When your bank gets the fire insurance money

Marketplace Morning Report

American Public Media

News, Business

4.5 • 808 Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A PSA for those whose homes burnt in the LA-area wildfires earlier this year: If the insurance company writes a check, it comes with two names on it — the property owner's and the bank's. But the bank may keep interest earned on that insurance payout. Now, a California assemblyman is trying to change that. We'll check in. Also: China lowers interest rates, and fewer international students come to the States for higher education.

Transcript

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0:00.0	When your bank gets the fire insurance money. I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. First, we'll know in just over seven hours how America's central bankers plan to proceed given tariffs potentially slowing the economy and raising prices at the same time. The expectation is for the Fed to leave interest rates unchanged for now.
0:22.6	China today lowered its interest rates in response to the trade war. Here's Marketplace's China correspondent, Jennifer
0:28.1	back in Shanghai. The announcement comes hours after American and Chinese officials have agreed to
0:33.9	meet this weekend for trade talks. China's central bank wants to inject some confidence in the Chinese economy beforehand.
0:40.8	It will trim several interest rates to make it cheaper to borrow money
0:43.9	and lower the amount of cash banks must hold in reserves by half a percent.
0:48.6	But banks are not low on funds to lend.
0:51.2	There just isn't enough demand for borrowing from households or businesses.
0:55.3	And these measures, similar to the ones last fall, say analysts, will have a modest impact.
1:00.9	Businesses and consumers are still cautious about China's property slump and the U.S. China
1:05.5	tensions. In Shanghai, I'm Jennifer Pack for Marketplace.
1:09.5	Amid tougher U.S. border policies, new data point to fewer international students coming to the U.S. for higher education.
1:16.8	For instance, the Association of International Educators, NAFSA, finds a 13% dip in enrollments in postgraduate programs for the next academic year.
1:26.4	Marketplaces Elizabeth Troval has that.
1:29.5	Visa issues and other government policies are the top reason NAFSA CEO Fanta A says they're seeing a decline in international enrollment.
1:38.2	The uncertainty that international students currently in the U.S. have experienced have had a ripple effect on prospective students and how they're looking to the U.S. have experienced, have had a ripple effect on prospective students
1:45.4	and how they're looking to the U.S. International students tend to be postgrad, often in STEM fields.
1:51.5	Arizona State University's Trevor Thornton teaches several students entering careers in
1:56.0	semiconductors. They're getting interviews at these companies, getting jobs at these companies,
2:02.1	but there's a lot of fear.
2:07.2	The ones who are a year behind them are wondering what they're going to be doing a year from now.
2:14.4	And Wendy Wolvert, with Cornell, where students have dealt with visa revocations, says interest in the school remains strong for now.
	...

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