Grand theft global: the business of street crime

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1:05The Economist.

1:12Hello and welcome to The Intelligence from The Economist. I'm Rosie Bloor. And I'm Jason Palmer. Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

1:26Who do you consult when making big life decisions? Whether to take a new job? Who to marry? Time to get pregnant? Well, our correspondent would like to encourage you to consider a new oracle for an annual checkup. Your economist will see you now. And you know what I'd do if I hit the lottery? I'd get a snazzy private chef. Partly as teacher, but mostly just to feed newly rich, newly lazy me. It'd be easy to find one, too. They're plastered all over social media, spilling the secrets of other lazy rich folk.

2:05But first...

2:13On a sunny day a few weeks ago, I visited the port of Felixstowe, about an hour east of London. It's Britain's busiest port, 11 ,000 containers pass through it each day. And the whole area around it is a maze of industrial units and packing facilities, with giant stacks of containers and lorries bustling to and through. But I was there to find out how the police hunt for stolen cars. Tom Sass is our Britain Public Policy Editor. Guiding me around was Adam Gibson, the lone police officer tasked with finding vehicles stashed away in the shipping containers before they get exported. He showed me around a giant marquee where he inspects suspicious cars and then took me down to the port itself, where a ship was being ready to leave.

3:01We watched as a giant gantry crane stacked containers in the ship's bays. We could be standing in now, there could be three or four boxes for stolen cars just there. Probably at least one. Yeah. In those stacks. But how would we know? Yeah. It's manifested as teddy bears. Someone said to me, if these things were made of glass, our job would be so much easier. But it wouldn't, because they'd just pack mattresses around the outside and shit, the fridges, wouldn't they? And they'd just put the cars in the middle. They'd always have a way of doing it. Adam showed me a few shiny SUVs that had been stolen and explained how thieves are increasingly using sophisticated methods.

3:37Where it really changed was they brought in all this stuff to make it convenient for the customer. So all your keyless entry and all that keyless start, yes, it's lovely that, but it all brings vulnerabilities. What people need to look at cars and say is, those cars aren't just cars, they're computers on wheels, by the way. And they're being hacked. That's literally what it is. The reason they're getting stolen is they're being hacked. The stolen cars that Adam doesn't intercept will effectively disappear as soon as the ship leaves port. Many are ending up in Africa and the Gulf. And it's not just cars.

4:16This export business also lies behind the boom in phone thefts, which largely head to China. As countries in Africa and Asia have become richer, demand for the products common on the streets of the rich world is growing. The result is a flourishing criminal enterprise that we've dubbed Grand Theft Global. Tom, it's sounding very dramatic. Just how severe is this problem? It's not a new thing entirely. People have nicked things and smuggled them across borders for a very long time. What is new here is that it's really globe-spanning and it's underpinned by a rather sophisticated criminal supply chain.

4:56What is also new is that we're seeing that Britain has become, unfortunately something of a world leader in this new enterprise, both on cars where we've seen a 75 % increase in vehicles being stolen on Britain's streets in the last decade, a lot of those being exported around the world, but also on phones. London is the phone-snatching capital of Europe, 70 ,000 phones snatched in London last year. A lot of those are ending up in China. So this is really taking off in Britain, but we think it's likely to grow elsewhere. And why Britain? Why are things so bad in the UK? If you look at it, quite a lot of what's behind Grand Theft Global are factors that we see elsewhere.

5:37So it's having a lot of expensive cars and phones, what experts would call a saturated consumer market. It's also weak export controls or checks on export. So actually, the vast majority of the effort goes on checking what comes in, what goes out barely gets checked. The reason why it might be taking off in Britain in particular, we can speculate, One might be that London has been a hub for criminal innovation in the past. So it's a place where you have quite a lot of organised crime, you've got a lot of wealthy people, you've got high inequality, you've maybe got not a particularly effective police force.

6:09That means that we get these sorts of criminal innovations emerging in London, but then they spread elsewhere. The police in Britain only solve 5 % of all crimes, and it's only 2 % of all vehicle crimes. So in a sense, there's very little deterrent for the people doing this. I thought that cars had become harder to steal since they became effectively giant computers. So what's going on there? How do you steal a car? In the 90s, car manufacturers were made to introduce immobilisers and that led to a long decline in rates of car theft. It became much, much harder to do hotwire a vehicle. That was essentially no longer possible.

6:45The model now is completely different. And actually, it's interesting you mentioned computers. That's what's introduced a lot of the vulnerabilities that are now being exploited. So at Felixstowe Port, I was shown cars that had been broken into where thieves will plug an electronic device through the taillight and trick the car into opening by sending messages to the computer system from the taillight. The other thing that's interesting about this new model of car theft, I think, is just the sophistication of the supply chain. So a bit like with phone theft, one gang will steal the car, they'll then sell it on to another gang who handles the logistics involved in export.

7:20That often will then involve a third party to help with fake paperwork or masking the vehicle. Sometimes it will be taken to what's called a chop shop where it will be chopped up. I saw these cars that were just cut into thirds very quickly. And also we're seeing rental cars being targeted. So things like AI being used to develop very, very convincing fake paperwork. The gangs can then take to a rental company, get a car, put it into a box and export it. And this whole process actually from the point of theft to a car being in a container on the back of a boat is sometimes happening in a day. So it's really difficult for the police to respond to.

7:54And on phone thefts, we've talked before about phone snatching on the show, but what insights did you gather when you were doing this reporting? A bit like with the car theft picture, there's been this evolution of the way thieves have responded to what manufacturers have done. So manufacturers introduced security measures in phones, things like biometric ID, face recognition, which made it much, much harder for thieves to get into a phone that was locked. But what that has led to is a big rise in snatch thefts. So essentially people will come up often from behind on an electric bike. They'll try and grab the phone out of someone's hand critically while it's unlocked.

8:31They'll then very quickly disable the tracking and try and switch over the details before that phone can be tracked either by the user or by the police. So you see this evolution of the way thieves operate. Similar model to the cars. So your thief on the street selling onto a fence, it's then being wrapped in tinfoil, put on the back of a container ship. Most of those phones then ending up in China, in one market in Shenzhen, which interestingly is a place where many of the phones are being made in the first place. And what you've got there is a lot of people with the skills to maybe unlock those phones using different methods, but also to break apart those phones if they are locked and sell them on for parts.

9:10Actually, some of those screens which are taken when the phones are broken up for parts are then sold back to the UK. So if you go to a secondhand repair shop in London, they're likely to import their phone screens if you've just broken your phone screen. Those are likely to come from Shenzhen. So there's this kind of circular model where it's sort of imported, exported again and then brought back. So what can be done to counter grand theft global? I think it's quite hard. One idea is to put pressure on the destination countries. I think realistically that's not going to work. They don't have a great incentive to tackle this and they might not have the capacity, particularly in the case of some of those African countries where these cars are going.

9:48Potentially manufacturers, you can put a bit more pressure on to make them prioritize security measures. Another more promising idea is to stop this at the border. So you can try and get freight companies to know their customers a bit better and actually require a bit more ID when someone is booking a container. At the moment, it's really quite easy for a gang to book a container. But I think the main thing actually is policing. And really, policing has not prioritised these crimes. They've not seen them as high harm, and they've not given a lot of resources to it. So I think you could find ways for the police to clamp down on some of the new methods.

10:23So things like unrestricted electric bikes, the type of kit that's being used for break-ins. But really, the big shift is to see this as an organised global enterprise, not some low-level crime. Tom, thank you very much. Thanks, Rosie.

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11:29If he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums. He'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs. Yep, even on weekends, it's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com slash bank. Capital One N.A. Member FDIC.

11:59You wouldn't be the first to put off your annual checkup. After what feels like an eternity in the waiting room, flicking through dogged copies of the world's finest publications. Hmm, Indonesia is still at a crossroads. A buzzer sounds. And your name appears on screen. You're called through. Mr Jackson, your economist will see you now. Gavin Jackson is an economics and finance correspondent. The economist John Maynard Keynes once wrote that economists should behave in a manner that would lead the public to think of them as humble, competent people, akin to dentists. But what if the profession took his idea both seriously and literally?

12:40Could a trip to your economist make your life better? The first question in your annual economic checkup is what seems to be the matter? Income or happiness? Now there's some good news here. More money doesn't necessarily mean more problems. In fact, more money should generally make you happier. Research at the University of Pennsylvania found that for all but a small minority, well-being typically increases, right along with income, and that there is no upper limit to the trend. Instead of there being a plateau when you earn enough, you keep getting happier as you earn more. Now let's check your vitals.

13:21Just as with your doctor, a big factor in your checkup is going to depend on how old you are and what has already gone wrong. A handful of big decisions, whether to go to university and what you study, what career you pursue, whether you start a family and with whom, are going to matter more than any others. Now a college education is usually a good bet. In 2020 the British think tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, found that after accounting for individual characteristics and taxation, university leads to a typical bump of about 20 % in lifetime earnings. Another factor, where you're from.

13:53A person's place of birth has the biggest impact on their life outcomes. The 83 % of the world's population who live outside of rich countries hold a bad hand. The prescription for that is simple. Move if you can. A paper in 2016 from the Centre for Global Development, World Bank and Harvard, calculated the benefits of moving from the poor world to America for a typical 30-year-old man with a secondary education. The returns to moving came to about$14 ,000 a year, adjusting for the different price level. So it turns to migration a sky high. Now, immigration laws, border fences make that easier said than done.

14:27But still, fewer people move than you'd expect. The psychological ties of family and place are stronger than you might think. Then there's the type of work you do. Although wages do vary widely between occupations, it matters whether you're a banker or a janitor. A rising share of the variation is explained not only by what you do, but by the company for which you work. Best, then, to get a job at a superstar employer. Unionised companies pay more than their non-unionised counterparts. But unions tend to ensure that low performers get paid more, while high performers get paid less. So if you're a high flyer, you might want to opt for the non-unionised option.

15:03But if you'd prefer the easier life, maybe go for the union.

15:10Then there's the big life choices. Getting married, having kids. Now, on the surface, it looks like you should wait to get married. Later marriages are typically more stable. But the timing has little effect in itself. Instead, the pattern reflects the type of people who wait for just the right partner. So if you find them early, no reason to delay. Though if you want kids,

15:32the research does suggest it might be better to wait. And in this case, it might not be a matter of who decides to wait and who doesn't. The later a woman's career break, the smaller the impact on her lifetime earnings. Seems like if you get your feet under the desk before you take maternity leave, the costs of doing so are lower. For older patients coming to their economist's office for their annual checkup, there's less helpful advice. Saving for retirement is more valuable the earlier you start. We can save the impromptu refresher on compound interest for another day. So older folk do not have so much time to improve their earning power.

16:05Taking a career break to go back to school or switching employers may not pay off. Instead, perhaps focus on becoming happier and less lonely instead. Get out and meet people. All of this comes with a caveat. Economic research tends to deal in averages. Much of the advice should be generic rather than tailored to the individual. That's much the same for dentists. Their advice, brush your teeth, avoid sweets, is the same for everyone. But dentists can fix things after they've gone wrong. They can drill out decay. They can give you a polish. Economists are limited in what they can do. Maybe they could hand you a big sum of money, but why pay someone to do that if you can do it yourself?

16:43To live up to Keynes' metaphor, then, economists are going to need more than data. They need drills. They need some method of fixing what's broken.

17:01Here is Diplo's shrimp and vegetable curry for his weekly high-protein meal prep. I always roast the sweet potatoes for the curry. The world of the private chef is one of culinary fantasy. Brooke Bayevsky, better known as Chef Bay, spills the culinary secrets of the super rich to her followers on social media. Next is on to Diplo's Pantry and Fridge Goals to get some ingredients for a dairy... Caitlin Talbot is a culture correspondent at The Economist. But she's not the only one. She is part of a batch of private chefs who are serving up recipes with a side of celebrity intrigue. Unsure as I am that I want to see in this particular way in which the other half lives.

17:41Tell me, what am I gonna see? So TikTok private chefs give fans glimpses of huge fridges and record their endless shopping lists and trips to posh grocery stores. Chef Bae says in one of her videos that a client spent$20 ,000 sending her across the world to fetch their favorite dark chocolate and nuts. Another creator called Saucy Rosie whips up four course menus on yachts in the Bahamas. In the summertime, many private chefs go to the Hamptons, an upscale coastal resort near New York, where they serve seasonal dishes with simple ingredients and a sort of sense of elevated luxury. Now, do I even want to know what it costs to have one of these chefs taking care of your every culinary whim?

18:28So I spoke to an agency called the Colonistas who match clients and chefs, and they told me that for an average summer season, it costs$50 ,000 to have a chef to cook whatever you may desire. Does that include the food costs or is that just the chef cost? Just the chef. Goodness. Ingredients on top. And there are plenty of people who are willing to pay this cost. Oh, yes. And in part, thanks to the kind of boom on social media, business is up. The colonistas told me that business in the Hamptons this summer is up 40 % on last year and they've had to kind of extend the amount of accommodation for the number of chefs that they're sending out there.

19:07It's easy to imagine that for some chefs, that's better than the normal chef-y grind. Yeah, exactly. And the colonistas note that when they started the agency, private chefing was definitely seen as something that was sort of inferior to being a restaurant chef. And that has kind of turned on its head a little bit, thanks in part to the pandemic. And also, you know, the rich and famous are seeing these private chefs on their own Instagram feeds and according to Chef Bae are actually reaching out to her to kind of collaborate both to have their meals cooked and also to kind of create fun videos.

19:42All of this draws in viewers who get a sort of glimpse behind the velvet curtain. The hashtag private chef has been viewed nearly 5 billion times on TikTok. So the industry has definitely benefited from its viral moment. I guess the question is why do these rich and famous want that kind of relatively intimate thing as like part of their social media feed. Why lift the velvet curtain? Well, exactly. And I think that the really interesting thing about TikTok private chefs is there's nothing really private about them. You know, this is industry that tradition you'd go in, you'd sign an NDA and you wouldn't even be able to tell, you know, your close friends who you're cooking for.

20:19But I think it's really become a sort of trend. You know, it's still curated, it's controlled. They're only allowing certain elements to be seen, but I think it makes them more relatable. They have their own social media feeds where they might be sharing more of this stuff now anyway. And having a kind of private chef who themselves are a sort of public figure, I think allows them to do this in a sort of stylish way. Mutual brand management with a meal on the side. Exactly. And some of these creators have become big stars. Meredith Hayden, who started cooking several summers ago in the Hamptons, released a cookbook, which became a New York Times bestseller.

20:57She has since quit private chefing and moved to the Hamptons herself. So a real full circle moment. And presumably, eventually, she'll get her own private chef. Well, yeah, even if she could do it better herself. Caitlin, thanks very much for coming on. Thanks very much, Jason.

21:28That's all for this episode of The Intelligence. We'll see you back here tomorrow.