Words & Numbers

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 Join the Conversation Antony Davies on Twitter James R. Harrigan on Twitter Words & Numbers Backstage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Join the conversation Antony Davies on Twitter James R. Harrigan on Twitter Words & Numbers Backstage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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) Join the conversation Antony Davies on Twitter James R. Harrigan on Twitter Words & Numbers Backstage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Join the conversation Antony Davies on Twitter James R. Harrigan on Twitter Words & Numbers Backstage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Join the Conversation Antony Davies on Twitter James R. Harrigan on Twitter Words & Numbers Backstage   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Join the Conversation: Antony Davies on Twitter James R. Harrigan on Twitter Words & Numbers Backstage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Join the conversation Antony Davies on Twitter James R. Harrigan on Twitter Words & Numbers Backstage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Join the Conversation Antony Davies on Twitter James R. Harrigan on Twitter Words & Numbers Backstage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Antony Davies on Twitter James R. Harrigan on Twitter Join the conversation at Words & Numbers Backstage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Social Media: Antony Davies on Twitter James R. Harrigan on Twitter Join the conversation at Words & Numbers Backstage   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices