Oligarchs and taxes and bonds, oh my!
Make Me Smart
Marketplace
4.6 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2022
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today we’re answering questions that get at those knock-on economic effects of Russia’s war with Ukraine we’ve been talking about recently on the show. One listener wonders about gas tax revenue. Another wants to know: What is an oligarch, and why should I care? We’ll tell you that, plus dig into some specifics about the bond market and provide clarification about Fed chief Jay Powell’s magic keyboard.
If you’ve got a question you want us to answer next time, send a voice memo or give us a call at 508-82-SMART (508-827-6278).
Here’s everything we talked about on the show today:
- “Democrats weigh gas tax holiday to ease inflation pressure on Americans” from NBC News
- “Whitmer joins coalition of governors calling to suspend federal gas tax” from WZZM
- Stocks Surge, Oil Falls, Extending Volatility Amid Ukraine War from The Wall Street Journal
- Scott Tong’s reporting on Venezuela for Marketplace
- “The U.S. Shifts Focus to Venezuelan Oil, but Output Is Low” from The Wall Street Journal
- “U.S. ties easing of Venezuela sanctions to direct oil supply” from Reuters
- “Meet Russia’s oligarchs, a group of men who won’t be toppling Putin anytime soon” from The Conversation
- “What is a Russian oligarch? Here’s what to know as the U.S. rolls out sanctions” from CBS News
- “Turning the Focus on America’s Oligarchs” from The New Yorker
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | All right, Jake's ready. Let's go. |
| 0:07.0 | There we go. Hey, everybody. I'm Kyle Rizzo. Welcome back to Make Me Smart. |
| 0:09.9 | Making the day make sense is what we do on this pod. |
| 0:14.5 | And I'm Kimberly Adams. Thank you for joining us on this. |
| 0:17.9 | What do you want to know Wednesday where we answer your questions from the past |
| 0:22.0 | week? And if you do have a question that you think we should answer, not today, |
| 0:26.2 | but next week, you can leave us a voice of let 508 827 6278 or send us an email. |
| 0:34.1 | Make me smart at marketplace.org. |
| 0:37.1 | Do like real time. What do you want to know Wednesday? What would that sell? |
| 0:40.9 | We did. Okay. Here's the first question. |
| 0:44.3 | Hi, this is Tim from Evanston, Illinois. I have a question about gas prices. |
| 0:50.0 | I know there are taxes that are of component of the gas price, |
| 0:55.0 | but are all state and local taxes on top of the refiner costs if flat sense per gallon |
| 1:01.8 | or are some a percentage that is, are there any states or municipalities that are |
| 1:07.6 | getting a windfall? Thanks. Make me smart. |
| 1:11.8 | Oh, interesting. Well, so you do not love this on the show. |
| 1:14.5 | Yeah. So look, so since per gallon, it's not flat sense per gallon, right? |
| 1:18.2 | But since per gallon is kind of a percentage. |
| 1:19.8 | Federal gas tax is 18.5 cents, 18.4 technically sense of gallon. |
| 1:25.9 | State taxes kind of depends on where you are. |
| 1:28.3 | Average nationwide, it's about 30 cents a gallon here in California. |
| 1:31.1 | It's like 51 cents, I think. |
... |
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