2:00

So I brought him back today for another swipe. Once

2:03

the 10-year Treasury gets to 4% or

2:05

below, I think you're looking

2:07

at closer to 6% mortgage rates

2:10

in the not-so-distant future. Even

2:13

a moderate decline in mortgage rates would

2:15

encourage some first-time and trade-up buyers who've

2:17

been priced out over the past year

2:19

as mortgage rates spike to nearly 8%

2:23

to jump back in, says Eric Friedman

2:25

at U.S. Bank. If you see

2:27

that first number go down to 6, that

2:30

does have a psychological impact on

2:32

potential buyers. But there's

2:34

a limit to how much a slight drop

2:37

in mortgage rates would help the housing market,

2:39

says economist Kurt Long at America's Credit Unions.

2:41

He points out that a few years ago,

2:43

rates were less than half what they are

2:45

today. Every percentage point matters,

2:47

but I think if there are prospective

2:50

buyers out there waiting around for rates

2:52

to drop to levels that we saw

2:54

pre-COVID, you know, I just don't know

2:56

that that's in the cards in the

2:58

next foreseeable future. And

3:00

rates have to fall a lot before

3:03

current homeowners locked into their low pre-2022

3:06

mortgages will want to move, says

3:08

Greg McBride at bankrate.com. Homeowners

3:11

that are carrying 2.5, 3.5% mortgage rates, they're not real keen

3:13

on putting their house

3:15

on the market now, and then they have to go out and

3:17

finance the next place. As mortgage rates

3:19

fall, there's no guarantee home prices

3:21

will. But at least price

3:23

increases have slowed in recent months,

3:25

says Chen Zhao at Redfin. At

3:28

some point, people just can't afford

3:30

these homes anymore, and home prices

3:32

cannot continue to increase. Anyone

3:35

rooting for more home ownership in this economy

3:37

has got to hope she's right. I'm

3:40

Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace. On Wall Street

3:42

today, and for much of the rally

3:44

of the past couple of months, four

3:46

little letters N-V-D-A. We'll

3:51

have the details when we do the numbers. Imagine

4:05

for a second that you're a small business

4:07

owner and in between making payroll and figuring

4:09

out inventory and working on marketing. In

4:11

your spare time you've come up with a great

4:13

new product idea. After all

4:15

the designing and prototyping and manufacturing, you

4:18

do what you've got to do to make sure you're

4:20

the only one who can sell it and make money

4:22

from it. Trademarks, copyrights, patents. You're

4:24

all set, right? Well not

4:27

right. Knockoffs are a growing problem thanks

4:29

to the rise of third-party sellers on

4:32

sites like Amazon and Taimou. And

4:34

not just for big brands like Nike and Louis

4:36

Vuitton. According to the Patent and Trademark Office, $2

4:39

trillion worth of counterfeits are

4:41

sold every year. And as Marketplace's

4:44

Kristen Schwab reports, taking

4:46

those copycats off the market takes a lot of time

4:48

and a lot of money. Deborah

4:50

Holchlag isn't really a plant lady, but

4:52

she is married to a plant man.

4:55

He does not golf, he gardens. Which

4:57

was a delight until the dahlias took

5:00

over their patio. So Holchlag designed a

5:02

solution, a planter that attaches to railing

5:04

balusters with a tension clip. It

5:07

makes the plants look kind of like they're

5:09

floating. And that's the feature that made her

5:11

company, Plant Traps, go viral. But

5:14

soon enough... I saw a

5:16

knockoff using all of my

5:18

language, you know, printed

5:21

all my directions in their box,

5:23

used my trademark in their metadata.

5:25

Holchlag sent me some of these listings,

5:28

and they're such obvious ripoffs. Like some

5:30

sellers steal photos of her holding her

5:32

planter full of red mums and just

5:34

crop out her head. And

5:37

seeing this, her hard work copied

5:39

again and again sent Holchlag into

5:41

OverDrive, filing reports to Amazon, Taimou,

5:43

and eBay. This involves

5:45

uploading her legal documents and screenshots of

5:48

listings. Each complaint takes about 30 minutes.

5:51

It became a full-time job, to be honest.

5:54

At first, I was doing all the

5:56

reporting myself four hours a

5:58

day. Taimou! eBay and

6:00

Amazon, a marketplace underwriter, sent statements saying

6:03

counterfeit goods are prohibited on their platforms

6:05

and that they have measures to both

6:07

prevent the sale of these items and

6:10

respond to complaints. And

6:12

Hochschlag says retailers do usually take

6:14

action within a few days, but

6:17

new listings kept popping up. So

6:19

she hired lawyers. This April

6:21

alone, they found more than 500

6:24

knockoffs selling for as little as 99 cents

6:26

a planter. The real ones cost $19.99.

6:31

Hilton Hart is the CEO of Edison

6:33

IP Enforcement, a law firm that goes

6:35

after counterfeiters. He says e-commerce

6:37

platforms, especially ones that feature

6:39

third-party sellers, have turned tackling

6:41

fakes into a global game

6:43

of whack-a-mole. Every country's

6:46

legal system is different, and you

6:48

have to take individual actions in

6:50

each of the different countries. And

6:52

so it just becomes a logistical nightmare.

6:55

Hart says the majority of counterfeits

6:57

come from China, where manufacturing is

7:00

lightning fast and can be super

7:02

secretive. He's actually sent investigators there

7:04

for cases that require serving paperwork

7:07

in person. And the address

7:09

said floor five, but there were only three

7:11

floors in the building. Or the

7:13

investigator would show up to an empty field

7:15

and there's just no office building in sight.

7:18

This shady business is tough for

7:21

companies, but it's also a problem

7:23

for consumers. Anonymous sellers abroad might

7:25

not have high-quality standards. Carrie Camel,

7:28

who directs the Center for Anti-Counterfeiting

7:30

and Product Protection at Michigan State,

7:32

says some products can even be

7:35

dangerous. And it's sort of a game

7:37

of roulette. We're talking potentially

7:39

very high risk, right, for injury,

7:41

for in some cases, death, depending

7:43

on what it is. Think

7:46

counterfeit vitamins or car seats.

7:48

And Camel says even seemingly

7:50

innocent items, like clothing, can

7:52

contain ingredients like lead. Recently

7:55

proposed legislation would require companies

7:57

to vet sellers before listing.

8:00

In the meantime, it's on consumers.

8:02

Kamel encourages shoppers to buy directly

8:04

from brands and reputable retailers. She's

8:07

well aware, though, that people purposely

8:09

scour the internet for fake Gucci

8:11

belts and Apple headphone look-alikes. She

8:14

says think twice about where knockoffs come

8:16

from. They can have CD connections. A

8:19

lot of counterfeiting, not all, but a

8:21

lot of it is connected to organized

8:23

crime. It's connected to illicit

8:25

drug networks. It might be going to

8:27

support child labor. Like, there's a reason

8:29

why this product is so cheap. Suddenly,

8:32

a good deal might not

8:34

feel so good. I'm Kristen

8:36

Schwab for Marketplace. There

8:41

is nothing illicit, knockoff, or copycat about

8:43

our podcast. It is the genuine article.

8:45

If you miss something on the air,

8:48

you can get it at our website, marketplace.org, or

8:50

of course, the platform of your choice. Just follow

8:52

us there. The

8:59

Federal Reserve Bank

9:01

of Boston is

9:04

out with some research

9:06

about how buy

9:08

now, pay

9:19

later programs and platforms layaway used to

9:21

be called right back in the day,

9:23

free loans, essentially, to buy anything from

9:25

a new pair of shoes to a plane ticket. The

9:28

Boston Fed says its data shows

9:30

that it's disproportionately women, black and

9:32

Latino consumers, and those with rocky financial

9:35

histories who are the

9:37

most consistent users. Here, though, is

9:39

the question. Is BNPL, as it's

9:41

called, filling a credit gap, or

9:44

is it setting up already vulnerable consumers to

9:47

get in over their heads? Marketplace's

9:49

Venomar has more. Buy now,

9:51

pay later loans are a growing but

9:54

still pretty niche credit product. Economist

9:56

Ioana Stevens with the Boston Fed says

9:58

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