Amazon's outage, anxious retirees, and LA brings the Heat, too

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Indicator from Planet Money

Episode: Amazon’s outage, anxious retirees, and LA brings the Heat, too
Date: October 24, 2025
Hosts: Waylon Wong, Adrian Ma, Darian Woods

---

Overview

This episode of The Indicator from Planet Money is part of their "Indicators of the Week" series, in which the hosts spotlight compelling numbers from recent economic news stories. The team covers three main topics: a major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage, trends around Americans planning for Social Security, and California’s renewed push to incentivize film production—including the much-anticipated sequel, "Heat 2." The episode blends humor, insight, and memorable pop-culture references to make sense of timely issues shaping the economy.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Amazon Web Services Outage and the Internet’s Fragility

Key Indicator: 30%
(03:12)

• Darian Woods: “30%. That's how much of the Internet across the globe is hosted by Amazon Web Services, according to the analytics company HG Insights.”
• AWS experienced a significant global outage early in the week due to a DNS (Domain Name System) malfunction, impacting a wide swath of online services—including, possibly, basic workplace tools and payment systems.
• Waylon Wong: Recounts local disruptions including a broken grocery point-of-sale system and work email issues (02:56).
• Services hit included Snapchat and Reddit.
• Will Amazon suffer consequences?
  • Most customers are not entitled to major compensation—typically just minor credits.
  • Cloud outages happen; best practices dictate that clients should not rely on a single AWS region or provider.
  • Darian Woods: “The argument is that the owners should be not on Amazon per se, but on the companies using Amazon...”
• Despite the chaos, Amazon’s share price actually climbed 1.6% by the end of the period (04:31).
  • Waylon Wong (jokes): “Maybe everyone just realizes the switching costs are too high. So it’s like no matter what happens, we’re stuck.” (04:31)

---

2. Americans’ Anxiety about Social Security

Key Indicator: 44%
(04:40)

• Adrian Ma: “44%. It comes from this survey of US workers conducted by a financial management company called Schroeders.”
• 44% of those surveyed plan to claim Social Security before age 67, despite the harsh financial penalty for early withdrawal.
• Key Info:
  • Early collection at 62 results in about a 30% reduction in monthly benefits compared to waiting until 67.
  • Waiting until 70 can mean up to a 45% higher benefit than at 62.
• Rationale for Early Withdrawal: Many worry that Social Security will "run out of money," leaving them empty-handed if they wait (05:58).
• Darian Woods: Explains the looming shortfall—reserves may run out in less than a decade, after which the program would only be able to pay 81 cents on the dollar (06:25).
  • “It does not mean that Social Security will just disappear, but it does mean that people might not receive full payments that they’re entitled to...” (06:25)
• Waylon Wong: “Well, I feel like if I get to 62, 67, 70, whatever it is, and I’m only getting 81 cents on the dollar, I’m gonna be pretty unhappy.” (07:00)
• Discussion about policy proposals to raise the retirement age, but with so many collecting early, the effectiveness is uncertain.

---

3. California’s Revamped Film Tax Credits and “Heat 2”

Key Indicator: 52
(08:05)

• Waylon Wong: “My indicator is 52. That is the number of film productions that are getting tax credits from the state of California to shoot their movies locally.”
• California has more than doubled its film industry incentive program budget (from $330 million to $750 million).
• Why so many credits?
  • The state is fighting to keep productions from relocating to other states and countries that offer competing incentives.
  • Expected to generate about 9,000 jobs for cast and crew (08:46).
• Notably, one of the funded projects is "Heat 2," the sequel to the iconic 1995 Los Angeles crime thriller "Heat."
  • Waylon Wong: “This one is Heat two. It's the follow up to the Michael Mann action movie Heat from 1995. It stars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino and there’s actually an econ lesson in the movie. So I’m going to play this for you guys. This is Robert De Niro robbing a bank.” (09:10)
  • Plays memorable clip:
    Robert De Niro (in-movie): “We’re here for the bank’s money, not your money. Your money is insured by the federal government. You’re not going to lose a dime.” (09:31)
  • The hosts riff on this as a “PSA about FDIC deposit insurance,” but joke that the real De Niro “didn't have time for the fine print” (09:50).
• Discussion ends on humorous notes about the original’s iconic LA scenes and hope for equally thrilling local sequences in the sequel.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On AWS Outage:
  • “I saw a message in a local Facebook group that was like, no one go to the grocery store. Their whole point of sale system was down. And I don’t know if that was AWS, but there was definitely a lot of funky stuff happening.” – Waylon Wong (02:56)
• On Social Security Anxiety:
  • “This is way more math than I want to be doing in my twilight years, I will say.” – Waylon Wong (07:27)
• On Iconic Movie Finance Lessons:
  • “Robert De Niro in the midst of robbing a bank. Takes time for a little PSA about FDIC deposit insurance.” – Waylon Wong (09:38)
• On LA’s Hope for “Heat 2”:
  • “The original movie was shot on location in California and this shootout in downtown LA is absolutely iconic. So hopefully the sequel has some equally iconic California scenes, some learning and some action. I know. What more do you need?” – Waylon Wong (09:50)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• AWS Outage and Internet Reliance: 02:12 – 04:37
• Social Security Early Withdrawals and Anxieties: 04:40 – 08:03
• California Film Tax Incentives & “Heat 2” Announcement: 08:05 – 09:50

---

Podcast Tone and Style

Throughout, the hosts maintain a witty and conversational tone, often injecting humor (invented words like "co-hoster with the moster" and playful banter about math in retirement). Pop culture asides (especially “Heat”) blend seamlessly into the analysis, making each segment approachable without losing depth or relevance.

---

This summary captures all substantive content and key moments from the episode, skipping advertisement and generic outro segments. Listeners seeking bite-sized but meaningful economic insights—delivered with flair—will find this installment especially engaging.

Transcript

[A]

Npr.

[B]

This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong here with my co host Adrian Ma.

[A]

Hello.

[B]

And rounding out the indicators, happy trio, fellow co hoster with the Moster, Darian Woods.

[C]

A pleasure as always to be in this economy explaining tripod.

[D]

I think you've just invented a new word by the way. Moster.

[B]

Uh, yeah. Look at me inventing words here on indicators of the week. Oh, I spoiled it.

[C]

Indicators of the week. That's what we're doing.

[B]

That's right. We have looked at interesting numbers in the news this week and we are here to tell you all about them.

[C]

On today's episode, we have the global Internet outage.

[D]

Americans chomping at the bit for Social Security checks.

[B]

And don't let yourself get attached to anything you're not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner after the break.

[A]

Break. This message comes from Vanguard. Capturing value in the bond market is not easy. That's why Vanguard offers a suite of over 80 institutional quality bond funds actively managed by a 200 person global team of sector specialists, analysts and traders. They're designed for financial advisors looking to give their clients consistent results year in and year out. See the [e-mail] audio that's vanguard.com audio all investing is subject to risk. Vanguard Marketing Corporation Distributor this message comes from Schwab. Everyone has moments when they could have done better. Same goes for where you invest. Level up and invest smarter with Schwab. Get market insights, education and human help when you need it.

[B]

This message comes from Dell Technologies. Your new Dell PC with Intel Core Ultra helps you handle a lot when your holiday to DOS get to be a lot. Luckily the Dell PC helps you get it all done. Get [e-mail] holiday.

[C]

My indicator is 30%. That's how much of the Internet across the globe is hosted by Amazon Web Services, according to the analytics company HG Insights.

[D]

And that becomes a problem when Amazon Web Services goes down.

[C]

Yeah. On Monday, as you probably heard or experienced yourself, Amazon Web Services or aws, had an outage. It was caused by a problem with its internal directory, basically what's called a domain name system or DNS. And so when that stopped working, this caused a pile up of errors that took the company over three hours to resolve. And then that outage created lingering interruptions among all kinds of web services throughout the day.

[B]

Yeah, I feel like my email at work wasn't working right and I don't know if that was aws. And then I saw a message in A local Facebook group that was like, no one go to the grocery store. Their whole point of sale system was down. And I don't know if that was aws, but there was definitely a lot of funky stuff happening.

[C]

Yeah, you had Snapchat, you had Reddit, all these services that were apparently affected. One question I was wondering was, will Amazon face material consequences for this? Is Amazon, by the way, is a financial supporter of NPR and pays to distribute some of our programming. And the answer to that question of material consequences is likely no. Amazon has agreements with everyone who signs up for their services. The most that companies might be entitled to might be some small credit for the time when AWS was down.

[B]

Oh, probably prorated down to the minute. So it's basically $3 off your bill.

[C]

And in defense of Amazon, which is that web hosting does sometimes go down. Remember, cloud strike errors happen. So the argument is that the owners should be not on Amazon per se, but on the companies using Amazon. They should have backup. They shouldn't have signed up to only one region within Amazon's cloud services and just that one company, Amazon. So this is the argument. But either way, investors don't think that Amazon's profitability will be badly affected by this fiasco. Between the end of day Friday and the end of day Monday, Amazon's share price was up. Actually, it was up 1.6%.

[B]

Maybe everyone just realizes the switching costs are too high. So it's like no matter what happens, we're stuck.

[C]

And speaking of security and backups and.

[D]

Cushions, my indicator is about Social Security, which is the income safety net program a lot of older folks rely on in retirement. And the number is 44%. It comes from this survey of US workers conducted by a financial management company called Schroeders. And when they asked U.S. workers, 44% of those they surveyed said they plan to file for Social Security benefits before age 67, even though most of them know that would incur a financial penalty.

[C]

Right. That's because 67 is considered like the standard age for retirement.

[D]

Right. The earliest that you can collect Social Security benefits is actually age 62. But any age before 67 is actually considered kind of collecting on Social Security early. If a person collects Social Security at age 62, their monthly payment would be about 30% lower than if they waited until 67. So that's a pretty big spread. And it would be 45% lower than if they waited just a few more years until age 70, which is what a lot of financial planners would recommend.

[B]

So 45%?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh, geez, I guess you gotta gamble with how long your longevity is. But if you think you're gonna last a long time, then 70 makes a lot of sense.

[D]

Time, value of money, life circumstances. But the reason that a lot of people in the survey said that they wanted to collect early was that they're actually worried that Social Security will run out of money or that it'll stop making payments.

[C]

I guess this makes sense on one hand, because of all these reports of the nation aging and fertility declining, the money going out of Social Security is greater than the amount going in.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

And while Social Security does have a sort of piggy bank of reserve funds it can draw on without any further changes to the program, those reserves are actually expected to run out in less than a decade. And if that happens, it does not mean that Social Security will just disappear, but it does mean that people might not receive full payments that they're entitled to and that Social Security might only have enough money to pay about 81 cents on the dollar of the benefits they owe.

[C]

So nobody should worry about just not being able to get any Social Security. But they may get less.

[B]

Well, I feel like if I get to 62, 67, 70, whatever it is, and I'm only getting 81 cents on the dollar, I'm gonna be pretty unhappy.

[D]

It's true though, if you essentially take a 30 or 40% penalty for drawing down early compared to like, if you could have waited longer, then doesn't seem like a great move even if you are only collecting 70 cents on the dollar.

[B]

This is way more math than I want to be doing in my twilight years. I will say.

[D]

Again, all this assumes that policymakers don't really take any other actions to shore up the program. And it's worth noting that in recent months, some Republicans have expressed at least a sort of openness to raising the retirement age, which could help solidify the program a little bit.

[B]

Not if everyone withdraws early.

[D]

It's a race, it's a run on Social Security. So that's my indicator. Something to look forward to, I guess.

[A]

Thanks.

[D]

Way to the cheerful math, yes, maybe.

[B]

We should all disassociate with some good old fashioned Hollywood entertainment. That's what my indicator is about. My indicator is 52. That is the number of film productions that are getting tax credits from the state of California to shoot their movies locally. The California Film Commission announced the projects this week, and this was the first round of credits awarded since the state government doubled its incentive program. So it went from $330 million to $750 million.

[C]

Right. We've talked about this before. Los Angeles has been los a lot of film and TV projects to other states and countries with their own tax incentive programs. And this has created somewhat of a crisis for Hollywood.

[B]

Yeah. The state says that these 52 projects will employ around 9,000 cast and crew. And that's really the idea behind these tax incentive programs. Right. Studios promise to spend money locally and then they get some money back from the government as a reward.

[D]

52 is a lot of projects. That's one project a week. Are there any on the list that you're excited about?

[B]

I will tell you the one that I am super pumped about. And this one is Heat two. It's the follow up to the Michael Mann action movie Heat from 1995. It stars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino and there's actually an econ lesson in the movie. So I'm going to play this for you guys. This is Robert De Niro robbing a bank.

[D]

We want to hurt no one.

[B]

We're here for the bank's money, not your money. Your money is insured by the federal government. You're not going to lose a dime.

[C]

Amazing. Fdic.

[B]

Yes. Robert De Niro in the midst of robbing a bank. Takes time for a little PSA about FDIC deposit insurance.

[C]

But I have more than $250,000 in my checking account.

[B]

Yes, well, Robert Dinoro didn't have time for the fine print. He was too busy taking that bank for all it was worth and then doing a super stressful, extremely violent shootout in the streets of Los Angeles. So, yeah, so I mean, that's the whole thing. Like the original movie was shot on location in Calif, California and this shootout in downtown LA is absolutely iconic. So hopefully the sequel has some equally iconic California scenes, some learning and some action. I know. What more do you need? This episode was produced by Angel Carreras with engineering by Debbie Daughtry and it's fact checked by Julia Ritchie. Katkin Cannon edits the show and the indicator is a production of npr.

[A]

This message comes from Vanta. In today's fast changing digital world, proving your company has trustworthy security practices is essential. Vanta helps companies of all sizes earn and prove trust with the industry's best AI, automation and continuous monitoring. So whether you're a startup tackling your first SoC2 or ISO 27001 or an enterprise managing vendor risk, Vanta's trust management platform makes it easier. Visit vanta.com NPR to sign up for a demo today. This message comes from Mint Mobile. At Mint Mobile, their favorite word is no. No contracts, no monthly bills, no hidden FE fees. Plans start at $15 a month. Make the switch at mintmobile.com switch that's mintmobile.com switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month 5GB plan required equivalent to $15 a month new customer offer for first 3 months only then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. This message comes from Instacart. Did you see the game last night? Of course you did, because you used Instacart to do your grocery restock. Plus you got snacks for the game, all without missing a single play. And that's multitasking. So Instacart isn't saying it's a hack for game day, but it might be the ultimate play this football season. Enjoy. $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees apply. Valid on three orders within 14 days. Excludes restaurants. Instacart we're here.