Words &amp; Numbers

CBO reports $782 billion deficit for fiscal year ending 9/30/2018

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Episode 91: It’s Not the Government’s Job to Provide Goods and Services Nov 07, 2018

Show notes

“It’s the most important election in history.” That’s the rhetoric you see plastered across the news and social media. Perhaps, people view this election as such because they believe it to be the government’s job to provide things for them. This is apparent on both sides of the aisle. Democrats want free health care and education. Republicans want a border wall and tariffs on imported goods. But, is it the government’s job to provide services that Democrats want? Is the government a tool of protection for American businesses that Republicans view it as? Join hosts Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan as they discuss the proper role of government and more on this episode of Words & Numbers.

Show Notes:

Foolishness of the week.

Why does the deficit not match the increase in the debt?

Topic of the week: The midterm elections.

Is this the most important election ever?

This isn’t the most important election ever!

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Scientists develop a strain of saline-tolerant rice

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Episode 90: What’s So Creative about Destruction? Oct 31, 2018

Show notes

Economists use the term “creative destruction” a fair amount, but what does it actually mean? It generally refers to a company going out of business, or sometimes whole sectors of the economy vanishing as disruptive technologies and strategies come into play. It is very easy to see the “destruction” part of creative destruction. We see the empty storefronts and people out of work because the businesses they worked for couldn’t afford to pay them anymore. We point fingers and lament the loss of these former favorites. So where does the “creation” part of all this come in? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they take a close look at this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Discrimination at Harvard

Foolishness of the Week

New York socialist wonders why people are moving to Florida

Topic of the Week: Creative destruction

Good and Bad Destruction: Buggy Whips and Broken Windows

Ten jobs that no longer exist

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Gloves let users feel virtual objects

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Episode 89: A Raging Dumpster Fire of Injustice Oct 24, 2018

Show notes

Canada recently legalized the possession and use of marijuana and proposed legislation to pardon those previously convicted of such “crimes.” So, it’s as good a time as any to take a look at how such things are handled in the United States. While, yes, in the majority of states, there is some provision for certain kinds of legal use of marijuana—including full legalization in a few—the fact remains that the plant itself remains completely illegal at the federal level. In aggregate, across the United States, the clearance rate—that is, of criminal cases being considered solved—for violent crimes is less than 50 percent and less than 20 percent for property crimes. In 2016, there were more arrests for marijuana possession across the country than for all violent crimes combined. And that’s just one single aspect of the American criminal “justice” system. Clark Neily of the Cato Institute, a noted criminal justice scholar, joins James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they take an unvarnished look at the state of criminal justice in the United States on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Trump orders cabinet to cut spending 5%

Foolishness of the Week

Nebraska’s honesty in advertising

Topic of the Week: Clark Neily on the imbalance of power in our judicial system

Clark Neily

Canada legalizes marijuana and moves to pardon possession

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Trump administration stifles free speech

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Episode 88: When Is This Year’s “Deficit Day”? Oct 17, 2018

Show notes

Imagine, if you will, that the United States federal government somehow received all of the money it normally would for the entire year on January 1st. The day it would have spent it all and started deficit spending (that is, spending money it simply doesn’t have) could be dubbed “Deficit Day.” This year, 2018, that day falls on October 19th. From this day until the end of the year, the US Federal Government is spending money it doesn’t have to the tune of about $11 billion per day. So what does that mean for the government? What does that mean for the people? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they dive into this and more on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers

Show Notes:

Foolishness of the Week

Government regulating pizza toppings

Topic of the Week: Deficit Day

Congressional Budget Office projections

Federal receipts and outlays over time

Interest rate on the federal debt

Student loan debt statistics

Flemming v. Nestor (1960): You do not have an earned right to Social Security benefits

Helvering v. Davis (1937): Social Security taxes are part of the general revenue

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Authorities may shoot down private drones

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Episode 87: Why Do We Even Have Trade Agreements, Anyway? Oct 10, 2018

Show notes

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:

Amazon reacts to the $15 wage

Foolishness of the Week

Jazz hands

Topic of the Week: Trade

Trade data

Infographic of trade data

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Texas legislator wants to require political speech

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Episode 86: Words and Numbers Listener Special #2 Oct 03, 2018

Show notes

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

Pennsylvania legislator wants to ban political speech

Topic of the week: Listener questions

Modern monetary theory

More on modern monetary theory

Water rights

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Jeff Bezos donates $2 billion

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Episode 85: Are We Living Madison’s Nightmare? Sep 26, 2018

Show notes

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

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)

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Dominos’ CEO earned $8.6 million in 2016

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Episode 84: Price-Gouging Bans Don’t Make Things Cheaper, They Make Them More Scarce Sep 19, 2018

Show notes

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 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

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California bill requiring women on boards of directors

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Episode 83: How the Meanings of "Liberal" and "Conservative" Have Changed Sep 11, 2018

Show notes

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 law easing restrictions on legally changing one’s gender

Elon Musk smokes pot on the air

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