Words & Numbers

This is a conversation James and I had concerning various topics in economics and current events. 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 The School of Ireland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByBussFxezk Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https:...

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://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 h...

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 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 ht...

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

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 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.goodnewsnet...

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 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support...

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 Clark Neily on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00EJKBKOC Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/...

Foolishness of the Week: 05:13 Main episode: 12:18 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://viewfromthewing.com/hertz-nightmare-customer-fined-436-before-they-even-rented-the-car/comment-pa...

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...

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

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 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!...

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 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...

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

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

Foolishness of the Week: 11:09 Main episode: 16:35 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://twitter.com/amyklobuchar/status/1786794183312748959 Foolishness of the Week https://www.the-expre...

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 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! htt...

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 Get Your Copy of...

Foolishness of the Week: 06:30 Main episode: 09:25 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.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1183025683040361&id=100039988210787&mibextid=oFDknk...

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 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/words...

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 Get Your Cop...

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 Get Your Copy...

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 Get Y...

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. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers....

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

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. Foolishn...