Words & Numbers: Recent Episodes

Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan

Words & Numbers touches on issues of Economics, Political Science, Current Events and Policy. Each Wednesday we'll be sharing a new Words & Numbers podcast featuring Antony Davies Ph.D and James Harrigan Ph.D talking about the economics and political science of current events.

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Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits https://www.pcmag.com/news/chatgpt-gets-absolutely-wrecked-in-chess-match-with-1978-atari https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/564133/marines-carry-out-first-known-detention-of-civilian-in-los-angeles Foolishness of the Week https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/14/business/trump-income-crypto-licensing

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/trading-investing/us-debt-downgrade https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/world/social-cohesion-poverty-top-agenda-at-milei-pope-meeting.phtml https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/democrats-young-male-voters-2024-rcna210085 Foolishness of the Week https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dems-drop-20m-bizarre-american-men-strategy-plan-study-effort-dig-out-2024-political-hole

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits https://thehill.com/business/housing/5326389-homesellers-outnumber-buyers-housing-market/

Foolishness of the Week https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/gabbard-considering-ways-revamp-trumps-intelligence-briefing-rcna209805

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits https://x.com/TopShelfSports0/status/1923122877366161873

Foolishness of the Week https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pennsylvania-kindergartener-jello-shots-rcna207337

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ais-threat-to-google-just-got-real-8280b4ee

Foolishness of the Week https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/09/trump-intelligence-briefing-frequency-00338946

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits https://www.domusweb.it/en/news/2025/05/05/bag-leather-dinosaur-t-rex.html https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/skilled-trades-high-school-recruitment-fd9f8257 https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed48.asp https://www.mediaite.com/politics/you-have-no-timeline-senator-gobsmacked-by-fbi-director-kash-patel-showing-up-at-budget-hearing-without-a-budget/

Foolishness of the Week https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/06/trump-meme-coin-crypto.html

Topic of the Week https://www.cato.org/people/clark-neily https://www.amazon.com/Terms-Engagement-Enforce-Constitutions-Government/dp/1594036969 Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/08/fake-job-seekers-use-ai-to-interview-for-remote-jobs-tech-ceos-say.html https://fortune.com/article/slate-auto-20000-dollar-electric-pickup-jeff-bezos/ Foolishness of the Week https://www.motor1.com/news/698055/toyota-13000-dollar-hilux-champ/

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/21/nx-s1-5371312/trump-white-house-pete-hegseth-defense-department

Foolishness of the Week https://www.mediaite.com/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-declares-evil-is-being-defeated-by-the-hand-of-god-in-apparent-celebration-of-pope-franciss-death/

Topic of the Week https://fedsoc.org/contributors/nicoleneily

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/chatgpt-spends-tens-of-millions-of-dollars-on-people-playing-please-and-thank-you-but-sam-altman-says-its-worth-it https://gptforwork.com/tools/openai-chatgpt-api-pricing-calculator https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/ar-AA1DaZ75

Foolishness of the Week https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2024/05/photos-easter-rocket-war-vrontados/678306/

Topic of the Week https://fedsoc.org/contributors/nicoleneily

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/trump-hater-of-evs-says-hes-buying-a-tesla-66553ef8?st=8QPVxR&reflink=article_imessage_share

https://interestingengineering.com/energy/device-capture-electricity-earth-rotational-dynamics

Foolishness of the Week https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/20/texas-measles-family-gaines-county-death/

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/rosie-odonnell-feels-healthier-fleeing-204508142.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/03/campaign-to-decolonize-shakespeares-hometown-exposes-deis-double-standards/

Topic of the Week https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/SMAN-107/pdf/SMAN-107-pg935.pdf

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/new-deepfake-detector-inspects-pixels-to-uncover-falsehoods-on-your-phone-within-6-seconds/ https://apnews.com/article/financial-markets-correction-sp-wall-street-904910323785d377a7d61023df450b72

Foolishness of the Week https://webservices.ncleg.gov/ViewBillDocument/2025/1005/0/DRH30080-MCa-41

Topic of the Week https://www.amazon.com/Your-Body-Health-Care/dp/1964524458

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits https://shoppress.dormanproducts.com/right-to-repair-act-explained/ https://www.wpr.org/news/lawmakers-attorney-general-right-to-repair-farm-equipment-wisconsin https://www.wfmj.com/story/52519599/mega-millions-ticket-prices-are-set-to-increase-in-april

Foolishness of the Week https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/media/press-releases/ocasio-cortez-luna-introduce-bill-cap-credit-card-interest-rates-10 Topic of the Week https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/05/17/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-in-the-workplace/ https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/22/us/dei-diversity-equity-inclusion-explained/index.html

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits https://www.iflscience.com/struggling-over-a-big-life-decision-math-says-you-should-use-the-37-percent-rule-77590 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-demographic-economics/article/gary-beckers-contribution-to-the-economics-of-matching-and-marriage/187A2CC2CF5D59CE24062B26420DCE7A https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-closing-skype-7ac4e86f55acb40098476e01d8d4a473

Foolishness of the Week https://www.live5news.com/2025/02/28/former-high-school-honors-student-who-says-she-cant-read-write-sues-district-where-she-graduated/

Topic of the Week https://www.consumerreports.org/consumer-rights/can-consumer-boycotts-actually-be-successful-a1122761400/

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits https://health.amazon.com/prime?ref_=nav_cs_all_health_ingress_onem_highlight_aom https://www.live5news.com/2025/01/14/pizzagate-gunman-killed-by-police-north-carolina-after-traffic-stop-authorities-say/

Foolishness of the Week https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq8yvg5359po

Topic of the Week https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/incorporation_doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Topic of the Week https://www.libertycon.com

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/01/att-complies-with-law-requiring-cheap-internet-by-ending-a-service-in-ny/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/city-killer-asteroid-odds-hitting-earth-increase-webb-telescope/ https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-chelsea-clinton-foundation-usaid-2027947

Topic of the Week https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHXVeLVHWuY

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Topic of the Week https://www.samford.edu/business/directory/Carden-Art https://www.amazon.com/Mere-Economics-Lessons-Ordinary-Business

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

https://www.npr.org/2025/01/03/nx-s1-5247840/net-neutrality-fcc-struck https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/01/02/net-neutrality-rules-struck-down/77412883007/

Foolishness of the Week

https://nypost.com/2025/01/02/opinion/jonathan-lesser-hochuls-fracking-foolishness-locks-1t-of-energy-underground/

Topic of the Week https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/elections/2020 https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/general/2016/trump-vs-clinton https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/08/08/chart-of-the-week-the-most-liberal-and-conservative-big-cities/ https://www.capitalfrontiers.com/single-post/do-any-big-cities-vote-politically-conservative

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

https://www.history.com/news/why-do-we-have-daylight-saving-time

https://apnews.com/article/trump-daylight-saving-time-36ccbf61bea70aaac0f5c43b8029957c

https://apnews.com/article/college-tuition-cost-5e69acffa7ae11300123df028eac5321

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ar-AA1xaq1M

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Quick Hits

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/last-year-boston-murder-rate-was-lowest-ever-this-year-it-was-cut-nearly-in-half-again/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/191223/reported-murder-and-nonnegligent-manslaughter-rate-in-the-us-since-1990/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/onlyfans-models-are-usuing-ai-chatbots-to-talk-dirty-for-them/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.bu.edu/english/graduate/spring-2024-graduate-courses/500-level-graduate-courses-spring-2024/

Topic of the Week https://aegpa.com

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

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Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

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Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

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Quick Hits

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/last-year-boston-murder-rate-was-lowest-ever-this-year-it-was-cut-nearly-in-half-again/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/191223/reported-murder-and-nonnegligent-manslaughter-rate-in-the-us-since-1990/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/onlyfans-models-are-usuing-ai-chatbots-to-talk-dirty-for-them/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.bu.edu/english/graduate/spring-2024-graduate-courses/500-level-graduate-courses-spring-2024/

Topic of the Week https://aegpa.com

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

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Quick Hits

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/investing/2024/12/27/yellen-says-treasury-to-hit-new-debt-limit-in-mid-january/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/bible-removed-texas-school-district-876267

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

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Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

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Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

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Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

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Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

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Quick Hits https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/11/apple-launches-its-chatgpt-integration-with-siri.html

Foolishness of the Week https://studyfinds.org/846-million-genital-herpes/

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Episode 410: Mercantilism 2.0

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Quick Hits

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-promises-25-tariff-products-mexico-canada-2024-11-25/

https://studyfinds.org/political-views-chocolate-choices/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/average-home-buyers-calif-metro-afford-2-homes-19936861.php

Topic of the Week

Phil Magness https://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=3777

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/henry-clays-american-system-is-bad-news-for-the-american-economy/

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

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Quick Hits

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/united-pilot-orders-30-pizzas-to-feed-passengers-after-emergency-landing-for-medical-care/

https://x.com/tomselliott/status/1857891563776487434

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14104559/Switzerland-Church-AI-Jesus-confession.html

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

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Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-promises-25-tariff-products-mexico-canada-2024-11-25/ https://studyfinds.org/political-views-chocolate-choices/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/average-home-buyers-calif-metro-afford-2-homes-19936861.php

Topic of the Week

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

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Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

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Clark Neily

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00E93GZCG

Phil Magness

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Phillip%20W.%20Magness/author/B004IA7HBI

Mikhail Rasner

https://mirunited.com

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

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Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

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Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Clark Neily

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00E93GZCG

Phil Magness

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Phillip%20W.%20Magness/author/B004IA7HBI

Mikhail Rasner

https://mirunited.com

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

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Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/nov/1/mushrooms-hit-ballots-researchers-grapple-dangers-/

https://www.newsweek.com/genz-millennials-young-people-dont-want-children-birth-rate-declining-1977238

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/ar-AA1tpJyX

Topic of the Week

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2024/10/31/russia-fines-google-20-decillion-many-times-larger-than-global-gdp-for-blocking-state-media-channels-heres-what-to-know/

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/contracts/

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IEAMGSN https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FGRECPT https://taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/what-are-sources-revenue-federal-government https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/26/politics/trump-income-taxes-tariffs/index.html https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/oct/27/bezos-washington-post-non-endorsement-election

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/marine-veteran-temporarily-booted-off-delta-flight-wearing-threatening-shirt-report

Topic of the Week

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

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This week, we address listener comments that the FBI crime data we reported in an earlier episode was flawed.

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See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

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Quick Hits

https://brownox.com

https://www.facebook.com/reel/427922503036846

https://www.thefp.com/p/female-psychedelic-users-ketamine-mushroom-mommies

Foolishness of the Week

https://apnews.com/article/trump-arnold-palmer-closing-arguments-latrobe-pennsylvania-2bea9620c523e531a55259200215284e

Topic of the Week

https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend

https://www.allsides.com/story/violence-america-fbi-quietly-revises-2022-data-showing-45-rise-violent-crime

https://crimeresearch.org/2024/10/the-revised-fbi-crime-data-reveals-that-it-originally-missed-1699-murders-in-2022-given-that-almost-all-murders-are-reported-how-does-the-fbi-miss-that-many-murders/

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

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Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org

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Topic of the Week

https://www.projectliberal.org

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

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Economist and author Bryan Caplan joins us to discuss how higher education has become a bastion of extreme leftist thought - so much so that professors that self-identify as Democrat outnumber professors that self-identify as Republican by 20-to-1.

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Quick Hits

https://nypost.com/2024/10/03/lifestyle/revealed-the-staggering-amount-of-time-gen-z-spends-watching-tv-during-the-workday/

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/they-can-control-the-weather-claims-marjorie-taylor-greene-after-deadly-hurricane-helene-kills-more-than-200/

Foolishness of the Week https://heartlandsignal.com/2024/10/04/minnesota-gop-senate-candidate-the-bad-guys-won-in-wwii/

Topic of the Week https://www.betonit.ai/p/what-i-told-the-chronicle-about-gmu?fbclid=IwY2xjawFtLVxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHUmRw4ov0NZ5pN2JTzgrac2GElz4Jlq726SyjO4IssKsGQVIuTmizkIwiw_aem_hum-GOp4PSfnPFs2owHXgg

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

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It was just a couple of decades ago that experts were wringing their hands over the coming population explosion that was going to kill us all. Now they are wringing their hands over the coming population crash that is going to kill us all.

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Quick Hits

https://www.polygon.com/news/457071/new

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/derrick-anderson-photo-virginia-b2621414.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/style/trump-watch-likely-made-in-china-overpriced-1236013728/

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

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Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

https://cheezburger.com/36843013/employer-cancels-flexible-work-policy-after-employee-cuts-their-finger-at-home-cut-my-finger-working

https://bjs.ojp.gov

https://www.policemag.com/patrol/news/15310860/half-of-surveys-very-liberal-respondents-believe-1000-or-more-unarmed-black-men-killed-by-police-in-2019

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a61793292/ford-cop-cars-speed-detector-patent/

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

View Details

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

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Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/13/politics/pope-francis-trump-harris-abortion/index.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a61793292/ford-cop-cars-speed-detector-patent/

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

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This week, we address listener questions from our earlier episode on the Fed. We also make incorrect predictions about whether the September cut in interest rates.

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Quick Hits https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/sep/08/goodbye-tinder-hello-strava-have-hobby-apps-become-the-new-social-networks

Foolishness of the Week https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/chase-bank-says-it-is-aware-of-viral-glitch-inviting-people-to-commit-check-fraud/ar-AA1pW1OW?ocid=BingNewsSerp

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

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The idea of an unrealized capital gains tax gains momentum every election season of late. This week, we take a look at what it is and why even the middle class should be very afraid.

Foolishness of the Week: 07:34 Main episode: 11:12

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Quick Hits https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/people-seen-as-wise-share-these-characteristics-all-over-the-world/

Foolishness of the Week https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/30/elon-musk-wealth-power

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Episode 395: The Fed

What does the Fed do and how does it do it?

Foolishness of the Week: 06:38 Main episode: 08:51

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Quick Hits https://apnews.com/article/harris-walz-apostrophe-possessive-grammar-967c0bbefc09be6c804588daabed7ec9

Foolishness of the Week https://apnews.com/article/benjamin-benji-cranford-thomson-mayor-alcohol-inmates-8a60ee1ca581a6a219cd29cc273f2758

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Episode 394: Candidates’ Attitudes

Unfortunately, when it comes to elections, often a smile is all it takes.

Foolishness of the Week: 06:55 Main episode: 11:32

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Quick Hits https://www.complex.com/life/a/backwoodsaltar/donald-trump-says-he-doesnt-want-pronouns

Foolishness of the Week https://apnews.com/article/kamala-harris-price-gouging-ban-inflation-65dc8844bb41159d76886f752b6cab28

https://www.foxnews.com/media/cracks-wall-media-praise-harris-multiple-outlets-eviscerate-vp-over-price-control-plan

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This is a conversation James and I had concerning various topics in economics and current events.

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The School of Ireland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByBussFxezk

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Quick Hits

https://colombiaone.com/2024/08/05/brazilian-prison-replaces-guard-dogs-with-geese/#:~:text=At%20the%20S%C3%A3o%20Pedro%20de,with%20a%20group%20of%20geese https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/friend-ai-artificial-intelligence-new-b2590345.html https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/friend-ai-artificial-intelligence-b2588853.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/rcna165147

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This week James shares some first-hand experience with the magic that comes out of modern health care.

Foolishness of the Week: 10:22 Main episode: 12:43

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Quick Hits

https://www.cybertruckownersclub.com/forum/threads/raccoon-damages-cybertruck-bed-vault-tonneau-cover.20349/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/nullbulge-hackers-leak-disney-slack-hack/

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James is recovering from surgery this week, so we offer you this special episode on personal finance so as to not to leave you sad and alone on Words & Numbers Wednesday!

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Are we in a recession? Americans say we are. The data say we aren’t. Who’s right?

Foolishness of the Week: 05:30 Main episode: 10:50

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Quick Hits

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/michael-bloomberg-donates-1-billion-to-provide-free-tuition-for-future-doctors-at-johns-hopkins/ https://apnews.com/general-news-4db3fb7fa202234b220c803626464a3f https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/resource/seven-stories-of-donor-intent-violations-in-higher-education-giving/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/nullbulge-hackers-leak-disney-slack-hack/

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Supply chain insider Mikhail Razner joins us again for what has come to be an annual update on the state of supply chains. Want to know why your boysenberry pie is more expensive? Listen in!

Foolishness of the Week: 10:24 Main episode: 13:20

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Quick Hits

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/06/06/why-global-gdp-might-be-7trn-bigger-than-everyone-thought

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)

https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/gdp-official-exchange-rate/

https://x.com/POTUS/status/1808470746559123953

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/state-of-tennessee-tells-u-s-navy-veteran-hes-not-an-american-citizen-and-cancels-his-drivers-license

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Topic of the Week

Clark Neily on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00EJKBKOC

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Foolishness of the Week: 05:13 Main episode: 12:18

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Quick Hits

https://viewfromthewing.com/hertz-nightmare-customer-fined-436-before-they-even-rented-the-car/comment-page-1/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2022/03/04/rental-car-consumer-rights/9365841002/

https://www.thedrive.com/news/hertz-is-charging-tesla-model-3-renter-277-fee-for-gas-wont-back-down

https://viewfromthewing.com/divine-retribution-or-corporate-policy-hertz-imposes-biblical-ban-on-a-customers-descendants/

https://www.investopedia.com/nearly-1-in-4-generation-x-workers-say-they-wont-retire-survey-shows-8666276

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/rcna158268

https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/4684714-louisiana-wants-the-ten-commandments-in-schools-but-which-version/

Topic of the Week

https://www.votechaseoliver.com/platform

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Many of our listeners, and at least one of our hosts, are avid gamers, so it's natural that we'd come around to this topic eventually. Gaming companies are known to employ economists (often game theorists) to help design games because economists understand how to think about how people behave when their unlimited desires collide with their limited abilities. Games are nothing more than artificial environments in which these very real behaviors play out.

Foolishness of the Week: 10:06 Main episode: 17:27

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Quick Hits

https://moneywise.com/retirement/average-american-says-their-time-is-worth-240

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881500Q

https://www.axios.com/2024/06/15/double-haters-biden-trump-favorability

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4723719-lara-trump-vows-to-prosecute-anyone-who-cheats-in-an-election-we-will-track-you-down/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewleahey/2024/06/14/can-trump-eliminate-the-income-tax/

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Canada’s central bank cut its interest rate. The European central bank cut its interest rate. But the Fed continues to hold its interest rate high. This will create a cascade of effects - some good, some bad, depending on who you are.

Foolishness of the Week: 09:43 Main episode: 13:11

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Quick Hits

https://www.newsweek.com/larry-hogan-chances-flipping-maryland-senate-1898953

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/22/poll-economy-recession-biden

https://dnyuz.com/2024/06/09/is-your-driving-being-secretly-scored/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/brit-hume-stupid-lara-trump_n_665e73a6e4b022af97dd51cf

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If people who call for reparations for slavery want to be taken seriously, they must take their own arguments seriously first. And that requires bringing to bear the same scrutiny and law that we currently apply to any case in which someone is seeking to be made whole following the actions of another.

Foolishness of the Week: 11:57 Main episode: 15:01

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Quick Hits

https://www.thestreet.com/lifestyle/travel/this-new-rideshare-company-is-packing-heat-and-drawing-customers

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/ar-BB1ntRiK

https://www.notus.org/2024-election/small-dollar-donations

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/06/02/chase_oliver_the_new_socially_liberal_face_of_the_libertarian_party_151037.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tiktok-social-media-app-young-voters-biden-2024-6

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We’ve argued before that the value of a college degree was questionable. That was before covid. Since then, the value proposition has deteriorated markedly.

Foolishness of the Week: 05:15 Main episode: 07:07

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Quick Hits

https://cwbchicago.com/2024/05/chicago-fake-robbery-visa-scam.html

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2024/05/microsoft-ai-recall-feature-records-everything-secures-far-less

Foolishness of the Week

https://news.sky.com/story/mexico-fire-breather-fights-off-marauding-mariachis-in-turf-war-over-tips-13141041

Topic of the Week

https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/05/23/is-college-worth-it-2/

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The annual gross interest on the debt exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in history. Years ago, we warned that the combination of on-going deficits and inevitably higher interest rates would give us exactly what we have now.

Foolishness of the Week: 08:16 Main episode: 09:31

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Quick Hits

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Bernstein

https://youtu.be/p5qTFd6PJ0k?si=iB2LjscjaCQW4nk3&t=216

https://x.com/walterolson/status/1792007573463261516/photo/1

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.live5news.com/2024/05/17/man-is-moving-his-entire-house-12-feet-comply-with-zoning-rules/

Topic of the Week

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/u-s-debt-interest-payments-reach-1-trillion/

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A generation or two ago, people wrung their hands over the population explosion. What will happen, they said, when we finally have too many people! It turns out that, not only was overpopulation not a problem, underpopulation has become one.

Foolishness of the Week: 8:25 Main episode: 14:19

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Quick Hits

https://www.yourtango.com/news/bumble-founder-says-future-ai-dating

Foolishness of the Week

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Bernstein

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/05/03/biden_economic_advisor_jared_bernstein.html

Topic of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/ar-BB1mhbxT

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Foolishness of the Week: 11:09 Main episode: 16:35

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Quick Hits

https://twitter.com/amyklobuchar/status/1786794183312748959

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.the-express.com/news/us-news/136485/america-civil-war-five-years-poll

Topic of the Week

https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scf/dataviz/scf/chart/#series:Net_Worth;demographic:all;population:1;units:median;range:1989,2022

https://www.statista.com/statistics/617390/us-millionaire-households/

https://www.ramseysolutions.com/retirement/how-many-millionaires-actually-inherited-their-wealth

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Clark Neily joins us again this week. This time, we’re talking about how we have come to muddle the separation of powers among the three branches of government. As Congress has largely fallen asleep at the wheel, the executive branch has come to play the roles of all three branches, all by itself.

Foolishness of the Week: 04:46 Main episode: 05:49

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Quick Hits https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/3932145-energy-dept-to-ban-sale-of-some-light-bulbs-heres-why/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13359223/kristi-noem-vp-killing-dog-trump.html

Foolishness of the Week https://nypost.com/2024/04/26/us-news/ai-priest-defrocked-by-developer-after-taking-confessions-like-real-priest/

Topic of the Week Clark Neily https://www.amazon.com/stores/Clark-M.-Neily-III/author/B00EJKBKOC

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The National Association of Realtors recently agreed to pay almost half a billion dollars in a class action suit involving sellers fees. This week’s guest, Judd Bristo, is unique in being a listener, an economist, and a realtor. We asked Judd to come on to talk about the settlement and the complex world of real estate commissions.

Foolishness of the Week: 04:38 Main episode: 07:03

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Quick Hits

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/15/economy/nar-realtor-commissions-settlement/index.html https://qz.com/drug-resistant-bacteria-international-space-station-1851421829

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.tiktok.com/@deathby2wheels/video/7357790629394386219

Topic of the Week

https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/nar-reaches-agreement-to-resolve-nationwide-claims-brought-by-home-sellers

https://juddbristo.com

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Foolishness of the Week: 06:30 Main episode: 09:25

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Quick Hits

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1183025683040361&id=100039988210787&mibextid=oFDknk&rdid=38pxUZNFlwwAi8YH

https://nypost.com/2024/04/15/us-news/californians-arming-themselves-over-border-issue/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/12/politics/biden-student-loan-forgiveness/index.html

Topic of the Week

https://rumble.com/v4p4qlw-the-kim-iversen-show-live.html

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James has an ax to grind. Google made him mad. FedEx made him mad. Many things make James mad. But this week, he tells us why.

Foolishness of the Week: 16:22 Main episode: 20:01

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Quick Hits

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/constance-bay-man-loses-bid-to-recover-cost-of-life-saving-u-s-brain-surgery/

https://www.beeculture.com/deregulating-honey-in-missourithere-are-19-ways-to-kill-a-bill-and-only-one-way-to-pass-it/

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/08/trump-media-stock-drops-more-than-10percent-to-open-trading-week.html

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/ar-BB1ldavJ

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/book-ban-campaigns-hit-4-240-titles-last-year-here-are-the-top-10-targets-bf785117

Topic of the Week

https://suitefeedback.com/amazon-customer-experience-13-quotes-from-jeff-bezos/

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James recently wrote an article on the price of admission and food at baseball fields over the years. To look at the prices, it appears that baseball has shifted from entertainment for the working classes to entertainment for the middle and rich classes. Or perhaps we’ve simply all become richer and baseball has simply followed along.

Foolishness of the Week: 13:07 Main episode: 16:09

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Quick Hits

https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-income-households.html

https://www.aceee.org/files/proceedings/2004/data/papers/SS04_Panel1_Paper17.pdf

https://www.wsj.com/articles/californias-crazy-fast-food-minimum-wage-takes-effect-negative-repercussions-7ae3e9ae

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/san-diego-fast-food-minimum-wage/3475150

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/what-gives-you-the-right-to-lecture-us-guyana-president-schools-bbc-reporter-5338295

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/30/politics/easter-trans-day-visibility-trump-biden-johnson/index.html

Topic of the Week

https://www.aier.org/article/baseball-a-beer-and-a-dog/

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We all know that the FDA saves lives by keeping bad drugs off markets. But far fewer of us understand that the FDA costs lives by keeping good drugs from markets. Often all it takes to see this other side of the FDA is to be confronted with a life threatening disease for which there are treatments - just not FDA-approved treatments.

Foolishness of the Week: 08:38 Main episode: 14:53

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Quick Hits https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/optimist-pollster-finds-americans-are-far-more-alike-than-different-in-this-election-year/

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ohio-man-brings-voters-of-all-stripes-together-to-agree-to-disagree-over-dinner-and-a-dialogue/

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/24/playground-bullies-do-prosper-and-go-on-to-earn-more-in-middle-age

Foolishness of the Week https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/03/21/apple-doj-antitrust-lawsuit-explained/

Topic of the Week https://xtalks.com/top-10-foods-banned-in-the-us-3611/ https://www.amazon.com/Free-Our-Markets-Essential-Economics/dp/098442542X/

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Each election cycle, we’re treated to politicians and their supporters crying about the disappearing middle class. So many people repeat the mantra that most of us just accept it as fact. It turns out that those people are right - the middle class is disappearing. Where they get the story wrong is that it isn’t bad news. It’s excellent news.

Foolishness of the Week: 09:12 Main episode: 15:32

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Quick Hits https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/the-ftc-bans-ai-impersonations-of-individuals-and-unveils-greater-powers-to-win-stolen-money-backhttps://www.cnn.com/2024/03/17/health/marriage-divorce-rates-wellness/index.html

Foolishness of the Week https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/21/24079371/google-ai-gemini-generative-inaccurate-historical

Topic of the Week https://youtu.be/b8soxNZzVlE?si=mtZFd4hAN-VmLQpt

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Spike Cohen, 2020 Libertarian Party Vice-Presidential nominee, joins us this week for a two part series in which we discuss the upcoming election, the Libertarian Party, the future of politics in America, and his work in single-issue activism - You Are the Power.

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Topic of the Week https://www.youarethepower.net https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Cohen

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Spike Cohen, 2020 Libertarian Party Vice-Presidential nominee, joins us this week for a two part series in which we discuss the upcoming election, the Libertarian Party, the future of politics in America, and his work in single-issue activism - You Are the Power.

Foolishness of the Week: 11:05 Main episode: 13:14

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Quick Hits https://www.thecollegefix.com/gmu-economist-reported-to-dei-office-for-criticizing-plan-to-mandate-dei-courses/

https://masoncore.gmu.edu/mason-core-course-categories/just-society/

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/11/nearly-half-of-parents-financially-support-adult-children-study-shows.html

Foolishness of the Week https://www.mediaite.com/news/tucker-carlson-already-pushing-stolen-election-conspiracy-theories-about-2024/

Topic of the Week https://www.youarethepower.net

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Cohen

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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The United States has been a two party system almost since its inception. In modern times, this has led to the Democrats and Republicans having a virtual monopoly on the political landscape. Despite the fact that a plurality of Americans don’t identify with either party, they won’t allow a third party to compete. And what’s the only thing worse than a two-party system? A one-party system.

Foolishness of the Week: 06:08 Main episode: 09:41

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Quick Hits https://archive.triblive.com/opinion/featured-commentary/in-defense-of-price-gouging/ https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/01/the-us-national-debt-is-rising-by-1-trillion-about-every-100-days.html

Foolishness of the Week https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/opinion/ezra-klein-biden-audio-essay.html

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Last week, we recorded live from Hampden-Sydney College. This week’s episode is the Q&A from that recording.

Foolishness of the Week: 09:21 Main episode: 10:05

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Quick Hits

https://studyfinds.org/is-everyone-angry-toxic-outrage-culture-consuming-society-like-never-before/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13119241/Trump-threatens-biggest-stock-market-crash-HISTORY-loses-Biden-claims-five-things-DOJ-investigate-Haley-wild-speech-MAGA-fans-South-Carolina-primary.html

Topic of the Week

https://www.hsc.edu

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Last week, we talked about the incongruity of not only having a majority of voters not like either major party candidate, but to have those two candidates appear twice in back-to-back elections. This week, we explore what happens when a President is incapable of fulfilling the duties of the office.

Foolishness of the Week: 11:01

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Quick Hits https://www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with-trump-raise-the-settlement

Foolishness of the Week https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/02/15/barbara-lee-minimum-wage/72611446007/

Topic of the Week

https://www.hsc.edu

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Last week, we talked about the incongruity of not only having a majority of voters not like either major party candidate, but to have those two candidates appear twice in back-to-back elections. This week, we explore what happens when a President is incapable of fulfilling the duties of the office.

Foolishness of the Week: 09:59 Main episode: 12:50

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Quick Hits https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/02/blazing-saddles-five-funny-facts-at-50/

Foolishness of the Week https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/taylor-swift-biden-psyop-conspiracy-b2489364.html

Topic of the Week https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-25/

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The Trump vs Biden election of 2020 was noteworthy because, for so many voters, it wasn’t a matter of selecting the person they thought was best suited for the job so much as a matter of selecting the person they thought was least ill-suited. As if it isn’t weird enough that, out of 200 million or so adults, the best we could do was to bring Trump and Biden to the fore, here we are in 2024 apparently set to do the same thing all over again.

Foolishness of the Week: 09:10 Main episode: 13:33

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Quick Hits

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/06/trump-election-case-appeals-court-denies-ex-president-immunity.html

Foolishness of the Week https://studyfinds.org/mixed-reality-headsets/

Topic of the Week https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/biden-trump-campaign-longest-ever-age-7e849b34 https://www.statista.com/statistics/1102189/voter-turnout-us-presidential-primaries-state/

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People used to scared about the federal debt. But it's been so huge for so long that people have lost interest. Yet, despite people's lack of attention - or perhaps, in part, because of it - the debt has continued to grow. For the past 50 years or so, it has been doubling every 8 to 9 years. Foolishness of the Week: 09:10 Main episode: 13:36

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Quick Hits

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/12/06/new-fafsa-may-launch-with-old-inflation-data-resulting-in-less-college-aid.html?fbclid=IwAR1Z0ny8wwaMEEA0nyaJGxEGF3Hvbeq9XtAJpVmQLYtfyMdKNmDS-loexes

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/27/is-the-journalism-death-spasm-finally-here-00138187

Foolishness of the Week

https://nypost.com/2024/01/26/news/un-fires-staffers-who-allegedly-took-part-in-october-7-hamas-terrorist-attacks-on-israel/

Topic of the Week

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Many people share an intuition that “excess” profits are a sign of something having been stolen from labor. Karl Marx shared this intuition and formalized it in his writings on the surplus value of labor.

Foolishness of the Week: 05:48 Main episode: 11:55

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Quick Hits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPkJH6BT7dM

https://studyfinds.org/childless-millennials-parents/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/19/us-inflation-caused-by-corporate-profits

Topic of the Week

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEBTN

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For whom does the corporation exist: investors, workers, customers, the community? Economists tend to answer, "investors." That's not to say that workers, customers, and the community aren't important, but rather that the corporation exists to further the interests of the investors. Where the interests of the workers, customers, and community coincide with those of investors, the corporation also cares about those groups. But where their interests conflict with those of investors, the interests of investors take precedence. That's the principle of "shareholder value." The principle of "stakeholder value" holds that the corporation should consider the interests of workers, consumers, and the community even when they conflict with the interests of the investors.

Foolishness of the Week: 08:15 Main episode: 12:29

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Quick Hits

https://newschannel9.com/news/nation-world/scientists-discover-novel-way-to-destroy-cancer-cells

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.axios.com/2024/01/11/florida-book-ban-schools-lawsuit

Topic of the Week https://youtu.be/O8RpyqauWOQ?si=bFkwzQNP_PTNbtFQ&t=5109

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Economic "degrowth" seems to be the new socialism. Like the old, it promises all manner of wonderful things, from equality to a cleaner environment. And like the old, it will deliver nothing but misery.

Foolishness of the Week: 10:24 Main episode: 13:35

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Quick Hits

https://www.ambito.com/politica/ley-omnibus-el-gobierno-busca-que-ya-no-se-use-la-palabra-gratis-prestacion-estatales-n5908723

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S6-C1-3-1/ALDE_00013300/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/06/politics/lloyd-austin-hospitalization-officials/index.html/

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/secretary-defense-lloyd-austin-hospitalized-middle-east-missions-rcna132612/

Topic of the Week

https://theconversation.com/degrowth-slowing-down-rich-economies-to-deal-with-climate-change-is-a-flawed-idea-209434

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/12/17/degrowth-economics-europe-climate-policy/

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Intuitively, people understand the value of time. We consider it every time we decide to put off something we want now for something better later. Psychologists call it, “delayed gratification.” But when we think about things like banks and landlords and Wall Street, we fail to see the time value of money driving people’s behaviors.

Foolishness of the Week: 14:15 Main episode: 18:13

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Quick Hits http://nutritionpair.com/

www.wfla.com/news/dave-chappelle-ends-show-early-walks-off-stage-at-hard-rock-live/

Foolishness of the Week www.wsj.com/articles/yellen-biden-economy-inflation-prices-dc9902f2

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Colleges and universities, for years now self-proclaimed bastions of “safe spaces,” are allowing some students to express anti Semitism and call for genocide. Should colleges allow this in the name of free speech, or should it disallow it in the name of protecting students? Congressional hearings into prominent universities appear to reveal administrators picking a third and worse option: selectively allowing or disallowing free speech depending on at whom the speech is directed.

Foolishness of the Week: 08:15 Main episode: 11:36

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Quick Hits

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/12/23/biden-pardon-state-level-marijuana/72015078007/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/nutrition/sorry-but-potatoes-may-soon-no-longer-be-considered-a-vegetable/ar-AA1lRk50

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We respond to an article that claims that “the good life” has become so expensive as to be beyond the reach of most Americans. We conclude that what is beyond the reach of at least some Americans is the ability to perform simple math.

Foolishness of the Week: 05:33 Main episode: 09:16

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Quick Hits

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/other/tsa-self-screening-is-the-next-big-step-for-airport-security/ar-AA1lH2XJ

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/electric-vehicle-ev-guilbeault-1.7061381

Topic of the Week

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-dream-cost-3-4-million-house-college-cars-retirement/

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSPUS

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More frequently, politicians are talking about a wealth tax. As with the income tax back in the early 1900s, politicians promise that the tax will only be one or two percent and will only apply to the rich. But, as with the income tax, if politicians can convince voters to allow the government to impose a tax on wealth, it will be less than a decade before that new tax hits the middle class.

Foolishness of the Week: 15:15 Main episode: 19:45

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Quick Hits

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/ceo-pay-is-out-of-control

https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes111011.htm

https://www.reuters.com/business/ceo-pay-averaged-167-million-last-year-sp-500-companies-decline-2023-08-03/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sports-illustrated-publisher-fires-ceo-latest-exec-terminations-ai-sca-rcna129236/

Topic of the Week

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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A new outbreak of a communicable disease in China has officials there calling for masks and social distancing. This week, we talk about what lessons we learned from the last go around and how people might respond in this country to a reprise of social distancing and masking.

Foolishness of the Week: 07:23 Main episode: 11:23

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Quick Hits

https://thehill.com/opinion/education/4288044-oregon-just-dropped-all-graduation-standards-failing-all-of-its-students-in-the-name-of-equity/

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/one-supreme-court-case-could-mess-up-chunks-of-the-tax-code-680a9ba6

Foolishness of the Week

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1730211325383434419

https://nypost.com/2023/03/20/bidens-twitter-account-fact-checked-for-dubious-claim-about-the-taxes-billionaires-pay/

Topic of the Week https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/chinas-mystery-virus-sees-masks-31550470/

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We recently moderated the South Carolina Libertarian Party’s Presidential debate. We had a great time and the candidates were serious people. But the contrast between our excellent experience in South Carolina and Libertarian party hijinx we’ve seen in the past spurred this conversation. Is the Libertarian Party a political party or a philosophical society? The latter’s goal is to delve deeply into important questions about the economy and polity. The former’s goal is to win elections.

Foolishness of the Week: 08:37 Main episode: 14:05

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Quick Hits

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/25/black-friday-shoppers-spent-a-record-9point8-billion-in-us-online-sales-up-7point5percent-from-last-year.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://twitter.com/senwarren/status/1728810999355175212?s=61&t=8nzVImSVQ7S_6JhDtCXr0Q

Topic of the Week

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Three former professors discuss the fraud that universities are perpetrating on students and taxpayers..

Foolishness of the Week: 11:59 Main episode: 15:20

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Topic of the Week

https://www.aier.org/people/phillip-w-magness/

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Over ten years ago, we predicted that, as the Federal government approached insolvency, the Federal Reserve would start printing money to monetize the government spending, and that that would give us sustained inflation in the 5% plus range. We saw the 5% plus inflation and, as the Fed fought it, we then saw interest rates skyrocket. Trillion dollar plus deficits are the new normal, Social Security is within a decade of becoming insolvent, and that will mean even more borrowing. It appears that people are just now becoming aware of the problem. Unfortunately, it's almost too late to do anything about it.

Foolishness of the Week: 07:46 Main episode: 14:20

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Quick Hits

https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/moodys-cuts-outlook-on-u-s-credit-rating-to-negative-from-stable-4ede1b9b

Foolishness of the Week

https://news.yahoo.com/migrant-family-journeys-back-venezuela-202500695.html

Topic of the Week

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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An elderly couple, an antiques dealer, and an African mask spark a conversation about fraud, fairness, and value.

Foolishness of the Week: 11:00 Main episode: 13:14

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Quick Hits

https://www.kpbs.org/news/local/2023/11/02/california-regulators-put-off-a-decision-on-solar-rules-again

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-67295526

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/11/canadian-food-prices-passing-the-depreciated-buck/

Topic of the Week

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/31/french-couple-go-to-court-for-share-of-rare-african-masks-sale-price

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Composer and musician Josh Nichols was annoyed when, on an earlier episode, James referred to “high culture,” and Ant said, “you mean the snooty stuff?” Being a classical composer and, importantly, making money at it, Josh joins us to set the record straight as to why we should all be more appreciative of “the snooty stuff.”

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Topic of the Week

Josh Nichols https://www.windrep.org/Joshua_Nichols CACI https://thecaci.org/members-and-fellows/ Josh's Compositionshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLURdjiljIuudGIa3yE9vx3RjxMzdQxMJ

Metropolis https://www.summitrecords.com/release/metropolis-the-piano-music-of-joshua-nichols/

Amazon Link to CD https://a.co/d/1SThFip

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Fans are applauding Taylor Swift for contributing billions to the country’s GDP. Yet Taylor Swift (three-quarters of a billionaire) is doing less for the economy than what many billionaires, who we vilify, do. Why do we applaud one business person and vilify the other?

Foolishness of the week: 09:33 Main episode: 14:24

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Quick Hits

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1826637/uss-gerald-r-ford-steak-lobster-dinner-israel-hamas-middle-east

Foolishness of the Week

https://amp.theguardian.com/cities/2023/oct/11/culdesac-car-free-neighborhood-tempe-arizona

Topic of the Week

https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2023/10/18/taylor-swifts-movie-outsold-the-next-50-top-grossing-movies-combined/?sh=6e90fc774e67

https://www.statista.com/chart/31033/key-figures-from-swifts-the-eras-tour/#:~:text=Throughout%20the%20U.S.%20leg%20of,146%20dates%20on%20five%20continents

https://time.com/6307420/taylor-swift-eras-tour-money-economy/

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Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

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More than a decade ago, experts decided to change how students are taught to read. Without testing whether the new method worked or, apparently, even checking in with actual teachers, the experts forced the change. What resulted was a generation of children with reduced reading abilities. The experts have now reversed course. People make mistakes like this all the time. When the people who are making the decisions are the same people who live with the consequences of the decisions, errors get detected and fixed relatively quickly. There's nothing wrong with experts weighing in on the best way to do things. But when those experts are allowed to impose their wills on others, the people who live with the consequences are no longer the people making the decisions. What often results is decades of living with "solutions" that do more harm than good.

Main episode: 06:47

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Quick Hits https://phys.org/news/2023-10-cranial-traumas-cities-built-violence.html https://genderdata.worldbank.org/indicators/vc-ihr-psrc-p5

Topic of the Week

https://nypost.com/2023/09/21/repairing-the-damage-columbias-teachers-college-did-to-american-kids-will-take-years/

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#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational

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From time to time, listeners write to tell us what we’ve gotten wrong. This week, we go back through predictions and analyses we’ve made that have turned out to be wrong.

Main episode: 12:09

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Attorney Vince White joins us this week. Vince’s law firm does more workplace harassment and sexual discrimination cases than any other US law firm. His firm also handled some of the Harvey Weinstein cases. Interestingly, Vince is James’ former student.

Foolishness of the week: 05:30 Main episode: 08:39

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Quick Hits

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/for-first-time-water-produced-by-sunlight-to-be-even-cheaper-than-tap-water/

https://www.axios.com/2023/10/01/student-loan-payments-october-2023

Foolishness of the Week

https://nbcmontana.com/news/connect-to-congress/meghan-markle-considering-run-for-sen-dianne-feinsteins-senate-seat-sources-say-duke-and-duchess-of-sussex-house-of-windsor-royal-family-prince-harry-gavin-newsom-california-los-angeles-family-leave-gun-safety-politics

Topic of the Week

https://www.nycjobattorney.com

https://www.youtube.com/@JobAttorney

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Robert Reich (not an economist) recorded a video recently in which he claims that the rich are not paying their fair share of Social Security. But the calculations he uses to prove his point are fundamentally flawed.

Foolishness of the week: 09:54 Main episode: 12:57

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Quick Hits

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/nasa-solid-state-battery-development-research-breakthrough/

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/25/us/powerball-lottery-jackpot-millions-monday/index.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/22/politics/fact-check-biden-every-mass-shooting/index.html

https://abcnews.go.com/US/mass-shootings-days-2023-database-shows/story?id=96609874

Topic of the Week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfZuB7XSFys

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

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Economist Bryan McCannon gives us two things to think about this week: his research into whether covid mask mandates saved lives, and that journal editors were afraid to publish his results.

Foolishness of the week: 08:04 Main episode: 11:49

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Quick Hits

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/california-fast-food-workers-20-minimum-wage-new-103099258

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/cost-of-living-index-by-state

https://apnews.com/article/climate-oil-gas-california-lawsuit-newsom-212d6d9873352f28094173a1974e3d90

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.wbez.org/stories/how-a-city-run-grocery-store-in-chicago-could-work/91365f98-25de-4cd5-80e9-eae3fa627610

Topic of the Week

Mask mandates

https://sites.google.com/site/bryancmccannon

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Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

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Burning Man, a modern day Woodstock, occurs each year in the desert. This year brought 87,000 people together to live, if only for a few days, in a cooperative nirvana. We take some time to look at the Burning Man principles for living and ask whether they make any sense.

Foolishness of the week: 05:21
Main episode: 11:44

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Quick Hits

https://www.iflscience.com/linguists-speak-of-a-new-language-dialect-evolving-in-the-us-70586

Foolishness of the Week

https://sourcenm.com/briefs/n-m-governor-declares-state-of-emergency-over-gun-violence/

https://ibis.doh.nm.gov/indicator/view/DthRateLdgCause.Year.Cause.html

https://everystat.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Gun-Violence-in-New-Mexico-2.9.2021.pdf

Topic of the Week

https://survival.burningman.org/culture/the-10-principles/

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/08/the-wonderful-weird-economics-of-burning-man/376108/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/09/06/burning-man-2023-photos-nevada-desert/70774615007/

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/05/business/burning-man-billionaires/index.html

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Union membership in the private sector has been declining for decades, while union membership in the public sector has been increasing. This is consistent with workers voluntarily choosing not to unionize to the point that unions must turn to government jobs where it is easier to force workers to unionize.

Foolishness of the week: 04:20 Main episode: 10:03

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Quick Hits

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/climate-change-activists-blockaded-burning-man-accuse-police-excessive-rcna102370

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/pope-francis-conservatives-united-states-rcna102452

Topic of the Week

Declining union membership

https://www.statista.com/statistics/195339/number-of-union-members-in-the-us-since-2000/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/195349/union-membership-rate-of-employees-in-the-us-since-2000/

Union workers earn around 20% more than non-union workers

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1374865/earnings-union-membership-race-us/

33% of public sector jobs are unionized vs 6% of private sector jobs

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf

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The Republicans held their first primary debate. What they said wasn’t interesting. What they didn’t say was.

Foolishness of the week: 07:00
Main episode: 09:10

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Quick Hits
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4171633-ceiling-fan-efficiency-rule-draws-ire-of-house-republicans/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/urban-doom-loop-could-pose-105045782.html

Foolishness of the Week
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/biden-advisers-bristle-newsoms-plan-debate-desantis-rcna101799

Topic of the Week

GOP Primary Debate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccPDCzJuLgI

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Economist Art Carden joins us this week to talk about his popular book, Strangers With Candy.

Foolishness of the week: 04:27
Main episode: 18:01

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Quick Hits

https://fortune.com/2023/07/06/wealthy-leaving-china-education-school-sisb-stock-surge-singapore-thailand/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/372900/number-of-chinese-students-that-study-in-the-us/

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/economic-freedom/map?geozone=world&page=map&year=2020&countries=THA,CHN,USA

https://reason.com/2023/08/21/chinas-industrial-policy-is-failing-will-american-politicians-take-notice/

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/21/american-workers-are-demanding-almost-80000-a-year-to-take-a-new-job.html

Foolishness of the Week
https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1693274613541671350

Topic of the Week

Strangers With Candy
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1733658459?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

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Michael Semanchik, Director of the Innocence Center, joins us to talk about freeing the wrongfully imprisoned, and reforming the criminal justice system to reduce the likelihood of wrongful convictions.

Foolishness of the week: 06:13
Main episode: 07:09

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Quick Hits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqSA-SY5Hro

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2023/08/07/hawaii-news/emergency-declaration-prohibits-price-gouging-lawyer-says/

https://www.outkick.com/oliver-anthony-rich-men-north-of-richmond-song-lyrics-viral-video/

Foolishness of the Week

https://sfstandard.com/2023/08/11/san-francisco-robotaxi-cruise-debauchery/

Topic of the Week

Mike Semanchik
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-semanchik/

California Innocence Project Podcast
https://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/cipp/

Innocence Center
www.innocencecenter.org

National exoneration registry
https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/about.aspx

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The point of communicating is to transfer thoughts from one person’s brain to another. In most forms of human communication, words are the tools we use. But if the two people don’t share common definitions of words, then communication becomes clouded. The most extreme case is when two people speak very different languages. But miscommunication often happens when both people speak the same language. If we hope to resolve, or at least come to peaceful disagreement, over topics from gun control to gender, we have to make a concerted effort to agree on definitions before debating the topics.

Main episode: 12:34

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Quick Hits
http://www.worldgovernmentbonds.com/credit-rating/united-states/

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The Constitution sets lower age limits for members of Congress and the President, but sets no upper limits. Before modern medicine, this wasn’t as much of a problem as people’s bodies tended not to outlive their minds. Today, it’s becoming a problem.

Foolishness of the week: 05:30
Main episode: 09:35

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Topic of the Week

| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_who_did_not_win_reelection | | https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Political_Science_and_Civics/Attenuated_Democracy_(Hubert)/08%3A_Electoral_Politics_and_Public_Opinion/8.07%3A_Chapter_55-_The_Advantages_of_Incumbency | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_by_age | | https://www.ssa.gov/oact/TR/2012/lr5a4.html | | https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-confused-dianne-feinstein-tried-to-give-a-speech-in-the-middle-of-a-senate-hearing-vote-and-was-told-to-just-say-aye-instead/ar-AA1ernV5 | | https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/mcconnell-fell-recently-dc-airport-prior-wednesdays-freeze-rcna96568 | | https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/26/mcconnell-abruptly-leaves-press-conference-after-feeling-light-headed-00108318 | | https://www.axios.com/2023/07/26/mcconnell-press-conference-freezing-lightheaded | | https://www.oyez.org/cases/1994/93-1456 |

Quick Hits

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/mosquitoes-carry-west-nile-are-becoming-resistant-insecticides-cdc-say-rcna96867

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.cornelwest24.org/press_release_073123

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James and I both went to see the recent box office hit, The Sound of Freedom. I liked it. James didn’t. But we both were appalled at what appear to be seriously distorted claims made in the film about human trafficking.

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Topic of the Week

Human trafficking defined
https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-trafficking-in-persons-report/

World data on human trafficking (p. 78)

https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Trafficking-in-Persons-Report-2023.pdf

US data on human trafficking

https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/human-trafficking-data-collection-activities-2022

Fraction of children in human trafficking (p. 48)

https://www.unodc.org/documents/Global_Report_on_TIP.pdf

Drug trafficking statistics

https://www.ussc.gov/research/quick-facts/drug-trafficking

Critique of Sound of Freedom

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/sound-of-freedom-child-trafficking-experts-1234786352/

The claimed stats at the end of Sound of Freedom

https://www.looper.com/1343442/sound-of-freedom-ending-explained/

Quick Hits

AI and telemarketers

https://www.wsj.com/articles/people-hire-phone-bots-to-torture-telemarketers-2dbb8457

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Howie Baetjer, Rob McDonald, James Stacey Taylor, and Clark Neily join us to talk about gun rights, canceling the Founders, and animal rights.

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This encore performance is of our most popular episode. This episode, in which we explore unintended consequences, first aired in September of 2019.

Foolishness of the week: 06:19
Main episode: 10:54

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Quick Hits
https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/maryland-sk-court-case-teen-sexting-child-pornography.html

https://www.blackbusiness.com/2019/05/roy-allela-black-engineer-invents-gloves-turn-sign-language-audible-speech.html

Foolishness of the Week
https://reason.com/2019/08/28/de-blasio-advisory-group-wants-to-abolish-gifted-classes-in-nyc-public-schools/

https://reason.com/2019/08/28/de-blasio-advisory-group-wants-to-abolish-gifted-classes-in-nyc-public-schools/

Episode Topic
https://www.wired.com/2008/12/a380-is-so-quie/
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-cobra-effect-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-political-assault-on-paydays-1464909417
https://www.nber.org/papers/w6670
https://berniesanders.com/issues/the-green-new-deal/

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Antony Davies on Twitter
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James and Ant field questions from students at Brookfield Academy on possible fixes for Social Security, the politics of taxation and spending, and how we’ve broken the separation of powers,

Foolishness of the week: 06:41
Main episode: 03:53

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James and Ant field questions from students at Brookfield Academy on possible fixes for Social Security, the politics of taxation and spending, and how we’ve broken the separation of powers,

Foolishness of the week: 06:41
Main episode: 08:18

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This week’s episode is a live recording of a panel discussion on free speech at the University of Washington.

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Apply for the Seminar on Classical Liberalism: Theory and Practice
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This week, historian Rob McDonald, Constitutional scholar and lawyer Clark Neily, philosophy James Stacey Taylor, and economist Howard Baetjer join James and Ant around a fire to discuss the indictments against former President Donald Trump.

To accommodate the extended conversation, this week we forego our usual quick hits and foolishness of the week. We think you'll agree that, regardless of on which side you fall on the topic, the whole business with Donald Trump qualifies as foolishness.

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Weird things are happening. Retail sales have stagnated, savings are markedly down, yet unemployment is low, inflation isn’t as bad as it was. Have we reached a “new normal?”

Foolishness of the week: 05:00
Main episode: 06:41

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Quick Hits
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/federal-judge-makes-history-holding-border-searches-cell-phones-require-warrant
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/his-township-spied-on-his-car-collection-with-a-drone-now-the-state-supreme-court-will-decide-if-they-violated-his-rights/ar-AA1c2djX
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65602519

Foolishness of the Week
https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2023/06/04/are-chickens-really-related-to-t-rex-dinosaurs-peta-spotlights-evolutionary-link/

Topic of the Week
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RSXFS
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TOTALSA
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PMSAVE

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Let Us Know What You Think
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Antony Davies on Twitter
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For decades and where the law is ambiguous, courts have invoked the Chevron doctrine in allowing regulatory agencies to decide for themselves the meaning of the ambiguous language. Unsurprisingly, agencies invariably interpret ambiguous language in their own favors. The Supreme Court recently agreed to reconsider the Chevron doctrine. Overturning the doctrine could call into question decades’ worth of regulatory rulings. Clark Neily joins us this week to discuss. Foolishness of the week: 06:10 Main episode: 08:37

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Quick Hits https://dailyhive.com/toronto/the-anarchist-toronto-cafe-permanently-closing

https://www.youtube.com/live/-B-9XOlMCks?feature=share

https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-744499

Foolishness of the Week https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/toddler-in-north-korea-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-after-parents-caught-with-bible/ar-AA1bQbss

Topic of the Week

https://www.cato.org/blog/supreme-court-should-end-chevron-deference

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People are saying that artificial intelligence will destroy jobs and enslave humans. We’ve heard this many times before. Before artificial intelligence, people said it about computers. Before computers, they said it about machines. Not only were people wrong before, they were spectacularly wrong. They’re likely wrong again. Foolishness of the week: 09:15 Main episode: 10:16

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Quick Hits

Foolishness of the Week

Topic of the Week

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/09/should-the-laborer-fear-machines/380476/

Labor productivity (output per hour per worker) Up 2% per year since 1950 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PRS85006092 Employees 1939: 30 million Today: 156 million https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PAYEMS Employment population ratio (employees per people 25 to 54 years old) 1950s: 65% Today: 81% https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS12300060 Real disposable personal income Almost quadruple today what it was in the 1950s https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A229RX0 Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Episode 327: To Vote or Not To Vote

This week’s episode comes live from Sandy High School in Sandy Oregon where James and I give arguments for and against voting. Foolishness of the week: 07:56 Main episode: 08:37

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Quick Hits

https://apnews.com/article/facial-recognition-airport-screening-tsa-d8b6397c02afe16602c8d34409d1451f

Foolishness of the Week https://www.wsj.com/articles/got-chocolate-milk-kids-washington-might-take-it-away-in-schools-b4c9b29e

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We hear that women make 80 cents for every dollar that men make, and that blacks earn less than whites. This week, we delve into the data and find these claims far more complicated and interesting than they first appear. Foolishness of the week: 02:50 Main episode: 03:25

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Quick Hits Foolishness of the Week

Topic of the Week https://www.bls.gov/charts/usual-weekly-earnings/usual-weekly-earnings-current-quarter-by-race-and-sex.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/race-and-ethnicity/2021/home.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr71/nvsr71-01.pdf https://www.atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker

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One of the things that cryptocurrency has done is to prompt central banks to develop their own digital currencies. These will combine the downsides of private digital currencies with the downsides of government currencies. Foolishness of the week: 08:21 Main episode: 09:58

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Quick Hits https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/07/21/are-you-in-the-global-middle-class-find-out-with-our-income-calculator/

https://apnews.com/article/drug-shortages-adderall-ozempic-855632a04a17c2bf75b6a89e4c08ef79

Foolishness of the Week https://news.yahoo.com/british-people-urged-swear-allegiance-223829342.html

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The question, “How much do Americans earn?” seems simple. But there are so many moving parts below the surface that there is no single answer. For example, by “earn” do we mean “money from a job” or are we including interest income. What about Social Security retirement benefits? What about government welfare benefits? When we say “Americans” do we mean individual workers, or families, or households? When we say “How much” do we mean the average number or the median? Foolishness of the week: 02:43 Main episode: 06:00

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Quick Hits

https://globalnews.ca/news/9642634/psac-stike-remote-work/

https://www.dw.com/en/german-editor-fired-over-ai-created-schumacher-interview/a-65405192

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/21/opinions/income-tax-wealthy-hodge/index.html

Episode Topic (Numbers are for 2021) Personal income: Income earned by all people from all sources Median personal income: $38,000 Mean personal income: $57,000 Usual Full-Time Earnings: Wages and salaries earned by workers who are employed full-time Median usual earnings: $56,000 Family income: Income earned from all sources by households of two or more related people Median family income: $89,000 Mean family income: $121,000 Household income: Income earned from all sources by households of one or more people Median household income: $71,000 Market income: Household income earned from market activities only Median market Income: $64,000 Per-capita GDP: All the income generated in the economy divided by the population Per-capita GDP: $70,000 https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/families/households.html https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N

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What happens if the dollar is no longer a world currency? Financial expert Pete Earle joins us to discuss his recent article on the end of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Foolishness of the week: 05:42 Main episode: 07:39

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Quick Hits

https://yourmileagemayvary.net/2023/04/09/a-loophole-to-outwit-airlines-no-name-change-policy

https://www.bankrate.com/loans/auto-loans/rates/

Foolishness of the Week

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/california-power-companies-roll-out-fixed-rate-bill-proposal/

Episode Topic https://www.aier.org/article/de-dollarization-has-begun/

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Bank runs, green investing, doctor shortage in Europe, are people getting dumber? Foolishness of the week: 09:07 Main episode: 11:32

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Quick Hits www.goodnewsnetwork.org

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3917919-nyc-bill-would-ban-discrimination-based-on-weight/

Foolishness of the Week https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/10/gop-bomb-mexico-fentanyl-00091132

Episode Topic https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/federal-reserve-meeting-interest-rate-march-2023/card/pacwest-stock-falls-premarket-after-reporting-deposit-fall-5iilc6yQ4WDh3QhQIvPm https://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/bank/ https://reason.com/2023/03/21/bidens-first-veto-protects-and-promotes-esg/ https://hbr.org/2022/03/an-inconvenient-truth-about-esg-investing https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5ESPESG https://marketrealist.com/p/what-is-esg/ https://studyfinds.org/americans-iq-test-scores-drop/ https://www.abokifx.com/news/europe-is-running-out-of-doctors-and-nurses-who-warns-bloomberg?type=market

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Episode 321: Space and Property

As humans venture out into space - not just under the auspices of government, but now as private citizens - establishing and adjudicating property rights will become ever more important. The treaty under which countries operate was signed back in the 1960s. It says that government may not lay claim to anything beyond Earth, but is completely silent about private citizens. Foolishness of the week: 07:08 Main episode: 09:51

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Quick Hits https://calmatters.org/transportation/2023/03/california-high-speed-rail/ https://youtu.be/iJOb9xHggS4?t=447 https://dnyuz.com/2023/03/09/with-its-future-at-stake-the-academy-tries-to-fix-the-oscars-again/

Foolishness of the Week https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Moves-Games-Classic-Ouija/dp/B00EFDXAB4/ https://www.the-sun.com/news/7574259/girls-hospital-ouija-board-school/

Episode Topic https://news.usni.org/2023/03/09/chinese-rocket-that-delivered-military-spy-satellites-breaks-up-over-texas https://news.yahoo.com/war-space-u-officials-debating-120515128.html

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Episode 320: Politics, Anarchy, and Baseball

Economist, former mayor, self-professed anarchist, and baseball fan Randy Simmons joins us this week to talk about government and politics through the eyes of someone who is both a skeptic of government and who served in elected office. We recorded this episode in January, but saved it for the opening of baseball season. You’ll hear why in the episode.

Foolishness of the week: 00:00 Main episode: 00:00

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Quick Hits

https://www.wsj.com/articles/home-buyers-big-ask-the-deal-is-off-if-i-lose-my-job-d9f30f45

Foolishness of the Week

https://news.yahoo.com/cuba-holds-stacked-election-amid-120000306.html

Episode Topic https://theconversation.com/profiles/randy-simmons-141612

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Politics-Roots-Government-Failure/dp/1598130420

https://www.amazon.com/Nature-Unbound-Bureaucracy-Environment-Independent/dp/1598132288

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#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal

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Many listeners have asked that we do an episode on the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and its implications for the rest of the banking sector. Peter Earle, economist and former Wall Street trader, joins us to talk about what happened, how it might have been avoided, what comes next, and whether the rest of the banking system is in danger.

Foolishness of the week: 04:10 Main episode: 05:50

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Quick Hits

https://news.yahoo.com/l-riders-bail-metro-trains-120007450.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://news.yahoo.com/l-riders-bail-metro-trains-120007450.html

Episode Topic

https://www.aier.org/people/peter-c-earle/

https://thestack.technology/silicon-valley-bank-crisis/

https://www.atmmarketplace.com/news/regulators-seize-signature-bank-svp-bank-following-collapse/

Words & Numbers Backstage

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https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

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https://twitter.com/antonydavies

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

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Foolishness of the week: 12:19 Main episode: 16:54

People’s view of the past is biased because we tend to forget the bad things. The (inexplicable to an economist) tendency of young people to think that like in the 1950s was better than life today is one example. This week, we talk about this tendency to nostalgia and how it shows up in pop-culture.

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Quick Hits

Foolishness of the Week

Episode Topic

https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2016/12/balkanization-boutique-world-james-harrigan.html

https://isi.org/intercollegiate-review/truth-justice-and-the-american-way/

https://thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/ep-123-james-harrigan-what-does-pop-culture-say-about-a-society/

Words & Numbers Backstage

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https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think

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Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal

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Words and Numbers is a weekly half-hour podcast that explores current events through the eyes of an economist and political scientist. The show is an alternative to the shouting heads that occupy most public discussions. We follow evidence and reason where they lead for a non-partisan  and entertaining approach to topics relating to politics, economicshttps://wordsandnumbers.org, and government.

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Foolishness of the week: 07:11 Main episode: 11:20

Economic historian Phil Magness joins us to talk about how the popular 1619 Project gets both the history and the relationship between slavery and capitalism wrong. This is the second of a two-part episode.

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Quick Hits

https://www.cleveland.com/business/2016/05/its_shockingly_easy_for_a_thie.html

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-cuts-prices-of-model-x-and-model-s-1898bc5d

https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=tesla+stock+quote&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Foolishness of the Week

https://reason.com/2023/02/27/new-yorks-message-to-gun-owners-you-can-have-a-carry-permit-good-luck-using-it/

Episode Topic

Phil Magness https://www.aier.org/people/phillip-w-magness/

https://www.amazon.com/1619-Project-Critique-Phillip-Magness/dp/1630692018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-1619-project-vindicates-capitalism-hulu-systemic-racism-jim-crow-reparations-fha-labor-union-civil-rights-d9365c71

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Let Us Know What You Think

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Foolishness of the week: 04:55 Main episode: 07:34

Economic historian Phil Magness joins us to talk about how the popular 1619 Project gets both the history and the relationship between slavery and capitalism wrong. This is the first of a two-part episode.

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Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick Hits

https://boingboing.net/2023/02/22/mom-asks-if-10-year-olds-first-composition-can-be-played-then-musicians-around-the-world-give-their-take.html

https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-removing-internet-explorer-from-pcs/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/roald-dahl-controversy-changes-salman-rushdie-willy-wonka-1235333536/

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/after-roald-dahl-james-bond-books-edited-to-remove-offensive-references-3815772

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/20/books/roald-dahl-books-changes.html

Episode Topic

Phil Magness https://www.aier.org/people/phillip-w-magness/

https://www.amazon.com/1619-Project-Critique-Phillip-Magness/dp/1630692018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-1619-project-vindicates-capitalism-hulu-systemic-racism-jim-crow-reparations-fha-labor-union-civil-rights-d9365c71

Words & Numbers Backstage

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More James at Smoke & Stories

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https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think

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Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal

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Foolishness of the Week: 06:19 Main episode: 07:37 As recently as two months ago, many economists were concerned that significant inflation was here to stay. But last month’s data show that inflation is back near zero. Whether this is good news or simply a brief respite, we won’t know for another few months.

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James and Ant are at Basis Scottsdale this week

https://nypost.com/2023/02/14/scientists-switch-off-autism-using-3-epilepsy-drug-study/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/born-in-2007-or-later-this-california-bill-would-bar-you-from-ever-buying-a-tobacco-product/ar-AA17D9gp

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There is much evidence pointing to a relationship between increased trade and improved socio-economic factors like income, poverty, equality, and the environment. But there’s a disturbing trend afoot. World trade (measured as exports and imports as a fraction of world GDP) is down 5% since 2011, and US trade is down 20% over the same period. Worse, prior to 2011, US trade was on a solid upward trajectory for a couple of decades. From 2011 on, had US trade continued to grow at its historical rate, it would be 30% more today than it is.

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James and Ant are at Basis Scottsdale this week

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.TRD.GNFS.ZS?locations=US https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.TRD.GNFS.ZS https://enrollbasis.com/scottsdale/

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Foolishness of the week: 10:57 Main episode: 11:17 The USDA is experimenting with paying people to eat fruits and vegetables. That sounds like a good idea, but it opens the door to regulatory capture wherein companies lobby the USDA to have their products included in the program, and where manufacturers add just enough ingredients to call their formerly-fruit-and-vegetable-free product a “fruit” or “vegetable” and so qualify for the USDA subsidy.

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Quick Hits

https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/google-unveils-bard-its-chatgpt-rival-for-ai-powered-conversation/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/biden-will-call-for-billionaire-tax-bigger-levy-on-stock-buybacks-in-state-of-the-union/ar-AA17aRGj

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Dr. Samuel Gregg joins us to talk about his latest book, The Next American Economy, in which he describes emerging problems and potential solutions to America’s slow movement away from freedom.

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Quick Hits

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/artificial-intelligence-identifies-long-overlooked-raphael-masterpiece-180981528/

https://news.gallup.com/poll/468983/cite-gov-top-problem-inflation-ranks-second.aspx

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgyb4k/ohio-nazi-dissident-homeschool

This Week’s TopicSamuel Gregg on Twitter: @drsamuelgregg

The Next American Economyhttps://www.amazon.com/Next-American-Economy-Markets-Uncertain/dp/164177276X

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A year ago, Mikhail Rasner joined us to talk about shortages and supply chains. A year later, he’s back to talk about what’s happened, both expected and unexpected, and where he sees the economy going in the near future.

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Quick Hits

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/once-biologically-dead-the-river-mersey-in-england-is-best-environmental-story-in-europe/

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/earth-talk-how-effective-is-endangered-species-act/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgyje7/earths-core-has-stopped-and-may-be-reversing-direction-study-says

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/21/china-says-covid-outbreak-has-infected-80percent-of-population.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11667115/Protesters-swarm-Justice-Kavanaughs-home-50th-anniversary-Roe-v-Wade.html

Mikhail’s Previous Episodehttps://wordsandnumbers.libsyn.com/episode-256-an-insiders-view-of-the-supply-chain

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This week, we answer listener questions about the ratchet effect, how to disagree civilly, and who our dream guest would be.

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Quick Hits

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/supreme-court-justices-public-conflict/672494/

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/washington/2023/01/15/classified-document-snafus-predate-biden-presidency/69809187007/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.semafor.com/article/01/15/2023/cnn-is-serious-about-getting-into-comedy

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This week, we answer listener questions about unfunded liabilities, different types of rights, what would happen if the Supreme Court overturned the broad interpretation of the commerce clause, and statistical versus practical significance

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Quick Hits

https://www.ocregister.com/2023/01/09/us-safety-agency-to-consider-ban-on-gas-stoves-amid-health-fears/

https://www.enerdynamics.com/Energy-Currents_Blog/How-Much-Primary-Energy-Is-Wasted-Before-Consumers-See-Value-from-Electricity.aspx

https://dailycaller.com/2023/01/06/university-michigan-diversicrats-year-diversity-equity-inclusion/

Foolishness of the Week

https://thepostmillennial.com/historically-debunked-1619-project-to-be-released-as-hulu-docuseries

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Pope Francis devoted his Christmas homily to speaking out about the evils of pursuing wealth. This week, James and Ant share their different takes on the topic.

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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/people-skipped-covid-vaccine-higher-183148392.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/weight-loss-drug-affordability-rcna60422

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/30/1146377342/5-things-to-know-about-southwests-disastrous-meltdown

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Listener questions this week include: What are the benefits of central banking? Is it time for the states to have an amicable divorce? What would it take to reduce the size of the federal government? What’s the difference between private and public companies?

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Quick Hits

https://www.tdi.texas.gov/pubs/consumer/cb040.html

https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tx.htm#35-0000

https://ktrh.iheart.com/featured/houston-texas-news/content/2022-12-22-fully-automated-mcdonalds-here-in-texas-sparks-debate/

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This week, listeners ask whether it’s right to think of contagion as pollution, and if so, whether government has a role in containing contagion, why are we so litigious, and how we can say anything about socialism or capitalism if neither one has ever existed in a pure form.

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Quick Hits

https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/spain-digital-nomad-visa-37201509

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Over the past century, three constraints on the federal government have failed. When we started ignoring Constitutional constraints, we opened the door to massive increases in federal spending. When voters started asking politicians for more “free” stuff, we walked through the door. And when we went off the gold standard politicians were able to strong-arm the Federal Reserve into funding the massive spending. What transpired was unsustainable spending, which created unsustainable debt, which required money printing, which is causing inflation.

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https://www.creativebloq.com/news/kia-logo

https://www.industryweek.com/the-economy/trade/article/21949510/bite-the-wax-tadpole

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/u-s-to-announce-fusion-energy-breakthrough/ar-AA15ahiG

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-makes-shocking-comments-about-armed-jan-6-if-i-organized-it-we-would-have-won/

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Whether regulations are a good thing or a bad thing is a more complicated question than it appears. Government can regulate through law. But consumers can also regulate through choice. Some government regulations protect people from harm. But some purport to protect people from harm while actually protecting favored businesses from competition. In this live episode, recorded at Susquehanna University, we talk about the good and bad of regulation.

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https://www.livescience.com/quantum-computing

https://www.heatbit.com

https://cointelegraph.com/news/repurposing-bitcoin-mining-heat-can-solve-global-energy-crisis-arcane

https://dnyuz.com/2022/12/06/in-sweeping-new-law-indonesia-outlaws-sex-outside-of-marriage

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.newsweek.com/kanye-west-tells-jews-forgive-hitler-amid-anti-semitism-controversy-1764844

Topic of the Week

https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1700

https://www.ijcb.org/journal/ijcb13q4a2.pdf

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Our greatest immediate concerns are the combination of inflation and recession, and the threat of war with Russia. The United States faced this combination of problems forty years ago. One important difference is that whereas we are politically divided today, then we were politically united. Going by electoral votes, Ronald Reagan was the last President who united the country, and the only President to unite it to a greater degree than George Washington.

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Quick Hits

https://https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/23/new-york-governor-signs-law-cracking-down-on-bitcoin-mining.html

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_volunteer_computing_projects

https://www.wsj.com/articles/employers-rethink-need-for-college-degrees-in-tight-labor-market-11669432133

Foolishness of the Weekhttps://studyfinds.org/morning-people-smarter-verbal-intelligence/

Topic of the Week

https://www.yaf.org

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Last week, we talked about the world population crossing the 8 billion mark. This week, we look at a related topic, population growth. We find the interesting fact that population growth has slowed to near zero in the developed world, and that future population growth will come mostly from Africa.

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https://inoculation.science

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/22/business/budweiser-unsold-beer-world-cup/index.html

https://www.si.com/soccer/2022/11/19/qatar-world-cup-2022-beer-stadium-ban-fifa-gianni-infantino

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/19/1137783957/world-cup-qatar-fan-restrictions-alcohol

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/18/success/home-heating-prices/index.html

Foolishness of the Weekhttps://apnews.com/article/religion-new-york-brooklyn-796a0304635738768e52d21a6dd42f64

Topic of the Week

https://ourworldindata.org/air-pollution

https://ourworldindata.org/deforestation

https://ourworldindata.org/water-access#what-share-of-people-have-access-to-safe-drinking-water

https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions

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The world population crossed the 8 billion mark this week. As far back as at least the late 1700s, experts were predicting that overpopulation would lead to mass starvation. Time and again, the experts end up being both right and wrong. They tend to be right in their projections that the world population is exploding, but they are always wrong about it leading to mass starvation. In fact, today’s 8 billion people live far better lives than did the 1 billion that lived back in the late 1700s.

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Quick Hitshttps://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7kbq/palmer-luckey-made-a-vr-headset-that-kills-the-user-if-they-die-in-the-game

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/election-deniers-lose-races-for-key-state-offices-in-every-2020-battleground/ar-AA1433zT
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/13/trump-election-deniers-accept-2022-results-00066626
https://dnyuz.com/2022/11/12/trump-angst-wracks-republicans-again-as-2024-announcement-looms/

Foolishness of the Weekhttps://www.cnn.com/2022/11/10/business/kfc-germany-kristallnacht

Topic of the Week

https://ourworldindata.org/air-pollution

https://ourworldindata.org/deforestation

https://ourworldindata.org/water-access#what-share-of-people-have-access-to-safe-drinking-water

https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions

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For our 300th episode, Senator Phil Gramm joins us to talk about his recent book on income inequality in America. The disturbing thing is that the government figures that people quote concerning income inequality exclude all the tax and transfer adjustments we deliberately make to mitigate income inequality.

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Quick Hits

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/08/billionaires-emit-a-million-times-more-greenhouse-gases-than-the-average-person-oxfam.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/india/us-national-park-service-warns-people-to-stop-licking-toad-that-causes-hallucinations/ar-AA13Rs8d

Topic of the Week

https://www.amazon.com/Myth-American-Inequality-Government-Biases/dp/1538167387/

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Do the dead have rights? This Halloween, philosopher James Stacey Taylor joins us for a live (heh) recording of Words & Numbers to take this question seriously.

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/11/new-york-gun-buyback-rules-3d-printed-parts

https://studyfinds.org/americans-unsure-about-god-politics-white-evangelicals/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/sympathisers-mark-centenary-of-mussolinis-rise-to-power-in-italy/ar-AA13xayV

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Do the dead have rights? This Halloween, philosopher James Stacey Taylor joins us for a live (heh) recording of Words & Numbers to take this question seriously.

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Quick Hits

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/11/new-york-gun-buyback-rules-3d-printed-parts

https://studyfinds.org/americans-unsure-about-god-politics-white-evangelicals/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/sympathisers-mark-centenary-of-mussolinis-rise-to-power-in-italy/ar-AA13xayV

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People spend a lot of time talking about the debt and deficit, but most are unaware of the mechanics involved. This week, we cover some of those mechanics with a discussion of Treasury notes, bills, and bonds.

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Quick Hits

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/21/tax-revenue-spending-budget-deficit-drop-deficit-00062923

https://taxfoundation.org/federal-tax-collections-inflation-surging/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/23/salman-rushdie-has-lost-sight-in-one-eye-and-use-of-one-hand-says-agent

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/17/salman-rushdie-survive-attacker-00052549

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2022/08/30/dea-warns-brightly-colored-fentanyl-used-target-young-americans

Topic of the Weekhttps://www.treasurydirect.gov

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This month, the world takes stock of international poverty, and James and Ant put poverty into perspective both across countries and across time.

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Quick Hits

https://slashdot.org/story/22/10/08/2234213/paypal-says-it-wont-fine-customers-2500-for-misinformation

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/-check-walker-acknowledges-giving-700-ex-denies-claim-knew-was-abortio-rcna52252

Foolishness of the Week

https://nypost.com/2022/10/17/home-asking-prices-tumble-at-record-pace-as-mortgage-rates-surge/

Topic of the Weekhttps://foreignpolicy.com/2012/02/27/were-all-the-1-percent/

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All of economics boils down to a single fact: people respond to incentives. The first step to thinking like an economist is to take that fact seriously. Once you do, the world never looks the same.

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Quick Hits

https://fortune.com/2022/10/03/how-to-get-stimulus-check-california-inflation-relief/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.theguardian.com/music/commentisfree/2022/oct/07/kanye-west-white-lives-matter-tucker-carlson

Topic of the Weekhttps://mscee.org

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People - including some economists - are so used to governments establishing currencies that we are unaware that there are alternatives. Money is simply a tool that reduces the frictional costs of trading goods and services and of saving. Markets can evolve money in the same way that they evolve all manner of other solutions to even more complex problems. Prof. Lawrence H. White joins us this week to talk about alternatives to government-created currencies.

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Quick Hits

https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/publications/trends-in-youth-arrests.pdf

https://observer.com/2022/09/nft-trading-volume-plunges-97-since-january-raising-questions-about-their-future/

Foolishness of the Week

https://news.yahoo.com/us-home-prices-now-posting-040100770.html

Topic of the Week

https://www.amazon.com/Lawrence-H-White/e/B001HD35S8

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Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution lists the things the Federal government is permitted to do. Somewhere in our history, citizens have come to regard the Constitution as a document that outlines what the government is not allowed to do. That’s exactly the opposite of what the Founders intended.

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Quick Hits

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/22/turkey-cuts-interest-rates-again-as-country-struggles-under-inflation.html

https://www.thelocal.es/20220923/spain-to-tax-rich-to-offset-inflation-relief-measures/

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Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution lists the things the Federal government is permitted to do. Somewhere in our history, citizens have come to regard the Constitution as a document that outlines what the government is not allowed to do. That’s exactly the opposite of what the Founders intended.

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Quick Hits

https://www.guntab.com/insights/new-mcc-code-for-gun-stores-is-step-toward-suspicious-transaction-reports/

https://www-wtae-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.wtae.com/amp/article/pennsylvania-alcohol-self-imposed-ban-proposed/41233874

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/08/29/nasa-dart-crash-dart-asteroid-how-to-see/7926449001/

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The “age of majority” is the age at which a person is considered, legally, an adult. Not only does the age of majority vary by state and over time, it also varies by activity. Someone who is considered an adult for the purpose of voting, may not be for the purpose of drinking. As only adults can exercise their freedoms fully, the question of what constitutes an adult goes to the heart of what it is to be a free person.

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Quick Hits

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/10/guns-credit-card-trackable

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.cnsnews.com/article/washington/terence-p-jeffrey/americans-spent-more-taxes-2021-food-clothing-and-health-care

Topic of the Week

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/age-of-majority-by-state

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This episode is an excerpt of an interview we gave with Dr. Anwar Dunbar for his YouTube channel, Big Discussions.

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Carson Collins’ Award-Winning Video on the Minimum Wage

https://www.viddler.com/v/5e4c1764

Quick Hits

https://data.oecd.org/emp/hours-worked.htm

https://www.sltrib.com/news/nation-world/2022/09/05/prevent-martian-plague-nasa-will/

Foolishness of the Week

https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/contact-lenses-might-soon-replace-our-phone-screens-8131768/

Topic of the Week

https://bigwordsarepowerful.com

https://www.youtube.com/c/BigDiscussions76

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF2pol-wUtQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEkRHqbj0zU

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We discuss two topics in-depth this week: student loan forgiveness and lying to pollsters. There’s an interesting technique for distinguishing between what voters say they believe and what they actually believe, and there’s a recent poll that uses this technique in asking people about their attitudes toward controversial topics.

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Quick Hits

https://reason.com/2022/08/29/what-americans-think-about-marijuana-in-2022/

Foolishness of the Week

https://reason.com/2022/08/25/ben-shapiro-podcast-movement-harm-done-twitter/

Topic of the Week

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59153bc0e6f2e109b2a85cbc/t/62fd07b49271c657d243505d/1660749762686/

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We discuss two topics in-depth this week: student loan forgiveness and lying to pollsters. There’s an interesting technique for distinguishing between what voters say they believe and what they actually believe, and there’s a recent poll that uses this technique in asking people about their attitudes toward controversial topics.

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Quick Hits

https://reason.com/2022/08/29/what-americans-think-about-marijuana-in-2022/

Foolishness of the Week

https://reason.com/2022/08/25/ben-shapiro-podcast-movement-harm-done-twitter/

Topic of the Week

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59153bc0e6f2e109b2a85cbc/t/62fd07b49271c657d243505d/1660749762686/

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Today’s woke-ism evolved from political correctness of the 1990s. While people have embraced many lessons about inclusion and empathy from the era of political correctness, people appear to be rejecting the woke-ism that tries to insinuate itself into popular culture. Post-covid movies provide a good example. Elite critics are applauding, and audiences are largely rejecting movies that use entertainment to teach woke-ism. Meanwhile, audiences are handing their dollars to movie makers (woke or otherwise) who entertain.

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Quick Hits

https://www.cato.org/blog/senate-bill-irs-funding-hypocrisy

https://nypost.com/2022/08/03/why-irs-80b-expansion-is-a-nightmare-for-small-business/

https://apnews.com/article/inflation-ap-fact-check-congress-government-and-politics-11eae023a3dc3a04584371843234cab7

https://deadline.com/2022/08/cnn-firings-brian-stelter-chris-licht-john-malone-warner-bros-discovery-1235096292/

https://www.thewrap.com/don-lemon-jim-acosta-expected-to-stay-cnn-neutral-direction-exclusive/Foolishness of the Week

https://apnews.com/article/nato-covid-health-finland-helsinki-bb9704d5663b68766fcd2376335a29c4

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Maybe we’re in a recession, but maybe we’re not. This week, we talk about what a recession is and what it means, practically, for people.

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Quick Hitshttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/us/columbia-us-news-rankings.html
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/liz-cheney-s-political-life-is-likely-ending-and-just-beginning/ar-AA10FNr7
https://theweek.com/liz-cheney/1015866/inside-the-liz-cheney-presidential-run-speculation
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/spaghetti-sauce-under-threat-water-124539175.html

Foolishness of the Weekhttps://reason.com/2022/08/14/spain-bans-a-c-below-80-degrees-during-record-setting-summer-heat/

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The Founders gave strong philosophical arguments for why secession from Great Britain was right and proper. Yet, when the Confederacy tried to secede from the Union, philosophical arguments against secession were few. Clearly, ending slavery was right and proper. And, the question of secession was, practically speaking, answered with the eradication of slavery. But the question of whether it is right and proper for states to secede remains, at least from a philosophical perspective, unaddressed.

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Quick Hitshttps://theaviationgeekclub.com/heres-why-producing-thousand-gallons-of-jp-7-fuel-used-in-the-sr-71-blackbird-mach-3-spy-plane-caused-a-nationwide-shortage-of-flit-insecticide/

https://www.fastcompany.com/90775427/amazon-grandma-alexa-evolution-text-to-speech

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/inside-the-war-between-trump-and-his-generals

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.kiplinger.com/taxes/602142/tax-on-mega-millions-jackpot

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Part of the reason we make little progress on this topic of guns in this country is that the pro- and anti-gun camps talk past each other. This is fueled by a media that tends to show only one side of the story, causing both sides in the debate to become paranoid - one side comes to think that half the country is looking to disarm them, and the other side comes to think that half the country is blind to gun violence. A recent shooting gives us the opportunity to think about the topic from a more balanced perspective.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Weekhttps://abcnews.go.com/US/video/biden-tests-positive-covid-19-paxlovid-87762070

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/beyonce-offensive-lyric-ableist-slur-spaz-170000669.html

Topic of the Week

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/indiana-passer-by-hailed-after-shooting-mall-gunman-2022-07-18/

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Oddly, there’s not a lot in the news this week. Given what we’ve all been through the past couple of years, that’s likely a good thing. This week, we sit back and take a casual look at inflation, economic growth, entrepreneurs, standardization, and the gig economy.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Weekhttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GASREGW

https://gasprices.aaa.com

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ice-cream-trucks-are-the-latest-target-of-inflation/ar-AAZYTxK

Foolishness of the Week

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_Bruce#Death_and_posthumous_pardon

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/21/1112722821/dave-chappelle-minneapolis-show-canceled

Topic of the Week

https://www.usacarry.com/40-yards-elisjsha-dicken-landed-shots-mall-shooter/

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/19/us/eli-dicken-indiana-mall-shooting-bystander/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/19/us/armed-bystander-indiana-mall-shooting.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/indiana-mall-shooting-elisjsha-dicken-neutralized-gunman-15-seconds/

https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%201-m&geo=US&gprop=news&q=shooting

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Oddly, there’s not a lot in the news this week. Given what we’ve all been through the past couple of years, that’s likely a good thing. This week, we sit back and take a casual look at inflation, economic growth, entrepreneurs, standardization, and the gig economy.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Weekhttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GASREGW

https://gasprices.aaa.com

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ice-cream-trucks-are-the-latest-target-of-inflation/ar-AAZYTxK

Foolishness of the Week

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_Bruce#Death_and_posthumous_pardon

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/21/1112722821/dave-chappelle-minneapolis-show-canceled

Topic of the Week

https://www.usacarry.com/40-yards-elisjsha-dicken-landed-shots-mall-shooter/

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/19/us/eli-dicken-indiana-mall-shooting-bystander/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/19/us/armed-bystander-indiana-mall-shooting.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/indiana-mall-shooting-elisjsha-dicken-neutralized-gunman-15-seconds/

https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%201-m&geo=US&gprop=news&q=shooting

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Social Security has become a trillion dollar weight dragging down our economics and politics. On the one hand, according to the Social Security administration itself, the program will be insolvent within a decade. On the other, we can’t shut it down without condemning many elderly to destitution. This week, we talk about a plan that would phase out Social Security, do it without cutting benefits to current retirees, leave future retirees better off, and save the government money. The catch is that the phase-out requires many decades.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Week

https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/snaiohx-hampton-suites-irvine-orange-county-airport/

https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-new-york-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-queens-congress-7e1d71dec55714872f60a4f34d02b7d7

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/aoc-laments-insane-cost-of-being-congresswoman

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11022021/Jill-Biden-voices-frustration-Joes-lack-progress-White-House.html

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/20407226/bidens-dissertation.pdf

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Recently, we talked about polls showing a serious erosion of trust in the branches of government. This week, we focus on the media. It turns out that Americans trust the media about as much as they trust Congress - and it’s amazing how little they trust Congress. Interestingly, there’s a sharp division among party lines.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Week

https://www.amazon.com/Alone/dp/B07RYP2QSW

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/outrage-erupts-white-house-calls-013222807.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pregnant-woman-given-hov-ticket-argues-fetus-is-passenger-post-roe/ar-AAZoI2r

Topic of the Week

https://www.axios.com/2022/07/08/news-republicans-democrats-trust-partisanship

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No matter what we do to tweak our healthcare system, we seem to end up with the same problems decade after decade. Proponents of socialized medicine say that healthcare is simply too complex of a problem to leave to profit-seeking actors in the marketplace. Proponents of free market medicine say that healthcare is a product like any other product and that much of the complexity that exists is actually due to government regulations themselves. This week, we talk with an economic historian and ask, what happened to healthcare in this country?

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Week

https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/wxn8qx/amtrak-spent-11-years-and-dollar450-million-to-save-acela-riders-100-seconds

https://www.railpassengers.org/site/assets/files/3480/1.pdf

https://news.gallup.com/poll/394283/confidence-institutions-down-average-new-low.aspx

Foolishness of the Week

https://abcnews.go.com/US/couple-fined-1500-parking-driveway/story?id=86181089

Topic of the Week

https://history.umbc.edu/facultystaff/full-time/christy-ford-chapin/

https://www.amazon.com/Ensuring-Americas-Health-Creation-Corporate/dp/1107622875/ref=sr_1_1

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Historian Rob McDonald joins us on this Fourth of July week to talk about the events leading up to the founding, and his observation that the Founders thought less that they were declaring independence from Great Britain than that Parliament and the King had effectively declared the colonies independent by failing to fulfill the basic functions of government.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Week

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/this-gorgeous-leather-is-made-from-the-hide-of-an-invasive-predatory-fish/

https://www.inversaleathers.com

https://www.fb.org/newsroom/cost-of-july-4th-cookout-17-higher-compared-to-year-ago

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-gas-prices-surge-stations-now-hold-up-to-175-of-your-money-when-you-swipe-11656277411

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For one-hundred years, the United States has been conducting an experiment in unlimited government wherein politicians spend far beyond the government’s means, kicking the fiscal can down the road for future generations to pay. The future has finally arrived and we are that future generation. The inflation we’re experiencing now is the beginning of the price we’ll be paying for a century of unlimited government.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Week

https://www.wuft.org/news/2022/06/02/gainesville-residents-and-city-officials-gather-to-strategize-how-to-tackle-affordable-housing-issues-in-the-city/

https://www.sightline.org/2014/09/29/zoning-inclusionary-v-exclusionary/

https://dailytravelpill.com/montane-mansion-hong-kong-monster-building/

https://news.yahoo.com/affordable-housing-california-now-routinely-120027201.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/19/holiday-weekend-sees-massive-amount-of-flight-cancellations.html

Topic of the Week

https://www.aier.org/article/a-time-for-reckoning/

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Critics of drug laws focus on the costs, both in dollars and lives, of incarcerating people for an act that often hurts no one. Lost in the discussion is the cost of making it harder for people who suffer from chronic pain to obtain drugs they need to function.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Week

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-31/yellen-says-i-was-wrong-last-year-on-the-path-of-us-inflation

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2322693-damaged-liver-repaired-inside-machine-for-three-days-before-transplant/

Foolishness of the Week

https://news.yahoo.com/justin-trudeau-points-u-gun-193328676.html

Topic of the Week

https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/crime-pmn/canada-to-temporarily-decriminalize-some-drug-possession-to-tackle-abuse-problem

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We all see the profits companies make when they sell things for more than it cost them to produce. Companies carefully measure these profits, and many are required to publicly report them to the penny. What we don’t see, but is every bit as real, is the “profit” consumers make when they buy from those companies. A consumer’s “profit” occurs when the consumer pays less for a thing than the maximum the consumer was willing to pay. The fact that we readily see companies’ profits and don’t readily see consumers’ profits contributes to many people’s misunderstandings about economics.

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Quick Hits

https://wordsandnumbers.libsyn.com/episode-243-the-nature-of-exchange-pt-1

https://wordsandnumbers.libsyn.com/episode-244-the-nature-of-exchange-pt-2

Foolishness of the Week

https://apnews.com/article/california-race-and-ethnicity-san-francisco-voter-registration-6bc187073ed7477f654b63d869bacdf7

Topic of the Week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLXKazEbRJ8

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James and I were invited to kick off UNC Wilmington’s annual Business Week with a live recording of Words & Numbers. The talk was loosely based on our book, Cooperation & Coercion. If you’ve read the book, you’ll still find fresh material in these episodes. The first part of this two-part episode is the presentation. The second part is the audience Q&A.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Week

Quick hits and the foolishness of the week have gone on vacation for a few weeks. In their places, we’ll be talking about unintended consequences.

Topic of the Week

https://www.wilmingtonbiz.com/insights/robert__burrus/csb_business_week_2022_-_connecting_uncws_cameron_school_of_business_to_its_powerful_network/3365

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James and I were invited to kick off UNC Wilmington’s annual Business Week with a live recording of Words & Numbers. The talk was loosely based on our book, Cooperation & Coercion. If you’ve read the book, you’ll still find fresh material in these episodes. The first part of this two-part episode is the presentation. The second part is the audience Q&A.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Week

Quick hits and the foolishness of the week have gone on vacation for a few weeks. In their places, we’ll be talking about unintended consequences.

Topic of the Week

https://www.wilmingtonbiz.com/insights/robert__burrus/csb_business_week_2022_-_connecting_uncws_cameron_school_of_business_to_its_powerful_network/3365

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Most of what the public knows about economics is really macroeconomics - the field of economics that deals with interest rates, inflation, unemployment, and GDP. Economics is really about human behavior, and there’s a lot more to it than simply macroeconomics. Economist Matt Ryan joins us this week to talk about his work in applying economics to interesting topics from sports betting to police making traffic stops.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Week

Quick hits and the foolishness of the week have gone on vacation for a few weeks. In their places, we’ll be talking about unintended consequences.

Topic of the Week

https://www.duq.edu/academics/faculty/matt-ryan

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The Congressional Budget Office is the government entity that produces forecasts about the effects of new taxes and spending on the economy and the federal budget. Four years ago, we did an episode in which we showed that the CBO had a track record of under-estimating future spending and over-estimating future tax revenues. With four years behind us, we revisit the topic and ask whether the CBO has gotten any better and what it’s now forecasting for the future.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Week

Quick hits and the foolishness of the week have gone on vacation for a few weeks. In their places, we’ll be talking about unintended consequences.

Topic of the Week

Historical CBO forecasts

https://www.cbo.gov/about/products/budget-economic-data#3

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There are some things that people have an emotional reaction to buying and selling: sex, body parts, votes. There are other things whose quality people aren’t able to judge. Is it possible that markets shouldn’t or can’t handle these things? Philosopher James Stacey Taylor joins us to discuss his latest book, Markets With Limits.

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Week

Quick hits and the foolishness of the week have gone on vacation for a few weeks. In their places, we’ll be talking about unintended consequences.

Topic of the Week

Markets With Limits by James Stacey Taylor

https://www.amazon.com/Markets-Limits-Merits-Market-Critical-Arguments/dp/1032171480/ref=sr_1_1

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There are some things that people have an emotional reaction to buying and selling: sex, body parts, votes. There are other things whose quality people aren’t able to judge. Is it possible that markets shouldn’t or can’t handle these things? Philosopher James Stacey Taylor joins us to discuss his latest book, Markets With Limits.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

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Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Week

Quick hits and the foolishness of the week have gone on vacation for a few weeks. In their places, we’ll be talking about unintended consequences.

Topic of the Week

Markets With Limits by James Stacey Taylor

https://www.amazon.com/Markets-Limits-Merits-Market-Critical-Arguments/dp/1032171480/ref=sr_1_1

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Humans have dual natures. We are, simultaneously, individuals and members of a shared society. That each of us should be free arises from our status as individuals. But, what arises from our status as members of a shared society are obligations to one another. What economists call “economic freedom” is really the encoding of the appropriate balance of our two natures into the rule of law. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

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Quick Hits

https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2022/happiness-benevolence-and-trust-during-covid-19-and-beyond/#ranking-of-happiness-2019-2021

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/economic-freedom/map?geozone=world&page=map&year=2018

https://nypost.com/2022/04/14/biden-shakes-hands-with-thin-air-after-north-carolina-speech/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/decade-high-mortgage-rates-pose-threat-to-spring-housing-market-11650101401

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.kentucky.com/news/nation-world/national/article260445977.html

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This is the final installment of our talk with the economics students of Mount Hebron High School. The students have won the state economics championship 16 times, the national championship six times, and recently won the international championship for the first time.

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This week, we talk with the economics students of Mount Hebron High School who have won the state economics championship 16 times, the national championship six times, and recently won the international championship for the first time. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

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Quick Hits

https://www.wsj.com/articles/oberlin-college-loses-appeal-ohio-gibsons-bakery-v-woke-pc-cancel-culture-crt-critical-race-theory-libel-emotional-distress-racial-profiling-higher-education-11648829090?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-historic-all-black-town-wants-reparations-to-rebuild-as-a-e2-80-98safe-haven-e2-80-99/ar-AAVKiWv

Topic of the Week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F79X_-PwKhg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke38g7fFvtk

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This week, we talk with the economics students of Mount Hebron High School who have won the state economics championship 16 times, the national championship six times, and recently won the international championship for the first time.
Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick Hits

https://www.thedrive.com/news/44445/canada-has-a-railroad-for-fish-thats-only-200-feet-long-heres-why

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bayside+Canadian+Railway/@45.1588746,-67.1399627,156m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x4ca6016202a5eb6f:0xdd7c0d6ee9b1c34a!8m2!3d45.1586153!4d-67.1396707

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/599768-biden-is-planning-a-new-digital-currency-heres-why-you-should-be-very-worried

Foolishness of the Week

https://thehill.com/regulation/599821-thomas-scrutiny-intensifies-after-latest-revelations

Topic of the Week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F79X_-PwKhg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke38g7fFvtk

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Now that a decade has passed since the Affordable Care Act reached full implementation, it’s a good time to look back at what we were promised, what we got, and what we didn’t get..

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Quick Hits

https://advisor.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-biggest-u-s-tax-expenditures/

https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-approves-bill-that-would-make-daylight-savings-time-permanent-2023-2022-03-15/

Foolishness of the Week

https://reason.com/2022/03/04/d-c-managed-to-lose-4-million-on-its-own-sports-betting-app/

Topic of the Week

https://www.thebalance.com/causes-of-rising-healthcare-costs-4064878

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The Catholic Church likes subsidiarity. Politicians like federalism. Economists like free markets. It turns out that, if you can adequately define “the common good,” the three - subsidiarity, federalism, and free markets - pretty much boil down to the same thing. This week is the first half of a four-way discussion with two Catholic theologians, a political scientist, and an economist on subsidiarity and the common good. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

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Quick Hits

https://nypost.com/2022/03/04/hundreds-of-people-are-booking-airbnb-rentals-in-ukraine-heres-why/

https://scoop.upworthy.com/polish-moms-leave-baby-strollers-at-train-station-for-ukrainians-moms-who-need-them

https://www.cato.org/commentary/pick-time-stick-it

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/california-lawmaker-proposes-25-tax-on-real-estate-investors-to-level-playing-field/2834287/

Topic of the Week

https://stvincent.academia.edu/JasonKing/CurriculumVitae

https://stvincent.academia.edu/ChristopherMcMahon/CurriculumVitae

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Is there a massive class action suit awaiting colleges and universities that promise certain educational outcomes and don’t deliver? Colleges and universities are admitting students they know won’t succeed and happily cashing their tuition checks. There are scary parallels here to bankers who gave mortgages to borrowers the banks knew couldn’t afford to repay those mortgages.

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https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IPUCN2211W200000000

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/04/politics/biden-buy-american-domestic-manufacturing/index.htmhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/andrew-cuomo-chris-cnn-cancel-culture-pc-political-correct-sexual-harrassment-accusation-new-york-governor-church-speech-11646599202l

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.fox5ny.com/news/sony-unveils-new-gold-plated-walkman

Topic of the Week

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/16/1081107925/education-department-devry-university-borrower-defense-student-loan-relief

https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=73

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Politicians often argue the benefits of raising taxes to pay for sports stadiums, citing all the economic benefits that accrue from attracting major sports teams. But if there were significant economic benefits, wouldn’t private investors have an incentive to pay for the stadiums on their own? Why do we need tax revenues to fund them? This week, economist Lauren Heller joins us to talk about the economics of sport stadiums.

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/self-driving-trucks-start-to-propel-land-rush-near-major-cities-11646053200

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2022/02/25/mask-mandate-travel-cdc-guidelines/6938530001/

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https://www.berry.edu/academics/fs/lheller

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The life cycle of birth, maturation, death, and new life plays out in markets in the same way and for the same reasons. Entrepreneurs come up with new ideas. If customers like those ideas better than they like dollars in their pockets, they pay the entrepreneurs and the new ideas mature. But with maturation comes some ossification as once nimble companies get bogged down by their own bureaucracies. This creates opportunities for new entrepreneurs to come along and replace the old. Amazon, once the nimble upstart that gave customers what they wanted at prices they were willing to pay, may be showing signs of its oncoming and inevitable decline.

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https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/02/21/report-apple-store-employees-want-to-unionize-use-android-phones-to-avoid-tim-cooks-snooping/

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https://www.salesforce.com/blog/jeff-bezos-lessons-blog/

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David Friedman joins us to talk about the gold standard: why one existed at all, why we went off it, and what would happen if we reinstituted it.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/world/europe/boaty-mcboatface-what-you-get-when-you-let-the-internet-decide.html

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/taxes/irs-backlog-hits-nearly-24-million-returns-further-imperiling-the-2022-tax-filing-season/ar-AATKL3A

Foolishness of the Week

https://reason.com/2022/02/10/ohio-mayor-warns-that-ice-fishing-will-lead-to-prostitution/

Topic of the Week

http://www.daviddfriedman.com

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The federal debt recently crossed the $30 trillion mark, making the debt 50% larger than the entire US economy.

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https://www.itv.com/news/2022-02-07/scientists-create-spinal-cord-implants-that-could-allow-paralysed-people-to-walk

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.claimscon.org/study/

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income

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Americans are so used to having goods available to them at low prices, in expansive variety, and in apparently limitless quantities that sporadic shortages are shaking up our lives. Yet, what we experience as an inconvenience, others in the world experience as starvation. Humans’ default condition is not one of plenty, but one of poverty. What stands athwart any society and poverty is good governance and a free economy.

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https://www.artforum.com/news/ireland-to-launch-universal-basic-income-program-for-artists-87612

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/31/europe/ireland-fishermen-russia-navy-intl/index.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/he-e2-80-99s-declining-a-coronavirus-vaccine-at-the-expense-of-a-lifesaving-transplant-e2-80-98i-was-born-free-i-e2-80-99ll-die-free-e2-80-99/ar-AATkeOa

Topic of the Week

https://www.unitlife.org/impact-of-covid-19-on-malnutrition

https://www.statista.com/statistics/269924/countries-most-affected-by-hunger-in-the-world-according-to-world-hunger-index/

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SN.ITK.DEFC.ZS

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The Chosen is a remarkable TV series on two counts. It is the largest crowdfunded effort of its type, having raised more than $10 million and attracted over 150 million downloads over its two seasons. It also manages to depict stories from the New Testament in a way that is attractive to atheists and people of faith alike. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

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https://mcdc.missouri.edu/help/measures-of-income/

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/university-of-pennsylvania

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abd0380

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-21/bezos-loses-20-billion-in-brutal-week-for-tech-billionaires

Topic of the Week
https://www.amazon.com/The-Chosen-season-1/dp/B091D6KCBS

https://watch.angelstudios.com/thechosen

https://derraleves.com/certified-youtube-consultant/

https://www.316tees.com/blogs/316/the-chosen-highest-crowd-funded-media

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Something odd is happening among Americans. People are generally quite nice to each other. Historically, Americans have been a generous people, and most have a good sense of civic duty. Yet, Americans on both the left and the right are angry about our politics. Both sides are coming to view the other as “the enemy.” It’s possible that we’ve reached a point where the best way forward is to go our separate ways. And we might not have reached this point at all if we had taken our founding principles more seriously.

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Quick HitsFoolishness of the Week

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Even in the absence of inflation, a dollar in the future is less than a dollar today simply because it exists in the future. Humans have figured out how to use this fact to invent things like mortgages, installment payments, and subscriptions. We talk about the implications of the time value of money, then segue into virtual reality and the future of labor markets, then into the service the rich perform for the rest of us as first adopters. This is what happens when you don’t have a script.

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Quick Hitshttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/01/05/maryland-couple-schmidt-baking-company-virginia-i-95/9110543002/

https://wtop.com/virginia/2022/01/uber-rider-stuck-on-i-95-hit-with-600-bill/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2022/01/08/houston-teacher-accused-of-locking-son-in-trunk-of-car-to-avoid-covid-19-exposure/

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TAOlFLJq9bgnsgINqcg6

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Goods appear to be randomly missing in stores, and prices seem to be rising. Much of what we're seeing is due to disruptions in the supply chain. This week, we talk with industry insider Mikhail Rasner about what's going on. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

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https://www.npr.org/2021/12/16/1064855510/kraft-cream-cheese-20-dollar-website

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-12-10/supply-chain-latest-cream-cheese-is-the-latest-casualty-of-cyberattacks

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/opinions-with-the-supreme-court-lurching-right-state-courts-offer-liberals-hope/ar-AASaLg5

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https://nypost.com/2022/01/02/australian-man-self-immolates-after-ranting-against-covid-vaccines/

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Phil Magness joins us to discuss critical race theory: what is it, and why is it controversial?

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https://www.npr.org/2021/12/16/1064855510/kraft-cream-cheese-20-dollar-website

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-12-10/supply-chain-latest-cream-cheese-is-the-latest-casualty-of-cyberattacks

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/opinions-with-the-supreme-court-lurching-right-state-courts-offer-liberals-hope/ar-AASaLg5

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/fauci-says-domestic-travel-vaccination-rule-should-be-considered/ar-AASbcTj

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/10/world/covid-omicron-vaccines

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We had such good feedback from last week's live tradeoffs episode that we're including the audience Q&A session for this week's episode. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

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https://www.straitstimes.com/world/middle-east/giant-rave-in-saudi-desert-pushes-kingdoms-changing-boundaries

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-says-he-will-pay-more-than-11-billion-in-taxes-this-year-11640001132

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What do climate change, the covid lockdowns, taxing billionaires, free college, and free healthcare have in common? In each case, politicians would prefer that voters ignore the reality of tradeoffs.

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As events point to the possibility of a second lockdown, we ask what we have learned from the last one.

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This Week’s Topichttps://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_totaldeaths

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In response to record-breaking deficits, politicians, pundits, and concerned voters are discussing new sources of tax revenue. Unfortunately, they often conflate wealth, income, and unrealized capital gains. This week, we clarify some of the confusion.

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This Week’s Topichttps://taxfoundation.org/publications/state-local-tax-burden-rankings/#Burdens

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GNP

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFR

https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-do-us-taxes-compare-internationally

https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html

https://www.investopedia.com/how-much-does-health-insurance-cost-4774184

https://ips-dc.org/u-s-billionaire-wealth-surged-by-70-percent-or-2-1-trillion-during-pandemic-theyre-now-worth-a-combined-5-trillion/

https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scf/dataviz/scf/chart/

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This week, we answer listener questions that cover a gamut of topics.

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Quick Hitshttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/technology/personaltech/iphone-upgrades-cost.html

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**This week, we answer listener questions that cover a gamut of topics.

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https://nypost.com/2021/11/15/kamala-harris-sidelined-amid-tensions-with-president-biden/

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David Card recently won the Nobel Prize in economics for his contributions to the study of labor markets and natural experiments. Some minimum wage proponents confuse these excellent contributions with a particular application of his contributions to a study he conducted of a hike in New Jersey’s minimum wage. We discuss the flaws in that oft-cited study, and the distinction between his contributions and the study.

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Quick Hitshttps://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/11/buffalo-election-2021-results-india-walton-defeated.html

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/580322-democrats-brace-for-flood-of-retirements-after-virginia-rout

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/11/07/biden-approval-falls-38-midterms-loom-usa-today-suffolk-poll/6320098001/

Foolishness of the Weekhttps://abcnews4.com/news/nation-world/annual-microsoft-ignite-conference-entices-criticism-over-woke-introductions

https://freebeacon.com/culture/microsoft-encourages-employees-to-state-race-gender-during-presentations/

https://www.fox5ny.com/news/one-of-worlds-largest-investment-firms-will-need-permission-to-hire-white-men

Topic of the Week

https://davidcard.berkeley.edu/papers/njmin-aer.pdf

https://www.econlib.org/no-krueger-didnt-prove-that-raising-the-minimum-wage-doesnt-increase-unemployment/

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The combination of property rights and a profit incentive yields good outcomes. Elephants provide an excellent example.

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Quick Hitshttps://www.techspot.com/news/91430-bitcoin-mining-company-buys-pennsylvania-power-plant-meet.html
https://hbr.org/2021/05/how-much-energy-does-bitcoin-actually-consume
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/after-san-francisco-shoplifting-video-goes-viral-officials-argue-thefts-n1273848

Foolishness of the Weekhttps://www.the-sun.com/sport/3969736/colin-kaepernick-nfl-draft-slavery-netflix/

Topic of the Week

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/22/1048336907/elephants-tuskless-ivory-poaching-africa

https://www.amazon.com/Free-Our-Markets-Essential-Economics/dp/098442542X

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Politics, not partisanship, and economics are linked because both emerge from humans attempting to employ their abilities to satisfy their needs. In this episode, we explore the connection.

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Quick Hits

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/13/norway-kongsberg-bow-arrow-attack/

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/09/china/china-knife-attacks-mic-intl-hnk/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/25/tech/blue-origin-space-station-jeff-bezos-scn/index.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/tom-brady-s-historic-day-took-a-backseat-to-his-encounter-with-a-9-year-old-cancer-survivor/ar-AAPVYUj

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Corey DeAngelis, who has made himself the public gadfly of teachers unions, joins us to talk about how Americans’ attitudes about funding public schools changed with covid.

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Quick Hits

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/occupation-finder.htm

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/construction-and-building-inspectors.htm

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/respiratory-therapists.htm

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/diagnostic-medical-sonographers.htm

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dental-hygienists.htm

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/radiation-therapists.htm

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/elevator-installers-and-repairers.htm

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/transportation-and-material-moving/airline-and-commercial-pilots.htm

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/transportation-and-material-moving/air-traffic-controllers.htm

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58878473

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr_F_XQrukM

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/oct/16/figures-of-babylon-oldest-drawing-of-a-ghost-found-in-british-museum-vault

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Money is an excellent tool for facilitating exchange. It solves problems like how to save while avoiding spoilage and how to exchange with people who don’t want what you’re offering. But we’ve come to rely so heavily on money that we’ve forgotten what exchange really is. In this first of two episodes, we discuss the nature of exchange.

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Quick Hits

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/a-checkout-line-where-slower-is-better-supermarket-jumbo/

https://gizmodo.com/9-horrifying-facts-from-the-facebook-whistleblowers-new-1847791184

Foolishness of the Week

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/psaki-unfair-and-absurd-to-say-companies-would-raise-prices-in-response-to-tax-increases/

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Money is an excellent tool for facilitating exchange. It solves problems like how to save while avoiding spoilage and how to exchange with people who don’t want what you’re offering. But we’ve come to rely so heavily on money that we’ve forgotten what exchange really is. In this first of two episodes, we discuss the nature of exchange.

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Quick Hits

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/a-checkout-line-where-slower-is-better-supermarket-jumbo/

https://gizmodo.com/9-horrifying-facts-from-the-facebook-whistleblowers-new-1847791184

Foolishness of the Week

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/psaki-unfair-and-absurd-to-say-companies-would-raise-prices-in-response-to-tax-increases/

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People who are pro-market often complain about unions. But unions are associations of people, just as corporations are associations of people. If it is people’s right to form one, then it is also their right to form the other. But, as it is bad for government to protect corporations from competition, so too is it bad for government to protect unions from competition. In this episode, we take a look at unions separate from government protection.

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Quick Hits

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_4613

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/27/fed-chair-powell-to-warn-congress-that-inflation-pressures-could-last-longer-than-expected.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/federal-authorities-safety-box-seizures-owners-fight-back

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As politicians run out of revenue sources, they increasingly turn their attention from the rich to the middle class. Congress is considering a tax plan that effectively imposes a death tax on the middle class. Interestingly, politicians are calling it "a capital gains tax."

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Quick Hits

https://implementationscience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13012-017-0637-1

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/20/ivermectin-shortage-horse-owners-covidhttps://www.aier.org/article/a-subtle-catastrophe/

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This episode is a potluck. There's no specific topic, we're just discussing things in the news that caught our interests.

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Quick Hits

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/13/top-earning-new-yorkers-could-face-61point2percent-combined-tax-rate-under-house-plan-californians-may-face-59percent-rate.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.aier.org/article/a-subtle-catastrophe/

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This is the latest installment of James’ new series, Smoke and Stories.

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In an interesting twist of economics, it turns out that governments have no control over who ultimately pays a tax. Politicians can say they’re taxing consumers or taxing producers or taxing anyone else, but the market decides who ultimately pays the tax. And there’s nothing politicians can do to stop it.

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Quick Hits

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/03/tech/apple-child-safety-tools-reversal/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-virgin-plastics-tax-could-help-save-the-oceans/2021/06/18/3ecb9cde-cd8d-11eb-8cd2-4e95230cfac2_story.html

https://www.atr.org/democrats-eye-national-plastic-tax

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/05/covid-coronavirus-work-home-office-surveillance

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Antony talks about Cooperation and Coercion on C-SPAN.

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Commonwealth Foundation Vice-President Nathan Benefield disagreed with our take on term limits from a couple of episodes ago. So we invited him to give arguments in favor.

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Quick Hitshttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIAUCSL

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/mcdonalds-others-consider-closing-indoor-seating-amid-delta-surge-us-2021-08-30/

Foolishness of the Week

https://apnews.com/article/health-education-coronavirus-pandemic-school-boards-35db5c9eec87b85ca8eb95a64c2f6dd7

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Antony talks with Nate Thurston and Chuck Thompson on Good Morning Liberty.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaHAN0_1vqs

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The CDC has mandated a moratorium on evictions. Under the CDC’s rules, landlords may not evict renters who haven’t paid their rent. But it is unclear that even Congress would have the constitutional authority to issue such a mandate. How then can the CDC do so? Clark Neily joins us to discuss this interesting question.

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Topichttps://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/09/04/2020-19654/temporary-halt-in-residential-evictions-to-prevent-the-further-spread-of-covid-19

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/20a169_4f15.pdf

Quick Hitshttps://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/quentin-quarantino-meme-artist-raises-over-5-million-for-afghanistan/

https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-giving-statistics/

https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/07/27/tn-pastor-greg-locke-says-masks-arent-allowed-bible-church/5385007001/

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Antony talks with John Paul on the It’s a Paul World show.

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We all have a tendency to repeat things we hear. But when many people start repeating the same thing, we come to believe that the thing must be true. Unfortunately, this happens a lot when it comes to politics and government. This is the first of a two-part episode in which we discuss incorrect things that people tend to think are correct simply because they get repeated.

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Quick Hitshttps://reason.com/2021/08/06/apple-will-start-checking-your-messages-for-dick-picks/
https://www.eksposure.com/mobile-photography-statistics/
https://enough.org/stats_exploitation
https://www.wsj.com/articles/burial-crypt-for-sale-los-angeles-11628773222

Foolishness of the Weekhttps://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2021/08/12/philadelphia-mask-mandate-vaccine-requirements-businesses/

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BONUS - Conversations at FreedomFest 2021 (3 of several)

Antony talks with Ed Kless and Ron Baker on The Soul of Enterprise

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We all have a tendency to repeat things we hear. But when many people start repeating the same thing, we come to believe that the thing must be true. Unfortunately, this happens a lot when it comes to politics and government. This is the first of a two-part episode in which we discuss incorrect things that people tend to think are correct simply because they get repeated.

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Quick Hitshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtbSP3GG_YI
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/companies/the-interview-john-beckett-entrepreneur-who-built-the-first-ryanair-website-video
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/small-time-landlords-hanging-on-by-their-fingernails-as-eviction-moratorium-drags-on/
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/biden-admin-to-implement-limited-eviction-moratorium/
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/07/there-are-about-1-million-more-job-openings-than-people-looking-for-work.html

Foolishness of the Weekhttps://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/university-wisconsin-removes-rock-sign-racism-79313853https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/read-the-wisconsin-state-journals-original-article-on-chamberlin-rock-1925/article_e4cfcb52-774c-53ab-8b46-34009a0aeb64.html

Topic of the Week

https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/government-cost-overruns

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BONUS - Conversations at FreedomFest 2021 (2 of several)

Antony talks with Jim Bresto on The Hidden Truth Show.

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We all have a tendency to repeat things we hear. But when many people start repeating the same thing, we come to believe that the thing must be true. Unfortunately, this happens a lot when it comes to economics and public policy. This week, we discuss incorrect things that people tend to think are correct simply because they get repeated.

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Quick Hits

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/how-a-wasp-inspired-a-new-tool-for-keyhole-surgery-delft/

https://interestingengineering.com/biomimicry-9-ways-engineers-have-been-inspired-by-nature

Foolishness of the Week

https://oceansasia.org/covid-19-facemasks/

Topic of the Week

https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/government-cost-overruns

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Antony talks with Nate and Charles, co-hosts of the Good Morning Liberty podcast.

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If there’s a single core principle in economics, it’s that people respond to incentives. Whether governments intend to, imposing taxes on people causes those people to change their behaviors. Consequently, governments end up collecting less tax revenue than they anticipated and often cause people to waste their time and money attempting to avoid those taxes.

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Quick Hits

Lottery and Saving

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/07/22/canada-lotto-OLG-Lotto-Max-Anne-Hickey-five-years/2681626992009/

https://www.olg.ca/en/lottery/play-lotto-max-encore/odds-and-payouts.html

Philip Morris

https://apnews.com/article/philip-morris-marlboro-britain-496ac5b559d6cfe5b85d56b39f383905

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.fox5ny.com/news/san-francisco-considering-congestion-tax-on-high-earning-drivers

Topic of the Week

https://www.thefemalecompany.com/tampon-book-en/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK235989/

https://www.npr.org/sections/ablogsupreme/2013/04/16/177486309/how-taxes-and-moving-changed-the-sound-of-jazz

https://www.efile.com/unusual-strange-funny-taxes-throughout-the-world-and-history/

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James talks about the knowledge problem.

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Over the past century and a half, the federal government has quietly morphed from a government based on a constitution to a government based on a constitutional tradition. As it has done so, the Supreme Court has come to replace the Constitution as the limiting force on government. As the Supreme Court is, itself, part of the federal government, this transformation has fueled a runaway government that only ever gets larger and more powerful at the expense of the state and the people.

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Quick Hits

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/exxons-corporate-coup

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/the-new-real-estate-normal/ar-AAMir6k

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/branding-us-left-aoc-makes-push-into-political-merchandise-2021-07-19/

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Ant and James talk about how humans organize themselves.

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Consumer prices have been rising more than usual since February. James and Ant discuss the nature of inflation, what causes it, and when it is and isn’t a bad thing.

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Quick Hits

https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/ranked-choice-voting-is-not-the-solution/

https://nypost.com/2021/07/11/hotel-maid-prevents-potential-shooting-at-mlb-all-star-game-report/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGhDkZJkbMI

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https://youtu.be/rMIWa-0Woyo

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Antony Davies on Twitter

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James talks about human flourishing.

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Clark Neily, Rob McDonald, and Howard Baetjer join us for the second part of a free-wheeling conversation on government, history, and economics.

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Quick Hits

https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases

https://www.showbiz411.com/2021/07/04/what-year-is-it-the-number-1-and-2-albums-on-itunes-are-40-queen-and-50-joni-mitchell-years-old

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/nationals-cancel-freedom-fireworks-fourth-of-july-citys-noise-curfew

https://www.federalbaseball.com/2020/4/27/21227988/look-back-when-washington-nationals-wore-natinals-jerseys

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https://youtu.be/rMIWa-0Woyo

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Antony Davies on Twitter

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This is the latest installment of James’ new series, Smoke and Stories.

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Smoke and Stories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ-LP4UcLOI

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Historian Rob McDonald joins us to answer the questions, how is it that Thomas Jefferson came to be a slave owner and what could he have done to free his slaves. The answer, it turns out, is much more complicated than people tend to appreciate.

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Foolishness of the Week

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/06/police-break-up-exorcism-at-pa-home-depot.html

Topic of the Week

Rob McDonald

https://teachingamericanhistory.org/blog/the-american-revolution-professor-robert-mcdonalds-new-core-document-collection/

Books

https://www.amazon.com/Robert-M-S-McDonald/e/B006G5XJK6

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This is the latest installment of James’ new series, Smoke and Stories.

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Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Smoke and Stories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ-LP4UcLOI

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Clark Neily, Rob McDonald, and Howard Baetjer join us for the first of a multi-part free-wheeling conversation on government, history, and economics.

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Quick Hits

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/aumf-repeal-congress/2021/06/17/1bd1ec70-cf76-11eb-a7f1-52b8870bef7c_story.html

https://www.fox5ny.com/news/crypto-currency-confusion-georgia-man-wakes-up-a-trillionaire

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9704447/Manhattan-City-Council-candidate-26-caught-ex-girlfriend-leaked-dominatrix-video.html

Topic of the Week

https://www.cato.org/people/clark-neily

https://www.westpoint.edu/history/profile/robert_mcdonald

http://wp.towson.edu/baetjer/

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This is a conversation James and I had concerning various topics in economics and current events.

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The School of Ireland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByBussFxezk

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Bob Luddy, founder of Thales College joins us this week to talk about a revolutionary model for higher education that attempts to break the guild system that is holding back innovation. Thales College is refusing to pursue accreditation and will not accept federal funding. This will both keep it out from under the regulatory thumbs of both the government and the existing higher education system.

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Quick Hits

https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/p19.pdf

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/incarceration-rates-by-country

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/14/politics/fbi-qanon-threat-assessment/index.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/lester-holt-challenges-kamala-harris-on-claim-weve-been-to-the-border-you-havent/

Topic of the Week

https://www.thalescollege.org

https://www.thalesacademy.org/about/founder

https://www.neche.org/resources/standards-for-accreditation

https://www.msche.org/standards/

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https://youtu.be/rMIWa-0Woyo

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Antony Davies on Twitter

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This is a series of videos James and I did on politics, philosophy, and economics for Certell. The videos are available on YouTube.

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Politics, Philosophy, and Economics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_cXOgIQmF4&list=PLEQBNwsUxWdTIVJTESfjecJJcXoD75m9x

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Philosopher Michael Huemer joins us this week to talk about anarchy, chaos, and the fact that the government has a monopoly on power.

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Quick Hitshttps://www.businessinsider.com/biotech-startup-trying-to-stop-rhino-poaching-2016-9

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/05/el-salvador-becomes-the-first-country-to-adopt-bitcoin-as-legal-tender-.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2014-11-14/why-pay-15-million-for-a-white-canvas

Foolishness of the Week

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/italian-artist-auctioned-off-invisible-sculpture-18300-literally-made-nothing-1976181/amp-page

Topic of the Week

http://www.owl232.net

http://fakenous.net

https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Huemer/e/B001H6GHNU

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/18/us/biden-admits-plagiarism-in-school-but-says-it-was-not-malevolent.html

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This is the second installment of James’ new series, Smoke and Stories.

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Smoke and Stories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ-LP4UcLOI

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Nav Bhatia, the first fan to be inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame, joins us this week to talk about his passion for basketball, life, and entrepreneurship.

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Quick Hits

https://www.councilforeconed.org/2021/05/25/mount-hebron-high-school-in-ellicott-city-md-clinches-the-21st-annual-national-economics-challenge-from-the-council-for-economic-education/

https://dnyuz.com/2021/05/29/an-arms-race-in-america-gun-buying-spiked-during-the-pandemic-its-still-up/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/do-deficits-matter-anymore-biden-s-first-budget-signals-they-don-t/ar-AAKuHYg

Topic of the Week

https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/basketball/superfan-navdeep-bhatia-his-journey-from-1984-riots-to-nba-hall-of-fame-7326814/

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James talks about Law and Society.

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Culinary Libertarian Podcast

https://www.culinarylibertarian.com

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Blake Scott Ball joins us to discuss his book on Charles Schulz and the political narrative in the Peanuts comic that managed to attract both liberals and conservatives.

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Quick Hits

https://www.oddee.com/psychedelic-fungus-causes-cicadas-butts-to-fall-off-and-takes-their-place-58847/

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/22/middleeast/jewish-man-organ-donation-arab-woman-intl-cmd/index.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/554894-greene-under-fire-for-comparing-mask-policy-to-the-holocaust-a-neurotic-lack?rl=1

Topic of the Week

Blake Scott Ball

Twitter: @bsb1945

Email: blakescottball@gmail.com

http://blakescottball.medium.com

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/charlie-browns-america-9780190090463

Use promo code “AAFLYG6” for 30% off at checkout

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Dann Reid interviews Ant on the Culinary Libertarian Podcast.

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Culinary Libertarian Podcast

https://www.culinarylibertarian.com

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Words & Numbers Backstage

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Sykes Wilford, founder and CEO of smokingpipes.com joins us this week to discuss his experience as a successful entrepreneur in an industry that has shrunk by 98 percent and that the government has targeted for eventual obliteration.

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Quick Hits

Warren Buffetthttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/buffett-its-corporate-fiction-to-say-higher-business-taxes-hurt-customers-172536348.html

China in Space

https://apnews.com/article/china-technology-business-science-e1c1d0679aa78a8cc79c04a4d1375322

UFOs

https://www.the-sun.com/news/2891893/us-navy-vid-shows-ufo-whizzing-through-sky/

Masks

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mask-no-mask-new-rules-leave-americans-recalibrating-hour-by-hour/ar-BB1gM7FO

Foolishness of the Week

The Story

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbusiness/the-man-who-didnt-invent-flamin-hot-cheetos/ar-BB1gMYd1

Our Error

https://fee.org/shows/audio/words-numbers/Arguing-Outcomes-Instead-of-Principles-Puts-the-Cart-Before-the-Horse

Topic of the Week

SmokingPipes.com

https://corporate.laudisi.com

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Dave Forsyth interviews Ant on the Freedom Adventure Podcast.

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Freedom Adventure Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/freedom-adventure-podcast/id1514787824

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Vann Prime, an award-winning public school teacher from (in his words) a standard public school - not rich, not poor, not magnet or charter - joins us to talk about good things happening at his public school and how we might improve public schools in general.

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Quick Hits

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/30/opinion/politics/bubble-politics.html

https://www.wsj.com/articles/catholic-schools-are-losing-students-at-record-rates-and-hundreds-are-closing-11620651600

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/a-blinking-light-ahead-slowing-population-growth-raises-questions-about-america-as-a-land-with-unlimited-horizons/ar-BB1gxEif

Topic of the Week

Good news about a public school

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This week’s bonus episode is a lecture James gave recently.

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Nicole Neily, President of Speech First joins us this week to discuss free speech on college campuses. A growing number of colleges have been restricting speech, both of students and faculty. In defining undesirable speech overly broadly, a chill has been growing in higher education wherein students, faculty, and even administrators are censoring their own speech rather than risk running afoul of rules that can mean expulsion and termination.

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Quick Hits

https://www.oddee.com/hundreds-of-joshes-battle-with-pool-noodles-to-determine-the-ultimate-josh-58155/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1V9_EY-TY0

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/historic-life-saving-step-fda-moves-ban-menthol-cigarettes-flavored-n1265823

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/04/30/a-proclamation-on-loyalty-day-2021/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyalty_Day

Topic of the Week

https://speechfirst.org

https://provost.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/documents/reports/FOECommitteeReport.pdf

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This week’s bonus episode is an interview Ant gave recently on the Pegasus Podcast.

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Pegasus Institute
https://www.pegasuskentucky.org

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Philanthropist, lawyer, entrepreneur, musician, and armchair philosopher John LeFebvre joins us this week to discuss philanthropy, run-ins with the law, and how the world is becoming a better place.

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Quick Hits

https://www.wtae.com/article/animal-control-croissant-call/36164733

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/23/us/some-mass-vaccination-sites-in-us-close-as-demand-begins-to-fall.html

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

Foolishness of the Week

https://nypost.com/2021/04/22/usps-reportedly-tracking-americans-social-media-posts/

Topic of the Week

https://www.johnlefebvre.com/

https://www.amazon.com/John-Lefebvre/e/B071FPBMY4

Join the Conversation

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week’s bonus episode is a lecture Ant gave recently at Oklahoma State University on Cooperation and Coercion.

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http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Join the Conversation

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Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

Clark Neily returns this week to discuss recent court cases involving developments with qualified immunity.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick Hits

https://www.thecentersquare.com/west_virginia/west-virginia-ranks-as-one-of-the-worst-states-for-economic-freedom/article_4573ddba-4a27-11eb-8412-6739f37a0035.html

https://www.npr.org/local/305/2021/04/14/987174386/west-virginia-is-paying-remote-workers-12-000-to-move-there

https://www.macrotrends.net/states/west-virginia/population

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_Procedures_Reform_Bill_of_1937

https://www.reuters.com/business/legal/most-americans-want-end-lifetime-supreme-court-appointments-2021-04-18/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/16/22388184/new-york-affordable-internet-cost-low-income-price-cap-bill

Topic of the Week: Qualified Immunity

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week’s bonus episode is an interview we gave on Andrew Heaton’s podcast, The Political Orphanage.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

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Topic

https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week, comedian and political commentator Andrew Heaton joins us to talk about his forthcoming book on Tribalism.

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http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick Hits

Keep Wearing Masks

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html

https://www.uchealth.org/today/why-we-must-wear-masks-even-after-getting-the-covid-19-vaccine/

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/03/30/981303287/should-masking-last-beyond-the-pandemic-flu-and-colds-are-down-spurring-a-debate

Foolishness of the Week

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-8e31fdc2b54f9d61e4d317449507c7be

Topic of the Week

Andrew Heaton

https://mightyheaton.com/aboutandrewheaton

The Political Orphanage

https://mightyheaton.com/the-political-orphanage

Join the Conversation

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Antony Davies on Twitter

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week’s bonus episode is a lecture James gave on law and markets. There are accompanying slides, the link to which is below.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Topic

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iKbjfaG2z8oZiJxf8etm6VuHnEiUgZVz/view?usp=sharing

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View Details

The latest Congressional Budget Office numbers are out showing how much different income groups pay in federal taxes. We combine these numbers with our informal surveys of students to find some interesting conclusions as to who is and is not paying their fair share.

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http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

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Quick Hits

Shrinking Inequality

https://www.wsj.com/articles/incredible-shrinking-income-inequality-11616517284

Quality of Life
https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2011/demo/well-being/p70-136.html

Virus Passes

https://www.politico.eu/article/united-kingdom-coronavirus-certificate-sporting-events-nightclubs/

Foolishness of the Week

Weddings in Vegas

https://apnews.com/article/occasions-weddings-couples-marriage-las-vegas-39d3418e06b212a63ade2e61eda295dc

Topic of the Week: Income

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/56575

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week’s bonus episode is a couple of short interviews Ant gave on current economic topics.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Topic

John Tobacco’s Liquid Lunch

https://www.facebook.com/citizen.ny.1/videos/199416878611111/

The High Street Journalhttps://wvhsj.com/politics/20210324-will-justices-state-personal-income-tax-repeal-revitalize-west-virginias-economy

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https://twitter.com/antonydavies

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

Russell Shorto joins us this week to discuss his latest book, Smalltime: A story of my family and the mob.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

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Quick Hits

Postal Service

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-postal-service-overhaul-calls-for-higher-prices-slower-mail-and-more-packages-11616509800

Alien Languages

https://www.wsj.com/articles/alien-languages-may-not-be-entirely-alien-to-us-11616817660

Foolishness of the Week

Lifeguard Millionaires

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2021/03/27/top-paid-la-lifeguards-earned-up-to-392000-in-2019/

This Week on Patreon

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-pandemic-fuels-boomin-virtual-reality.html

Topic of the Week: Smalltime

Russell Shorto

https://www.russellshorto.com

https://www.amazon.com/Smalltime-Story-My-Family-Mob/dp/0393245586

Join the Conversation

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mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week’s bonus episode is an interview Ant gave recently on Book Talk with Corbin Seavers.

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http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

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Topic

https://www.spreaker.com/user/urbanlouisvillechessclub/book-talk-dr-antony-davies

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View Details

People hear things that sound right or interesting, and then repeat them without checking the facts. This is how urban legends are created. On this week’s episode, we discuss some economics urban legends.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick Hits

The Platform

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8228288/

In Time

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/

Your Papers!
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56460329

Foolishness of the Week

Sue Bird vs. LeBron James

https://admin.fee.org/media/39317/sue-bird-vs-lebron-james.png

Topic of the Week: Urban Legends

Join the Conversation

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week’s bonus episode is a lecture Ant gave on personal finance to one of the many high schools we visit.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Slides

The slides referenced in the lecture are here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KGEeaVn5ByG_wRHXQKZDexSfqEYUujKw/view?usp=sharing Join the Conversation

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

In this multi-part episode, James and Ant answer listener questions.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

COVID Testing

https://hidrb.com

Philadelphia Inquirer Comments

https://www.inquirer.com/about/philadelphia-inquirer-comments-section-changes-20210201.html

Vaccine and Blood Clotting

https://apnews.com/article/germany-suspends-astrazeneca-vaccine-blood-clotting-0ab2c4fe13370c96c873e896387eb92f

Kudos of the Week

https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-legislators-want-to-rename-highway-after-prince/600034298/

Topic of the Week: Your Questions!

Join the Conversation

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Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week’s bonus episode is of James and Ant appearing recently on the E for Explicit podcast.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Bonus Interview

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-e-for-explicit-podcast/id1462636480

https://theeforexplicitpodcast.libsyn.com

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

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Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

In this multi-part episode, James and Ant answer listener questions.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

Cuttlefish

https://www.sciencealert.com/cuttlefish-can-pass-a-cognitive-test-designed-for-children

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/541882-cronkite-signed-off-40-years-ago-it-seems-like-an-eon-in-news-standards

Foolishness of the Week

https://apnews.com/article/mr-potato-head-goes-gender-neutral-d3c178f2b9b0c424ed814657be41a9d8

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/07/qanon-trap-violence-474034

Topic of the Week: Your Questions!

Join the Conversation

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Antony Davies on Twitter

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week’s bonus episode is a Q&A James and Ant gave at Truman State University.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Bonus Interview

https://www.truman.edu/

Join the Conversation

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

In this multi-part episode, James and Ant answer listener questions.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-01/richest-100-americans-would-pay-78-billion-under-warren-tax

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/27/971958260/scientists-talked-to-people-in-their-dreams-they-answered

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/youtube-ai-blocked-chess-channel-after-confusing-black-and-white-for-racist-slurs-3454316.html

Topic of the Week: Your Questions!Join the Conversation

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mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week’s bonus episode is a lecture Ant gave as part of the high school program on government and economics that James and Ant give in high schools across the country.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Bonus Interview

https://fee.org/events

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

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View Details

Former Supervisory Special Agent Martin Gilvary joins us this week to give us an inside perspective on policing in the US.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

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Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick Hits

https://giphy.com/gifs/rickroll-rick-astley-never-gonna-give-you-up-Vuw9m5wXviFIQ

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/i-will-not-make-happen-biden-declines-democrats-call-cancel-n1258069

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2021/01/13/heres-why-biden-cant-cancel-student-loans/

https://apnews.com/article/1st-cloned-endagered-species-ferret-23cde3908e496692648dc28d4b8121ee

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/11/churchill-white-supremacist-leading-empire-worse-nazis-claims/

Topic of the Weekhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/check-your-bias/id1500221730?i=1000466477789

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Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week’s bonus episode is a lecture Ant gave as part of the high school program on government and economics that James and Ant give in high schools across the country.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Bonus Interview

https://fee.org/events

Join the Conversation

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Antony Davies on Twitter

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

In this second of a two part series, Max Borders joins us to discuss his recent book, After Collapse: The End of America and the Rebirth of Her Ideals. Despite the title and the subject matter, it is an honest but upbeat analysis of political, economic, and cultural changes that have put us on a path to transformation.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick Hits

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/02/01/oregon-decriminalizes-all-drugs-offers-treatment-instead-jail-time/4311046001/

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2018/03/more-imprisonment-does-not-reduce-state-drug-problems

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2681083/

https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-informant-panic-ruining-friendships-042446613.html

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-chris-cuomo-andrew-cuomo-nursing-home-scandal

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9256103/Chris-Cuomo-fire-saying-brothers-COVID-deaths-coverup-scandal.html

Topic of the WeekAfter CollapseThe Social SingularityFuture Frontiers

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View Details

This week’s bonus episode is an interview we recently gave on the Libertarian Christian Podcast.

View Details

Max Borders joins us to discuss his recent book, After Collapse: The End of America and the Rebirth of Her Ideals. Despite the title and the subject matter, it is an honest but upbeat analysis of political, economic, and cultural changes that have put us on a path to transformation.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

30 minutes’ worth of Googling Krogerhttps://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/employment/supermarkets-grocery-stores-united-states/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/999141/gross-margin-of-kroger/

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/537002-kroger-closing-two-stores-after-city-orders-higher-pandemic-pay-for-workers

https://www.workforce.com/news/labor-and-benefits-expenses-in-supermarkets

http://s1.q4cdn.com/137099145/files/doc_downloads/irw/fact_books/2016-PDF-Fact-Book.pdf

MOMA

https://dnyuz.com/2021/02/05/facing-deficit-met-considers-selling-art-to-help-pay-the-bills/

Foolishness of the Week

https://apnews.com/article/house-gop-votes-greene-d00c46241478d39db3996a36f5cbf91e

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/greene-blasts-morons-who-stripped-her-of-committee-posts-hours-after-expressing-contrition/ar-BB1dqCPl

Topic of the WeekAfter CollapseThe Social SingularityFuture Frontiers

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View Details

This week’s bonus episode is a recording of a live Q&A with Clark Neily of the Cato Institute.

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http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

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Bonus Interview

https://www.cato.org/people/clark-neily

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View Details

Federal policies have been hitting small businesses particularly hard. From the lockdown to heightened IRS scrutiny to an increased minimum wage to an expanded estate tax, many federal policies harm small businesses more than corporations and so jeopardizes the livelihoods of almost half of American workers.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

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Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick Hits

Chick-fil-A

https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/south-carolina-chick-fil-a-manager-covid-19-vaccine-drive-thru

Dodger Stadium

https://news.yahoo.com/dodger-stadiums-covid-19-vaccination-233339650.html

Foolishness of the Week

Impeachment 1

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/30/us/politics/trump-butch-bowers-impeachment.html

Impeachment 2
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/30/politics/butch-bowers-deborah-barbier-trump-impeachment-team/index.html

Topic of the Week

The War on Small Businesses
https://insidesources.com/the-war-on-small-business/

Minimum Wage Costs 1.3 Million Jobshttps://reason.com/2019/07/08/cbo-says-15-federal-minimum-wage-will-cost-1-3-million-jobs/

List of Minimum Wage Peer-Reviewed Research
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fbSTGYQP5ObsEMjgbDWB2W8pgz64XZS5/view?usp=sharing

The Economics of the Estate Tax

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SrMWCAq-HfJdRGBjjQ7kr-KMTGlJjKvX/view?usp=sharing

Survey of Businesses Owners on the Effect of the Estate Tax
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-6248.1996.00303.x
Union Contracts Tied to Minimum Wage
https://www.forbes.com/sites/edrensi/2017/01/19/why-it-is-that-unions-fund-the-fight-for-15/

States to Tax Stimulus Loan Forgiveness

https://advocacy.sba.gov/2020/11/03/some-states-may-tax-forgiven-ppp-loan-proceeds/

IRS Targeting Small Businesses

https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/tax-compliance/news/21205514/irs-expected-to-audit-more-small-businesses-in-2021

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View Details

This week’s bonus episode is of James’ recent interview on the Check Your Bias podcast

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Bonus Interview

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/check-your-bias/id1500221730

https://www.linkedin.com/in/martingilvary/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aj-handegard-1a8086191/

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POBJNsLZYZww8rj5f7Cn

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This week we discuss a smorgasbord of topics related to the division of power among the branches: pardons, judicial review, agencies, and bureaucracy.

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Quick Hits

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/01/21/census-estimates-show-population-decline-in-16-states

Foolishness of the Week

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2021/01/21/covid-vaccines-coronavirus-internet-ads/

Topic of the Week: Powers of U.S. Government’s Branches

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Ant recently appeared on the Fundamental Freedoms podcast with Steve Burgess and David Sabine. The interview is also available on YouTube.

Fundamental Freedoms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA4xq8y61h8

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Episode 206: A Dutch immigrant gives us a view of the United States from the outside, and a view of the Netherlands from the inside: immigration, taxes, social safety nets, and community.

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Quick Hits

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/17/3rd-antitrust-lawsuit-hits-google-447741

https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share

https://www.statista.com/statistics/265773/market-share-of-the-most-popular-social-media-websites-in-the-us

https://www.wired.com/2002/11/u-s-v-microsoft-timeline/

https://www.kwtx.com/2021/01/15/3-with-covid-19-owe-lives-to-girl-17-who-smelled-smoke-from-early-morning-fire/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/17/live-politics-updates-joe-biden-inauguration-donald-trump-impeachment/4196264001/

Topic of the Week

Bass Van Der Vossen

https://www.basvandervossen.com

https://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/bas-van-der-vossen

https://www.amazon.com/Defense-Openness-Freedom-Solution-Poverty/dp/0190462957

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James and Ant recently appeared on the podcast Liberty and Consciousness. The interview is also available on YouTube.

Liberty and Consciousness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY90nUZCGnw

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The riots in Washington DC and the riots in Seattle have revealed some troubling hypocrisy. Many of those who were for one were against the other. While the impetus behind them was different, the justifications people invoked were the same. This inconsistency is what happens when we ignore principles in favor of justifying outcomes.

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Quick Hits

Parler

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9130649/Conservative-social-media-platform-Parler-banned-Apple.html

Pilot Threatens to Pull The Plane Over

https://www.businessinsider.com/video-american-airlines-pilot-threat-strand-trump-fans-dc-phoenix-2021-1

Foolishness of the Week

Race Offender Registry

https://nypost.com/2020/12/30/leader-of-blm-inspired-group-calls-for-race-offenders-registry

Topic of the Week

Arash Ayrom

https://www.facebook.com/arashayrom/posts/10224723291979277

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James and Ant recently appeared on the podcast Liberty and Consciousness. The interview is also available on YouTube.

Liberty and Consciousness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY90nUZCGnw

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With the start of a new year, James and Ant look at the phenomenon of nostalgia. Why do we tend to look back on the past with a fondness, and what dangers does that imply for how we look at the present?

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Quick Hits

Walk with Shawn

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/black-man-scared-to-walk-in-neighborhood-joined-by-75-neighbors/

Expunging Marijuana Records

https://chicago.suntimes.com/cannabis/2020/12/31/22208659/cannabis-marijuana-illinois-expunge-pardon-pritzker-legal-pot
Foolishness of the Week

Bill de Blasio

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/3262037742?pwd=K2kzWGw5eVdBbCttVVo0MnVaeFdVdz09

https://www.nydailynews.com/snyde/ny-andy-cohen-rants-mayor-de-blasio-dance-new-years-eve-show-new-york-20210101-azfjzrhbl5aizbsqibzrcm6v7a-story.html

Topic of the Weekhttps://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1956/demographics/p60-23.pdf

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MAPAINUSA646N

https://www.newser.com/story/225645/average-size-of-us-homes-decade-by-decade.html

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Aditya Bulusu, a student from one of our favorite high schools, interviewed me recently. He shared the interview with us for bonus material. Check out his podcast, Byte Size Opinions at the link below.

Byte Size Opinions

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1259147

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We haven’t seen widespread adoption of alternative energy because, for many decades, energy generated from fossil fuels was cheaper. As with any technology, as time progressed, superior technologies evolved. Also, as time progressed, demand for alternative energy increased, resulting in economies of scale.

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Quick Hits

Federal Reserve Database

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q#0

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/COMPRNFB#0

Jeff Bezos: Richest Person in the World

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/10/944620768/theres-rich-and-theres-jeff-bezos-rich-meet-the-members-of-the-100-billion-club

The Richest People Who Ever Lived

https://www.finance-monthly.com/2019/02/who-is-the-richest-person-that-ever-lived/

Average Person Spends 44 Years Looking at Devices

https://www.studyfinds.org/screen-zombies-average-person-spends-44-years-looking-at-devices/

Foolishness of the Week

Secret Witness

https://thehill.com/homenews/news/531668-washington-post-identifies-powells-secret-witness-as-pro-trump-podcaster

Topic of the Weekhttps://www.cmu.edu/epp/people/faculty/lynne-kiesling.html

https://ourworldindata.org/cheap-renewables-growth

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286674124_Deregulation_innovation_and_market_liberalization_Electricity_regulation_in_a_continually_evolving_environment

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Aditya Bulusu, a student from one of our favorite high schools, interviewed me recently. He shared the interview with us for bonus material. Check out his podcast, Byte Size Opinions at the link below.

Byte Size Opinions

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1259147

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This Christmas special is a montage of “best of” moments from Words and Numbers. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all our listeners and supporters!

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Aditya Bulusu, a student from one of our favorite high schools, interviewed me recently. He shared the interview with us for bonus material. Check out his podcast, Byte Size Opinions at the link below.

Byte Size Opinions

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1259147

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The tool each of us uses most often - language - presents an interesting contradiction. To communicate ideas clearly and efficiently, words must have meanings. Yet, because language is an emergent phenomenon, words and words’ meanings change. This has important implications for everything from how we interact with each other on a daily basis to what rights the Constitution claims to protect.

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Quick HitsPresidential Restraint

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/10/politics/joe-biden-audio-civil-rights-leaders/index.html

Should Biden Pardon Trump?

https://theconstitutionalist.org/2020/12/13/joe-biden-should-pardon-donald-trump/

Foolishness of the Week

MAGA Protesters

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/protesters-chant-destroy-the-gop-at-pro-trump-rally-1102967/

Topic of the Weekhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irregardless

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_québécois_de_la_langue_française

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2392586/Oxford-English-Dictionary-admits-used-wrong-sense-word-literally.html

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This week’s bonus episode is one of Larry’s best stories.

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For our 200th episode, Larry Reed joins us to talk about his experiences in spreading the good news of liberty and freedom.

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Quick Hits

Hope

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A939RX0Q048SBEA

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE

https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2020/12/05/fortune-telling-businesses-booming-during-covid-19-pandemic/

Foolishness of the Week

https://www.ajc.com/politics/trump-tells-gop-to-vote-in-rigged-election/IVGOUWDVBBCXHJU573QB5H5XVY/

Topic of the WeekLarry Reed

https://fee.org/people/lawrence-w-reed/

Books by Larry Reed

https://www.amazon.com/Lawrence-W-Reed/e/B08BJD7W9T

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This week’s bonus episode is a recent interview Ant did on the Don’t Tread on Anyone Podcast.

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Bonus Interviewhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8ewiXhsWfnBENJQLCIxRIQ

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Many people’s misunderstandings about disparate subjects like insurance, profits, and financial speculators have their roots in a single source - a misunderstanding of risk. One of the most important discoveries that gave rise to our technologically advanced world is how to turn risk into a commodity that can be bought and sold.

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Quick HitsSocial Security race gap

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/2017/015.pdf

One-third of NJ businesses close

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/527901-almost-one-third-of-small-businesses-in-new-jersey-have-have-closed

Foolishness of the Week

Trump claims FBI rigged the election

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-baselessly-suggests-fbi-rigged-election-against-him-in-first-post-election-interview

Topic of the Week: Misunderstanding of Risk

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This week’s bonus episode is a recent interview Ant did on the Resilient Performance Podcast.

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Bonus Interviewhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/resilient-performance-podcast/id1213080342

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In part 2 of this two-part episode, Steve Horwitz joins us to discuss the realities and myths surrounding gender discrimination and the gender pay gap.

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Quick HitsWomen comprise 67% of HR workforce

https://www.hrdive.com/news/hr-is-overwhelmingly-white-and-female-data-indicates/548600

Venezuelans making their own gas

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-pdvsa-gasoline-feature-idUSKBN27Z1LR

Foolishness of the Week

14 hours for a burger

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8972231/In-N-Burger-chain-opens-two-Colorado-outlets-leading-fights-epic-14-hour-lines.html

Topic of the Week

Steve Horwitz

https://www.amazon.com/Steven-Horwitz/e/B001JP8I1I

Lawsuits under the equal pay act

https://www.eeoc.gov/statistics/eeoc-litigation-statistics-fy-1997-through-fy-2019

Unemployment rates for men and women

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS14000001

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS14000002

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This week’s bonus episode is a recent interview James and Ant did with Ron Renaud on Uncompromised Talk.

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Bonus Interviewhttps://ronrenaud.com

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In part 1 of this two-part episode, Steve Horwitz joins us to discuss the realities and myths surrounding gender discrimination and the gender pay gap.

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Quick HitsWhat the Constitution means to me

https://constitutionbroadway.com

Foolishness of the Week

Student loan forgiveness

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/11/16/biden-student-loan-forgiveness-figures-in-my-plan/

Topic of the Week

Steve Horwitz

https://www.amazon.com/Steven-Horwitz/e/B001JP8I1I

Lawsuits under the equal pay act

https://www.eeoc.gov/statistics/eeoc-litigation-statistics-fy-1997-through-fy-2019

Unemployment rates for men and women

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS14000001

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS14000002

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This week’s bonus episode is a recent interview James and Ant did for Cepos, the Center for Political Studies in Copenhagen.

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Bonus Interviewhttps://cepos.dk

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One of the unintended consequences of government overreach is that everything becomes politicized. Much of the acrimony in our political environment is due to the fact that the government has (and often uses) the power to tell people how to live their lives. That power, in turn, comes from the fact that the people ask government for more and more stuff, handing over more of their power with each request.

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Quick HitsExtreme Poverty on the Rise

http://toinformistoinfluence.com/news/business-54448589

Happiness is Genetic

https://nypost.com/2020/11/06/nearly-half-of-happiness-is-genetic-so-most-of-us-are-doomed/

Foolishness of the Week

2020 Presidential Denial

Topic of the Week: Politicizing Government

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This week’s bonus episode is a recent interview Ant did on the Urban Agorist.

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Bonus Interviewhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/urban-agorist/id1538103134

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In this second of a two-part series, we continue the conversation with Clark Neily about differences in publicly provided and privately provided goods and services.

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Quick Hits$10,000,000,000,000,000,000
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hubble-space-telescope-rare-asteroid-16-psyche-worth-10000-quadrillion/?ftag=CNM-00-10aag7e

Foolishness of the Week

Chaotic election

https://www.yahoo.com/now/final-yahoo-news-you-gov-poll-biden-leads-trump-by-10-as-voters-fear-a-chaotic-election-day-132235742.html
Stressful election
https://www.studyfinds.org/2020-election-day-most-stressful/
Topic of the Week

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZTUb9gKQildyeIAUM9BxEL49_XSsKS0z/view?usp=sharing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sour_Grapes_(2016_film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_Limited

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This week’s bonus episode is a recent interview James did on his time in Iraq.

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Bonus Interview

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Some goods and services we choose to provide via the government (mail delivery). Some we choose to provide via markets (grocery stores). And some we choose to provide via government and markets working together (road construction), or via them working in competition (education). This week, Clark Neily joins us to compare and contrast publicly provided and privately provided goods and services.

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Quick Hits

Fake Instagrammers

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-instagrammers-are-faking-the-luxury-of-a-private-jet-for-just-dollar64-an-hour

Foolishness of the Week

Gettysburg

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/10/26/gettysburg-trump-black-lives-matter-clashes/

Topic of the Week

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZTUb9gKQildyeIAUM9BxEL49_XSsKS0z/view?usp=sharing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sour_Grapes_(2016_film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_Limited

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This week’s bonus episode is a recent interview James did on the Bryan Hyde Show.

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Bonus Interview

https://tunein.com/podcasts/Politics/Loving-Liberty-With-Bryan-Hyde-p1104973/

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Periodically, the Congressional Budget Office forecasts federal debt, revenue, and spending. For decades, the CBO has underestimated the future debt. If we adjust CBO’s forecasts by their historical error, we get a clearer picture of where the federal government’s finances will be in the next decade. Interestingly, the debt is approaching a point not seen since the first decade of our history when Congress replaced Continental dollars with the US dollar we use today.

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Quick Hits

The Irish and the Choctaw

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/world/coronavirus-ireland-native-american-tribes.html

Foolishness of the Week

Presidential Debates

https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/08/14/presidential-debates/

Topic of the Week

CBO’s Long Term Outlook

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/56516

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This week’s bonus episode is a recent interview Ant did with Jonas Herby for the Cepos podcast.

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Bonus Interview

https://cepos.dk/cepos-podcast/

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The United States is poised to rack up a record trade deficit this year. Politicians and the media will make a big deal about this, but the truth is that trade deficits really don’t matter. Trade is simply an exchange. So long as it’s voluntary, by definition, both parties are better off.

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Quick Hits

US Debt
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/08/economy/deficit-debt-pandemic-cbo/index.html
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEGDQ188S

Facebook Currency
https://news.trust.org/item/20201012143626-bfcy3

Foolishness of the Week

Super Trump

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/520540-trump-wanted-to-rip-open-shirt-to-show-superman-t-shirt-when-leaving

Topic of the Week

Trade Deficit

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IEABC

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This week’s bonus episode is a recent interview Ant did for the Pittsburgh Bastiat Society.

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Bonus Interview

https://www.aier.org/bastiatsociety/pittsburgh/

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James and Ant offer a post-game discussion of the first Presidential debate. Unfortunately, “post-game” is the right word because, for as much as the left and right bicker, the two parties have become largely the same. Regardless of who wins, the government goes on doing the same things it has always done. Mostly what people do now is to root for their team, not out of principle, but because it’s their team.

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Quick Hits

Swearing Parrots

https://www.insider.com/foul-fowl-language-2020-9

Armenia and Azerbaijan Conflict

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/armenia-azerbaijan-clash-nagorno-karabakh-why-it-could-get-uglier/

Foolishness of the Week

Mask Bashing

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/top-trump-campaign-official-ridicules-joe-biden-s-mask-wearing-n1242041

Topic of the Week: The Presidential Debate

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This week’s bonus episode is a recent interview James and Ant did on Dann Reid’s podcast, Culinary Libertarian.

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Bonus Interview

https://www.culinarylibertarian.com/

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We devote plenty of time to discussing things that the government does wrong. This week, we change gears as Clark Neily joins us to discuss things throughout history that the Supreme Court has done right.

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Quick Hits

Deaths by Car and SUV

https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/passenger-vehicle-occupants

https://newsroom.aaa.com/tag/driving-cost-per-mile/

Term Limits for the Supremes?

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/09/25/democrats-introduce-bill-to-democratize-supreme-court-limit-terms-to-18-years/

Rationing

https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/other/uk-supermarkets-tesco-and-morrisons-are-rationing-toilet-paper-and-hand-sanitizer-as-fears-of-panic-buying-return-one-worker-said-their-store-was-worse-than-a-bad-christmas/ar-BB19pTBr

Foolishness of the Week

Time Travelling Professor

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleiii

Topic of the Week: The Supreme Court's History

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Ant wrote this week’s bonus episode while in the hospital (ostensibly) recovering from COVID.

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Little by little, things appear to be getting back to normal following COVID and the lockdown. James and Ant discuss what the world will look like as we recover from COVID.

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Quick Hits

Emu Today and Tomorrow

https://www.emutoday.com

Flight to Nowhere

https://gizmodo.com/australias-7-hour-flight-to-nowhere-sells-out-instantly-1845101789

First Annual Clusterchuck

https://www.pittwire.pitt.edu/news/history-professor-s-far-flung-fun-brings-students-together

Trump Endangering Journalists

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/517270-msnbc-trump-endangering-journalists-undermining-freedoms-with-comments-about

Foolishness of the Week

Supreme Court Appointment

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/over-our-dead-bodies-liberals-threatens-to-burn-it-all-down-if-gop-replace-ginsburg-before-election-day

Topic of the Week: Things Returning to Normal

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View Details

This week’s bonus episode is a recent interview James did on Bryan Hyde’s podcast, Loving Liberty.

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Bonus Interview

https://tunein.com/podcasts/Politics/Loving-Liberty-With-Bryan-Hyde-p1104973/

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Roger Ver, founder of bitcoin.com joins us this week to discuss the emergence of cryptocurrency as the answer to the problem of inflated sovereign currencies. Widespread adoption of cryptocurrency will likely emerge at about the same time that the US dollar begins to lose its value to the inflation needed to fund the government’s insatiable appetite for debt.

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Quick Hits

Payroll Tax Deferral

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/business/trump-payroll-tax-cut.html

Mumbai Traffic Lights

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/05/india/mumbai-traffic-lights-tests-scli-intl/index.html

Foolishness of the Week

Joe Exotic

https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/amazon-picks-up-show-starring-nicolas-cage-as-joe-exotic-the-tiger-king/

Topic of the Week: Cryptocurrency

Roger Ver

https://www.rogerver.com

Bitcoin.com

https://www.bitcoin.com/

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View Details

This week’s bonus episode is a recent interview James did on Keith Knight’s podcast, Don’t Tread on Anyone.

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Bonus Interview

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/keith-knight-dont-tread-on-anyone/id1524741920

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Andrew Heaton joins us to discuss comedy, politics, and that we can’t seem to laugh at ourselves anymore because our politics have become our religion.

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This week’s bonus episode is a recent interview James and Ant did on Ron Renaud’s podcast, Uncompromised Freedom.

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Bonus Interview

https://ronrenaud.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjLsB1RJT2cD2NIBPsQqRpw

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Our response to COVID has imposed changes across the whole economy. One of the industries that is likely to bear the lion’s share of those changes is higher education. COVID policies are laying bare the fact that both students and administrators have come to regard college less as a place to obtain an education than as a place to obtain a four-year “experience.”

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Quick Hits

Virtual Graduation

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/25/asia/india-university-virtual-reality-graduation-scli-intl/index.html

Flying Cars

https://dnyuz.com/2020/08/29/humans-take-a-step-closer-to-flying-cars/

Foolishness of the Week

Drones and Drugs

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/36013/mexican-drug-cartel-now-assassinating-its-enemies-with-improvised-explosive-toting-drones

Topic of the Week

How Not to Be Terrible at College

https://fee.org/shows/audio/words-numbers/how-not-to-be-terrible-at-college#player

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This week’s bonus episode is James’ recent interview on the Curious Task podcast.

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Bonus Interview

https://thecurioustask.podbean.com

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Steve Horwitz is back with us this week to discuss the Great Depression. The story that’s commonly handed down in high school history courses doesn’t match what economists and historians have come to understand about it. The government’s response was less an exercise in macroeconomic policy than it was an exercise in social engineering. The lessons of what didn’t work and why are important to us as we struggle with the COVID economy.

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Quick Hits

How Not to Be Terrible at College

https://fee.org/shows/audio/words-numbers/how-not-to-be-terrible-at-college#player

Liquid Democracy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_democracy

Post Office

https://facts.usps.com/top-facts/

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/513241-house-passes-25b-bill-to-boost-postal-service

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2013/jul/24/american-postal-workers-union/postal-service-claim-not-fully-target/

Foolishness of the Week

Germany’s Universal Income

https://www.businessinsider.com/germany-begins-universal-basic-income-trial-three-years-2020-8

Topic of the Week: The Great Depression

Steve Horwitz on the Great Depression

https://youtu.be/EWyzWKnkwUg

George Selgin on the Great Depression

https://www.cato.org/blog/new-deal-recovery-part-7-fdr-gold

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This week’s bonus episode is Ant’s recent interview on the Don’t Tread on Anyone podcast.

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Bonus Interview

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/keith-knight-dont-tread-on-anyone/id1524741920

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Todd Zywicki, Professor of Law at GMU and head of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau’s Task Force on Consumer Financial Law joins us to discuss the pros and cons of consumer protection and financial regulation.

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Quick Hits

Covid Cases
https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Cases.aspx

Nathan Benefield on Covid Cases

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/closer-look-coronavirus-numbers-pa-nathan-benefield/

Hospital Utilization Data

https://www.cdc.gov/nhsn/covid19/report-patient-impact.html#anchor_1594393649

The Long Arm of the California Tax Office

https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/california-dems-wealth-tax-follows-people-who-move-out-of-the-state/

Foolishness of the Week

Wisconsin Requires Face Masks at Home

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/511483-wisconsin-state-agency-requires-employees-to-wear-masks-while

Topic of the Week

Todd Zywicki

https://www.law.gmu.edu/faculty/directory/fulltime/zywicki_todd

https://www.amazon.com/Consumer-Financial-Management-Association-Synthesis/dp/0195169921

Unkoch My Campus

http://www.unkochmycampus.org/cfpb

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View Details

This week’s bonus episode is Ant’s and James’ recent interview on the E for Explicit podcast

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Bonus Interview

https://theeforexplicitpodcast.libsyn.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNryg--3_LY

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For two millenia, economics was a field of philosophy. Starting in the late 1800s, economists began to employ mathematical modeling in their thinking. The requirements of mathematical modeling have led modern economists to begin by assuming that humans behave in certain ways. This week, Steve Horwitz joins us to discuss Austrian economics, which is a school of thought that goes back to economics’ philosophical roots by beginning with questions, rather than assumptions, about how humans behave.

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Quick Hits

Shampoo Assistants

https://nypost.com/2020/08/08/ny-dems-push-for-law-mandating-training-for-shampoo-assistants/

Democratic Campaign

https://theweek.com/speedreads/929999/biden-campaign-reportedly-making-ruthless-cuts-convention-speaking-list

Foolishness of the Week

Bernie’s Latest Wealth Tax

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/upshot/warren-wealth-tax.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/06/sanders-billionaire-tax-bill-would-cost-bezos-musk-zuckerberg.html

Topic of the Week

Steve Horwitz

http://www.sghorwitz.com/

Austrian Economics
https://www.amazon.com/Austrian-Economics-Introduction-Libertarianism-Org-Guides/dp/1948647958/ref=sr_1_1

Theory and Practice in the Austrian School

https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Practice-Austrian-School-Unbound-ebook/dp/B00CF0GXZO

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week’s bonus episode is of Ant’s interview on the Check Your Bias podcast

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http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Bonus Interview

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/check-your-bias/id1500221730

https://www.linkedin.com/in/martingilvary/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aj-handegard-1a8086191/

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View Details

In past episodes, we’ve discussed problems with policing including qualified immunity and the militarization of police. In this episode, we revisit the topic from the perspective of a former police officer.

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Quick Hits

Fitch

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/united-states-outlook-revised-to-negative-from-stable-by-fitch/ar-BB17qy05

Foolishness of the Week

Capitalism

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/07/07/seattle_city_councilwoman_we_will_not_stop_until_we_overthrow_capitalism_replace_it_with_socialism.html

Topic of the Week

Ian Adams

https://scholars.org/scholar/ian-adams

Data on Police Shootings

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/four-years-in-a-row-police-nationwide-fatally-shoot-nearly-1000-people/2019/02/07/0cb3b098-020f-11e9-9122-82e98f91ee6f_story.html

Police Shootings, Racism, and Statistical Paradox

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/11/opinion/statistical-paradox-police-killings/

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week’s bonus episode is of Ant’s interview on the Check Your Bias podcast

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Bonus Interview

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/check-your-bias/id1500221730

https://www.linkedin.com/in/martingilvary/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aj-handegard-1a8086191/

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

The Constitution leaves policing up to the states. There is no provision for a national police force. Yet, numerous federal policing bodies have emerged and now the federal government is employing them in Portland in a manner that is a disturbing reminder of other governments’ secret police forces.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

https://isi.org/books/cooperation-and-coercion/

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

Balloon-Based 4G

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/balloons-bring-internet-to-20000-square-miles-of-kenya/

Google Employees Working at Home until 2021

https://nypost.com/2020/07/27/google-will-let-employees-work-from-home-until-july-2021/

Foolishness of the Week

Washington Football Team

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/07/23/washington-redskins-new-team-name-washington-football-team/

Topic of the Week: Federal police action

Clark Neily on Twitter

https://twitter.com/ConLawWarrior

Join the Conversation

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Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week Ant joins Ron Renaud of Uncompromised Talk.

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http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Bonus Interview

Ron Renaud

https://ronrenaud.com/

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

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Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

Conspiracy theories arise in part from our penchant for seeking patterns in random events and in part from our need to feel in control - to be able to explain the inexplicable. Some conspiracy theories are amusing, some will fool even skeptics, and some are dangerous.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

https://isi.org/books/cooperation-and-coercion/

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick Hits

Minimum Wage

https://reports.nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/OOR_BOOK_2020.pdf

https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2018/pdf/home.pdf

Goya

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/donald-trump-goya-beans/

Foolishness of the Week

Masks and Rights

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/may/1/forced-face-masking-civil-rights-offense/

Topic of the Week: Conspiracy Theories

Elders of Zion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion

The Clinton Hit List

https://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2016/08/10/the-list-of-clinton-associates-whove-died-mysteriously-check-it-out/

Flat Earthers

https://flatearthfacts.com/flat-earth-model/proof-the-earth-is-flat/

Petroleum Company

https://ask.metafilter.com/322588/Conspiracy-Theory-Petroleum-Company-Edition-Innovative-Technology

Reptilian Overlords

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilian_conspiracy_theory

Stonehenge

http://www.theunexplainedvault.com/stonehenge-ancient-alien-theory/ancient-aliens/

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week Ant joins the Liam McCollum Show.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Bonus Interview

The Liam McCollum Show

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-liam-mccollum-show/id1496023248

Join the Conversation

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Let Us Know What You Think

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Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

The Founders established the three branches of government to provide checks on one another. But parties have come to supplant these institutions as the focus of loyalty for politicians. In this episode, we explore what the rise of parties means for our system of checks and balances.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

https://isi.org/books/cooperation-and-coercion/

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

Economic Update

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/EMRATIO

https://www.macrotrends.net/1377/u6-unemployment-rate

COVID Party

https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/i-thought-this-was-a-hoax-patient-in-their-30s-dies-after-attending-covid-party

Foolishness of the Week

Upward-Thrusting Buildings

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jul/06/upward-thrusting-buildings-ejaculating-cities-sexist-leslie-kern-phallic-feminist-city-toxic-masculinity

Topic of the Week: Parties and Institutions

Washington’s Farewell Address

https://www.history.com/news/george-washington-farewell-address-warnings

Federalist 51

https://billofrightsinstitute.org/founding-documents/primary-source-documents/the-federalist-papers/federalist-papers-no-51/

Books

https://www.amazon.com/Robert-M-S-McDonald/e/B006G5XJK6

Join the Conversation

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Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week’s bonus episode is Antony’s recent interview on Janet Mefferd Today.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Bonus Interview

https://janetmefferd.com/

Join the Conversation

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Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

Rob McDonald returns for the second of a two-part series in which we discuss the Founding and his new book, The American Revolution.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

https://isi.org/books/cooperation-and-coercion/

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

Misunderstanding Research

https://www.thecollegefix.com/scholar-forced-to-resign-over-study-that-found-police-shootings-not-biased-against-blacks/

https://www.pnas.org/content/116/32/15877

Faithless Electors

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rules-faithless-electors-can-t-go-rogue-electoral-n1231394

Foolishness of the Week

Kanye West

https://www.showbiz411.com/2020/07/06/kanye-west-used-his-presidential-announcement-as-a-lure-to-sell-merchandise-online-this-afternoon

Topic of the Week

Rob McDonald

https://teachingamericanhistory.org/blog/the-american-revolution-professor-robert-mcdonalds-new-core-document-collection/

Books

https://www.amazon.com/Robert-M-S-McDonald/e/B006G5XJK6

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week, James reads the Declaration of Independence. So kick back and listen to the powerful words that proclaimed the United States and its people independent from the tyranny that was the British Empire.

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http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

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Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

Rob McDonald joins us this Fourth of July week for the first of a two-part series in which we discuss the Founding and his new book, The American Revolution.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

https://isi.org/books/cooperation-and-coercion/

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

30 Hour Work Week?

https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2020/06/01/adam-grant-on-how-jobs-bosses-and-firms-may-improve-after-the-crisis

Woodrow Wilson

https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/princeton-axing-woodrow-wilson-s-name-from-public-policy-school

Foolishness of the Week

L’Oreal

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/504865-loreal-will-remove-words-whitening-fair-and-lightening-from

Phil Magness on Civil War Monuments

https://www.aier.org/article/what-the-data-say-about-civil-war-monuments/

Topic of the Week

Rob McDonald

https://teachingamericanhistory.org/blog/the-american-revolution-professor-robert-mcdonalds-new-core-document-collection/

Books

https://www.amazon.com/Robert-M-S-McDonald/e/B006G5XJK6

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week’s bonus episode is a continuation of James’s interview on the Check Your Bias podcast from last week.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Bonus Interview

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/check-your-bias/id1500221730

https://www.linkedin.com/in/martingilvary/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aj-handegard-1a8086191/

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

Clark Neily joins us to discuss policing, the origin and effect of qualified immunity, and what the courts have said about whether police have a duty to protect citizens.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

https://isi.org/books/cooperation-and-coercion/

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

Lottery Winners

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/good-news/arizona-couple-win-dollar410-million-mega-millions-jackpot-thanks-to-family-birthdays-lucky-penny/ar-BB15J25k

Invite Someone to Dinner to Berate You

https://reason.com/2020/02/04/white-women-saira-rao-dinner-regina-jackson-liberal/

Police Ordered to Turn off Body Cameras

https://reason.com/2020/06/19/san-francisco-police-were-ordered-to-turn-off-body-cameras-in-raid-on-journalists-home/

Foolishness of the Week

Minnesota Mayor Finds “Chief” Offensive

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/duluth-minnesota-mayor-remove-chief-microaggresion

https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/06/19/minnesota-city-to-vote-on-removing-chief-from-job-titles-calling-it-a-microaggression/?utm_source=rss

The Word, “Chief”

https://www.etymonline.com/word/chief

Topic of the week

Qualified Immunity

https://reason.com/2020/05/29/the-supreme-court-has-a-chance-to-end-qualified-immunity-and-prevent-cases-like-george-floyds/

A Confederacy of Dunces

https://www.amazon.com/Confederacy-Dunces-John-Kennedy-Toole-ebook/dp/B008UX2UIO

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

This week’s bonus episode is of James’s interview on the Check Your Bias Podcast

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Bonus Interview

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/check-your-bias/id1500221730

https://www.linkedin.com/in/martingilvary/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aj-handegard-1a8086191/

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

In this episode, we answer listener questions that we didn’t have time to cover in the previous listener special episode.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

https://isi.org/books/cooperation-and-coercion/

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

Deepfake

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robtoews/2020/05/25/deepfakes-are-going-to-wreak-havoc-on-society-we-are-not-prepared/#3748f25d7494

https://www.instagram.com/p/BypkGIvFfGZ/

Oscars

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/movies/oscars-diversity-rule.html

Foolishness of the Week

VA Hospital

https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/62-year-old-patient-missing-since-may-found-dead-va-hospitals-stairwell/EBWXDSM3IJBCLNGXOHLUYPAVYY/

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

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Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

Check out a recent interview about our new book Cooperation and Coercion on The Hard Question with Blanquita Cullum on Smart Talk Radio

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Bonus Interview

The Hard Question with Blanquita Cullum

https://www.smarttalkradionetwork.com/the-hard-question

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

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Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

Deficit Day - the hypothetical day on which the federal government’s tax revenues for the year run out - lands on June 21. Not only is that the earliest Deficit Day has fallen since World War II, the date will get revised to even earlier in the calendar if the government undertakes more stimulus spending.

View Details

A great interview from our time on the Freedom Median Network with Curt Mercadante

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Bonus Interview

Curt Mercadante: Freedom Media Network

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeMIn9JxSSAoTbP_LIklI8Q

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

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Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

The riots sweeping the country are the result of a perfect storm. It’s about racism, but more. It’s about police accountability, but more. It’s about too many people being out of work, but more. The first step to solving our problems is understanding that they are often more complicated than they appear.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick Hits

SpaceX

https://www.spacex.com/

Food Prices

https://apnews.com/54f1efe0afa71b0a939fda91cf917366

Foolishness of the Week

Minneapolis Mayor

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/minneapolis-jacob-frey-white-supremacists-out-of-state-instigators-george-floyd-protests

Topic of the Week: Riots and Police Response

https://streamable.com/u2jzoo

https://v.redd.it/jjclrdzp8x151

https://v.redd.it/zepg0b43ly151

https://v.redd.it/v8x8isj0xz151

https://v.redd.it/mztm15kh00251 https://gfycat.com/misguidedrecklesscod

https://v.redd.it/bluggpblrz151

https://v.redd.it/m82yxl4qh0251

https://v.redd.it/ngxvkoro60251

https://mobile.twitter.com/Sarah_Mojarad/status/1266633046591078400?s=09

https://v.redd.it/o3v8ps7rat151

https://v.redd.it/yce9bpk8mo151

https://mobile.twitter.com/JordanUhl/status/1266193926316228609

https://i.redd.it/4ix8f3j6dy151.jpg

https://v.redd.it/wlx0gyoe21251

https://i.redd.it/ns0uj557x0251.jpg

https://mobile.twitter.com/KevinRKrause/status/1266898396339675137

https://mobile.twitter.com/KillerMartinis/status/1266618525600399361?s=19

https://mobile.twitter.com/mollyhf/status/1266911382613692422

https://mobile.twitter.com/GAFollowers/status/1266919104574865410?s=19

https://mobile.twitter.com/whitney_hu/status/1266540710188195843?s=20

https://twitter.com/JaredGoyette/status/1266961243476299778

https://twitter.com/johncusack/status/1266953514242228229

https://youtu.be/9wgkGLmphLE

https://twitter.com/KRobPhoto/status/1266796191469252610

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/30/politics/joyce-beatty-ohio-pepper-sprayed-columbus-protest/index.html

https://v.redd.it/tal1ncha4o151

https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/video-shows-milk-poured-over-face-of-child-pepper-sprayed-in-seattle-protest

https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2020/05/30/watch-video-captures-moment-police-horse-tramples-woman-during-houston-rally/

https://twitter.com/ava/status/1266797973834395648?s=20

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protest-update/reuters-cameraman-hit-by-rubber-bullets-as-police-disperse-protesters-idUSKBN237050

Join the Conversation

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Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

A few great moments from our interview on Loving Liberty with Bryan Hyde

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Bonus Interview

Loving Liberty with Bryan Hyde
https://lovingliberty.net/category/lls/

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

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Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

In this episode, we answer listener questions.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

Doordash

https://themargins.substack.com/p/doordash-and-pizza-arbitrage

Joe Biden

https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/amazon-joe-biden-taxes

Foolishness of the Week

Biden Aims at Charter Schools

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgVbi0oD8uM

Topic of the Week

Your Questions!

Join the Conversation

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Antony Davies on Twitter

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https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

In New York City, stop and frisk was controversial because it was a violation of the Fourth Amendment. As implemented, police would stop and frisk people without showing probable cause that the people were committing, or might be committing, a crime. The courts subsequently required that police demonstrate probable cause. But social distancing laws appear to be poised to take the place of stop and frisk, creating the opportunity for police to violate people’s Fourth Amendment rights.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick Hits

Microsoft Wrong about Open Source

https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/18/21262103/microsoft-open-source-linux-history-wrong-statement

Elon Musk

https://www.chron.com/news/article/As-it-prepares-to-fly-humans-Elon-Musk-s-SpaceX-15275155.php]

Foolishness of the Week

Don’t Swim in New York

https://www.the-sun.com/news/847367/bill-de-blasio-anyone-swim-nyc-beach-taken-right-out/

Bonus Material Links

LA Mayor Says LA Won’t Reopen

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/05/13/coronavirus-covid-los-angeles-la-county-mayor-health-reopen-vaccine/

Another Source

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/12/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html

Topic of the Week

Judicial Scrutiny

https://reason.com/2020/05/06/supreme-court-justices-in-texas-and-pennsylvania-emphasize-that-covid-19-lockdowns-require-judicial-scrutiny/

A Confederacy of Dunces

https://www.amazon.com/Confederacy-Dunces-John-Kennedy-Toole-ebook/dp/B008UX2UIO

Join the Conversation

Words & Numbers Backstage

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Let Us Know What You Think

mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

Clark Neily on Twitter

https://twitter.com/ConLawWarrior

https://www.amazon.com/Terms-Engagement-Enforce-Constitutions-Government/dp/1594036969

View Details

This week is part two of Stossel in the Classroom meets Words & Numbers. We continue the conversation with John Stossel about economics, politics, and society.

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick Hits

Peer to Peer Charging

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339350758_P2C2_Peer-to-Peer_Car_Charging

Baseball!

https://apnews.com/6195fbe572aa83a0616053e9133a8551

Foolishness of the Week

Lorena Gonzalez

https://timesofsandiego.com/business/2020/05/10/san-diegos-lorena-gonzalez-slams-elon-musk-over-tesla-threat-to-leave-california/

Topic of the Week

Stossel in the Classroom

https://stosselintheclassroom.org/

Join the Conversation

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mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com

Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

View Details

John Stossel joins us this week to talk about economics, politics, and society. This is part one of two, so be sure to tune in next week for more exciting discussions!

Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!

http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com

Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits

Naomi’s Potato

https://twitter.com/khaleesi_101/status/1255817022551863296/photo/1

Glass in the Soviet Union

https://www-jstor-org.authenticate.library.duq.edu/stable/4202738?seq=7#metadata_info_tab_contents

South Korean Baseball

https://www.thewrap.com/espn-finds-a-sport-will-air-south-korean-baseball-games/

Foolishness of the Week

Students Sue Colleges for Their Money Back

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/angry-undergrads-are-suing-colleges-for-billions-in-refunds/ar-BB13t6wd

Topic of the Week

Stossel in the Classroom

https://stosselintheclassroom.org/

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View Details

A depression differs from a recession in both the severity of the downturn and the duration. Recessions typically last months; the Great Depression lasted a decade. Importantly, the Great Depression started as an economic phenomenon, but the current “Great Suppression” started as a policy phenomenon. State governments deliberately shut down an otherwise vibrant economy. As we prepare to restart our economic engine, we consider things the government did right and did wrong in attempting to restart the economy during the Great Depression.

Live with Stossel May 1st, 2020 @12 pm ET

http://sitc.org/live

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Quick Hits

Disincentives of Unemployment Benefits

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/21/838879361/bitter-taste-for-coffee-shop-owner-as-new-600-jobless-benefit-closed-her-busines

Forgivable Loan Backfire

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/22/she-got-a-paycheck-protection-loan-her-employees-hate-her-for-it.html

Smokers Less Likely to Get COVID?

https://news.yahoo.com/smokers-four-times-less-likely-151203823.html

Foolishness of the Week

Parents are Authoritarians

https://nypost.com/2020/04/23/harvard-professor-wants-to-ban-authoritarian-homeschooling/

Topic of the Week

Harold L. Cole

https://economics.sas.upenn.edu/people/harold-l-cole

History of the Great Depression

https://fee.org/media/37305/deppod.pdf

The Path to Growth Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hd_j9OX43g

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View Details

In times of crisis, humans develop a dangerous, asymmetric view of events. We readily see the damage the crisis causes, but we don’t readily see the potential damage that proposed solutions can cause. And when information is uncertain, we tend to believe the worst about the crisis while tending to believe the best about proposed solutions. There is mounting evidence that this is playing out right now with the decision to shut down the economy in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

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Quick Hits

How We Deal with Lockdowns

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/04/15/coronavirus-police-maryland-town-urge-residents-wear-pants/5140750002/

Ghosts

https://www.indy100.com/article/indonesia-ghosts-terrifying-coronavirus-lockdown-stay-home-9462511

Australia Trend

https://www.sadanduseless.com/bin-isolation-outing/

Italian Toast

https://www.facebook.com/MagnificentItaly/videos/178130129869702

Llama Rentals

https://futurism.com/the-byte/rent-goats-llamas-zoom-meetings

Pet Skype Calls

https://www.themarysue.com/the-new-york-times-is-wrong-about-pets-on-video-conferences/

CO2 Supplies Diminishing

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-ethanol-beer/beer-may-lose-its-fizz-as-co2-supplies-go-flat-during-pandemic-idUSKBN2200G3

Foolishness of the Week

Covid Scam

https://wjla.com/news/nation-world/do-not-click-the-link-police-warn-of-scam-covid-19-text-messages

Topic of the Week

Flu Index

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

United State Corona Cases

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html

Santa Clara County Case Study

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.14.20062463v1

Boston’s Homeless Testing

https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2020/04/14/coronavirus-boston-homeless-testing

Corona’s Reach

https://spectator.us/covid-antibody-test-german-town-shows-15-percent-infection-rate/

Quarantined Cruise Ship

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1099517/japan-coronavirus-patients-diamond-princess/

Economic Outcome

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/us/politics/coronavirus-economy-recession-depression.html

Intervention Cost Breakdowns

http://econ.ucsb.edu/~tedb/Courses/UCSBpf/readings/interventions.pdf

Cardiovascular Disease Spending

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3495132/

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Vernon Smith, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in economics joins us on this episode to talk about the economic impact of the coronavirus and why, though we will have to push through some pain, we can be optimistic about the future.

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Quick Hits

Sweden’s Approach to Coronavirus

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/10/europe/sweden-lockdown-turmp-intl/index.html

Non-essentials

https://www.businessinsider.com/costco-walmart-target-stop-selling-non-essential-items-select-states-2020-4

Michigan Governor

https://dailycaller.com/2020/04/11/gretchen-whitmer-gardening-seeds-non-essential/

Foolishness of the Week

Pope Francis – On Universal Wage

https://www.businessinsider.com/pope-francis-it-might-be-time-to-consider-universal-basic-wage-2020-4

On “Nature’s Response”

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/491734-pope-says-coronavirus-outbreak-may-be-one-of-natures-responses-to

Topic of the Week

Vernon Smith – USA Today & WSJ

https://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/vernon-smith

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/03/23/coronavirus-economy-lives-suspense-not-wall-street-crash-column/2898448001/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-economy-will-survive-the-coronavirus-11586103392
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In response to the virus, state and city governments are exercising powers that they wouldn’t have in normal times. State and local governments are ordering businesses to close, restricting people’s right to travel, and talking about legally suspending rent and debt payments. This week, Clark Neily joins us to discuss the black, white, and gray constitutional areas of governmental powers in times of crisis.

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Quick Hits

Math Teacher

https://twitter.com/DakSt8Football/status/1243687140799766532/photo/1

Venezuelan Warship

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-52151951

Earliest Recorded Use of the F-Word

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8189047/Worlds-earliest-record-F-word-discovered-manuscript-written-bored-Scottish-student.html

Foolishness of the Week
The Social Distancing Police

https://www.forsythnews.com/news/government/cumming-officials-sign-social-distancing-order-will-swear-150-residents-special-policemen/

Topic of the Week
Clark Neily

https://www.cato.org/people/clark-neily

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View Details

In the debate over the future of public schooling in the U.S., charter schools may show the way forward. Similar to public schools, charter schools are open to all students and are funded by and answerable to state and local governments. Like private schools, charter schools are free to experiment with curricula and teaching styles, unencumbered by state and local government meddling. Pinnacle Classical Academy, in Shelby, NC, is one example of educational experimentation made possible by charter schools.

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Quick Hits

Coronavirus and Subsidiarity

https://reason.com/2020/03/25/despite-coronavirus-sweden-refuses-to-shutter-businesses-and-limit-gatherings/

Sweden’s Response

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/world/europe/sweden-coronavirus.html

Baby Chickens

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/style/chicken-eggs-coronavirus.html

Foolishness of the Week

Virginia Locked down for More Than 2 Months

https://www.richmond.com/special-report/coronavirus/update-northam-issues-statewide-stay-at-home-order-effective-through/article_67dbe141-da92-504b-b74d-e7c9ed8a118c.html

Bonus Foolishness: Mayor de Blasio

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/mar/30/bill-de-blasio-churches-caught-holding-services-du/

Topic of the Week

Pinnacle Classical Academy

https://www.pinnacleclassicalacademy.com/

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View Details

Lincoln Chafee is possibly the only politician in US history who has served as mayor, governor, and US Senator and been elected as a Republican, a Democrat, and an Independent. Now Gov. Chafee is running to be the Libertarian Party’s candidate for President of the United States. Gov. Chafee brings the broadest of perspectives on American politics to this week’s Words & Numbers.

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Quick Hits

People Being Nice to Each Other

https://lithub.com/big-hearted-strangers-turn-little-free-libraries-into-little-free-pantries/

IHOP to Go

https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/westmoreland-restaurant-helping-out-churches-organizations-impacted-by-fish-fry-cancellations/

Best Buy’s Employee Solution

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/akwq8a/best-buy-employees-work-voluntary-coronavirus-paid-two-weeks
T-Mobile & Sprint Providing Unlimited Data
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/t-mobile-and-sprint-providing-unlimited-data-to-all-customers-for-coronavirus-relief

Conference Calls by Zoom

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/03/14/zoom-is-helping-schools-closing-due-coronavirus-fo.aspx

U-Haul for College Students

https://www.uhaul.com/Articles/About/20625/College-Students-U-Haul-Offers-30-Days-Free-Self-Storage-amid-Coronavirus-Outbreak/

Employees over Rent

https://www.kait8.com/2020/03/18/property-owner-tells-restaurants-pay-employees-instead-rent/

Americans Stranded Abroad

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/thousands-of-americans-stranded-abroad-as-money-patience-run-out/ar-BB11vJu2

Disaster Relief Guides and Resources

https://medium.com/@kittystryker/collective-care-is-our-best-weapon-against-covid-19-851e29568656

Foolishness of the Week

Trillion-Dollar Coins

https://www.businesstelegraph.co.uk/minting-basic-income-us-lawmaker-asks-treasury-to-issue-two-1-trillion-coins-with-no-debt/

Topic of the Week

Lincoln Chafee

https://www.lincolnchafee.com/

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View Details

The laws of economics aren’t social conventions that we can choose to follow or ignore as it suits us. When demand for a product outstrips supply, the price of the product rises. Calling it, “price gouging,” and outlawing doesn’t make the price increase go away. It simply hides it in other forms. When it comes to price gouging laws, we only think we are choosing between a high price and a low price. We are actually choosing between a high price and a shortage.

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Quick Hits

Dayton University Pepper Sprays Its Students
https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200311/police-fire-pepper-balls-at-disorderly-crowd-near-university-of-dayton-after-coronavirus-dorm-closing-announcement

People Calling 911 for Toilet Paper

https://www.fox5ny.com/news/do-not-call-911-just-because-you-ran-out-of-toilet-paper-oregon-police-say

Foolishness of the Week

Student Suspended for Selling Hand Sanitizer

https://nypost.com/2020/03/12/uk-teen-suspended-from-school-for-charging-students-for-hand-sanitizer/

Topic of the Week

Craigslist Gas Black-Market

https://money.cnn.com/2012/11/05/news/economy/craigslist-gas-sandy/index.html

Fire Man Arrested for Selling Gas Post Hurricane Sandy

https://www.nj.com/essex/2014/12/jury_selection_to_begin_for_east_orange_firefighter_accused_of_selling_gas_after_hurricane_sandy_fue.html

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When a person harms another, the harmed party can go to the courts to seek redress. But the Supreme Court sets police and prosecutors above the law. If someone who works in these professions harms you, you will likely be prohibited from suing the person. This week on Words & Numbers, Clark Neily joins us to discuss the ramifications of immunity protections.

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Quick Hits

Price Gouging

https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/tech-news-briefing/amazon-works-to-remove-price-gouging/C761B7C8-0535-40E7-B039-3203306C789B

Racism and Sexism

https://reason.com/2020/03/06/sexism-didnt-kill-the-warren-campaign-the-warren-campaign-killed-the-warren-campaign/

Foolishness of the Week

Lenin Statue

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/06/first-lenin-statue-western-germany-erected-gelsenkirchen

Topic of the Week

Terms of Engagement

https://www.amazon.com/Terms-Engagement-Enforce-Constitutions-Government/dp/1594036969

Clark Neily on Twitter

https://twitter.com/ConLawWarrior

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Ten years ago, an explosion on the oil rig Deepwater Horizon killed almost a dozen people and resulted in the worst oil spill in US history. This week, economist and environmental and regulatory expert Peter Van Doren joins us to discuss the incentives in play that contributed to the tragedy.

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Quick Hits

California’s Universal Basic Income

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2712

Wal-Mart as a Health Care Provider

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-25/walmart-takes-on-cvs-amazon-with-low-price-health-care-clinics

Foolishness of the Week

Gender Neutral Stores

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article240601601.html

Topic of the Week

Deepwater Horizon

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/us/26spill.html

Peter Van Doren

https://www.cato.org/people/peter-vandoren

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Karl Marx’s thoughts on socialism are popular among politicians and humanities professors, but not so much among business people and economics professors. In this episode, Phil Magness, economic historian and author of The Best of Karl Marx, joins Words & Numbers to talk about how Marx’s teachings were on the way out but got resurrected by political leaders and academics.

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Quick hits

Jeff Bezos Giving $10 Billion

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/jeff-bezos-giving-away-10-billion-in-grants-for-fighting-climate-change/

Coronavirus Threatens Chinese Economy

https://www.bloombergquint.com/global-economics/millions-of-chinese-firms-face-collapse-if-banks-don-t-act-fast

Foolishness of the week

Flat Earth Experiment

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/02/23/mad-mike-hughes-killed-homemade-rocket-crash-california/4849772002/

Topic of the week

The Best of Karl Marx

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZY9TGTX?ref=dbs_p2d_P_R_popup_yes_pony_T1

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We’ve all experienced incivility on the Internet. But today’s incivility is more than people being rude to each other online. Political leaders have become less civil toward each other, and political parties have become more extremist. Middle America, meanwhile, is becoming less represented as people on the two political extremes listen less to and scream more at each other.

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Quick hits

Dinosaur statue

https://www.the-sun.com/news/375426/dad-accidentally-orders-19ft-carnotaur-statue-for-his-dinosaur-mad-son-that-was-dropped-into-garden-by-crane/

Car dealers encourage loan defaults

https://www.wsj.com/articles/dealerships-give-car-buyers-some-advice-just-stop-paying-your-loan-11581762601

Foolishness of the week

Florida man refuses dialysis

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/15/trump-cardboard-cutout-dialysis-treatment/

Topic of the week

The hounding of Jordan Peterson

https://spectator.us/jordan-peterson-addiction-death-online-hate/

U.S. media polarization

https://www.journalism.org/2020/01/24/u-s-media-polarization-and-the-2020-election-a-nation-divided/

Democrats have become more liberal

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/01/17/liberals-make-up-largest-share-of-democratic-voters/

Why has America become so divided

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psych-unseen/201809/why-has-america-become-so-divided

What are the solutions to political polarization

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_are_the_solutions_to_political_polarization

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Many people imagine that, when the government bans something, the banned thing goes away. In fact, what banning does is to remove government protections against violence, theft, and fraud. Justification for banning things that harm no one other than, perhaps, the person who wants those things hinges on inequality - that some of us should have the right to tell others of us how those others should live their own lives.

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Quick hits

Technological cure for macular degeneration
https://scienceblog.com/513957/first-in-the-u-s-wireless-retinal-device-for-advanced-age-related-macular-degeneration/

Americans go to libraries more than to movies

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/americans-went-library-more-often-movies-2019-180974091/

Foolishness of the week

Trump and Pelosi’s Incivility

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/05/pelosis-page-ripping-was-fitting-end-impeachment/

Topic of the week

United Nations World Drug Report

https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2019/en/index.html

Marijuana doomsday didn’t come

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/articles/2017-12-19/marijuana-legalization-doomsday-didnt-come-to-colorado

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The Congressional Budget Office is tasked with forecasting the federal budget. Over the past twenty years, the CBO has tended to over-estimate future tax revenues and under-estimate future government spending. The result is that CBO paints an unrealistically rosy picture of the government’s financial future. If we take CBO’s forecasts and compensate for their historically rosy biases, we find that, where the CBO predicts trillion-dollar deficits forever, the likely reality is actually worse.

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Quick hits

Europe votes for standardized phone chargers

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xgqwbd/europe-just-voted-in-favor-of-making-iphone-and-android-use-the-same-charger

Pledge

https://www.wgal.com/article/student-sues-lebanon-school-district-over-alleged-punishment-for-refusing-to-stand-for-pledge-of-allegiance/30732086

WV Board of Education v. Barnette

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_State_Board_of_Education_v._Barnette

Foolishness of the week

Punxsutawney Phil and PETA

https://www.fox5ny.com/news/peta-calls-for-punxsutawney-phil-to-retire-be-replaced-with-ai-robot-for-groundhog-day

Topic of the week

Latest CBO report

https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2019-08/55551-CBO-outlook-update_0.pdf
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/budget-deficit-hit-1-trillion-year-cbo-200128193731479.html

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When most people say, “equality,” they mean income equality. Economists draw a finer distinction between income equality and wealth equality. Political scientists draw an even finer distinction between economic equality and equality under the law. Philosophers distinguish even more finely, looking at equality of opportunity and equality of outcome, and examining how equality itself is one of several elements that comprise justice.

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Quick hits

Half of the world is now middle class
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2018/09/27/a-global-tipping-point-half-the-world-is-now-middle-class-or-wealthier/
75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/auschwitz-holocaust-muslim-jewish-pray-a9299941.html

Foolishness of the week

A “just” Connecticut

http://www.senatedems.ct.gov/looney-news/3045-looney-200122#sthash.xHba9oNB.n5oMRw3V.dpbs

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jan/24/conn-democrats-propose-new-state-police-department/

Topic of the week

David Schmidtz

https://freedomcenter.arizona.edu/david-schmidtz

Freedom Center podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/vc/podcast/freedom-center-today/id1452115977

New Yorker: The Equality Conundrum

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/01/13/the-equality-conundrum

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The rising cost of tuition is merely a symptom of a disease. The disease, which is much more complex, involves misplaced incentives from administrators to faculty to students to parents. Phil Magnus joins Words & Numbers this week to talk about his recent book, Cracks in the Ivory Tower.

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Quick hits

Trial by combat

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2020/01/13/iowa-courts-david-ostrom-requests-trial-combat-swords-settle-dispute/4456079002/

The FBI wants access to your phone

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/two-iphones-or-privacy-billions-why-apple-vs-fbi-matters-n1118001

Foolishness of the week

You may have to answer to police in Kentucky

https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article239389143.html

Topic of the week

Cracks in the Ivory Tower

https://www.amazon.com/Cracks-Ivory-Tower-Higher-Education/dp/0190846283

Review of Cracks in the Ivory Tower

https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/cracks-ivory-tower

Phil Magness

https://twitter.com/PhilWMagness

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Antony Davies on Twitter

https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2020/01/13/iowa-courts-david-ostrom-requests-trial-combat-swords-settle-dispute/4456079002/

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/08/new-york-lawyer-demands-trial-by-combat-because-game-of-thrones-is-real

https://abovethelaw.com/2016/03/judge-admits-trial-by-combat-is-available-in-new-york-then-declines-to-order-it/

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/09/17/trial-by-combat/

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The 18th Amendment was ratified a century ago, beginning the United States’ fourteen-year experiment with prohibition. An Amendment was needed because the Constitution did not give the federal government the power to ban alcohol. Yet, today, the federal government bans recreational drugs and puts medicinal drugs under the control of the FDA. But, the Constitution also doesn’t give the government the power to regulate drugs. Either the 18th Amendment wasn’t necessary a century ago, or federal drug controls are unconstitutional today.

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Quick hits

The optimal GPA

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/study-says-there-is-optimal-failure-for-learning-more-efficiently/

Too many 4.0s

https://www.wsj.com/articles/you-graduated-cum-laude-so-did-everyone-else-1530523801

Weed in Atlanta

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/apd-disbands-drug-unit-fight-real-crime/

Foolishness of the week

Bernie Sanders worked for his money

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/aaronfreedman/bernie-sanders-is-rich-but-hes-a-worker

Topic of the week

Legal status of marijuana by state

https://disa.com/map-of-marijuana-legality-by-state

Bootleggers and Baptists

https://www.amazon.com/Bootleggers-Baptists-Economic-Persuasion-Regulatory/dp/1939709369

18th Amendment

https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendment/amendment-xviii

21st Amendment

https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendment/amendment-xxi

Wickard v. Filburn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn

You used to be able to buy heroin at Sears

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/sears-roebuck-bayer-heroin/580441/

What can Colorado teach us about legalizing weed?

https://fee.org/articles/four-years-on-what-can-colorado-teach-us-about-legalizing-weed/

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“School choice” is much more than parents being able to choose which schools their children will attend. It is also teachers being free to design and teach their own curricula. It is principals being free to promote good teachers and to fire poor teachers. The problems we have with public education in this country have their roots in a lack of choice for all parties involved in the educational process. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick hits

Self-interest versus selfish

https://simpleflying.com/delta-passengers-life-saved-when-passengers-gave-up-seats-for-liver-transplant/

Water limits in California

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/correct-information-california-water-efficiency-222625943.html

Foolishness of the week

NYC parking meters

https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2020/01/02/parking-meters-nyc-credit-cards/

Topic of the week

Corey DeAngelis

https://reason.org/author/corey-deangelis/

Corey DeAngelis on Twitter

https://twitter.com/DeAngelisCorey

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It’s the New Year, a time when people like to make resolutions. In this episode, James and Ant look at surveys on what Americans pick for their New Year resolutions, how many fall off their wagons, and the role of resolutions, kept or not, in giving us hope for the future. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick hits

How much do CEOs make relative to workers?

https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2018/02/12/ceo-tenure-rates/

https://twitter.com/berniesanders/status/1190369125291503621

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/top-executives.htm

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/average-salary-information-for-us-workers-2060808

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathryndill/2014/04/03/americas-highest-paid-marketing-executives/#5490bbc68f55

Food from air

https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/protein-from-air?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1

Foolishness of the week

Nerds, geeks, and hate crime

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/12/17/nerd-geek-insults-should-classed-hate-crimes-academic-claims/

Topic of the week

https://www.statista.com/statistics/378105/new-years-resolution/

https://www.statista.com/chart/16500/top-us-new-years-resolutions/

https://www.statista.com/chart/20309/us-new-years-resolutions-2020/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinconklin/2018/12/18/new-years-resolutions-are-for-loserstake-these-4-steps-instead/#4113884b5e2c

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People tend to talk about income inequality as if it were necessarily a bad thing. In so doing, they often confuse inequality and poverty and, in the process, run the risk of justifying what is really envy. This week, James and Ant discuss the fact that poverty is a bad thing, whether inequality could be a bad thing, and that politicians use voters’ envy to expand the government’s power. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick hits

HELPER

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/rand-paul-to-offer-bill-allowing-families-to-use-retirement-savings-for-student-loans-2019-12-04

How much Americans have in 401k plans, by age

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/23/how-much-money-americans-have-in-their-401ks-at-every-age.html

401k returns

https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/401ks/articles/what-is-the-average-401-k-return

Student loan interest rates

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/loans/student-loans/student-loan-interest-rates/

Bernie’s now a millionaire

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3006320/critic-millionaires-and-billionaires-bernie-sanders

Foolishness of the week

A national smoking age

https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/20/health/tobacco-age-21-trump-spending-bill-bn/index.html

https://disrn.com/news/congress-votes-to-raise-age-to-buy-tobacco-to-21

Topic of the week

US poverty rate

https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-current-poverty-rate-united-states

Facts about income mobility

https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/some-amazing-findings-on-income-mobility-in-the-us-including-this-the-image-of-a-static-1-and-99-percent-is-false/

Inequality after taxes and transfers

https://voxeu.org/article/income-redistribution-through-taxes-and-transfers

Inheriting wealth

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rainerzitelmann/2019/06/24/amazing-facts-that-prove-inheritance-is-mostly-overrated-as-a-reason-for-wealth/#39759c11eca3

Intergenerational income

https://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2012/pursuingamericandreampdf.pdf

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A year ago, FCC repealed net neutrality - the law that required internet service providers to treat all data passing through their servers the same. Proponents of net neutrality said that the repeal would yield higher prices and worse service. In this week's episode James and Ant ask what actually happened. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick hits

Billion dollar property tax error
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/business/ups-drugs-tucson-arizona.html

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin

https://www.blueorigin.com/

Richard Branson’s first space passenger

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/22/richard-bransons-virgin-galactic-sends-first-test-passenger-on-spaceflight.html

Amazon’s satellite constellation

https://www.geekwire.com/2019/amazons-project-kuiper-oneweb-raise-curtain-higher-satellite-plans/

Foolishness of the week

UK to require that food labelling tell consumers how much exercise they must do to burn off calories

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-50711652

Topic of the week

Download speeds

https://www.speedtest.net/reports/united-states/

https://www.bandwidthplace.com/pennsylvania/

https://www.bandwidthplace.com/ohio/

https://www.bandwidthplace.com/georgia/

https://www.bandwidthplace.com/california/

https://www.bandwidthplace.com/new-york/

Price of residential internet service

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WPU374102

Warnings people gave about repealing net neutrality

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/net-neutrality-what-is-it-repeal-latest-meaning-define-trump-internet-rules-why-explained-a8563616.html

https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2019/02/18/net_neutrality_is_gone_did_you_even_notice_111056.html

https://issuesinsights.com/2019/06/10/one-year-later-the-internet-thrives-without-net-neutrality/

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View Details

Large countries, like the United States, span multiple time zones and have multiple climates. They also have multiple economies, each with different price levels. Prices in New York City are very different from prices in Boise Idaho - typically higher. But wages in New York City are higher also, but then so too are taxes, and so too is the likelihood of being employed. In this episode, James and Ant talk about differences in the costs of living across US cities.

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Quick hits

UPS drug runners
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/business/ups-drugs-tucson-arizona.html

Average person can tolerate family members for four hours

https://www.studyfinds.org/breaking-point-average-person-cant-last-four-hours-with-their-family-over-the-holidays/

Foolishness of the week

Washington College cancels anti-rascist play

https://reason.com/2019/12/03/washington-college-the-foreigner-censorship-students-kkk-racism/

Regional price parity index

https://www.bea.gov/news/2019/real-personal-income-states-and-metropolitan-areas-2017

Topic of the week

Differences in the costs of living across the country

https://www.businessinsider.com/cost-of-living-san-francisco-compared-to-other-cities

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One of the few enumerated powers that the Founders granted to the federal government was the power to issue patents.

Patents are a compromise between two conflicting goals. On the one hand, we want to avoid the creation of government-protected monopolies because monopolies stifle innovation. On the other, we want entrepreneurs to have an incentive to innovate. And one way to incentivize entrepreneurs is to grant monopoly protection for their inventions.

Patent law is an attempt to balance these two conflicting goals, but the balance presents trade offs. Weaker patent laws mean cheaper goods today but a lesser variety of goods tomorrow; stronger patent laws mean more expensive goods today but a greater variety of goods tomorrow.

Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick hits

Why did the South Bronx burn? https://www.latinousa.org/2019/02/06/decadeoffire/

A history of NYC rent control https://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100610/BLOGS01/306109998/a-history-lesson-on-rent-regulation-in-the-1970s

Property tax
https://fox4kc.com/2019/11/28/kansas-city-woman-angry-about-her-property-taxes-paying-with-nickels/amp/

Merchants taking dollars
https://theconversation.com/if-cash-is-king-how-can-stores-refuse-to-take-your-dollars-63516

https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/businesses-taking-benjamins-baby/story

Foolishness of the Week

Michael Bloomberg and “those people” https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/05/24/bloomberg_regressive_taxes_on_the_poor_a_good_thing.html

Topic of the Week

The Constitution and Patents https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2017/11/14/constitutional-underpinnings-patent-law/id=90190/

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Sometimes, the things we take for granted are the things we should be most thankful for. Football games on your television, climate control in your automobiles, and fully-stocked neighborhood grocery stores are among the many things we may not think about until they aren’t there. What do the data indicate about our modern standard of living? Who is responsible for the advancements in medicine and technology that have improved so many lives? Which historical scourges are functionally nonexistent today? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan in giving thanks to the many improvements in life on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick hits

Government grocery store

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/11/22/baldwin-florida-food-desert-city-owned-grocery-store/

Conservatism stresses students

https://www.thecollegefix.com/intellectual-conservatism-group-denied-may-cause-stress-to-the-student-body/

Foolishness of the week

Abolish the electoral college

https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/11/20/joe-kennedy-iii-wants-to-abolish-the-electoral-college/

Topic of the week: Thanksgiving

A Series of Miracles

https://www.faithandfreedom.com/a-series-of-miracles/

State Car Registration by Year

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/summary95/mv200.pdf

Office of Highway Policy Information

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2015/mv1.cfm

Household's Owners Equity

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/OEHRENWBSHNO

Mortality in the US

https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2016/1/25/mortality-in-the-united-states-past-present-and-future

Mortality & Causes of Death

https://www.ncdemography.org/2014/06/16/mortality-and-cause-of-death-1900-v-2010/

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View Details

James and Antony record before a live audience at Truman State University, asking the question, “Is Capitalism moral?” Their answer wends its way through the definition of morality, whether morality requires a religious basis, whether markets beget or reflect morality, whether self-interest is immoral or a motivator that can be harnessed to encourage people to want to help each other.

Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick hits

Chicago library drops fines

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/chicago-first-to-ditch-overdue-library-fees/

Ohio allows wrong answers
https://www.newsweek.com/ohio-student-religious-liberties-act-1472008

Foolishness of the week

Billionaires’ tears

https://shop.elizabethwarren.com/products/billionaire-tears-mug

Topic of the week: The morality of capitalism

Paul Ryan’s Catholicism and the poor

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444375104577592892933747400

Ethics and the economy

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20753439?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

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View Details

The US health care system is rife with many variables affecting the prices of and access to medical care. iHealth is a health care provider that does not take health insurance and is transparent about its prices. Is there a regulatory framework that allows for such a business to be successful? Would this model work for the rest of the country? What barriers are in place that prevent other physicians from doing business like iHealth? Join James Harrigan, Antony Davies, and their special guest Dr. Timothy Wong, the founder of iHealth, as they parse out the complexities behind the economics and politics of the health care industry.

Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick hits

Texas voters ban the state income tax

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2019/11/06/early-texas-voters-leaning-toward-supporting-ban-on-state-income-tax/

State-Local Tax Burden Rankings FY 2012

https://taxfoundation.org/publications/state-local-tax-burden-rankings/

9 States With No Income Tax

https://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/taxes/T054-S001-states-without-income-tax/index.html

Texas Voters Ban Income Tax Again

https://reason.com/2019/11/06/texas-voters-ban-state-income-taxes-again/

The trade gap

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-vowed-to-shrink-the-trade-gap-it-keeps-growing/ar-AAJTqg9

Foolishness of the week

Michael Bloomberg running for President

https://apnews.com/461efe170a174c4fb9446951c164537e

Jeff Sessions running for the Senate

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/jeff-sessions-trump-first-ad-alabama-trump

Topic of the week: A new model for delivering primary health care

iHealth Clinic

https://ihealth.clinic/

Direct Access Primary Care

https://directaccessprimarycare.com/

A flat-fee approach to paying for health care

https://www.post-gazette.com/business/healthcare-business/2019/08/26/Doctor-Timothy-Wong-insurance-flat-fee-primary-care/stories/201908250045

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View Details

Using a historical definition of the term, socialism designated a political system where the government owns the means of production. However, for many people, the word has evolved into something different. Do today’s young people believe in government ownership of property or redistribution of positive results? What has changed the traditional sense of socialism? Has the Supreme Court weighed in on any social programs? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they ponder these questions and more on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits

Enzymes eat plastic

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/factory-uses-enzymes-to-recycle-all-plastics-at-once-backed-by-major-companies/

Anti-inflamatory drugs and depression

https://www.healio.com/primary-care/psychiatry/news/online/%7B649c6090-c2d2-4b42-800d-9f63fabf862c%7D/anti-inflammatory-drugs-improve-depression

Foolishness of the week

Senate rejects Rand Paul’s proposal to cut spending by 2 percent

https://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/467817-senate-rejects-paul-effort-to-cut-spending

Topic of the week: Transferism

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Many attention-grabbing headlines talk about laws restricting speech. It seems some legislators don’t know the constitutionality of these proposed laws. What are the ramifications of passing laws such as these? Are these laws justified under some legal doctrines? What’s the rationale behind these propositions? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they dig into these proposed laws and more on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon

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Quick hits

California blackouts

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/23/pge-rebuked-over-imposing-blackouts-in-california-to-reduce-fire-risk.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/29/business/california-fire-insurance.html

Portland is surprised that a retail tax causes retail prices to rise

https://www.americanexperiment.org/2019/10/portland-voters-put-a-1-tax-on-large-retailers-complain-when-retailers-pass-it-on-to-them/

Foolishness of the week

Woke math

https://reason.com/2019/10/22/seattle-math-oppressive-cultural-woke/?fbclid=IwAR2ZEAmWBlm0KnxvWblTthoNsuPG39Qx-eNMp_dn1GdmdKztww_QZMB1YFU

https://www.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/public/socialstudies/pubdocs/Math%20SDS%20ES%20Framework.pdf

Topic of the week: First Amendment
https://www.americanexperiment.org/2019/10/portland-voters-put-a-1-tax-on-large-retailers-complain-when-retailers-pass-it-on-to-them/

https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-uconn-rally-racist-video-20191021-fmpaw34gzzcqtipztwv45tieca-story.html

https://reason.com/2019/10/23/the-connecticut-hate-crimes-law-used-to-charge-two-idiot-college-students-would-ban-family-guy-too/

https://www.boston.com/news/policy/2019/10/22/proposed-massachusetts-law-would-ban-b-word

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It’s debate season, and speculation about who will be the next president has already begun. Looming over the current president are constant calls for impeachment and reports on alleged wrongdoings which may diminish his chances for reelection. So, who are the best candidates and their running mates? Is impeachment a criminal or a political procedure? What kind of candidate are many Americans looking for? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they offer their assessment of the next presidential election and more on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

Quick hits:

Difference between a signatory and a party

http://www.insidejustice.com/intl/2010/03/17/signatory_party_treaty/

Major cities that have peaked their carbon emissions

https://www.c40.org/press_releases/30-of-the-world-s-largest-most-influential-cities-have-peaked-greenhouse-gas-emissions

Mad Dog Mattis and the Debt

https://www.politics-prose.com/video/call-sign-chaos-jim-mattis

Foolishness of the week:

San Francisco's Office of Emerging Technology

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/sf-to-establish-office-of-emerging-technology/?fbclid=IwAR2Txda5zSvC_YEblel4JVpZ8hm1hgDOKVbXHmGK4_syDb0Vm__ThwJrzcQ

Topic of the week: Politically Smart Moves:
Giuliana’s associates arrested

https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-foreign-born-men-who-helped-giuliani-on-ukraine-arrested-on-campaign-finance-charges-11570714188

Bi-partisan presidential tickets

https://www.bustle.com/articles/160298-do-presidents-vice-presidents-have-to-be-from-the-same-party-a-bipartisan-attempt-isnt

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Sean Malone, the creator of the Out of Frame video series and Director of Media at FEE, gives us his unique perspective on the film Joker. Do art and cinema have the power to hold a mirror up to society? Is that what makes people uncomfortable about Joker and movies like it? How do other cultures respond to graphic novels and films about superheroes? Join James Harrigan, Antony Davies, and special guest Sean Malone as they avoid spoilers and more on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

Quick hits

Pikes Peak Library District

https://ppld.org/

Shepard Smith leaving Fox

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/breaking-shepard-smith-leaving-fox-news/

Foolishness of the week

White House sends talking points to Democrats

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/465457-white-house-accidentally-sends-ukraine-talking-points-to-democrats-again

Topic of the week: Joker
Sean Malone

https://fee.org/people/sean-malone/

Out of Frame

https://fee.org/shows/video/out-of-frame/

The Joker, Nihilism, and One Iranian Boy

https://youtu.be/rYLwLSlfnlU

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This year, October 3, 2019, is Deficit Day, the day the federal government’s income runs out. For a long time, the government has been spending more money than it collects in taxes. What effect will this have on the average American citizen? How much does the government pay in loan interest alone? Hasn’t the federal government had surpluses? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they crunch the numbers and more on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits

Gang leaders

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/former-bloods-and-crips-leaders-make-peace-to-stop-gang-violence/

Hate symbols

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/26/us/adl-new-hate-symbols/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1-5FFWB_7gYooaWLZgmyXo9w9DgeN9IrAc_yLxchsjqReEIwoOzzqcvRA

Foolishness of the week

Stock markets and impeachment

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/26/trump-warns-again-that-the-stock-market-would-crash-if-he-is-impeached.html

Topic of the week: Deficit Day 2019

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/federal-debt-deficit-reserve-president-donald-trump-20190924.html

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As the saying goes, nothing can be certain except death and taxes. Thousands of people die every year from a remarkably wide variety of causes. What are the top five causes of death in the US? Are you more likely to be killed by a knife than a gun? What do diet and exercise have to do with death? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they cover death by rare diseases, vaping, firearms and more in this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits

Speculators

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/upshot/Bernie-Sanders-housing-plan.html

https://news.streetroots.org/2019/09/13/wall-street-speculators-and-loss-affordable-housing

San Francisco library eliminates overdue fines

https://www.kqed.org/arts/13866475/san-francisco-public-library-eliminates-overdue-fines

Foolishness of the week

Confessing one’s climate sins

https://pagesix.com/2019/09/22/radioheads-thom-yorke-admits-hes-a-climate-change-hypocrite/

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/specials/climate-confessions-share-solutions-climate-change-n1054791

Topic of the week: What will kill you

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/19/health/vaping-lung-injury-new-cases-530-bn/index.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eastern-equine-encephalitis-several-dead-from-rare-disease-spread-by-mosquitoes-2019-09-21/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congresswoman-mocked-for-saying-ar-15-is-as-heavy-as-10-moving-boxes-fires-50-caliber-bullets

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_09-508.pdf

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/topic-pages/tables/table-20

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In this episode, James and Ant interview Robert Anthony Peters, producer and director of Tank Man, the story of the everyday person who stood down the Chinese army during the Tiananmen Massacre. In 1989, the Chinese people staged a series of protests in Tiananmen Square calling for democratic reforms. When the authorities had had enough, they sent in troops and tanks to break up the protests, killing and wounding thousands. One man, whose name and fate remains unknown, stood in front of the tanks and refused to let them pass.

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Quick hits

Repurchase agreements

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-repo-market-what-it-is-and-why-everyone-is-talking-about-it-again-11568743438

Americans are getting heavier

https://www.vox.com/2015/6/15/8784389/america-weight-gain

Foolishness of the week

Sanders wants to forgive medical debt

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/21/us/politics/bernie-medical-debt-healthcare.html

Topic of the week: Tank Man

Robert Anthony Peters

www.tankmanthemovie.com

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Tuition increases seem to indicate that colleges might have an incentive to admit students who may not succeed. Meanwhile, many professors are being required to add clear student outcomes to their syllabi. However, this still leaves many students hanging. Loans are difficult to pay back, and many other problems crop up in schools. How can we adjust incentives to help public universities perform better? Should some schools use their endowments to issue loans? What innovations could be implemented to improve education? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they search for better solutions to the problems many students experience on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits

Mesh network is robust because it’s decentralized

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2019/09/02/hong-kong-protestors-using-mesh-messaging-app-china-cant-block-usage-up-3685

Noah’s Arks

https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1177909/space-news-igor-ashurbeyli-asgardia-russia-space-nation-nasa-moon-spt

Foolishness of the week

Second hand vaping

https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-youth-secondhand-vaping-smoke-tt-20190828-5immkhhkrrecbjub7ik6un4lni-story.html

Topic of the week: Follow Incentives to Solutions

https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2019/tr2019.pdf

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Immigration policy in the United States is fraught with obstacles. Visas, green cards, and work permits all have complicated stipulations that must be followed. What does the process of legal immigration entail? What are the costs, monetary or otherwise? Is there an incentive to immigrate illegally? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they discuss the astonishing personal experiences of two special guests on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits

Workers are fleeing big cities

https://www.wsj.com/articles/workers-are-fleeing-big-cities-for-small-onesand-taking-their-jobs-with-them-11567848600

Foolishness of the week

Oregon wants to ban self-checkouts

https://reason.com/2019/09/06/union-backed-ballot-initiative-would-limit-grocery-stores-to-2-self-checkout-machines/

Topic of the week: Pitfalls of Legal Immigration

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Many proposed solutions to society’s problems produce unintended consequences. Some laws passed in good faith, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, have adverse effects on the very people they intend to help. How many laws like this are there? What do people do about them? How do businesses deal with such laws? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they dive into the unforeseeable results of mixing good intentions with public policy and more on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits

Being the victim and the perpetrator in the same case

https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/maryland-sk-court-case-teen-sexting-child-pornography.html

Turning sign language into speech

https://www.blackbusiness.com/2019/05/roy-allela-black-engineer-invents-gloves-turn-sign-language-audible-speech.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR1eM20XHy03gUnCjvwy5XjkAt69auKNhszwtYQqUJhZVrd3y1NO6tjV_II

Foolishness of the week

Mayor de Blasio wants to abolish gifted classes

https://reason.com/2019/08/28/de-blasio-advisory-group-wants-to-abolish-gifted-classes-in-nyc-public-schools/?fbclid=IwAR1NhDE1augEPuYkpFcn1yIFmCgMq0OFHM3VU4lsKWsGUgL6BggK2MhK87c

Harrison Bergeron

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron

Topic of the week: Unintended Consequences

A380 is too quiet

https://www.wired.com/2008/12/a380-is-so-quie/

The Cobra Effect

http://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-cobra-effect-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

Payday lending

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-political-assault-on-paydays-1464909417

Americans with Disabilities Act

https://www.nber.org/papers/w6670

Bernie Sanders’ green electrical grid

https://berniesanders.com/issues/the-green-new-deal/

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If you haven’t seen either of the previous Democratic primary debates, here’s a summary: Twenty candidates debate free health care and slavery reparations, among other things. Instead of talking about eliminating the federal debt, the candidates talk about adding to it. Additionally, the top candidates don’t get to debate the issues fully. All this raises a few questions: Who’s in charge of choosing the broadcast networks? The moderators? The questions asked? What effect do these choices have on the quality of the debates? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they discuss the primary debates and more in this special episode of Words & Numbers featuring bonus material.

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Quick hits

Monopoly socialism
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/23/us/monopoly-socialism-board-game-trnd/index.html

NASA plans mission to a gold asteroid

https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1169605/Asteroid-news-NASA-scientists-16-psyche-asteroids-mining-gold-platinum

Foolishness of the week

Minneapolis bans drive thrus

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/08/09/minneapolis-bans-new-drivethrus

Topic of the week: Democratic debates

Reporter bias ratings

https://reporterbias.com/

DNC is a private corporation

https://ivn.us/posts/50-ways-the-democratic-and-republican-parties-are-the-same

Candidates

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/08/2020-candidates-president-guide/582598/

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/us/politics/2020-presidential-candidates.html

Polling numbers

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/democratic_nomination_polls/

Ford-Carter debate

https://youtu.be/BuaPct7gH1w?t=152

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Which historical figures do you respect? Which economic concepts should be taught to children? How do you trust statistics? James Harrigan and Antony Davies take questions from the crowd on topics ranging from incentives to trade-offs to research data to US treasury bills and more in this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits

Birth rates dropping

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7312075/Birth-rate-England-Wales-hits-80-YEAR-low.html

Noam Chomsky

https://truthout.org/articles/noam-chomsky-life-expectancy-in-the-us-is-declining-for-a-reason

Foolishness of the week

Robot racism

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/01/tech/robot-racism-scn-trnd/index.html

Topic of the week: Listener questions

Milton Friedman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EwaLys3Zak

F.A. Hayek

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnMd40dqBlQ

FRED: Federal Reserve data

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/

Bureau of Labor Statistics

https://www.bls.gov/

Pew Research

https://www.pewresearch.org/

Gallup

https://www.gallup.com/home.aspx

United Nations Development Programme

http://hdr.undp.org/en/data

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When it comes to wildlife conservation and other environmental concerns, the ideas of free markets and private property are frequently laughed off as silly by the planet’s most strident defenders. However, the incentives—the motivations to behave in a certain way—that come along with private property are strong. After all, we never worry about cows going extinct. But can these insights on property and incentives be extended to other aspects of our lives and our world? Special guest Howard Baetjer, author of Free Our Markets: A Citizen’s Guide to Essential Economics, joins Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they explore this and more on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits

Pickle ball

https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2019/07/26/pickleball-prison-cook-county

Air conditioned shirts

https://www.winknews.com/2019/08/01/sony-to-sell-air-conditioner-shirts-to-keep-you-cool-as-soon-as-next-year/

Foolishness of the week

Rudeness in the grocery stores

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/os-ne-2nd-walmart-urinator-20190802-uogo4be7mbhivezdystbc2rnvm-story.html

Topic of the week: Howard Baetjer and Economic Stories

Howard Baetjer

http://wp.towson.edu/baetjer/

Free Our Markets: A Citizen’s Guide to Essential Economics

https://www.amazon.com/Free-Our-Markets-Essential-Economics/dp/098442542X

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For many children, compulsory education and authority figures tend to inadvertently turn off their sense of curiosity and wonder about the world. Additionally, assigned districts can limit school choice for many parents and mandatory curricula can put unnecessary stress on educators. Are there solutions to these problems within the current framework? Is there any evidence to support changing the way we approach schooling to benefit children, parents, and teachers? Where did all these mandates originate? Join Antony Davies, James Harrigan, and special guest Kerry McDonald, author of Unschooled, as they discuss the public school system and more on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits:

Beach umbrellas

https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/menendez-urges-aggressive-action-protect-beachgoers-dangers-flying-beach-umbrellas/

https://www.nsc.org/in-the-newsroom/nsc-statement-on-new-cdc-data-showing-a-rise-in-accidental-death

Candidates reticent to mention Obama

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/democrats-want-have-it-both-ways-barack-obama/595270/

Foolishness of the week:

Soy sauce

https://www.9news.com.au/national/soy-sauce-could-be-banned-under-alcohol-sales-restrictions-in-the-northern-territory/71ef616f-778a-4c24-bf95-a63e2627b00f

Topic of the week: Unschooling:

Kerry McDonald

https://fee.org/people/kerry-mcdonald/

Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1641600632/

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As we reach pivotal milestones, such as the legal driving age, we’re met with serious questions: Who decided I’m not old enough to vote? Why can I drive but not enter a bar? When do I have to buy health insurance? Am I ready for all this? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they weigh the pros and cons of transitioning from a minor to an adult live from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits

Brim’s Snack Foods
https://www.apr.org/post/life-so-delicious

Facts about small businesses
https://sbecouncil.org/about-us/facts-and-data/

$20 an hour minimum wage
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/454212-rashida-tlaib-minimum-wage-should-be-20-an-hour-not-15

Foolishness of the week

Montgomery county, Maryland wants to require landlords to provide air conditioning

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/as-temperatures-rise-montgomery-asks-should-landlords-have-to-provide-ac-to-tenants/2019/07/16/4b5c7406-a7dc-11e9-86dd-d7f0e60391e9_story.html

Topic of the week: When does a person become an adult?

Ages of majority across the states

https://hrpo.wustl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/5-Determining-Legal-Age-to-Consent.pdf

Bill calls for raising the smoking age to 21

https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/senate-majority-leader-mitch-mcconnell-introduces-bill-raise-federal-legal-smoking-age-21

Legal drinking ages across countries

https://drinkingage.procon.org/minimum-legal-drinking-age-in-190-countries/

Legal marriage ages across states

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/table_marriage

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Citizens United, a conservative non-profit corporation, was once caught in the crosshairs of campaign finance law. The company violated the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act by broadcasting a political film within 30 days of a primary election. The Supreme Court split 5-4 on the issue. Did the court side with the free speech of a corporation? What happens when there are two different visions of the First Amendment? Are corporations people? Join James Harrigan, Antony Davies, and special guest Trevor Burrus as they recount the courtroom drama of Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission and more on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits

The bystander effect

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31157529

The world is becoming a better place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP59tz2WreY

Advances toward a cancer cure

https://www.studyfinds.org/strategic-medicine-researchers-develop-trojan-horse-drug-that-tricks-then-kills-cancer-cells/

Foolishness of the week

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/17/health/beef-environment-resources-report/index.html

Topic of the week: Political Speech and the Citizens United Decision

Trevor Burrus

https://www.cato.org/people/trevor-burrus

Trevor Burrus on Twitter

https://twitter.com/tcburrus

McCain-Feingold, Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act

https://ballotpedia.org/Bipartisan_Campaign_Reform_Act

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

https://ballotpedia.org/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission

https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/michael-moore-trumpland-might-have-been-illegal-citizens-united-its-all

Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce

https://ballotpedia.org/Austin_v._Michigan_Chamber_of_Commerce

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As people like, share, and upload on social media platforms, data is generated by users and gathered by tech companies. It’s a bit unclear, however, how companies handle user data. Is selling or storing user data a problem? Does the Fourth Amendment protect internet privacy? Should the government get involved?Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies—live from the University of Arizona!—as they discuss End User License Agreements, copyright law, data breaches, and more on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits

President Trump may not block critics from his Twitter feed

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/us/politics/trump-twitter-first-amendment.html

CBO estimates of the effect of a minimum wage hike

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/08/cbo-estimates-effects-of-house-democrats-15-minimum-wage-plan.html

Foolishness of the week

Google recorded then leaked conversations that Google Assistant overheard

https://mashable.com/article/google-assistant-recordings-leaked/

Topic of the week: Privacy

Expectation of privacy
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/expectation_of_privacy

Katz v. United States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katz_v._United_States

Olmstead v. United States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmstead_v._United_States

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When it comes to the final frontier, we must inevitably outline the government’s role in interplanetary colonization. Perhaps during the next century, there will be deliberation between cosmic pioneers, space entrepreneurs, and elected officials. Who owns the resources on asteroids and other celestial bodies? What might a galactic congress look like? And what’s maritime law got to do with it? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they mine that asteroid and more on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Show Notes:

$10 quintillion asteroid

https://www.foxnews.com/science/nasa-headed-towards-giant-golden-asteroid-that-could-make-everyone-on-earth-a-billionaire

Rep. Amash quits the Republican party

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-justin-amash-announces-quitting-republican-party-op/story

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/04/us/politics/justin-amash-trump.html

Foolishness of the week

Buttigieg calls for national service programs

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/03/us/politics/buttigieg-national-service.html

How to pronounce Buttigieg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT36PvjxbRA

Topic of the week: Who owns space?

Heinlein: The Man Who Sold the Moon

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Sold-Moon/dp/0671578634

General Mining Act of 1872

https://legcounsel.house.gov/Comps/Act%20Of%20May%2010,%201872-(Mining%20Law%20Of%201872).pdf

Law of the Sea

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_sea

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This week’s guest, Robert McDonald, author of Confounding Father talks about the quintessential American philosopher: Thomas Jefferson. During the birth of America, innumerable obstacles stood in its way. What followed was the triumph of the first Americans, from a revolutionary war to purchasing Louisiana and everything in between. Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan for a cheerful, optimistic ode to the spirit of America on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits

Disney heir calls for wealth tax

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/28/736993245/disney-heiress-calls-for-wealth-tax-we-have-to-draw-a-line

San Francisco bans vaping

https://fee.org/articles/san-francisco-becomes-first-us-city-to-ban-sale-of-e-cigarettes-a-healthier-alternative-to-smoking/

Foolishness of the week

Democratic debates and yoga games

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/450540-marianne-williamson-sends-out-healthy-alternative-to-debate

Topic of the week: Robert McDonald on Thomas Jefferson

Confounding Father

https://tinyurl.com/y39dpz5g

Thomas Jefferson’s Lives: Biographers and the Battle for History

https://tinyurl.com/yxtgkhng

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There appears to be a large problem in America with outcome-based thinking, particularly with regards to hot-button political issues. We skip straight to the ending we want and argue for it until we’re blue in the face, and everyone who doesn’t want the same must be evil, stupid, or both. But what if we started the conversation in a different place? What if we started it at the principles that lead to the desired outcome? Would the conversation change? James Harrigan and Antony Davies dig into the subject during their second live recording from FEEcon 2019 on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits

From janitor to Executive Vice-President

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/27/a-janitor-invented-flamin-hot-cheetos-and-became-a-pepsico-exec.html

Lost wallets experiment

https://www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-people-are-honest-lost-wallets-experiment-20190620-story.html

Foolishness of the week

Manufacturing czar

https://triblive.com/opinion/donald-boudreaux-save-us-from-a-manufacturing-czar/

Topic of the week: Principle and Outcome

Federal receipts are 18% of GDP

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/articles/2016-12-01/myths-and-facts-about-the-us-federal-debt

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The word “equality” is a tricky one. It means different things to different people in different contexts. Do we mean “income equality”? “Wealth equality”? “Equality before the law”? And how does that sync up with “fairness”? Why are so many fine with professional athletes and movie stars making hundreds of millions of dollars but not CEOs? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they delve into the subject live from FEEcon 2019 on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits:

Tulsi Gabbard

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/congresswoman-used-toffee-to-unite-republicans-and-democrats/

People spending more on the Internet than at restaurants

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-15/americans-now-spend-more-at-internet-stores-than-restaurants

Foolishness of the week:

O.J. Simpson “has a little getting even to do”

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2019/06/oj-simpson-twitter-has-a-little-getting-even-to-do

Topic of the week: Inequality:

The problem of inequality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCjWG8RqH4w

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As the saying goes, if you want less of something, tax it. Recently, a House bill was proposed that would raise the taxable income cap for Social Security to about $400,000. Although there seem to be many reasons to cheer, would this create unintended consequences? What could be done instead? Is privatization the way to go? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies this week as they suggest an elegant solution to a sticky situation on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits

Ladybugs:

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2019-06-06/cloud-of-ladybugs-in-california-so-large-it-appears-on-weather-radar

Influencer can’t sell 26 shirts:

https://www.indy100.com/article/instagram-influencer-arii-t-shirt-sales-followers-fail-twitter-response-8936836

Foolishness of the week

Over-the-counter birth control:

https://www.livescience.com/24940-birth-control-pill-over-the-counter.html

Topic of the week: Social Security

The SECURE Act:

https://www.bankrate.com/retirement/how-secure-act-could-impact-retirement-savings/

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If life is an inalienable right, does that take the death penalty off the table? Is there really a need for social safety nets? Taxation, the Articles of Confederation, the Postal Service, and more come together this week as James Harrigan and Antony Davies explore their ambivalence (it doesn’t mean what you might think it does) on many controversial topics on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

Come to FEEcon 2019! Show Notes:

Arthur Laffer awarded Medal of Freedom

The top half of income earners pay 97% of the federal taxes

Spelling Bee winners

Foolishness of the week

UBI could solve childhood obesity

Topic of the week: Ambivalence

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Only twice has the U.S. House of Representatives impeached a president, and never has the Senate voted to remove an impeached president from office. People tend to think of impeachment as a judicial tool that should be used rarely and only when a president has broken the law in some egregious way. But impeachment was designed as part of the checks-and-balances. It is a political tool. On this week’s episode of Words & Numbers, join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they discuss what impeachment is and how the political process might work better if impeachment were used more often.

Come to FEEcon 2019! Show Notes:

Artificial intelligence learns to spot cancer

Employment changes over the past century

Sanders says that teacher salaries should start at $60,000

Foolishness of the week

MSNBC asks political candidate how MSNBC can do better for him

Topic of the week: Impeachment

How does impeachment work?

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If the federal government disappeared, would there still be a United States? Does every country fall on a spectrum between two extremes, capitalism and communism? Are there any good reasons to restrict voting rights? This week, James Harrigan and Antony Davies answer questions about the subjective theory of value, debts to society, guns vs. butter, and plenty more in this week’s jam-packed episode of Words & Numbers.

Come to FEEcon 2019!

Foolishness of the week

Pennsylvania Mayors

Pew Poll on Views About Gun Regulation

Topic of the week: Listener questions

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Americans, as individuals, carry a lot of debt. But don’t panic! Not all debt is created equal, and not all debt is necessarily a bad thing. Some debt—like mortgages, vehicles, even some college degrees—can be good debt. There are also bad kinds of debt, too. But the thing about individual debt is that it’s the individual's responsibility and really only the business of the borrower and the lender. Once the government gets involved, though, things can get messy. Just how messy and in what ways? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they sort through the bills in this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

Come to FEEcon 2019! Show Notes:

Amazon hiring robots

$6 trillion war

Foolishness of the week:

Limiting credit card interest rates

Topic of the week: Good debt and bad debt:

Household debt

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Lately, headlines seem to focus on big companies that pay no corporate taxes. However, most of those big companies are still paying payroll taxes. So, have these big companies actually paid their fair share? Americans have their own tax burdens as well. How do we measure a fair tax for all incomes? How do people define what “fair” means? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they cover progressive/regressive taxes, sales taxes, sin taxes, and more on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

Come to FEEcon 2019!

Show Notes:

New York may ban glass and steel buildings

Scientists discover how to convert blood to Type O

Foolishness of the week:

Treasury: US may have to stop borrowing

Topic of the week: Taxes

Amazon 1

Amazon 2

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Thought Experiment: Should the government tax buyers or sellers?

Consider the following three scenarios. In all three scenarios, a seller sets a price and a buyer decides, based on the price, how many units to buy. The number of units the seller sells varies depending on the price the seller charges:

Units sold = 100 - Price per unit

For simplicity (and no meaningful reduction in realism) suppose that it costs the seller $40 for each unit the seller sells.

In the first scenario there is no tax. This is a baseline against which we can compare the scenarios in which there is a tax. In the second scenario, the government imposes a $6 per unit tax on the seller. For each unit the seller sells, the seller must pay (in addition to the $40 cost of selling the unit) $6 to the government. In the third scenario, the government imposes a $6 per unit tax on the buyer. For each unit the buyer sells, the buyer must pay the seller’s price to the seller plus an additional $6 to the government.

In each scenario, you can see the price that maximizes the seller’s profit. This is the price the seller will charge in that scenario. You can check the work by choosing a different price. You’ll see that any price other than the one shown results in less profit. At the end of each scenario, you see the final result: how much the buyer pays per unit and how much the seller receives per unit. Compare those results across the three scenarios to see something remarkable.

Scenario 1: No Sales Tax

Profit is maximum when the seller charges $70 per unit.

Units sold = 100 - 70 = 30

Sales = $70 x 30 units = $2,100

Cost of goods sold = $40 x 30 units = $1,200

Profit = $2,100 - $1,200 = $900

→ Buyer pays $70 per unit

→ Seller receives $70 per unit

Tax the Seller $6 per Unit Sold

Profit is maximum when the seller charges $73 per unit.

Units sold = 100 - 73 = 27

Sales = $73 x 27 = $1,971

Cost of goods sold = $40 x 27 + $6 x 27 = $1,242

Profit = $1,971 - $1,242 = $729

→ Buyer pays $73 per unit

→ Seller receives $73 per unit less $6 per unit tax = $67 per unit

→ Compared to No Tax, buyer pays $3 per unit more and seller receives $3 per unit less

Tax the Buyer $6 per Unit Purchased

Profit is maximum when the seller charges $67 per unit.

Units sold = 100 - 67 = 27

Sales = $67 x 27 = $1,809

Cost of goods sold = $40 x 27 = $1,080

Profit = $1,809 - $1,080 = $729

→ Buyer pays $73 per unit ($67 per unit plus $6 per unit tax)

→ Seller receives $67 per unit

→ Compared to No Tax, buyer pays $3 per unit more and seller receives $3 per unit less

Conclusion

It doesn’t matter whether the government taxes the buyer or the seller, they end up sharing the tax burden in the same way. The government decides from whom the tax is collected. The market determines who actually pays the tax.

| No Tax | Tax the Seller | Tax the Buyer | | Sale price | $70 | $73 | $67 | | Price seller receives (net of tax) | $70 | $73 - $6 = $67 | $67 | | Price buyer pays (including tax) | $70 | $73 | $67 + $6 = $73 |

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There’s no such thing as a free lunch or, in this case, a free college education, despite the promises of certain presidential candidates. The federal government already guarantees student loans. But what would happen if we just forgave all that student debt? What would it take, politically speaking, and what would it cost? And what’s the value of a college education these days, anyway? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they tackle the topic on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Quick hits

Chalk on tires violates Fourth Amendment

Phone surveillance

Foolishness of the week

Williams College is afraid of free speech

Tuition at Williams College

Tuition at University of Massachusetts

Topic of the week: Free stuff is too good to be true

Free college too good to be true

Constitutional concerns about a wealth tax

Wealth tax

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Many college students seem baffled or even outraged by opinions that differ from their own. We hear phrases like safe spaces, trigger warnings, and virtue signaling. What’s going on? Has the same psychology that caused religious persecutions returned? Has it infected the majority of students and faculty across the country, or just a vocal few? Guest Donald Boudreaux joins hosts James Harrigan and Antony Davies to sift through the loudest arguments coming from our nation’s universities in this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Show Notes:

Nuclear fusion

Artificial intelligence

Cancer cure

Longevity gene

Cure for bubble boy disease

Brian Lamb retiring

Foolishness of the week:

San Francisco: Poop in the streets

Washington DC: Homelessness

Seattle is dying

Topic of the week: Silencing Dissent

Donald Boudreaux

Donald Boudreaux on Brett Kavanaugh and GMU

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Getting paid for your blood—do you have any concerns? Many people are opposed to donors receiving compensation for ethical reasons. Should people only donate blood for altruistic reasons? Should we worry about exploitation? How much of America’s total exports are blood products? Join Antony Davies, James Harrigan, and their guest Peter Jaworski, co-author of the book Markets Without Limits, as they discuss the morality underlying the supply and demand of blood plasma around the world.

Win tickets to FEEcon 2019! Show Notes:

Deficit up 15% in 2019

Deficit up 17% in 2018

Tourism and Chernobyl

Foolishness of the week:

Illinois to raise smoking age to 21

Florida town makes it illegal to grow vegetables

State of Florida overrules Florida town

Topic of the week: Blood plasma sales:

Peter Jaworski

Letter to Senate of Canada regarding the ban on blood plasma sales

Canada needs blood plasma

We should pay for blood plasma donations

Bans on blood plasma sales 1

Bans on blood plasma sales 2

Don’t end NAFTA, Canada needs your bodily fluids

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Wage gap myths, middle class success, and hate crime statistics are examined this week in order to dispel the calls for a new social contract. In a society where the majority makes the rules, how do minorities prosper? Is it because of a social contract, is it the result of people being rational, or is it just people being nice to each other? Listen to the conclusion of this two-part special as James Harrigan and Antony Davies use data to trace the prosperity of minority groups in America on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers.

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Show Notes:

13 year old buys his mother a car

Cancer vaccine

Foolishness of the week

Illinois to raise smoking age to 21

Florida town makes it illegal to grow vegetables

State of Florida overrules Florida town

Topic of the week: Social Contract Nonsense (Part 2)

Households by race and income (1967-2017)

Income by gender (1960-2017)

Hate crime statistics

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Have you ever signed a contract without reading the terms and conditions? According to Elizabeth Warren, part of the “social contract” is to pay your fair share. But wait, what is the “social contract” that politicians and talking heads keep bringing up? Is it the consent of the governed? Is it written down? Did anyone actually agree to it? Enjoy the first part of a two-part special as Antony Davies and James Harrigan dig up the historical origins of the social contract.

Quick hits

Tversky & Kahneman, Rational Choice and the Framing of Decisions

Robots in grocery stores

FEEcon VIP Giveaway

https://info.fee.org/wordsandnumbers

Foolishness of the week

Special Olympics 1

Special Olympics 2

Topic of the week: Social Contract Nonsense (Part 1)

Locke’s Social Contract

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538 Electors. 270 votes. Winner-takes-all! Well, at least for now. Colorado recently became the twelfth state to join an effort to award the presidency to the candidate who wins the most individual votes. But should the popular vote replace the Electoral College? Originally intended as a safeguard for the separation of powers, has this election method failed Americans? Population vs. Geography. Urban vs. Rural. Democrats vs. Republicans; it’s a conversation that usually gets people all lathered up on both sides of the issue. Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they inform us about the reasoning behind the Electoral College and how it works.

Show Notes:

Adidas making sneakers out of waste plastic

China stops taking the world’s trash

No place for US recyclables

Nuclear energy better than renewables

Foolishness of the week

Police shoot teachers

Milgram experiment

Topic of the week

Electoral College

Contract Clause

Federalist 68

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The dominating online presence of Facebook, Google, and Amazon has often been called monopolistic. Government-enforced monopolies, such as Western Union and Ma Bell, have fallen before, but is Big Tech anything like those old companies? Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has even started a petition calling for the breakup of big tech companies, which may include Apple among others. How would the digital world look if she succeeds? Should politicians get to decide whether Facebook meets the same fate as MySpace or should the consumer? Join us this week as James Harrigan and Antony Davies thwart the misconceptions about monopolies and discuss the fates of tech products like Netscape and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Show Notes:

Buying your way into college

New York City wants to ban “unfair” firings

Foolishness of the week

Missouri wants to require residents to own AR-15s

Topic of the week

Elizabeth Warren wants to break up Facebook

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Live from Scottsdale, Arizona! James Harrigan and Antony Davies contend that the median income in the US puts Americans in the top 1 percent in the world. What does that mean? Only that these people can afford stuff that, roughly a century ago, had been considered luxuries: air conditioning, running hot and cold water, ovens, refrigerators, stainless steel, and even sweet potatoes. The standard of living for even minimum wage earners today has remarkably improved in spite of burdensome regulations, but can this trend continue? Join us this week as our hosts suss out the reasons for the improvements in worldwide wealth and search for the “Goldilocks Zone” of government intervention.

Show Notes:

Measles outbreak at Midway airport

Gap, JC Penny, Foot Locker closures

Montgomery Ward

Foolishness of the week

Sanders: Government can’t go too far

Topic of the week

Where did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez get her sweet potatoes?

World median income

Are you a 1-percenter?

Donald Boudreaux on insider trading

What would our GDP be if we had less unnecessary regulation?

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This week’s guest, David Beito, professor of History at the University of Alabama, discusses the functions, benefits, and undoing of mutual aid societies. These private safety nets, like tontine funds and Masons, once widely provided services such as health and unemployment insurances, hospitals, housing for the elderly, and care for orphans. So what happened? Did beneficiaries dry up these funds? Did scandals, state bans, and the Great Depression lead to the disappearance of benefit societies? Are they still around? Join James Harrigan, Antony Davies, and professor Beito as they answer these questions and more on Words & Numbers.

Show Notes:

Male-only draft unconstitutional

Humanity’s backup plan

Foolishness of the week

AOC says people shouldn’t reproduce

Topic of the week

Mutual aid societies

Tontine insurance

David Beito

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This week, economist and theorist Warren Mosler joins James and Antony to explain the details of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). With 40 years of experience in finance and monetary operations, Mosler is a leading expert on MMT, is a co-founder of AVM—a brokerage, trading, and administrative services firm—and lectures on monetary economics around the world. He covers the important ramifications stemming from the adoption of MMT and how coercive shifts of resources benefit public infrastructure, and responds to criticisms of MMT. With supporters in Washington such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, MMT is quickly gaining a strong following, and Warren, James, and Antony discuss the important points on this winding theory and more.

Show Notes:

People killed in armed conflicts

People killed by mosquitoes

Genetically modified mosquitoes

Foolishness of the week

TSA smuggling ring

Topic of the week

Modern Monetary Theory

Warren Mosler

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Discrimination happens every single day. Every human, in some way, makes a judgment about other humans and uses that judgment to discriminate, whether that be who they date, who they do business with, and, yes, who they hire and fire. Most discrimination is fine—necessary, even. But sometimes it crosses a line. Where is that line? How does it affect people’s careers? When is litigation the right option? Antony Davies and James Harrigan with special guest Vince White as they discuss this and more on Words & Numbers.

Show Notes:

Online dating is changing society

Amazon paid no federal taxes

Foolishness of the week

Amazon took its ball and went home

Topic of the week

Federal employment discrimination laws

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The Outrage Engine that is social media and op-eds has set its sights on a new target: billionaires. Apparently, being a billionaire is a bad, bad thing. Billionaires should sit down, shut up, and meekly wait until we confiscate their wealth. For certain people of certain political beliefs, this sounds like a great idea. Because, after all, nobody needs that much money. But is it really that simple? Can we really just steal billionaires’ money and nothing bad happens? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they breakdown this and more on Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Redditors are kind to a person in need

Hawaii tries to ban smoking 1

Hawaii tries to ban smoking 2

Foolishness of the week

Green New Deal Resolution

Topic of the week

Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax plan

How an income tax on the rich expanded to be a tax on everyone

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Fun fact: the profit margin for most businesses is about 8 percent. When you’re talking about categories like restaurants and retail stores, that margin drops to around 2 percent. Yet, some people still seem to believe that all companies are perfectly capable of simply absorbing dramatic increases in their operating costs—namely, labor—with no changes in behavior by these companies. Artificially inflating labor costs, as in the form of minimum wage increases, will not lead to decreased hours, lay-offs, deferred hiring, decreases in benefits, or increased prices for consumers because… reasons. And if you voice disagreement with any of these beliefs, then you must just hate the poor or other ad hominem claims. But who really “hates” the poor based on actual policy outcomes, the #FightFor15 crowd or those who oppose minimum wage hikes? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they dig into this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

AOC ruffles feathers

Lyft offers free rides to shelters

Foolishness of the week

Seeing racism where it’s not

Topic of the week: “You Just Hate the Poor!” and Other Minimum Wage Misunderstandings

Analysis of Minimum Wage in Pennsylvania

Census data on household incomes

Bureau of Labor Statistics data on minimum wage workers

A $15 minimum wage hurts workers

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Though the United States, as a constitutional republic, is considered to be a “limited government,” it often doesn’t feel that way. Washington keeps churning out law after law regarding what the state may do and what the individual may not. The fault for this is often laid at the feet of the Founders for including the “Necessary and Proper Clause” in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. But is that blame just? Or have politicians through the years simply used it as an excuse to do what they wanted, regardless of what the Constitution says? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they talk about this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Judge convicts volunteers

Nancy Pelosi on inequality

Foolishness of the week

Wealth tax

Senators’ oath of office

Topic of the week: Diversity Officers and Administrative Bloat in Higher Education

How much of government shuts down?

Article 1, Section 8

10th Amendment

16th Amendment

Wickard v. Filburn

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The word “diversity” has become a sticky one. In the last fifteen years, a genuine “diversity industry” has sprung up, particularly at colleges and universities in the United States. Higher education institutions across the country have entire departments with dozens of full-time, highly-paid staff members dedicated to the concept. But to what effect? And exactly what kinds of “diversity” are we talking about? Special guest (and regular FEE contributing author) Mark J. Perry joins Antony Davies and James Harrigan to drill down into this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Oregon first state to require home visits of all families with newborns

Oregon looks to impose statewide rent control

Article II, Section 3

Nancy Pelosi

Foolishness of the week

Ginia Bellefante

$33 minimum wage

City Harvest self-sufficiency calculator

Topic of the week: Diversity Officers and Administrative Bloat in Higher Education

Mark Perry

The impact of diversity officers on diversity

University of Michigan spends $11 million on diversity

Fraction of 18-24 year olds enrolled in college (by race and gender)

Carpe Diem blog

Mark Perry on Twitter

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Americans are pretty concerned about violent crime—particularly crimes committed with guns, “assault weapons” most specifically. This concern, statistically speaking, is fairly irrational. You are far more likely to be killed by being beaten or stabbed than you are to be killed by any kind of rifle, “assault” or otherwise. So why are so many people so tied up in knots about it? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they discuss this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Corona brewing replaces plastic six-pack rings

Illegal immigrants and Social Security numbers

The economic case for immigration

W&N episode #51: America relies on immigrants

Foolishness of the week

Being morally right vs being factually correct

Criticism vs harassment

Topic of the week: Reality and Perception of Crime

Pew report on violent crime data

FBI crime data

Bureau of Justice Statistics crime data

Gallup polls on perception of crime trends

Defensive uses of guns

Firearm homicide and suicide rates by city

2% of US counties account for 50% of US homicides

Feinstein introduces assault weapons ban

Assault weapons ban of 1994

Article I, Section 8

10th Amendment

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People like to talk about the “good old days” where everything used to be so much better than it is today. Everybody feels nostalgic on occasion, and it’s perfectly normal to misremember the past, but were the good old days really all that great? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they compare then and now on the 100th episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick Hits:Cat parasite
Elizabeth Warren

Foolishness of the Week:
NY Times crossword

Topic of the week: Comparing Life Today to Life 100 Years Ago

See the accompanying chart for data and data sources.

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Happy 2019, everyone!

On our first episode of Words & Numbers in the new year, professor James Stacey Taylor joins Antony and James this week to discuss the ethical implications of creating markets for human organs.

According to Prof. Taylor, nearly 18 people a day die from a shortage of kidney donors. Economists have argued for decades that these kinds of markets could save lives by creating better incentives for people to donate their organs to people in dire need, but critics say that it would encourage poorer people to put their health at risk for money.

Who's right?

Quick Hits:

University of Missouri says tall men asking short women on dates is policy violation
University of Missouri and Title IX (court transcript)
No one wants to buy Sears

Foolishness of the Week:

Union dues eat worker’s entire paycheck

Topic of the week: Organ Markets

James Stacey Taylor
People in need of kidney donors

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Within less than a decade of ratification of the Bill of Rights, President John Adams signed the Sedition Act, which blatantly violated the First Amendment’s protections of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Since that time, the Supreme Court has repeatedly taken a firm stand in defense of the First Amendment against government encroachment. Yet, within the past couple of years, we’ve heard Congressional Democrats and now a Republican President call for restrictions of both the press and speech that is critical of the government. The freedom to criticize government is the last tool available to peaceful people who seek change. A government that prohibits critical speech, leaves its people with no option but to take up arms. Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they discuss this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Corona brewing replaces plastic six-pack rings

Iowa high schools require gun safety courses

Foolishness of the week

TSA switching to floppy eared dogs

Topic of the week: The Alien and Sedition Acts

Congressional party results

The enemy of the people

Sedition Act 1

Sedition Act 2

Sedition Act 3

Sedition Act 4

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Americans have the distinct reputation of being incredibly selfish. All things considered, it’s not exactly unearned. That said, every year, Americans also quietly give a rather astonishingly large amount of money to charities, particularly during the holiday season. Over $400 billion, in fact, 75 percent of which was for those less fortunate. And that’s simply the cash and goods. Beyond that, 60 million Americans each donated an average of 120 hours of their time to charities. This is, incidentally, more than the federal government spends on all of its welfare programs combined. What does this actually mean? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they discuss this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Penguins fan gets a kidney

South African politician calls on people to kill whites

Foolishness of the Week

Nurse denied life insurance

Topic of the Week: Giving

Giving Tuesday

Statistics of US generosity

Arthur Brooks: Who Really Cares?

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Money is one of those things that is so ubiquitous, so completely taken for granted, that we rarely stop to think about what it actually is. The colored bits of paper that we call dollars don’t have any particular worth on their own, yet we use them as though they do. John Locke, in 1689 when he wrote his Second Treatise of Government, touched on it, hinting at the three qualities money possesses. But what are those three things? What happens when one or more of those three attributes is abandoned? And how does the government fit into all of this? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they examine this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Payless Shoes’s social experiment

Japan 1

Japan 2

Foolishness of the Week

Instructions for making toast

Topic of the Week: What is money?

Money

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We hear a lot about jobs, these days. We have monthly government jobs reports. Our politicians talk about job creation. Some people fear others will “take our jobs!” But what is a job? Is it the prize of some sort of economic vending machine where you have a few inputs, press a few buttons, and out comes a shiny new job? Is it an empty space at a company that needs to be filled? Or is it something else altogether? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they talk about this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Fed signals that interest rates won’t rise much further

North Carolina voter fraud

Foolishness of the Week

Oakland University

Hockey pucks

Michigan state gun law

Topic of the Week: Jobs

Employment statistics

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It’s no secret that social media is in a bit of a shambles. The big players like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are purging accounts, censoring content, and mining data. Many users are very unhappy with them. But what alternatives do we have? Maybe more than you think. Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies along with Minds.com founder Bill Ottman as they talk about social media alternatives and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Small business Saturday

Dimming the sun

We’re all related

Foolishness of the Week

Florida gun buyback

Topic of the Week: An Alternative to Facebook

Minds.com

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There was once a time when politicians were civil to each other. Neighbors and friends who disagreed politically remained neighborly and friendly to each other. Opponents were graceful in defeat and generous in victory. But somewhere along the line, we lost that. These days, it seems that all there is is vitriol and hate. That is what happens when an electorate focuses solely on the outcomes that they want instead of the principles they believe in. What are these principles and why do they matter? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they discuss this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Eye drops to correct vision

Foolishness of the Week

Rejecting the measles vaccine

Topic of the Week: Principles

Why libertarians start at first principles

The roots of political polarization

Ford-Carter presidential debate

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In the wake of the midterm elections, there’s been a lot of talk about democracy and how it works. Many—largely on the left—are confused and angry because, despite garnering the higher number of votes, Democrats failed to take a majority of seats in the Senate. This demonstrates a basic misunderstanding about American government, the electoral process, and how they work. Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they break it down for us on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Pittsburgh shooting

Smoking rate hits a low

Foolishness of the Week:

Man claims he is age-fluid

Topic of the Week: Democracy:

The View blames Senate win on gerrymandering

The problem of factions

Winning the popular vote but losing the election

Democrats got more votes but Republicans won

Arrow Impossibility Theorem

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“It’s the most important election in history.” That’s the rhetoric you see plastered across the news and social media. Perhaps, people view this election as such because they believe it to be the government’s job to provide things for them. This is apparent on both sides of the aisle. Democrats want free health care and education. Republicans want a border wall and tariffs on imported goods. But, is it the government’s job to provide services that Democrats want? Is the government a tool of protection for American businesses that Republicans view it as? Join hosts Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan as they discuss the proper role of government and more on this episode of Words & Numbers.

Show Notes: Foolishness of the week.

CBO reports $782 billion deficit for fiscal year ending 9/30/2018

Why does the deficit not match the increase in the debt?

Topic of the week: The midterm elections.

Is this the most important election ever?

This isn’t the most important election ever!

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Economists use the term “creative destruction” a fair amount, but what does it actually mean? It generally refers to a company going out of business, or sometimes whole sectors of the economy vanishing as disruptive technologies and strategies come into play. It is very easy to see the “destruction” part of creative destruction. We see the empty storefronts and people out of work because the businesses they worked for couldn’t afford to pay them anymore. We point fingers and lament the loss of these former favorites. So where does the “creation” part of all this come in? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they take a close look at this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Scientists develop a strain of saline-tolerant rice

Discrimination at Harvard

Foolishness of the Week

New York socialist wonders why people are moving to Florida

Topic of the Week: Creative destruction

Good and Bad Destruction: Buggy Whips and Broken Windows

Ten jobs that no longer exist

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Canada recently legalized the possession and use of marijuana and proposed legislation to pardon those previously convicted of such “crimes.” So, it’s as good a time as any to take a look at how such things are handled in the United States. While, yes, in the majority of states, there is some provision for certain kinds of legal use of marijuana—including full legalization in a few—the fact remains that the plant itself remains completely illegal at the federal level. In aggregate, across the United States, the clearance rate—that is, of criminal cases being considered solved—for violent crimes is less than 50 percent and less than 20 percent for property crimes. In 2016, there were more arrests for marijuana possession across the country than for all violent crimes combined. And that’s just one single aspect of the American criminal “justice” system. Clark Neily of the Cato Institute, a noted criminal justice scholar, joins James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they take an unvarnished look at the state of criminal justice in the United States on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Gloves let users feel virtual objects

Trump orders cabinet to cut spending 5%

Foolishness of the Week

Nebraska’s honesty in advertising

Topic of the Week: Clark Neily on the imbalance of power in our judicial system

Clark Neily

Canada legalizes marijuana and moves to pardon possession

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Imagine, if you will, that the United States federal government somehow received all of the money it normally would for the entire year on January 1st. The day it would have spent it all and started deficit spending (that is, spending money it simply doesn’t have) could be dubbed “Deficit Day.” This year, 2018, that day falls on October 19th. From this day until the end of the year, the US Federal Government is spending money it doesn’t have to the tune of about $11 billion per day. So what does that mean for the government? What does that mean for the people? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they dive into this and more on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers

Show Notes:

Trump administration stifles free speech

Foolishness of the Week

Government regulating pizza toppings

Topic of the Week: Deficit Day

Congressional Budget Office projections

Federal receipts and outlays over time

Interest rate on the federal debt

Student loan debt statistics

Flemming v. Nestor (1960): You do not have an earned right to Social Security benefits

Helvering v. Davis (1937): Social Security taxes are part of the general revenue

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When it comes to free trade agreements, ideally they should be very short. Four words would suffice: “Trade will be free.” But politicians being what they are, what we (that is to say, Mexico, Canada, and the United States) actually have to replace NAFTA is a 1,800-page tome called the USMCA. Hundreds of pages of caveats doesn’t sound very much like free trade. That said, this trade agreement, like all trade agreements, rests on the the myth that it is countries that trade with each other. Countries are aggregates; they can’t actually do anything. It is individuals who trade with each other. Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they weigh in on trade agreements and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Authorities may shoot down private drones

Amazon reacts to the $15 wage

Foolishness of the Week

Jazz hands

Topic of the Week: Trade

Trade data

Infographic of trade data

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In this episode, we’re answering listener questions. What’s going on with this scary, dystopian Chinese social credit system? What government agency would you get rid of? What happens when religious leaders (allowed to freely exercise their faith as enshrined in the First Amendment) don’t allow their followers the right of free speech (also enshrined in the First Amendment)? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they answer these listener questions and more on this week’s second Listener Special episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Foolishness of the Week

Texas legislator wants to require political speech

Pennsylvania legislator wants to ban political speech

Topic of the week: Listener questions

Modern monetary theory

More on modern monetary theory

Water rights

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In this episode, we’re answering listener questions. What’s going on with this scary, dystopian Chinese social credit system? What government agency would you get rid of? What happens when religious leaders (allowed to freely exercise their faith as enshrined in the First Amendment) don’t allow their followers the right of free speech (also enshrined in the First Amendment)? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they answer these listener questions and more on this week’s second Listener Special episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Foolishness of the Week

Texas legislator wants to require political speech

Pennsylvania legislator wants to ban political speech

Topic of the week: Listener questions

Modern monetary theory

More on modern monetary theory

Water rights

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Worries about mob rule have been around longer than our Constitution. Indeed, James Madison wrote about the problems of “factions” in what we’ve come to call the Federalist Papers. We like to think that our three branches of government with their checks and balances are impervious to the evils of faction. But today we may be living Madison’s nightmare. Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they discuss this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes

Controlling aging

Jeff Bezos donates $2 billion

What it feels like to be Jeff Bezos

Foolishness of the Week

Outlawing sitting and lying down

Topic of the Week: Political factions and mob rule

Madison’s warning about mob rule

Federalist 10

Federal debt as a fraction of GDP (1790 to 2050)

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Imposing “price gouging” bans after a natural disaster doesn’t actually help anybody. On paper, it looks ideal. Shoppers who don’t have funds and didn’t prepare for the storm can still afford to buy everything, even if it’s completely last-minute and a bit of a race to the finish line. But the reality is that price-gouging laws don’t make things better, nor do they make things fairer. In the face of a category 1 hurricane like Florence, they just create more scarcity and destroy incentives to keep the supply chain moving. In the end, it doesn’t matter how low the price of your wares are if you can’t actually buy it. Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they delve into this topic and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Dominos’ CEO earned $8.6 million in 2016

Dominos will fix the roads

Foolishness of the week

Get a Dominos tattoo and get free pizza

Topic of the week: Price gouging

Cafeteria economists

Uber and surge pricing

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Conservative and liberal: probably the two most commonly used words to describe a person’s political affiliations. And, of course, we all know that Republicans are all conservatives and Democrats are all liberals, and this is the way it’s always been. Right? Well, no, not really. The way that we’ve come to understand these terms currently has drifted pretty far afield of the way these words have been used previously. Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they get super-semantic about political labels and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

California bill requiring women on boards of directors

California law easing restrictions on legally changing one’s gender

Elon Musk smokes pot on the air

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The word “capitalism” has become incredibly loaded over the years. And since the term was actually popularized by Karl Marx to be the foil for his own ideology, that’s fairly understandable. It brings to mind all of the very worst aspects embodied by the elite, greedy, rent-seeking Gordon Geckos of the world, hoarding their capital resources like dragons on a pile of gold and profiting from the hard work of laborers while doing nothing productive themselves. This characterization, while incredibly common, is simply incorrect. Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they discuss the actual meaning of capitalism and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

MIT study of commute times

Marchetti’s constant

Commute times in the 50 states

California requires companies to place women on boards

Foolishness of the Week:

Laura Ingraham wants Facebook to be a public utility

Topic of the Week: Capitalism:

Capitalism

Prices as signals

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We’re experiencing the rise of a new kind of socialist. The original definition of socialism—state ownership of the means of production—is beginning to fall by the wayside. What self-proclaimed socialists are asking for now is for the state to control the means of production. While this might seem like a pedantic distinction, it’s an important one. But the rebranding of socialism by democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez still fails to take into account the most important aspect of sound economics: human behavior. Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they drill down into the pitfalls of socialism and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Half the world will be middle-class by 2020

World poverty rates

Madsen Pirie

High schooler faces prison for shooting zombies

Foolishness of the week

NASCAR driver loses sponsorship for father’s remarks

Topic of the week: Socialism

Socialism

Theory of pervasive shortages under socialism

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Everybody vaguely familiar with basic economic concepts knows that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. It’s a great phrase and speaks to the principles of both opportunity cost and scarcity. That said, a “free lunch” refers to more than your afternoon repast. Everything costs something. And if you end up paying zero dollars for it, that only means it was paid for by someone else. This holds true for college tuition. It may cost a student zero dollars, and that student will certainly benefit from not having to pay for higher education herself, but what’s really been done is shifting the cost from the student—who is actually using the service—to the taxpayers—who certainly aren’t. So while there’s certainly a big problem with student debt in America, the solution isn’t “free” tuition. Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they get deep in the weeds about college tuition and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

11 year old hacker changes election results

California law would prohibit restaurants from listing soft drinks on menus

Foolishness of the Week

Cops taser 87 year-old woman

Topic of the Week: Public policy and financing higher education

Tuition discounting

Financing college through equity instead of debt

Student loan data

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James and Ant have a lot of experience with both high school and college students. Most of the time, they’re extremely impressed with the high school students that they encounter. But something seems to be happening in the summer between high school graduation and beginning their first semester of college. Something… not ideal. And to a point, it’s perfectly natural. Young people are interested in exploring their newfound freedom, and that includes the amount of attention that they pay to their studies. Because of this, a great many otherwise intelligent students find themselves struggling with college. So, if you do decide to attend a college or university, how can you keep this from happening? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as the explore this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Number of bachelor’s degrees conferred by field of study

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As the back-to-school season gets into full swing, hundreds of thousands of young people are heading back to class at their chosen college or university. On average, the simple dollar cost of tuition and fees for a four-year degree is about a quarter of a million dollars. A large majority of students will have to take on some kind student loan debt to cover these costs. But we've been told our whole lives that in order to have a good job and successful career, a college degree is both necessary and an automatic golden ticket, so it has to be worth it. Right? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they drill down into the value of a college degree and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Tuition and fees at 4-year institutions over time

30 million jobs in the US pay $55,000 per year and don’t require a college degree

High paying jobs sit empty while students go to college

Median income by education, 2017 (table 5)

Median income by education, 1997 (table 4)

Unemployment rate by education, 2017

Unemployment rate by education, 1997

Fraction of 15-24 year olds enrolled in college over time

Average pay by college major

FEE high school seminars

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People tend to have a strange blind spot when it comes to government. We—or a lot of us, at least—tend to assume the best of intentions from our government. Our fellow civilians garner suspicion, but our elected officials are somehow magically benevolent and altruistic. When governments misbehave and act violently, we tend to think about these actions in terms of warfare. And yes, in the 20th century alone, wars have killed around 106 million people. That's a lot and not to be discounted. But in the same timeframe, governments have killed at least that many—and probably more like twice that number—within the confines of their own borders. We forget that a government is a monopoly on the use of force, and every time we ask our government to do something, even something as innocuous as putting up parking meters, what we're really asking them to do is to bring their force—their violence—to bear on our behalf. It's a sobering thought. Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they dive deep into this subject and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Venezuela’s 1,000,000% inflation

Seattle’s street cars too big for their tracks

Foolishness of the week

Bank of America loses customers’ safe deposit boxes

Topic of the week: How many people do governments kill?

Soviet Union kills 20 million of its own citizens

China kills 65 million of its own citizens

Cambodia kills 1.5 to 3 million of its own citizens

20th century democide

Less than 500,000 people murdered worldwide annually by non-governments

US incarceration rates 1960-2012

Incarceration rates across countries

7 million Americans either in prison, on probation or parole

How We Thrive documentary

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Gallup recently asked 1,000 people about what the most important issue we’re dealing with is in the United States. You might think that the majority answered drugs and gun control, but you’d be wrong. Instead, the survey found that drugs only received 1% of votes as being the biggest issue, and a whopping 2% for gun rights, with those numbers only going as high as 4% since January. The only time those numbers changed was in March, when the media massively promoted the gun rights debate, culminating into the already-forgotten March for Our Lives movement. As much as we criticize the media, these numbers show how much they manufacture sensationalism. Join us this week as we discuss open-ended polls and the influence of media on people’s issues with James Harrigan and Antony Davies.

Show Notes:

Diamonds worth $31 septillion

Jeff Bezos worth $150 billion

Doctors give patients seconds

Foolishness of the week

Congressman calls for ban on cryptocurrency

Topic of the week: What’s the largest problem facing the country?

Gallup poll

School shootings not as common as the media portrays

Gun violence waning

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There are many people in this world who like to make the argument, "Correlation is not causation." And this oft-used expression is true. Correlation is not, in fact, causation. Just because two things tend to happen at about the same time does not necessarily mean that they have anything to do with each other at all. That said, lack of correlation does mean lack of causation. So what does that mean for economic freedom and "good" social outcomes? Join James and Antony as they unpack what economic freedom indices indicate and more on this episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Employment rate almost full recovered from 2008 crash

TSA gets immunity

Foolishness of the week

Starbucks’ straws

Topic of the week: Economic Freedom

Equality, Liberty, and Prosperity

Fraser: Economic Freedom of the World

Fraser: Economic Freedom of North America

Heritage/WSJ: Index of Economic Freedom

Cato: Freedom in the 50 States

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Why are we debating the Supreme Court nominees as much as we are? Unbelievably, written requirements of the Supreme Court are non-existent. Where the Constitution lists age and experience requirements for both presidential and congressional candidates, only a tiny paragraph describes what the third branch of government should look like. All of those standards and regulations you think are law? None have been put in writing anywhere. In fact, judicial review, one of the most important parts of a Supreme Court Justice’s job, only started in 1803, established following the ruling of Marbury v. Madison. Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan this week as they discuss the surprising standards set for Supreme Court Justice candidates.

Show Notes:

North Korea executes a General for giving food to soldiers’ families

The United States fines people for giving food to the poor

Black men are succeeding in America

Foolishness of the week

Americans ask the FAA to regulate seat size

Topic of the week: The Supreme Court

Sotomayor on the idea of a living constitution

Scalia on the idea of a living constitution
Congressional job approval

Agreement rates among Supreme Court Justices

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What do you know about the political party you disagree with the most? Who do you think makes the group up? Is it a bunch of “libtard snowflakes” who are all union-backed? Or is it a bunch of offensive alt-right wackos with too much money to know what to do with it? Either way, those perceptions are both completely off-base—caricatural, even—and dangerous. A study, titled, “The Parties in our Heads: Misperceptions About Party Composition and Their Consequences” discusses exactly how Democrats and Republicans perceive both themselves and each other, and shows exactly how inaccurate those perceptions are. From exaggerated numbers of union-affiliated democrats to impossible statistics of Republicans who make more than $250,000 per year, join us as we discuss the dangers of political misrepresentation and more in this week’s episode of Words and Numbers with James Harrigan and Antony Davies.

Show Notes:

Harley Davidson moving overseas

Largest U.S. nail manufacturer on brink of extinction

FDA approves marijuana-based drug

Foolishness of the week

US is the 10th most dangerous country for women

John Cleese and the BBC

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Topic of the week

Each party is wrong about the other

The Parties in Our Heads: Misperceptions about Party Composition and Their Consequences

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The criminal justice system presents a lot of issues, the least of which is discrimination. . . despite what the public may think. Over decades, prosecutors have slowly taken power and responsibility away from the jury and into their own hands, destroying the premise of “presumed innocent until proven guilty.” Statutory immunity, legal discretion and the opaqueness of the criminal justice system are all much bigger problems than discrimination, which is, in fact, a much less negative term than we generally think. But why are these things such big issues? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan this week with special guest, criminal justice attorney Catherine Barnard as they explore some of the biggest issues with today’s justice system.

Show Notes:

Cure for diabetes

Republican proposal to balance the budget by cutting entitlements

Proposed 2019 Federal budget

Foolishness of the week

Sarah Huckabee Sanders kicked out of restaurant

Topic of the week: Equality under the law

Catherine Bernard

James and Ant on Twitter

@JamesRHarrigan

@AntonyDavies

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Which would you rather be, a member of the working class in America today or an 18th-century French monarch? The answer to that is almost certainly the former. A lot has changed in the last 200 years. Heck, a lot has changed in the last 20 years, for that matter, and with a few notable exceptions, those changes have been for the better. In the year 1800, 95 percent of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today, it's less than 10 percent, despite there being more than 6 billion more people living today. We carry in our pockets a supercomputer that allows us access to the sum total of human knowledge that we use to look at cat GIFs. Life is pretty amazing. So why do so few people believe that's the case? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Iraq is getting safer

Empty seats at the world cup

Foolishness of the week

Netflix’ 5-second rule

Topic of the week: The world is getting better every day

Louis CK, everything is amazing and nobody is happy

Cafe Hayek: Most Americans are richer than Rockefeller

Pew survey on perceptions of gun violence

Media and cognitive biases

Living conditions in the United States

U.S. Firearm deaths 2012-2016

U.S. Firearm deaths 1975-1994 (chart 5.1)

U.S. non-fatal firearm violence 1993-2011

Military and civilian deaths due to armed conflicts since 1945

Child labor rates 1950-present

Global income inequality 1800-present

Gender inequality 1995-2015

World poverty 1820-2015

Animation showing longevity and income by country 1800-present

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It's a well-established fact that Social Security and Medicare are in serious trouble and have been for a while. The newest projections released last week have Social Security being insolvent in the year 2034 and Medicare in 2026. A fair amount of this trouble can be laid at the feet of the federal government and its seemingly insatiable habit of spending money it doesn't have. It's gotten to the point that there isn't really anywhere else in the world that has the amount of money the US government needs to borrow. It seemed so easy to just take that money from the Social Security and Medicare trusts at the time, but with federal spending now higher than it's ever been (regardless of whether you adjust for inflation or simply count it as a percentage of GDP), it seems very unlikely that that money will—or even can—ever be paid back. So, what's a government to do? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they talk about this and more on this week's special live-from-FEEcon episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes

Anthony Bourdain

Charles Krauthammer

Country Time comes to the rescue of children’s lemonade stands

Lemonade stand shut down 1

Lemonade stand shut down 2

Lemonade stand shut down 3

Foolishness of the week

Bernie Sanders believes socialist ideas are winning

Topic of the week: Federal bankruptcy

Historical CBO projections

Debt myths debunked

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The jobs report for the month of May has recently been released, and Republicans—particularly President Trump—have been very busy congratulating themselves about the rosy unemployment rate. In fairness, unemployment is currently the lowest it's been since the turn of the millennium, which is nothing to turn one's nose up at. But there's more to a healthy economy than a low unemployment rate. So, what does the May jobs report actually say? And what do those numbers really imply? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they unpack the May jobs report and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Dog buys food with leaves

Bare-knuckle boxing

Foolishness of the week

Bernie Sanders says Disney needs a moral defense

Topic of the week

Unemployment numbers

On twitter

@AntonyDavies

@JamesRHarrigan

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If there's something that progressives agree on, it's that inequality exists and that it's a problem. But what do we mean when we say "inequality"? Is it that some people have more "stuff" (money, goods, access to services) than others? Is it that some people are more skilled, more talented, better looking, or just plain luckier than others? In a relatively free society with fairly consistent equality of opportunity, the result is inevitably going to be inequality of outcome. And this is not necessarily a bad thing. Why is a certain amount of inequality a good thing? Should we care about numerical inequality indicators such as the Gini index? Should we take legislative action to "level the playing field"? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

  • Seattle’s tax on jobs
  • France bans throwing away unsold clothing
  • France bans throwing away unsold food
  • Hillary Clinton wants to be Facebook’s CEO
  • Federalist 10
  • Equality in the consumption of goods and services (1)
  • Equality in the consumption of goods and services (2)
  • Inequality rising over time
  • Taxes and transfers reduce income inequality by 25%
  • All the quintiles are getting richer
  • Much of the inequality we observe is due to differences in ages (Table H-10)
  • Income mobility across generations

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This week on Words and Numbers, it's all about you, the listener. Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they answer questions from listeners posed in the Words and Numbers: Backstage Facebook group. Don't miss out on the next opportunity to have your questions answered on air! Join the Words and Numbers: Backstage Facebook group, where the conversation continues.

Show Notes:

  • Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Datasets
  • Do we have the right to silence speech?
  • Is there a case for progressive taxes?
  • What is causing the youth unemployment?
  • Why does government only grow?
  • How can markets encourage us to use scarce resources judiciously
  • Will prostitution ever be legal?

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Adam Smith is widely regarded as the "father of economics," but what isn't as widely known is that he never considered himself an economist. He thought of himself as a philosopher. And, indeed, in the tradition of the Scottish Enlightenment, he was one. In the Scottish Enlightenment, study was largely divided into two categories: natural science and moral science. Natural science largely explains itself, but moral science was an attempt to ground ethics and morality in as much scientific reality and fact-based reasoning as possible, and it's from that branch of study that the subject of economics bloomed. If you want to make moral statements, if your heart is in the right place, then you need to have your facts straight. And while, over time, we've seen a more and more tightly defined division of labor and specialization, particularly in academia, perhaps it's time to get back to a more holistic form of study when it comes to economics and ethics. Join Antony Davies, James Harrigan, and special guest David Schmidtz as they discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

  • Manipulating matter at the atomic level
  • People are fleeing California’s taxes
  • Jim Bakker
  • David Schmidtz

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We are individuals, but we're also members of society. Economics generally deals with individual action whereas politics deals with the behavior of society as a whole. Economics, as a discipline, seeks to understand, explain, and sometimes predict human behavior. Politics, on the other hand, seeks to control the behavior of society at large. When we talk about freedom, what kind of freedom are we talking about? Is it the ability to decide which goods and services we purchase and from whom without restriction? Is it being able to choose who represents our interests in government and which laws they create? And which is more important? Or is either of them? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they take a deep dive into what, exactly, economics and politics actually are and what freedom in those spheres might actually mean on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Brain implant improves memory

Oliver North named president of the NRA

Foolishness of the Week

The Pope doesn’t understand economics
The Pope and Libertarianism

Topic of the week: What is economics?

Economics informs the decision to marry

How people choose when they know that they don’t know what to pick

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Recently, Senator Chuck Schumer introduced a bill that would decriminalize marijuana on the federal level. He stated that the legality of marijuana should be a matter left up to individual states. This ringing endorsement of federalism might carry a little more weight if Senator Schumer hadn't spent a large part of his political career trying to micromanage Americans' behavior at the national level. Hillary Clinton is widely considered to be a staunch supporter of the LGBT community; however, she was publicly opposed to marriage equality until 2013. These are just two of the innumerable examples of politicians changing their stances on policy issues in the face of evolving public opinion. This is not a new phenomenon or exclusive to a single political party. Not only is it common for politicians to modify their positions of political principles to match changing public opinion, you'd be hard-pressed to find one who doesn't. We are dealing with political followership, not political leadership. So, what does that get us? Antony Davies and James Harrigan talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.


Show Notes

  • Tariff dodgers-01
  • Tariff dodgers-02
  • PSU’s outing club may not go outside
  • Foolishness of the week: Nutrition labeling for pizza
  • Topic of the week: Political leaders and followers

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In today's strange climate of political correctness, free speech exists in a weird place. Safe spaces, First Amendment zones, the attitude of victimization, and accusations that "your fav is problematic" abound. And yet, important things, challenging things, dangerous things still need to be said and are being said. One critical "loophole" for dodging the would-be censors to get these ideas out into the world is comedy. Comedians live in a peculiar kind of in-between that allows for a certain audacity in messaging that doesn't quite exist for, say, politicians or activists. Special guest Lou Perez from We The Internet joins James and Antony to talk about messaging, humor, and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

More registered voters than citizens

https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/08/election-fraud-registered-voters-outnumber-eligible-voters-462-counties/

UK bans straws

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-chogm-plastic/britain-to-ban-sale-of-plastic-straws-in-bid-to-fight-waste-idUSKBN1HP338

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/16/scientists-accidentally-create-mutant-enzyme-that-eats-plastic-bottles

Toastabag

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2KxiFL8XsA

Foolishness of the week
New Yorker complains about Chik-fil-A

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/chick-fil-as-creepy-infiltration-of-new-york-city

Topic of the week: Free Speech with Lou Perez

http://www.louperez.net/

https://twitter.com/LOUontheSUBWAY

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Every year, the American people spend about $30 billion on accountants and software to file their taxes. That's on top of taxes themselves. Approximately 26 percent of the average American's income is collected, in some form or another, in taxes. This includes all forms of taxation, such as state and local taxes, as well as federal. If we look at just federal taxation, that still comes to a very respectable 16 to 18 percent (on average) of GDP. But how does that all break down when it comes to federal taxation? Are the poor really getting bent over the taxation barrel every April? Are the rich not really paying their "fair share"? And how did we even get to this point? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they discuss this and more on this week's Tax Day edition of Words and Numbers.

The top 1% earn 20% of all income but pay almost 40% of all federal taxes.

https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/114th-congress-2015-2016/reports/51361-householdincomefedtaxesonecol.pdf

Country comparison of tax revenue from all levels of government per GDP

US = 26%; Denmark = 45%; Ireland = 22%.

This ignores borrowing. If government taxed enough to balance budget, US would be at 31%, putting it on par with Canada.

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-do-us-taxes-compare-internationally

Overview of federal taxes

https://files.taxfoundation.org/20170201091804/TaxFoundation-FF540.pdf

60% of US households receive more money back from the federal government than they pay

https://taxfoundation.org/60-percent-households-now-receive-more-transfer-income-they-pay-taxes/

How taxes and transfers trap the poor

https://mises.org/library/dead-zone-implicit-marginal-tax-rate

The income tax was originally a tax on the rich.

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-10-05/income-tax-history-is-a-warning-about-our-future-under-clintons-estate-tax

Number of pages in the Standard Federal Tax Reporter

https://taxfoundation.org/how-many-words-are-tax-code/

Fun tax facts

https://www.factretriever.com/taxes-facts

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Much has been said about the high cost of higher education in America. And it is, indeed, quite expensive and getting more so at an alarming rate. For all that, though, at least we can say that America gets what it pays for in that we have the best higher education system in the world. In fact, it's one of our biggest exports, totaling more than $35 billion—fully 5 percent of America's export market—as of 2015. The same cannot be said for our primary and secondary education systems, with the US consistently ranking at around the middle of the pack among developed nations in standardized test scores. The thing of it is, the average annual cost per student in an American public high school is about the same as the average annual cost per student in an American public university. With the price of educating young people being generally the same for public high schools and public universities, why is there such a huge discrepancy in the outcomes for the students? Is there any way to remedy this situation? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Administrative bloat in health care and higher education

http://hereandnow.legacy.wbur.org/2011/11/02/university-cost-bloated

https://www.athenahealth.com/insight/expert-forum-rise-and-rise-healthcare-administrator

Homeland Security monitoring journalists

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/04/07/homeland-security-database-would-track-journalists-media-influencers-report.html

Foolishness of the week

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/381946-michelle-obama-my-husband-was-the-good-parent-compared-to-trump

Topic of the week: Public schools

Cost per public school student is around $13,000.

https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66

http://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-education-spending-per-pupil-data.html

Standardized test scores about the same for most and least expensive public schools

https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile?chort=2⊂=MAT&sj=AL&sfj=NP&st=AB&year=2013R3

Net tuition and fees at private 4-year colleges is $15,000.

https://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-net-price-over-time-full-time-students-private-nonprofit-four-year-institutions

Performance evidence for school vouchers

https://www.cato.org/blog/evidence-school-choice-works

Comparison of US school students to students in other countries

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/

Higher education is a major US export

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/01/31/sealing-the-border-could-block-one-of-americas-crucial-exports-education/

Value of a high school diploma

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2012/08/28/public-high-schools-are-not-doing-their-jobs

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There's no way to sugar-coat it. Social Security is going to fail. There are, of course, ways to possibly extend its life for a few years, or even decades, but ultimately, like all Ponzi schemes, it will collapse. By the federal government's and the Social Security Board of Trustees' own admissions, the Social Security program will be paying out more than it takes in in just 4 years. At current rates (and assuming the federal government fully pays back the more than $5 trillion it "borrowed" from Social Security's accounts), the program will be completely out of money in about 17 years. What does this situation mean for current working Americans? Is there any way to solve this problem? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Splitting up Amazon

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/29/former-walmart-us-ceo-congress-consider-splitting-up-amazon.html

National pencil day

https://nationaldaycalendar.com/days-2/national-pencil-day-march-30/

Foolishness of the week: Cancer warnings on coffee

https://fee.org/articles/why-californias-lawsuit-industry-wants-you-to-think-coffee-causes-cancer/?utm_source=FEE+Email+Subscriber+List&utm_campaign=ca27aafa08-MC_FEE_DAILY_2018_04_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84cc8d089b-ca27aafa08-107137661

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/general-info/cancer-warning-labels-based-on-californias-proposition-65.html

https://www.refinery29.com/2018/04/195249/coffee-cancer-warning-label-california-starbucks-dunkin-donuts-reaction?bucketed=true

https://nypost.com/2018/03/30/de-blasio-eyes-vacancy-tax-for-greedy-landlords-seeking-top-dollar/?utm_source=facebook_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons

Topic of the week: Social Security

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/social-security-administration-spending-tops-1-trillion-first-time

https://www.ssa.gov/policy/trust-funds-summary.html

https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v75n1/v75n1p1.html

https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v70n3/v70n3p111.html

https://www.ssa.gov/history/nestor.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/us/how-privatized-social-security-works-in-galveston.html

https://www.state-journal.com/2018/01/25/you-asked-can-kentucky-teachers-retirement-system-participants-receive-social-security/

https://www.teacherpensions.org/blog/why-aren%E2%80%99t-all-teachers-covered-social-security

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/matt-bevin-kentucky-lawmakers-pass-pension-overhaul-despite-teacher-ire/

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Pundits are declaring that America is a nation divided. In fairness, this is a true statement, but it's not a new phenomenon. America has been a nation divided since at least the election of 1800. That said, the division is not a dichotomous one. Recent data show that a large and growing number of Americans self-identify as neither Republican nor Democrat, but as Independent. It would appear that a large number of Americans are growing increasingly tired of the ever-more extreme stances of the two major parties, instead favoring more moderate approaches to governance. An excellent microcosmic example of this is the recent special election in Pennsylvania Congressional District 18, a district that in the 2016 presidential election voted in favor of Donald Trump by 20 percentage points. Despite its deeply red tendencies and both the President and Vice President campaigning in support of the Republican congressional candidate, PA18 narrowly elected a Democrat to represent it. A Democrat, it should be noted, who publicly distanced himself from major Democratic leaders and campaigned on issues more typically associated with right-wing politicians. What does this mean for American politics going forward? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

The singular “they”

http://theweek.com/articles/758082/why-need-accept-singular?utm_source=links&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=facebook

https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/06/06/he-or-she-versus-they/

South Korea encourages people not to work so much

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/south-korea-start-turning-computers-12237489

Foolishness of the Week: YouTube bans all gun related content

https://thenextweb.com/google/2018/03/21/youtube-banning-gun-videos-now-theyre-reappearing-pornhub/

https://reason.com/blog/2018/03/23/youtube-says-it-will-be-shutting-down-gu

Topic of the week: Moderation

http://www.insidesources.com/move-toward-moderation/

http://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx

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The American federal government has a serious spending problem. The federal debt, the sum total of all the money the government has borrowed, has hit $21 trillion, with a cool $1 trillion of that coming from Trump's first year in office. That is, undeniably, a lot of money, and media outlets all over the country are crowing about it being the first time a single-year deficit has been so high, but it simply isn't so. Even by fairly kind calculations, it's happened at least three times before—once under George W. Bush and at least twice under Barack Obama. Regardless, the federal debt is soaring, and eventually, that debt is going to come due. And when it does, what does that mean for Americans individually and on the whole? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

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Rumors have been circulating recently that the Trump Administration is considering including drug dealing among those crimes that can be subject to capital punishment. That's just a nice way of saying "the death penalty." In an effort to signal to his supporters that he's "tough on crime" and serious about the opioid crisis, President Trump has indicated his positive view of the death penalty for drug offenses in countries like Singapore and the Philipines. But what is the current status of the death penalty in the United States today? How has the Supreme Court ruled on the death penalty in the past? And isn't this a legislative issue, anyway? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Altruistic business
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/new-jersey-businessman-drops-fees-for-shivering-neighbors/

Falling space junk
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5486985/Lower-Michigan-crash-site-falling-Chinese-space-station.html
https://www.npr.org/2011/09/21/140641362/where-falling-satellite-lands-is-anyones-guess

Foolishness of the week

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/scientology-appears-poised-launch-tv-network-1093640

Topic of the week: Capital punishment

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/countries-that-still-have-the-death-penalty/
https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/19/us/death-penalty-fast-facts/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/world/asia/philippines-drug-war.html
http://news.gallup.com/poll/1606/death-penalty.aspx
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/29/support-for-death-penalty-lowest-in-more-than-four-decades/
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-penalty-international-perspective

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Last week, President Trump announced his intention to place tariffs on steel and aluminum. Unfortunately for the president—and everyone else, should these tariffs be imposed—more than a century of economic data make it very clear that tariffs are a net negative for the economy. But what are tariffs, anyway? Why are they so awful? And, if they are, why does any country impose them? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick Hits

United replaces bonuses with lotteries

https://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/news/2018/03/02/united-airlines-replaces-bonuses-with-lottery.html

China bans things

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/01/asia/china-letter-ban-trnd/index.html

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5701287/china-xi-jinping-president-winnie-the-pooh-banned/

http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-reincarnation-law-20160307-story.html

Foolishness of the Week

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-ci-children-soda-bill-20180213-story.html

Topic of the Week: Trade and Tariffs

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/03/that-was-then-this-is-now-13.html

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/23/news/economy/trump-tariff-power/index.html

http://www.walkerd.people.cofc.edu/Readings/Trade/iowacarcrop.pdf

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=61826

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_trading_partners_of_the_United_States

https://japantoday.com/category/business/toyota-us-tariffs-will-'substantially'-increase-car-prices

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/03/that-was-then-this-is-now-13.html

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After the horrific school shooting in Parkland, FL, on February 14th, the "debate" about gun control has reignited in the US. Pundits on both sides of the issue are over-generalizing, taking assumptions to the extreme, and generally talking past each other. But one thing that remains constant is persistent cry for "common sense" gun regulations. What constitutes "common sense" varies from person to person, but they all involve the restriction or outright ban on certain types or styles of firearms. If the War on Drugs taught us anything, it's that prohibition doesn't work, but at the same time, any number of school shootings is too many. So if bans aren't a good option, what might be? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

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In the last two and a half generations, the number of students who go on to attend college, as a percentage of the population, has tripled. In 1959, about 20 percent of high school students went on to college. Since relatively few people were earning degrees, having one all but guaranteed getting a good, high-paying job. As a result, parents, high schools, and colleges began encouraging more and more high school students to go to college. Today, about 60 percent of high school students go on to college. But has the big push to get kids into college done anything to improve outcomes? Is the average $250,000 investment in a four-year degree at all worth it? If not, what alternatives exist? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

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Regulatory capture is a problem in this country. It happens pretty easily. Politicians can't be experts in everything, so they turn to actual experts for help with regulating various industries. The experts tend to be those who have already enjoy some measure of success in their field. The regulatory suggestions that these experts give politicians tend to make life easier for the already-established experts and harder for those competing with them. This kind of thing happens all too often and leads to gross regulatory overreach, such as Uber working to ban private ownership of self-driving cars. How do we prevent this or, at the very least, strike it down after the fact? Join James Harrigan, Antony Davies, and special guest Robert McNamara from the Institute for Justice as they discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

http://triblive.com/news/education/career/13275149-74/carlow-university-launches-micro-masters-program
https://micromasters.mit.edu/
https://www.edx.org/micromasters

Foolishness of the week

http://reason.com/blog/2018/02/08/jeff-sessions-advice-to-pain-patients-ta

Topic of the week: Occupational licensing and regulatory capture

http://ij.org/staff/robert-mcnamara/
https://cei.org/blog/uber-wants-make-it-illegal-operate-your-own-self-driving-car-cities
https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2720&context=articles

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The fact that the United States' yearly deficit spending is set to soon top $1 trillion — an amount that is itself larger than most governments' entire operating budget — might be an indicator that the federal government has gotten too large. No matter which party is in power, the federal government and its attendant spending never really ceases to grow. We're taught in school a rose-colored tale of selfless public servants righteously chosen by solemn, considering voters to go to Washington to diligently represent their constituency's best interests. But is it true? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Federal deficit to top $1 trillion

http://reason.com/archives/2018/01/04/trillion-dollar-deficit-deja-vu

The DNC is broke

http://theweek.com/speedreads/752743/dnc-reportedly-dead-broke-rnc-nearly-40-million

Foolishness of the Week

http://reason.com/blog/2018/02/02/inside-the-insane-battle-over-arizonas-d

Topic of the week: The Security State and the Therapeutic State

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/hist03z2.xls

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIAUCSL

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/POP

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Immigration is, as happens fairly routinely, an important topic in the national conversation these days. It's generally well-accepted that the United States is "a nation of immigrants," and yet there remains a stubborn skepticism about new immigrants. These concerns generally branch into two broad categories: economic concerns and social concerns. Economically, citizens seem to think that immigrants are "taking our jobs" or "a drain on the system." Socially, citizens are of the belief that immigrants are "undermining American culture." But are any of these concerns warranted? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick Hits:

Denver hires homeless people

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/denver-hired-homeless-people-perform-day-labor-city-100-landed-regular-jobs/

Koch donating $400 million to candidates

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/27/politics/koch-republican-election-candidates-donate/index.html

https://nrf.com/resources/consumer-research-and-data/holiday-spending/halloween-headquarters

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/04/fourth-of-july-spending-by-the-numbers.html

https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/topindivs.php

Foolishness of the week

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/24/580228837/a-dozen-camels-disqualified-from-saudi-beauty-pageant-over-botox-injections

Topic of the week

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/Annual-Number-of-US-Legal-Permanent-Residents

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/27/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/

http://www.pewhispanic.org/2016/11/03/size-of-u-s-unauthorized-immigrant-workforce-stable-after-the-great-recession/

http://www.businessinsider.com/major-us-companies-founded-by-immigrants-2017-2

http://startupsusa.org/fortune500/#appendix

http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/19/news/economy/undocumented-immigrant-taxes/index.html

https://itep.org/wp-content/uploads/immigration2016.pdf

https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/advocacy/United_States.pdf

https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/advocacy/United_States.pdf

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/09/undocumented-immigrants-and-taxes/499604/

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/despite-the-rancor-there-is-much-that-unites-americans-20171116.html

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Socialism is, whether we like it or not, in the national dialogue. And there are numerous people who claim to be socialists who, nevertheless, have a hard time defining what socialism actually is. Socialism, in it's purest form, indeed, has never been tried. But, by the same token, neither has undiluted capitalism. To understand which works better, we have to think about means and ends. Almost all of us want the same ends, but we disagree sharply as to the appropriate means. So how do we find the most efficient, most humane means? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Sweden could launch its own cryptocurrency
http://www.businessinsider.com/sweden-cryptocurrency-e-krona-riksbank-2018-1

People believe that companies may five times more profit than they actually do
http://www.aei.org/publication/the-public-thinks-the-average-company-makes-a-36-profit-margin-which-is-about-5x-too-high-part-ii/?utm_content=bufferaa12b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
https://taxfoundation.org/state-gasoline-tax-rates-2017/
http://gasprices.aaa.com/
http://fortune.com/2017/06/07/fortune-500-companies-profit-apple-berkshire-hathaway/

Topic of the Week: Socialism

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/articles/2017-03-08/celebrate-american-womens-economic-freedom-on-international-womens-day

www.wsj.com/articles/antony-davies-and-james-r-harrigan-for-gender-equality-you-cant-beat-capitalism-1425684094

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-09-19/we-need-to-find-the-right-mix-of-government-and-markets

http://www.antolin-davies.com/research/elp.pdf

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent the country into a tizzy not long ago when he declared that the federal government would start cracking down on state-legal marijuana. This is problematic, but it's a symptom of a larger problem. Article I, Section 8, of the US Constitution lists the things that the federal government may concern itself with. Marijuana — indeed, any drug — is not on that list. In fact, a great many things that the federal government concerns itself with are not on that list. So how did we get to the point of having federal laws and regulations about marijuana and a number of other things? We had to have a Constitutional amendment to ban alcohol, so why doesn't the government need one to ban marijuana? James Harrigan and Antony Davies discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Sarah Silverman
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/sarah-silverman-befriends-troll-insulted-pays-medical-treatment/

CT considers raising its excise tax on cigarettes. Again.
http://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-lafaive-ct-cigarette-tax-smuggling-0109-20180108-story.html

What will mass-market driverless cars look like?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-12/gm-drops-the-steering-wheel-and-gives-the-robot-driver-control

Foolishness of the Week

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/business/economy/irs-debt-collection.html

Topic of the Week: Federalism and Constitutional Amendments

Federalism and marijuana
http://reason.com/archives/2018/01/10/federalists-cant-support-a-cannabis-crac

Article One, Section 8 of the US Constitution
https://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A1Sec8.html

Wickard v. Filburn
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/317us111

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn

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Despite its passage some time ago, recent attention has been brought to the impending implementation of a Washington, D.C., regulation that will require all professional childcare workers to have a college degree. This has raised a great hue and cry as it will ban a number of existing childcare workers from their chosen profession as well as having the effect of dramatically increasing the cost of childcare in the District — which is, incidentally, already incredibly high when compared to the rest of the country. Unintended consequences happen all the time in everyday life, but when legislators and regulators act, the consequences are on a much larger scale. Unintended consequences abound in pretty much every aspect of regulated life to various degrees. Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick Hits

Man cited for sheltering the homeless (David Wilson)

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/elgin-greg-schiller-slumber-parties-homeless-cold-467714563.html

Philip Morris getting out of the cigarette business?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/01/03/philip-morris-marlboro-wants-give-up-cigarettes-go-smoke-free/1001442001/

Foolishness of the Week

President Trump, apparently not interested in Steve Bannon’s criticism, seeks to block the release “Sloppy Steve’s” book.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-book-20180104-story.html

https://www.mediaite.com/online/trump-rage-tweets-about-wolff-and-sloppy-steve-bannon-phony-book-is-full-of-lies/

Topic of the Week: Unintended Consequences

Gun buyback

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ae0c/469a9f5d95dd2fc8112bcdadb614183aa520.pdf

Seat belt laws

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/260352

Payday lending

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203806504577183240533438580

Fishing quotas

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12098697

CEO pay

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116062249630690247

Three strikes law

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0887403405277001

Bounty on cobras

http://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-cobra-effect-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

Mexico city air pollution

http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/ldavis/Davis%20JPE%202008.pdf

California fuel economy mandates

https://web.stanford.edu/~goulder/Papers/Published%20Papers/Unintended%20Consequences%20(Pavley%20Paper)%20-%20JEEM%20March%202012.pdf

Americans with Disabilities Act

https://economics.mit.edu/files/273

Electrician licensing requirements

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01044518

Red-light cameras

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/03/AR2005100301844.html

Cash for clunkers

http://www.nber.org/papers/w16351

Venezuela

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuelas-paradox-people-are-hungry-but-farmers-cant-feed-them/2017/05/21/ce460726-3987-11e7-a59b-26e0451a96fd_story.html?utm_term=.32c5dd1398b0

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What do you do on any given day that is not somehow regulated by government in some way? There really isn't much. In point of fact, there are well over one hundred thousand pages of federal regulations alone, to say nothing of state and local regulations. We have government-mandated guidelines for everything from space exploration to how your dog can behave in a city park. While many people concede that there is an acceptable minimum level of government regulation, and others maintain that there is no such thing as an unregulated market, even in the absence of government guidance, it's clear that as things currently stand, we are a highly overregulated nation. So if there is, indeed, a legitimate purpose for regulation, what is it? What are we trying to accomplish with these regulations? Who benefits? And how far is too far? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick Hits

Police killed in the line of duty

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/12/28/number-officers-killed-2017-hits-nearly-50-year-low/984477001/

26 year-old gives birth to 24 year-old

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/record-baby-26-year-old-gives-birth-daughter-frozen-24-years-ago/

Alcohol

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/12/28/how-many-alcoholic-drinks-too-many-per-week/822604001/

Venezuelan cryptocurrency

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/29/venezuela-oil-backed-cryptocurrency-to-launch-in-days.html

Foolishness of the Week
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/pew-trump-media-three-times-more-negative-than-for-obama-just-5-percent-positive/article/2644448

This Week’s Topic

Magnitude of regulation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkNPjC0gVSo

What regulations did Trump eliminate?

https://cei.org/blog/so-what-regulations-did-trump-eliminate

Regulation of social media
http://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/354006-regulate-social-media-just-like-other-media

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/21/its-time-to-crack-down-on-facebook-and-twitter-commentary.html

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/twitter-egyptian-journalist-ban.php

Regulating florists because dirt might be infected

https://goldwaterinstitute.org/article/protection-racket-occupational-licensing-laws-and/

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It seems, these days, that you can't turn on the TV or log on to social media without someone griping about how awful things are. They complain about everything, from taxes to avocados to bills to cell signal strength. But the truth of things is a lot rosier than popular media would lead you to believe. Global illiteracy rates are below 14 percent. Global rates of extreme poverty are below 10 percent. Despite there being more people currently alive on the planet than ever before, there are also more calories per capita than ever before. This is not to say that there aren't improvements to be made or that there aren't bad things happening, but perhaps bearing these facts in mind might improve our outlook on life. Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they talk about thankfulness and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Walmart employs 1% of Americans

http://www.businessinsider.com/largest-employers-each-us-state-2017-6

http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-employees-pay

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/13/business/walmart-workers-pay-advances.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/12/nearly-every-american-spent-money-at-wal-mart-last-year.html

High school reports 100% college placement rate

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/12/17/570255742/teachers-around-the-country-react-to-investigation-into-ballou-high-school

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/11/28/564054556/what-really-happened-at-the-school-where-every-senior-got-into-college

Data

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/09/how-americans-compare-with-the-global-middle-class/

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/cell-phones-demography-nielsen-data-breaks-mobile-phone/story?id=11468925

https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/products/gear/entertainment/2005-04-10-brick-cell-phone_x.htm

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A939RX0Q048SBEA

http://graphics.wsj.com/what-percent/

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There has been quite the groundswell in recent years in the efforts to legalize marijuana. In fact, a majority of US states have at least some sort of access to legal weed, despite its still being criminalized at the federal level. But the state of Colorado led the nation when it legalized marijuana for all purposes, even recreational ones, in January of 2014. The anti-marijuana advocates warned that such an action would lead to increased drug use — especially among teens — higher crimes rates, and a whole spate of other undesirable consequences. Nevertheless, the plant prevailed. It's still early days, but we do have almost four years of data about the effects of legalizing marijuana to look at. Were the anti-marijuana crusaders correct? Are teen drug use and violent crime rampant? Are visitors shunning Colorado? Was it all a huge mistake? Antony Davies and James Harrigan discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick Hits

Unemployment rate is at its lowest level?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2017/12/08/why-you-cant-rely-on-the-unemployment-rate-as-primary-economic-indicator/

Sweet Briar college no longer discounting tuition

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/beloved-womens-college-slashes-tuition-prices-30/

https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/college-costs/college-costs-faqs

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/05/16/discount-rates-rise-yet-again-private-colleges-and-universities

Venezuela’s diaspora is growing:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/12/14/flood-venezuelans-fleeing-their-depressed-country/941463001/

US better educated now than at any time in its history:
http://triblive.com/news/education/classroom/13077368-74/us-more-educated-than-ever-before-census-bureau-says

Foolishness of the week

Bulletproof glass is an indignity

http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/15/philly-votes-to-regulate-bulletproof-gla

Marijuana and Crime

Adolescent pot use is falling in Colorado

http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/12/contradicting-prohibitionists-survey-say/amp?__twitter_impression=true

The war on marijuana has failed

http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/11974018-74/marijuana-colorado-drug

Colorado’s pot full of benefits

http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/6487136-74/marijuana-state-war

Commercial pot in Colorado

http://gazette.com/editorial-the-sad-anniversary-of-big-commercial-pot-in-colorado/article/1614900

Milton Friedman on drug criminalization
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLsCC0LZxkY

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on marijuana policy
http://www.newsweek.com/will-jeff-sessions-war-marijuana-next-week-744089

Teen marijuana use is down since legalization
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/11/following-marijuana-legalization-teen-drug-use-is-down-in-colorado

Data

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cbi/colorado-crime-statistics-ucr

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cbi/crime-colorado1

http://worldpopulationreview.com/states/colorado-population/

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/tables/table-1

https://www.denverite.com/chronic-homelessness-ten-year-high-metro-denver-heres-citys-38546/

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/PW_ISVP_PDO_Heroin-in-Colorado-2017.pdf

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Christmas is right around the corner, and people everywhere are in the holiday spirit. In addition to giving gifts to loved ones, Americans are also giving to their preferred charities. Indeed, about a third of all charitable donations occur during the month of December. And Americans are, in general, incredibly generous. Recent estimates have the total dollar amount of charitable giving, both cash and labor, at about $600 billion. That's more than almost all other countries take in via taxation. Most of this money comes from those "selfish" rich people you read so much about, and all but about 5 percent of it comes from individuals. Businesses, for all their fanfare and PR campaigns, give very little in comparison. Of course, not all of this giving goes to what might be called poverty relief, but about 82 percent of it does, about $500 billion, as of 2016. And all of this giving is completely separate from what the government takes through taxation and redistributes through what is loosely defined as "welfare spending." So how does all of this private charity compare to what the government is doing? What does the future for government welfare look like? Is the market capable of taking on the role of the "first line" of help for those who need it? Antony Davies and James Harrigan discuss on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Episode Data and Articles:

Voluntary Giving

http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/11522510-74/christmas-war-holiday

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/charitable-giving-generosity-government-poverty-20171204.html

Welfare

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/01/12/no-we-dont-spend-1-trillion-on-welfare-each-year/?utm_term=.e907f7625b56

https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_2017USbn_17bs6n_2030#usgs302

Data

https://givingusa.org/giving-usa-2017-total-charitable-donations-rise-to-new-high-of-390-05-billion/

https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Giving-Tuesday-Haul-Is-an/238534

https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-giving-statistics/

https://www.independentsector.org/resource/the-value-of-volunteer-time/

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2056.html

https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=42

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Economist Paul Krugman is well-known for his pro-Democrat stances. Recently, he's claimed that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has said that if the Individual Mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, is repealed, 22 million Americans will "lose" their health insurance. What he doesn't say is that the vast majority of those 22 million people are simply opting out. They are _choosing_ not to have health insurance. But here's the problem with CBO forecasts: they're usually wrong. And they're wrong in almost the exact same way. Why are the CBO forecasts so bad? Why do they consistently get it wrong in such a consistent way? And what does this mean for our economy? James Harrigan and Antony Davies discuss this and more in this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Emirates’ new 777

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericrosen/2017/11/13/new-emirates-first-class-suites-on-777-300er-revealed-at-the-dubai-air-show/#13ce46a256b8

Curing disease by rewriting our DNA

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/first-scientists-try-edit-faulty-dna-inside-patients-body-cure-genetic-disease/

iHeart Radio:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/iheart-creditors-reject-another-offer-from-company-as-they-push-for-chapter-11-1512090362

Jeff Sessions on marijuana:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/11/sessions-hints-at-a-coming-crackdown-on-recreational-weed.html

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/29/politics/sessions-opioid-news-conference-marijuana/index.html

http://reason.com/blog/2017/10/26/sessions-continues-to-push-gateway-drug

Foolishness of the week

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/us/politics/republican-tax-bill-moves-closer-to-senate-passage.html

The CBO

https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2017/07/22/cbo-three-fourths-of-coverage-difference-between-obamacare-gop-bills-driven-by-individual-mandate/#327a3b9e3627

Follow us on Twitter
https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

https://twitter.com/AntonyDavies

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https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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Recently, in a small town Pennsylvania, an insurance agent for Nationwide Insurance noticed a certain plant growing in a garden on the property he was inspecting. This insurance agent identified the plant as marijuana and notified the police about this nefarious behavior. An elderly couple lived at that property, and while the husband was out at the time, the wife was dragged from her home, in her underwear, while police proceeded to ransack the home for four hours. They found nothing illegal. And that marijuana plant that started this whole debacle? Actually a hibiscus. This is only one of countless examples of this exact sort of "raid first, ask questions later" mentality that police forces in this country have adopted. But it's only natural that this sort of bad behavior has evolved because of the huge problem of overcriminalization. And when the difference between "criminal" and "lawbreaker" is more than just splitting semantic hairs, something needs to be done. Special guest Clark Neily of the Cato Institute joins James Harrigan and Antony Davies to talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

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It never seems to fail that whenever any kind of change to the tax code is proposed in Washington, billionaires and millionaires come clambering out of the woodwork to tell Congress not to cut their taxes. This current round of tax reform is no exception. Recently, more than 400 of the super-rich signed a letter asking exactly that, claiming that both the national debt and wealth inequality are at all-time highs. But are these claims true? Is taxation the only way to financially support the government? Even if the government raised taxes on the rich instead of cutting them, would it make one whit of difference to the national debt? James Harrigan and Antony Davies discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

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The World Fair Trade Organization has declared this week to be World Fair Trade Week. "Fair trade" is quite the buzzword in commerce these days and is generally associated agricultural products. Chief among those is coffee. The popularity of fair trade coffee is undeniable. But what even is "fair trade" and what does it entail? How "fair" is it? Or is it just a marketing gimmick? James Harrigan and Antony Davies get into the nitty-gritty of this and more in this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

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If the government of France was to suddenly and magically cease to exist, France itself would definitely still go on. If the government of the United States was to suddenly and magically cease to exist, would the United States itself still go on? The answer isn't entirely clear. In a recent interview, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas stated that he doesn't know what binds us, Americans, together anymore. The subject of American unity is a touchy one. With so much political divisiveness in our country, is it at all possible to come together over even one defining characteristic? Do we still have a cohesive national identity? James Harrigan and Antony Davies talk about this and more in this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

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This year, Deficit Day - that is, the day the federal government runs out of money for the year and starts spending money it doesn't have - fell on October 24. This is about average for the last 30 or so years. And yet, somehow, this year's deficit spending is on track to be the largest it's ever been. How does that work? And what's the difference between mandatory and discretionary spending? Is the rate of expansion of government spending sustainable? James Harrigan and Antony Davies discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

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It’s important to approach the subject of guns and gun control with a cool and rational mind. It’s easy to make snap judgments in the heat of the moment that feel good but might not have any bearing on reality. Now that we’ve gained a little distance from the horrific shooting in Las Vegas, what do the data say about gun deaths and gun violence in America? Is it really as bad as it seems? James Harrigan and Antony Davies break down the statistics for us in this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

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Healthcare is a hot topic right now after a couple of failed attempts to repeal Obamacare and an executive order that rolled back some of the restrictions on selling insurance. There’s no doubt that health care and health insurance are both expensive and getting more expensive all the time. But how did it get this way? And how can we fix it? Antony Davies and James Harrigan discuss the how and the why of the cost of healthcare in this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

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State representatives who support anti-gun legislation arrested for running guns. Pro-life representatives encouraging their mistresses to get abortions. Anti-gay senators outed for propositioning other men. The list of people in power getting caught up in their own hypocrisy is long, but they’re not the only ones. We the people are guilty of it as well. The evidence is overwhelming. The bad behavior we were so vocal about before suddenly becomes okay as soon as our preferred party is in power. Why is that?

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Recently released data from the Federal Reserve indicate an increase in income inequality and wealth inequality in the country. People often assume this means that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. In the US, it generally means that both the rich and poor are getting richer, but the rich are getting richer faster. Moreover, “the rich” is not a static group of people. People climb into and fall out of that category all the time. Indeed, as Machiavelli pointed out long ago, inheritor’s of wealth often end up squandering it. Antony Davies and James Harrigan discuss these issues and more in the latest episode of Words and Numbers.

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Amazon made online comparison shopping easy for all. Now it’s Amazon’s turn to comparison shop: for a city to host its new corporate headquarters. It’s looking for which major metropolis will offer the sweetest deal. Unfortunately, the welcome package will most likely be paid for by the city’s taxpayers. Amazon claims it’s worth it in the long run, given how much tax revenue the corporate titan would bring to town. But economists James Harrigan and Antony Davies give this argument a one-star rating.

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Once upon a time, an out-of-touch queen heard of her subjects’ lack of bread and supposedly responded, “Let them eat cake.”

Hunger has become so bad in Venezuela that its own out-of-touch ruler has proclaimed, in essence, “let them eat rabbits.”

This is how far Venezuela has fallen. And yet, only a few years ago, many (including the American left) were heralding the rise of “Bolivarian socialism” as the wave of the future and the hope for the people. How can a nation plummet so deeply into squalor so quickly in spite of abundant natural resources? Economists James Harrigan and Antony Davies explain.

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Does the debt ceiling even mean anything? It’s like a credit limit on your credit card, but one which the borrower (the US government) gets to set for itself. Moreover, it’s most likely that the government has been borrowing way above the ceiling but simply doesn’t make it official until after the debt ceiling is raised: as it always is. Economists Antony Davies and James Harrigan discuss what this means for the taxpayer and for the economy.

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Nurse Alex Wubbels refused to let police draw blood from an unconscious crash victim and ended up arrested. The ensuing national controversy has brought police conduct back into the spotlight, raising several questions. Is it necessary to be above the law to enforce it? Does the policy of granting “qualified immunity” to officers incentivize irresponsibility? Would police ranks have far fewer “bad apples” if officers were required to carry malpractice insurance? Antony and James address all this and more.

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These days, everybody is nervous about what you can say in public without getting slammed by retribution. But is that a free-speech problem, or does it only become one when the police start showing up? Do we live in a truly tolerant society if voicing an opinion, even if it doesn’t land you in jail, ends up ending your career? Antony and James explore these intricate issues on this weeks episode. 

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In 1938 the US government passed the Fair Labor Standards Act mandating a forty hour work week, establishing a minimum wage, and prohibiting child labor. Because of legislation like this, government is often credited for making the American work environment safer and more fair. Yet, as Antony Davies and James Harrigan demonstrate with historical data, market forces were already making things easier on the American worker long before the FLSA.

Learn More:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zq-2cKENOc&feature=youtu.be

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/sep/09/viral-image/does-8-hour-day-and-40-hour-come-henry-ford-or-lab/

Data:
https://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/CT1970p1-05.pdf

See page 170 for average weekly work hours.
See page 134 for child labor rates.

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In private schools, as in private enterprise in general, poor performance drives funding away by driving paying customers away. Yet in public schools, poor performance is used as an excuse for increased funding. With incentives like these, is it any wonder that public schools are failing our children so badly? Isn’t it time to inject some competition into the system?

Education for all is a worthy wish. So is food for all. But we don’t force poor people to eat state-produced food. Even food stamp recipients get to choose where to shop. Why shouldn’t beneficiaries of public education spending get to choose where to send their kids?

Our hosts James R. Harrigan and Antony Davies want to know.

Check out the facts on this issue for yourself here: https://fee.org/articles/the-illusion-of-school-choice

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In 1922, famed etiquette writer Emily Post advised her readers that 10% is the standard for tipping your waiter. Since then, “gratuity creep” has been so steady that tip jars are now ubiquitous and 25-30% is considered the rule in New York City. Uber once resisted this trend, but recently added a tipping feature to its app.

What is the economic rationale behind tipping? Does the usefulness of tipping diminish the more that a certain rate becomes an expectation? At a certain point, would it be better to do without the fuss involved and simply include that portion of a service-provider’s compensation in the wages paid by the employer?

Our valiant hosts, Antony Davies and James Harrigan explore these questions and more!

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A viewer recently asked us what Words & Numbers thought of Universal Basic Income.

Antony Davies likes the idea of it, provided it’s done well, but doesn’t think it could ever possibly be done well. But what about a theoretical UBI? If we could actually figure out how to implement that well, would that work? And why wouldn’t that work in the real world? This week on Words and Numbers, Antony and James R. Harrigan tackle the issue that’s getting a lot of attention in Silicon Valley.

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Income inequality has been in the news more and more, and it doesn’t look good. It’s aggravating to see people making more money than you, and we’re told all the time that income inequality is on the rise. But is it? And even if it is, is it actually a bad thing? This week on Words and Numbers, Antony Davies​ and James R. Harrigan​talk about how income inequality plays out in the real world.

Learn More:
https://fee.org/articles/is-income-inequality-real/

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This week on Words & Numbers, Antony Davies​ and James R. Harrigan​ tackle the disaster that is the Illinois state budget crisis.

Pro-tip: Don't let it happen to your state.

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This week on Words & Numbers, James R. Harrigan and Antony Davies tackle the issue of airline pricing. Why do they charge what they do? What do those prices mean? Is it too much and are passengers being ripped off? 

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Amazon’s offer to buy Whole Foods for $13.7 billion sounds pretty great to both parties, but it seems that isn’t good enough. The proposal has a lot of people worried about Amazon becoming an indestructible monopoly, and the government is all too happy to step in and settle the issue. But this concern ignores consumers’ own preferences as well as business and entrepreneurial history. This week in Words and Numbers, Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan discuss the probable future of the Amazon-Whole Foods merger, what it could mean for us, and what it could mean for another once-equally feared corporation: Wal-Mart.

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Ted Cruz recently asserted that the United States military needs to be sent to Mexico to attack the drug cartels head-on.

This is a bad idea. But so is the drug war itself, both constitutionally and logically.

Forty-six years and one trillion dollars after its start, President Richard Nixon's War on Drugs is still going, with 300,000 people currently in jail on drug charges. Meanwhile, 26 times as many people suffer from alcoholism as do heroin abuse, and eight times as many die from alcohol abuse as do heroin.

Many who support the war do so with the best of intentions, but has it really helped? Or has it done more harm than good, like the Prohibition of the 1920s? Is this war even legal in the first place?

James Harrigan and Antony Davies discuss these questions in this week's Words and Numbers.

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In 1798, 95 percent of the world lived in poverty. Today, less than 10 percent do, in spite of the world’s population growing by 700 percent in that same time.

The common thought among young people is that this 700 percent population growth is going to overpopulate the earth. But given the number of people in poverty, it looks like population growth is actually good for poverty – more people means more brains, which means more ideas, inventions, and innovations.

This week on Words and Numbers, Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan talk about how and why the world is improving despite widespread negativity towards the idea of a growing world population, and why that negativity persists regardless of the prosperity we see every day.

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Poverty is a big deal – it affects about 41 million people in the United States every year – yet the federal government spends a huge amount of money to end poverty. So much of the government’s welfare spending gets eaten up by bureaucracy, conflicting programs, and politicians presuming they know how people should spend their own money. Obviously, this isn’t working.

This week on Words and Numbers, Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan delve into how people can really become less poor and what that means for society and the government.

Learn More:

https://fee.org/articles/what-you-should-know-about-poverty-in-america/

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We tend to demonize people who make money – how dare they have more than us? But that negative reaction forgets the voluntary role we play in profit-making every day. This week in Words and Numbers, Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan discuss just how good it is to earn a profit, and the vital difference between that and forcing money from people.

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A lot of people assume that any degree increases your income over the course of your life, but it actually seriously depends on what major you choose and what career you go into. This week on Words & Numbers, Antony Davies​ and James R. Harrigan​ breakdown the numbers on what your college degree is actually worth.

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Technology doesn’t just change things, it utterly destroys things. And that’s just fine. It happens so often that people barely even notice when it does. Think about all the new services that have come to market just over the past few years: Uber, Airbnb, Redbox … the list goes on and on.

But that’s only half the story. In turn, the list of services replaced by these new ones is similarly long: taxis, hotels, Blockbuster, etc. And workers in these industries often lose their jobs in the line of creative destruction. We generally accept this as the price of innovation, but many people try to use the government to stop this by blocking the new services.

Today we’re seeing this with more politically well-connected industries like taxis and hotels. Pressure is put on Uber and Airbnb, respectively, to “protect” the established industries they are upending.

This week, Ant and James talk about why this is always a mistake.

Learn More:
https://fee.org/articles/government-cant-stop-creative-destruction/

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There is no truly good way to measure unemployment, which makes it pretty easy for successive administrations to claim that unemployment is consistently improving. But when we do our level best to include all of the unemployed in the numbers, what we learn is that unemployment levels now are higher than they were at the beginning of the Great Recession. That’s the bad news. The good news is that things actually have been getting better over time. In this week’s episode, James and Antony take a look at the actual unemployment numbers to get to the bottom of what they really mean.

Get the facts here:
https://fee.org/articles/you-cant-trust-unemployment-statistics/

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This week, James & Antony tackle minimum wage laws and present some hard facts that might surprise a lot of people.

See below for links to all the data and ideas they're talking about in this episode.

Raw Data:
http://www.governing.com/gov-data/economy-finance/youth-employment-unemployment-rate-data-by-state.html

https://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm

https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat08.htm

http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wage-chart.aspx

https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2016/home.htm

Research:

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/001979399204600105

https://www.mercatus.org/system/files/Davies-minimum-wage-PIC.pdf

http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XXXIX/2/425.short

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00197939140670S307

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=CC_FCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=%22minimum+wage%22&ots=bMKtfq8dOr&sig=acUFMHlHCDLr2Jo5F6scbDXX4-A#v=onepage&q=%22minimum%20wage%22&f=false

Op-Eds:

https://fee.org/articles/the-minimum-wage-conspiracy/

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2013/10/21/raising-the-minimum-wage-kills-jobs-for-low-skill-workers

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/for-the-maximally-vulnerable-the-minimum-wage-is-always_us_58eea085e4b04cae050dc45d

http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/7003069-74/federal-wage-workers

http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/10183883-74/wage-minimum-workers

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/20170409_Minimum-wage_hikes_a_way_to_buying_union_votes.html

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2015/06/03/what_a_pittsburgh_college_could_teach_seattle_los_angeles__chicago_101690.html

Related Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct1Moeaa-W8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUdnnGLVJk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAwf-JdIr0o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aCpaON5NyE

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This week on Words & Numbers James and Ant talk about the “safe spaces” movement on college campuses. Spoiler Alert: they don’t think campuses should be all that safe…at least not for ideas. College is the one time in a person’s life when just about every idea is on the table, and we do no one a service by declaring certain topics settled or off limits in the name of making people feel “safe.”

Learn More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/5905d8ade4b03b105b44b95c

https://fee.org/articles/the-campus-counter-revolution-against-liberty/

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This week, James and Antony take a brief departure from talking about the growing national debt, and our absurd tax system to discuss the numerous ways in which more economic and personal freedom has made people wealthier, more equal, and better off all over the world. We're actually living in pretty amazing times.

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This week, Antony and James are equal-opportunity offenders, discussing the way power not only changes hands from one party to another, but support for political ideas flips back and forth as well. Neither the right nor the left is immune to this kind of hypocrisy.

Editor's note:
According to James, "All the other political philosophers will point at me and laugh, but I said Paine when I meant Madison." This heinous error is about 5 minutes in, and we apologize.

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In honor of Tax Day, Antony Davies & James R. Harrigan talk about the absurdity of the US tax code. If your tax situation is more complicated or more uncomfortable than you like dealing with, you can pay another human being to do your taxes so you don’t have to. There are dependents, mortgages, deductions from energy-efficient household additions, charity, student loan interest ... even with a Ph.D. in economics, it’s hard to understand!

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This week, Antony and James break down Bill Gates' recent suggestion that companies that use robots instead of human workers should pay employment taxes in order to fund new welfare programs.

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This week, James & Antony experiment with a slightly longer format, and get into the issue of government funding for the arts.

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This week, Antony & James take on the idea of "victimless crimes" and discuss the odd and growing trend of governments regulating some private activities such as pornography, while others like smoking marijuana are increasingly allowed. People imposing their values on others seems to boil down to an inability to appreciate that others have different preferences, but it all results in Americans losing freedom and instead becoming a nation of pets.

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This week, James & Antony discuss the case of Connecticut's budget shortfall. The state hopes to solve their financial problems by raiding the retirement accounts of previous Connecticut government employees who have moved out of the state, and take 30% of those savings. This plan would hurt retirees, break promises, and trap many people in the state based on a policy that may be illegal.

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This week, in honor of International Women's Day, Antony & James discuss the strong correlation between economic freedom and gender equality found across the world. They argue that if you want to see a world of increasing equality and opportunity for women, you also want to free the economy from central planning and control.

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In this week's episode, Antony & James talk about alternative facts and how false, partisan data skews important discussions about public policy.

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In this episode, Dr. Antony Davies, Professor of Economics of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and Dr. James R. Harrigan, Senior Research Fellow at Strata, in Logan, Utah discuss the way the Congressional Budget Office works, and outline its history of failure at accurately forecasting increases in the national debt.

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We're really excited to present the first episode of what will be an on-going podcast featuring Dr. Antony Davies, Professor of Economics of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and Dr. James R. Harrigan, CEO of FreedomTrust

Each Wednesday we'll be sharing a new podcast featuring Antony and James talking about the economics and political science of current events. We hope you enjoy the show and look forward to your input on what topics Antony and James should cover in the future.

Today's episode is about everybody's favorite subject: Taxes!