Words & Numbers

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.   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://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

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 Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smok

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 Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smok

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.   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.duq.edu/academics/faculty/matt-ryan Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Storieshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P

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.   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 Historical CBO forecasts https://www.cbo.gov/about/products/budget-economic-data#3 Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029

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! 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 Markets With Limits by James Stacey Taylor https://www.amazon.com/Markets-Limits-Merits-Market-Critical-Arguments/dp/1032171480/ref=sr_1_1 Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Storieshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?l

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! 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 Markets With Limits by James Stacey Taylor https://www.amazon.com/Markets-Limits-Merits-Market-Critical-Arguments/dp/1032171480/ref=sr_1_1 Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Storieshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?l

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

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.

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 https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers 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   Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at

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.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   Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Storieshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4

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..   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://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 Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Storieshttps://www.youtube.com/playl

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

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.   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://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/INDPRO https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MANEMP https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/USMINE https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES1021100001 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-gove

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.   Get a 20% discount on the mask not named in the episode by clicking below and using the coupon code wordsandnumbers. https://www.getunmask.com/?ref=8Dgb483n98NjG   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://russiandefpolicy.com/2021/12/27/russian-military-pay-still-lags/ https://www.cnas.org/publications/commentary/when-do-economic-sanctions-work-best https://www.wsj.com/articles/self-driving-trucks-start-to-propel-land-rush-near-maj

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.   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.facebook.com/HistoricPhotographs/posts/2026578217515918 Foolishness of the Week https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/02/21/report-apple-store-employees-want-to-unionize

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.   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.mprnews.org/story/2022/02/03/betty-whiteout-ctrl-salt-delete-top-winners-in-mndot-nameasnowplow-contest https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/northwest-territories-looking-for-new-name-bob-need-not-apply-1.319749 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 Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backs

The federal debt recently crossed the $30 trillion mark, making the debt 50% larger than the entire US economy.   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.wsj.com/articles/belarusian-officials-charged-with-aircraft-piracy-for-diversion-of-ryanair-flight-11642723692 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/ Topic of the Week https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Storieshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavie

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.   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.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 W

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! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://katu.com/news/nation-world/students-at-no-2-business-school-struggle-to-identify-the-average-americans-salary 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/d