Words & Numbers

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 cas...

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Office (CBO) has said that if the Individual Mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, is repealed, 22 million Americans will "lose" their health insurance.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. T...

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...

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...

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 an...

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, toget...

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 t...

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 Ha...

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...

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 behav...

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. Peo...

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 wo...

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”...

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 thi...

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...

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. ...

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 easie...

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...

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 tip...

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 a...

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...

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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...

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...