Marketplace®

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Small talk: Wintour, sun, TSA ripoffs

Marketplace's Brendan Newnam and Rico Gagliano talk with fellow staffers Deb Clark, Stacey Vanek-Smith and Jeremy Hobson about under-the-radar business stories: Anna Wintour's 'shop more' campaign, sunshine insurance and TSA security guards/thieves.

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TEXT OF INTERVIEW

KAI RYSSDAL: A final note today. This being a Friday afternoon, it’s time for a break from the big economic news of the week. We’re going to let Rico Gagliano and Brendan Newnam loose to do what they do: Ask the Marketplace staff about the stories that didn’t make the headlines.


Rico Gagliano:Deb Clark, senior producer of Marketplace Money. What story are you going to be talking about this weekend?

Deb Clark: Well, you know Anna Wintour of Vogue. She’s decided in these tough economic times that we need to be reminded of “just how wonderful shopping can be.”

Gagliano: I think we need to remind her of how we’re supposed shop without any money.

Clark: Well here’s a thought: She may not actually be in touch with the common man. But anyway, Fashion’s Night Out, she’s organizing it. It’s going to be happening in Paris, China, Rome stores with late hours and special events.

Gagliano: And first we have to be able to afford to go to any of those cities, right?

Clark: And I think she’s probably not going to offer scholarships.

Brendan Newnam: Stacey Vanek-Smith, what’s your story.

Stacey Vanek-Smith: Some French travel agencies are trying to encourage people to travel during the recession by offering “sunshine insurance.” If you have four days of rain during your trip, they will send a check in the mail.

Newnam: Did you hear that Seattle? You better bone up on your French, stock up on cigarettes and bread. The French tourists are coming!

Gagliano: Jeremy Hobson, New York reporter. Go.

Jeremy Hobson: There are a couple of security officers and baggage handlers at New York’s JFK were arrested for stealing luggage.

Gagliano: The whole bags?

Hobson: The iPods and the laptops inside them. And then they ripped off the baggage tags so they would be harder to trace the violated bags.

Gagliano: But the obvious solution is to deploy more security guards to watch the other TSA security guards, right?

Hobson: Yeah, maybe that’ll solve the unemployment problem in the country.

Gagliano: And then pretty soon, there would be more security guards than passengers.

Hobson: I think that’s already the case.

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