Words & Numbers

Latest Episodes:

Episode 72: An Insider’s Indictment of the “Justice” System Jun 27, 2018

Show notes

The criminal justice system presents a lot of issues, the least of which is discrimination. . . despite what the public may think. Over decades, prosecutors have slowly taken power and responsibility away from the jury and into their own hands, destroying the premise of “presumed innocent until proven guilty.” Statutory immunity, legal discretion and the opaqueness of the criminal justice system are all much bigger problems than discrimination, which is, in fact, a much less negative term than we generally think. But why are these things such big issues? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan this week with special guest, criminal justice attorney Catherine Barnard as they explore some of the biggest issues with today’s justice system.

Show Notes:

Cure for diabetes

Republican proposal to balance the budget by cutting entitlements

Proposed 2019 Federal budget

Foolishness of the week

Sarah Huckabee Sanders kicked out of restaurant

Topic of the week: Equality under the law

Catherine Bernard

James and Ant on Twitter

@JamesRHarrigan

@AntonyDavies

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Episode 71: Ignore the Naysayers, Life Is Amazing Jun 20, 2018

Show notes

Which would you rather be, a member of the working class in America today or an 18th-century French monarch? The answer to that is almost certainly the former. A lot has changed in the last 200 years. Heck, a lot has changed in the last 20 years, for that matter, and with a few notable exceptions, those changes have been for the better. In the year 1800, 95 percent of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today, it's less than 10 percent, despite there being more than 6 billion more people living today. We carry in our pockets a supercomputer that allows us access to the sum total of human knowledge that we use to look at cat GIFs. Life is pretty amazing. So why do so few people believe that's the case? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Iraq is getting safer

Empty seats at the world cup

Foolishness of the week

Netflix’ 5-second rule

Topic of the week: The world is getting better every day

Louis CK, everything is amazing and nobody is happy

Cafe Hayek: Most Americans are richer than Rockefeller

Pew survey on perceptions of gun violence

Media and cognitive biases

Living conditions in the United States

U.S. Firearm deaths 2012-2016

U.S. Firearm deaths 1975-1994 (chart 5.1)

U.S. non-fatal firearm violence 1993-2011

Military and civilian deaths due to armed conflicts since 1945

Child labor rates 1950-present

Global income inequality 1800-present

Gender inequality 1995-2015

World poverty 1820-2015

Animation showing longevity and income by country 1800-present

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Episode 70: The Federal Government is Bankrupt Jun 13, 2018

Show notes

It's a well-established fact that Social Security and Medicare are in serious trouble and have been for a while. The newest projections released last week have Social Security being insolvent in the year 2034 and Medicare in 2026. A fair amount of this trouble can be laid at the feet of the federal government and its seemingly insatiable habit of spending money it doesn't have. It's gotten to the point that there isn't really anywhere else in the world that has the amount of money the US government needs to borrow. It seemed so easy to just take that money from the Social Security and Medicare trusts at the time, but with federal spending now higher than it's ever been (regardless of whether you adjust for inflation or simply count it as a percentage of GDP), it seems very unlikely that that money will—or even can—ever be paid back. So, what's a government to do? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they talk about this and more on this week's special live-from-FEEcon episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes

Anthony Bourdain

Charles Krauthammer

Country Time comes to the rescue of children’s lemonade stands

Lemonade stand shut down 1

Lemonade stand shut down 2

Lemonade stand shut down 3

Foolishness of the week

Bernie Sanders believes socialist ideas are winning

Topic of the week: Federal bankruptcy

Historical CBO projections

Debt myths debunked

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Episode 69: Government Job Reports Can Be Misleading Jun 06, 2018

Show notes

The jobs report for the month of May has recently been released, and Republicans—particularly President Trump—have been very busy congratulating themselves about the rosy unemployment rate. In fairness, unemployment is currently the lowest it's been since the turn of the millennium, which is nothing to turn one's nose up at. But there's more to a healthy economy than a low unemployment rate. So, what does the May jobs report actually say? And what do those numbers really imply? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they unpack the May jobs report and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Dog buys food with leaves

Bare-knuckle boxing

Foolishness of the week

Bernie Sanders says Disney needs a moral defense

Topic of the week

Unemployment numbers

On twitter

@AntonyDavies

@JamesRHarrigan

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Episode 68: As Long As People Are Free, There Will Be Inequality May 30, 2018

Show notes

If there's something that progressives agree on, it's that inequality exists and that it's a problem. But what do we mean when we say "inequality"? Is it that some people have more "stuff" (money, goods, access to services) than others? Is it that some people are more skilled, more talented, better looking, or just plain luckier than others? In a relatively free society with fairly consistent equality of opportunity, the result is inevitably going to be inequality of outcome. And this is not necessarily a bad thing. Why is a certain amount of inequality a good thing? Should we care about numerical inequality indicators such as the Gini index? Should we take legislative action to "level the playing field"? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

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Episode 67: Words and Numbers Listener Special May 23, 2018

Show notes

This week on Words and Numbers, it's all about you, the listener. Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they answer questions from listeners posed in the Words and Numbers: Backstage Facebook group. Don't miss out on the next opportunity to have your questions answered on air! Join the Words and Numbers: Backstage Facebook group, where the conversation continues.

Show Notes:

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Episode 66: If Your Heart Is in the Right Place, You Better Get Your Facts Straight May 16, 2018

Show notes

Adam Smith is widely regarded as the "father of economics," but what isn't as widely known is that he never considered himself an economist. He thought of himself as a philosopher. And, indeed, in the tradition of the Scottish Enlightenment, he was one. In the Scottish Enlightenment, study was largely divided into two categories: natural science and moral science. Natural science largely explains itself, but moral science was an attempt to ground ethics and morality in as much scientific reality and fact-based reasoning as possible, and it's from that branch of study that the subject of economics bloomed. If you want to make moral statements, if your heart is in the right place, then you need to have your facts straight. And while, over time, we've seen a more and more tightly defined division of labor and specialization, particularly in academia, perhaps it's time to get back to a more holistic form of study when it comes to economics and ethics. Join Antony Davies, James Harrigan, and special guest David Schmidtz as they discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

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Episode 65: Which Is More Important, Political Freedom or Economic Freedom? May 09, 2018

Show notes

We are individuals, but we're also members of society. Economics generally deals with individual action whereas politics deals with the behavior of society as a whole. Economics, as a discipline, seeks to understand, explain, and sometimes predict human behavior. Politics, on the other hand, seeks to control the behavior of society at large. When we talk about freedom, what kind of freedom are we talking about? Is it the ability to decide which goods and services we purchase and from whom without restriction? Is it being able to choose who represents our interests in government and which laws they create? And which is more important? Or is either of them? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they take a deep dive into what, exactly, economics and politics actually are and what freedom in those spheres might actually mean on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Brain implant improves memory

Oliver North named president of the NRA

Foolishness of the Week

The Pope doesn’t understand economics The Pope and Libertarianism

Topic of the week: What is economics?

Economics informs the decision to marry

How people choose when they know that they don’t know what to pick

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Episode 64: Why We Don't Have Principled Politicians? May 02, 2018

Show notes

Recently, Senator Chuck Schumer introduced a bill that would decriminalize marijuana on the federal level. He stated that the legality of marijuana should be a matter left up to individual states. This ringing endorsement of federalism might carry a little more weight if Senator Schumer hadn't spent a large part of his political career trying to micromanage Americans' behavior at the national level. Hillary Clinton is widely considered to be a staunch supporter of the LGBT community; however, she was publicly opposed to marriage equality until 2013. These are just two of the innumerable examples of politicians changing their stances on policy issues in the face of evolving public opinion. This is not a new phenomenon or exclusive to a single political party. Not only is it common for politicians to modify their positions of political principles to match changing public opinion, you'd be hard-pressed to find one who doesn't. We are dealing with political followership, not political leadership. So, what does that get us? Antony Davies and James Harrigan talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes

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Episode 63: Can Comedy Change the World? Apr 25, 2018

Show notes

In today's strange climate of political correctness, free speech exists in a weird place. Safe spaces, First Amendment zones, the attitude of victimization, and accusations that "your fav is problematic" abound. And yet, important things, challenging things, dangerous things still need to be said and are being said. One critical "loophole" for dodging the would-be censors to get these ideas out into the world is comedy. Comedians live in a peculiar kind of in-between that allows for a certain audacity in messaging that doesn't quite exist for, say, politicians or activists. Special guest Lou Perez from We The Internet joins James and Antony to talk about messaging, humor, and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

More registered voters than citizens

https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/08/election-fraud-registered-voters-outnumber-eligible-voters-462-counties/

UK bans straws

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-chogm-plastic/britain-to-ban-sale-of-plastic-straws-in-bid-to-fight-waste-idUSKBN1HP338

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/16/scientists-accidentally-create-mutant-enzyme-that-eats-plastic-bottles

Toastabag

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2KxiFL8XsA

Foolishness of the week New Yorker complains about Chik-fil-A

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/chick-fil-as-creepy-infiltration-of-new-york-city

Topic of the week: Free Speech with Lou Perez

http://www.louperez.net/