a service based economy right during the pandemic, a
much more good focus. So people have a lot of
(02:53):
money to spend on goods that they're having a hard
time getting those goods, and when they get them, you know,
maybe they're a little bit prisier. We're seeing that cars,
for example, a lot both new and used cars are
very expensive now because if you have a newer, used
car to sell. You can tell it for a lot
of money if you want, because a lot of people
want to buy. You know, There's some other stuff that's
that's going on that's kind of outside of the United States. Obviously,
(03:14):
we have fresh as more on Ukraine that is going
to push up prices even more. That COVID hits China hard,
that's going to cause supply chain issues. So it's a
lot of things that are going on, which then of
course gets to why it's so hard to fix this
stuff because a lot of it's hard problems to fix them.
It's a lot of problems to fix. A lot of
it is kind of out of our hands in that sense.
(03:36):
There's little limited things, let's say that the Fed can
do or the White House can do to just bring
prices down right away. It's all these external factors, this
global economy that we live and operate in now, and
that's why things take time. And there we just can't
raise the interest rate, which we've done already, right, and
it's going to change everything right away, right, Some of
(03:56):
the stuff is going to take some time to shake
itself out. You know, one person that I talked to
jokes with me that if the White House had a
button to stock the place, and they would you know,
they know that it's bad and that it bothers people,
but they're doing kind of what they can do. You
don't want to economify touch you, but listen, Like a
good thing that the White House is doing is that
they're kind of leveling with people. They're like, hey, this stuff,
(04:17):
We know you're gonna be here for a while. And
you know, we do have the Fed starting to raise
interest rates, but that's going to take time. And you know,
it's also important to remember that again, like said, it's
stuffs outside of the United States is controlled. The US
has nothing to know say in what happens in China.
The US has made the decision to other huntries connect
sanctions against Russia. It's going to making you know worse.
(04:40):
That's the decision that we may even kind of a
trede off as the government thinks it's worth it. But
you also can't control that Russia has invaded Ukraine obviously,
um and all of that stuff. It's going to take time.
You know a lot of people that I talked to
you also said maybe there's a moment to really take
a look at how our supply chains work and how
our infrastructure works and our economy works and makes them
investment that we've needed to make for a long time.
(05:03):
A lot of this was precarious before the pandemic hits,
and we've seen that there's much precarity across the economy.
So maybe in a different world, or maybe in the future,
there will be some investments made so that if there
is another pandemic or when there are disruptions things like that,
that the situation wouldn't be so dire. And you write
in your latest article that we are kind of going
(05:26):
through this recovery after the pandemic and the economy is
doing kind of good. That's why it's so weird to
be talking about all of this. People do have extra
money and all because of stimulus payments. People suggest that
could also be causing the inflation. But that's one thing
that's so weird about is the economy is doing okay.
It's just all this other stuff is still keeping prices high, right,
(05:47):
and it's hard to tell people not to feel how
they feel like inflation stuck. But I think it's also
important to remember, you know, the economy is much better
than it was a couple of years ago. For unemployment
is getting much better. Obviously it was two years ago.
And some of those are just a symptom of the
economy being better. Young people do have more money to spend,
(06:08):
like you said, because the stimular checks. Also because people
weren't spending money a year or two. No, I wasn't
going to restaurants now I am. Again, some of them
is going to shake itself out, but it's just not
a satisfying answer obviously. Emily Stewart, senior correspondent at Vox,
thank you very much for joining us. Thanks for having me.
(06:34):
Negotiating a new contract which hasn't happened yet that I'll
probably start sometime in May. That could be a pretty
bumpy ride. And if if they don't agree, if there's
any kind of impass, were in the worst case scenario,
a strike, yeah, that could be hugely disruptive, not just
in the US but really around the world. Joining us
now is Peter Goodman, global economics correspondent at The New
(06:57):
York Times and author of Davos Man How the Billionaires
Devoured the World. Thanks for joining us, Peter, Thanks for
having me. Well, let's talk a little bit about some
possible supply chain issues that could be coming our way.
We've been talking a lot about inflation all the things
that impact that. The supply chain issues have been one
of those things that a lot of people point to.
(07:20):
And you know, we saw just a month or a
few months ago. You know, all the hassle that was
going on at the ports of l A. You know,
all these shipping containers and big ships just having just
tons of products on there not being able to be
offloaded because of all the delays and things that were happening. Well,
there's a worry that this could be happening again, as
a lot of the dock workers are coming very soon
(07:42):
to their contract negotiations, and if a strike could happen,
we could be in for it all over again. So Peter,
help us walk through some of this. What are we seeing? Well,
first of all, we're still in it. You still have
as we speak, several dozen ships that are floating in
the Pacific off the ports of l A and Long Beach,
which collectively are the gateway for something like of all
(08:04):
imports coming into the US from Asia. We're not in
anything that looks like normal in terms of the supply chain.
You've still got truck drivers waiting for hours at the
gates of both ports to pick up containers. You've got
huge stacks of containers. I mean it takes weeks for
a ship to unload that comes in with a bunch
of imports from Asia. So that's the backdrop. Meanwhile, the
(08:27):
dock workers were talking twenty two thousand union dock workers
who work at twenty nine ports along the West Coast,
and roughly three four of them at those two incredibly
important ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Their contract
expires at the end of June, and if history is
any guide, negotiating a new contract, which hasn't happened yet
(08:49):
that I'll probably start sometime in May. That could be
a pretty bumpy ride. And if if they don't agree,
if there's any kind of impass or in the worst
case scenario, a strike, yeah, I could be hugely disruptive,
not just in the US, but really around the world
because these two ports are just so important that once
(09:10):
you shut down the system, or even slow down the system,
that will have ripple effects as far as Rotterdam, Europe's
largest port, all the ports in China. The consequences could
lead to more product shortages and continued increases in prices
for a whole range of consumer goods. So, I mean,
what would be a big sticking point and all this,
(09:30):
especially if maybe negotiations haven't completely started yet. Well they
haven't started at all. I mean, the union won't talk
about their demands, though it's clear that automation is likely
to be a sticking point because the so called terminal operators,
I mean, these are the companies that operate the shipping terminals.
They're eager to bring in more robots automate more jobs.
(09:52):
The union sees that as a threat to the paychecks
for their members in places like l A and Long Beach,
where you don't have a lot extra land. We're talking
about reports that are right in the middle of very
dense urban communities. The only way to process more cargo
to move faster is so called productivity gains. You've got
to do stuff more efficiently and quicker, and automation is
(10:15):
part of that. Now, the dock workers position is, hey,
don't look at us in terms of talking about slowdowns
and delays. But I mean they worked straight on through
the worst pandemic in a century. At least two dozen
members died of COVID according to reports to the union,
and they say, look, it's the terminal operators who are
(10:35):
in many cases controlled by these shipping carriers. These are
multinational conglomerates that are charging, you know, ten times as
much to move a container from factory towns in China
to the West coast of the United States is before
the pandemic. They're the ones benefiting from all this chaos.
They lack incentive to invest in things like more people,
(10:58):
better equipment, to cleaning up this mess. They like the
status quo. So the dock workers will say, yeah, we
make no apologies for being extremely well paid. But their
position is if you're looking at us as the problem
in the supply chain, then you're you're just accepting that
huge swaths of the American workforce have been downgraded over decades.
And this is the benefit of having a union. We
(11:20):
stick together and we're doing vital work at a time
when it's clear, given the supply chain problems, that our
work is more vital than ever. But of course, if
you're just thinking about how do I get stuff off
a ship and into stores? This is a volatile dynamic
because the shipping companies are making record profits and the
dock workers are aware of that, and they're aware that
they have high leverage given that any kind of impass
(11:43):
would have real economic consequences. And a big worry is
because if you look to the past, there have been
disruptions anytime, you know, contract negotiations come up. So I
get a lot of people are looking towards that as
a guideline, saying, well, we might be in for some problems. Yeah.
I mean there's a lot of friger pointing right, Like
if you go back the last time the contract ran
out in the dock workers say that they got set
(12:06):
up for accusations of slow down, that the terminal operators
suddenly would say things like, hey, you see that container
that's like stacked right at the bottom of a six
container stack. We need that one right now, And then
they would say, oh, look, the dock workers are going slower.
The terminal operators say that the dock workers are going slower,
(12:27):
and the truck drivers waiting for the containers, who tend
not to have very good relationships with dock workers, blame
the doc wors. Yeah, you know, if the history tells
us that when there's a contract negotiation, both sides will
engage in various shenanigans to boost their leverage and make
the other side look like the bad guys. Peter Goodman,
(12:48):
global economics correspondent at The New York Times and author
of Davos Man How the Billionaires Devoured the World. Thank
you very much for joining us. Thanks so much. One
man I talked to you said that they have seen
over a thousand percent increase in inquiries about building Titanic
(13:13):
room in the past few months. Joining us now is
Hadley Meres, contributor to The Hollywood Reporter. Thanks for joining us,
sadly my pleasure. Thanks for having me on. Well, you
wrote an interesting article, Demand for safe rooms skyrocket in
Los Angeles, and I do live in Los Angeles. That's
where we do the podcast from. You know, there's been
a lot of stuff going on out here, a lot
of concerns about crime. We've had, you know, rash of
(13:35):
different little crime waves going on, and um, I think
even today, the day of this recording, the l a
p D Chief had called a press conference to talk
about crime going on in in neighborhood. So it is
a concern that's going on right now. But what we're
also seeing is, you know, some homeowners on the wealthier
side obviously installing panic rooms, these safe rooms that can
(13:56):
run up to a million dollars, hundreds of thousands of
dollars or more. Some are set ups, and you spoke
to a couple of people that build these rooms out
and uh, they were telling you about the experience, so
hardly tell us a little bit more. Yeah, it's pretty fascinating.
I mean, safe rooms have been a thing that the
ultra wealthy and billionaire has had for decades, but more
(14:17):
and more we're seeing the safe rooms or panic rooms.
I think they like to call them safe rooms because
it doesn't sound quite as scary being installed in homes
that are going, you know, at a four or five
million dollar price point, which of course, as we know
in l A is not usually that extravagant a home,
sadly because of housing prices. So you're just seeing this
huge increase. One man I talked to you said that
(14:39):
they have seen over a thousand percent increase in inquiries
about building Titanic room in the past few months. So
it really is just kind of going out of control,
in my opinion, the way that people are dealing with
these different crime waves or perceived crime waves that are
happening in l A. So for this story, you spoke
(15:00):
to building consensus panic room. This is this is the business.
They've been doing it for twenty five years. They build rooms, uh,
you know on a security level one to eight and
each room obviously increasing. I'll cost more money, but the
protection is obviously better too. Yeah, it's really fascinating when
you told me about that kind of one to eight scale.
And so one maybe you know, is a room that
(15:24):
has keV lar and is safe, but not as safe
as one might think. It costs about a hundred fifty dollars,
and eight is encased in thousands of towns of steel.
You know, you're using a retina scan to get in
a lot of times, there's your own HVAC system in there,
you've got your own plumbing system, You've got everything you
(15:45):
would need to survive for days at a time. So
the scale really slides depending on what you're willing to spend.
And you know, they're also really increasingly using them kind
of as a bunkers, like prepper bunkers. So you're seeing
places with a lot of ammunition, a lot of guns,
a lot of food, places people can hunker down for
(16:06):
a long time real estate agents. They know obviously what's
inside the house, it has the safe room all that,
but maybe for a casual buyer they even say, you know,
we can't really tell everybody what it is, because what
if somebody's chasing it out for you know, maybe I'm
gonna commit a crime you know, down the road once
we somebody settles in here. Um, so it's kind of
(16:27):
like this little play that they have to do, maybe
not telling certain people, or when people are coming to
inspect the house, they can't let them know as well. Yeah,
I love that story. To One of the agents I
was speaking with told me about how they had an
appraiser come out and he was measuring this house and
he kept saying, I can't figure out why there's this
dead space, you know, why why is there this space?
(16:48):
And they couldn't tell them what it was, right, They
couldn't say it was a panic room. And they also
made a really good point that you know, they don't
always know exactly who is looking at homes, especially homes
at lower price points where there's no kind of pre
evaluation or qualification. So the worst thing they could possibly
do is show a potential burglar where the safe room
(17:08):
is and how to get in. So it's kind of
this cat mouse game that folks are playing with each
other for this amenity that is increasingly in demand and
wanted by a lot of people who are buying these phones.
There are concerns about crime going on in the city
and people's homes. People want to protect themselves all that,
but this is also a very l a story. When
(17:29):
we're talking about a million dollar homes. You know, safe
rooms that cost hundred thousands of dollars to a million dollars,
and you know they're not your run of the mill
safe rooms, right, It's not just a cold steel room
with some supplies and as you mentioned earlier, maybe Ammo
and things like that, these are really like everyday living spaces.
The way they design these things out, oh absolutely. And
(17:50):
I spoke with folks that said people have their interior
designers designed them. They almost always have a you know,
a TV, a state of the art radio system, a
comfortable couch. Some of the we're having beds now, most
of them are having toilets now, and some kind of
shower situation. So they're really trying to make these rooms,
especially the higher end rooms, feel like just another room,
(18:12):
just another din that someone can relax in while they
are hiding from a potential burglar or murderer. And it's
so funny because when I was posting this article social media,
I was saying, you know, these safe rooms which are
bigger than my entire apartment by three times over right,
and this is just one little blip in these people's homes.
(18:33):
It is kind of that feeling that this is not
just something that's going away or just kind of flashing
the pan style thing. They think homes above a certain
price level are probably gonna just kind of start becoming
outfitted with certain things like this. Maybe not a full room,
but at least saves things like that, just looking for
that security beyond even just looking for extra security. The
(18:55):
name of the game right now and high end l
A real estate is amenities, because if your selling houses
for this a ridiculous amount of money, you've got to
give a reason for people to want them. So you're
seeing more and more Jim's pools, movie rooms, all these
different amenities, and I think a safe room is now
just going to become kind of organically another amenity for
homes above a certain price point. Had Lemire's contributor to
(19:19):
The Hollywood Reporter. Thank you very much for joining us.
My pleasure, thanks for having me. That's it for today.
Join us on social media at Daily Dive Pod on
both Twitter and Instagram. Leave us a comment, give us
a rating, and tell us the stories that you're interested in.
(19:41):
Follow us and I heard radio or subscribe whatever you
get your podcast. This episode of The Daily Divers produced
by Vicker Wright and engineered by Tony Sarentino. I'm Oscar
Ramirez and this was her Daily Dive
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