Words &amp; Numbers

Adidas making sneakers out of waste plastic

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Episode 111: Game of Votes: Electoral vs. Popular Mar 27, 2019

Show notes

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:

China stops taking the world’s trash

No place for US recyclables

Nuclear energy better than renewables

Foolishness of the week

Police shoot teachers

Topic of the week

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Buying your way into college

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Episode 110: Is Facebook a Monopoly? Mar 20, 2019

Show notes

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:

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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Measles outbreak at Midway airport

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Episode 109: Are You In the Global 1%? Mar 13, 2019

Show notes

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:

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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Male-only draft unconstitutional

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Episode 108: Where Are They Now? The Disappearance of Mutual Aid Societies. Mar 06, 2019

Show notes

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:

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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People killed in armed conflicts

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Episode 107: Modern Monetary Theory The Government as Referee, Player, and Scorekeeper Feb 27, 2019

Show notes

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 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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Online dating is changing society

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Episode 106: Can Anti-Discrimination Laws Get Us Closer to a Meritocracy? Feb 20, 2019

Show notes

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:

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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Redditors are kind to a person in need

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Episode 105: The “Problem” with Billionaires Feb 13, 2019

Show notes

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

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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Lyft offers free rides to shelters

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Episode 104: “You Just Hate the Poor!” and Other Minimum Wage Misunderstandings Feb 06, 2019

Show notes

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

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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