Words & Numbers - TopPodcast.com

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

Words & Numbers — Education
Words & Numbers

Words & Numbers is one of the highest-rated economics podcasts in the world. Each episode, Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan dig into economics, political science, and current events to explain what’s actually happening and why it matters.

Copyright: © Creative Commons

Latest Episodes:

Episode 52: Why Does Government Keep Expanding? Feb 07, 2018

Show notes

The fact that the United States' yearly deficit spending is set to soon top $1 trillion — an amount that is itself larger than most governments' entire operating budget — might be an indicator that the federal government has gotten too large. No matter which party is in power, the federal government and its attendant spending never really ceases to grow. We're taught in school a rose-colored tale of selfless public servants righteously chosen by solemn, considering voters to go to Washington to diligently represent their constituency's best interests. But is it true? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Federal deficit to top $1 trillion

http://reason.com/archives/2018/01/04/trillion-dollar-deficit-deja-vu

The DNC is broke

http://theweek.com/speedreads/752743/dnc-reportedly-dead-broke-rnc-nearly-40-million

Foolishness of the Week

http://reason.com/blog/2018/02/02/inside-the-insane-battle-over-arizonas-d

Topic of the week: The Security State and the Therapeutic State

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/hist03z2.xls

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIAUCSL

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/POP

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

Episode 51: America Relies on Immigrants Jan 31, 2018

Show notes

Immigration is, as happens fairly routinely, an important topic in the national conversation these days. It's generally well-accepted that the United States is "a nation of immigrants," and yet there remains a stubborn skepticism about new immigrants. These concerns generally branch into two broad categories: economic concerns and social concerns. Economically, citizens seem to think that immigrants are "taking our jobs" or "a drain on the system." Socially, citizens are of the belief that immigrants are "undermining American culture." But are any of these concerns warranted? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick Hits:

Denver hires homeless people

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/denver-hired-homeless-people-perform-day-labor-city-100-landed-regular-jobs/

Koch donating $400 million to candidates

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/27/politics/koch-republican-election-candidates-donate/index.html

https://nrf.com/resources/consumer-research-and-data/holiday-spending/halloween-headquarters

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/04/fourth-of-july-spending-by-the-numbers.html

https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/topindivs.php

Foolishness of the week

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/24/580228837/a-dozen-camels-disqualified-from-saudi-beauty-pageant-over-botox-injections

Topic of the week

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/Annual-Number-of-US-Legal-Permanent-Residents

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/27/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/

http://www.pewhispanic.org/2016/11/03/size-of-u-s-unauthorized-immigrant-workforce-stable-after-the-great-recession/

http://www.businessinsider.com/major-us-companies-founded-by-immigrants-2017-2

http://startupsusa.org/fortune500/#appendix

http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/19/news/economy/undocumented-immigrant-taxes/index.html

https://itep.org/wp-content/uploads/immigration2016.pdf

https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/advocacy/United_States.pdf

https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/advocacy/United_States.pdf

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/09/undocumented-immigrants-and-taxes/499604/

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/despite-the-rancor-there-is-much-that-unites-americans-20171116.html

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

Episode 50: Intentions Don't Matter — Outcomes Do Jan 24, 2018

Show notes

Socialism is, whether we like it or not, in the national dialogue. And there are numerous people who claim to be socialists who, nevertheless, have a hard time defining what socialism actually is. Socialism, in it's purest form, indeed, has never been tried. But, by the same token, neither has undiluted capitalism. To understand which works better, we have to think about means and ends. Almost all of us want the same ends, but we disagree sharply as to the appropriate means. So how do we find the most efficient, most humane means? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Sweden could launch its own cryptocurrency http://www.businessinsider.com/sweden-cryptocurrency-e-krona-riksbank-2018-1

People believe that companies may five times more profit than they actually do http://www.aei.org/publication/the-public-thinks-the-average-company-makes-a-36-profit-margin-which-is-about-5x-too-high-part-ii/?utm_content=bufferaa12b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer https://taxfoundation.org/state-gasoline-tax-rates-2017/ http://gasprices.aaa.com/ http://fortune.com/2017/06/07/fortune-500-companies-profit-apple-berkshire-hathaway/

Topic of the Week: Socialism

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/articles/2017-03-08/celebrate-american-womens-economic-freedom-on-international-womens-day

www.wsj.com/articles/antony-davies-and-james-r-harrigan-for-gender-equality-you-cant-beat-capitalism-1425684094

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-09-19/we-need-to-find-the-right-mix-of-government-and-markets

http://www.antolin-davies.com/research/elp.pdf

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

Episode 49: The Constitution Is Useless if We Don't Follow It Jan 17, 2018

Show notes

Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent the country into a tizzy not long ago when he declared that the federal government would start cracking down on state-legal marijuana. This is problematic, but it's a symptom of a larger problem. Article I, Section 8, of the US Constitution lists the things that the federal government may concern itself with. Marijuana — indeed, any drug — is not on that list. In fact, a great many things that the federal government concerns itself with are not on that list. So how did we get to the point of having federal laws and regulations about marijuana and a number of other things? We had to have a Constitutional amendment to ban alcohol, so why doesn't the government need one to ban marijuana? James Harrigan and Antony Davies discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Sarah Silverman https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/sarah-silverman-befriends-troll-insulted-pays-medical-treatment/

CT considers raising its excise tax on cigarettes. Again. http://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-lafaive-ct-cigarette-tax-smuggling-0109-20180108-story.html

What will mass-market driverless cars look like? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-12/gm-drops-the-steering-wheel-and-gives-the-robot-driver-control

Foolishness of the Week

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/business/economy/irs-debt-collection.html

Topic of the Week: Federalism and Constitutional Amendments

Federalism and marijuana http://reason.com/archives/2018/01/10/federalists-cant-support-a-cannabis-crac

Article One, Section 8 of the US Constitution https://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A1Sec8.html

Wickard v. Filburn https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/317us111

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn

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

Episode 48: When Do-Gooders Do Bad Jan 10, 2018

Show notes

Despite its passage some time ago, recent attention has been brought to the impending implementation of a Washington, D.C., regulation that will require all professional childcare workers to have a college degree. This has raised a great hue and cry as it will ban a number of existing childcare workers from their chosen profession as well as having the effect of dramatically increasing the cost of childcare in the District — which is, incidentally, already incredibly high when compared to the rest of the country. Unintended consequences happen all the time in everyday life, but when legislators and regulators act, the consequences are on a much larger scale. Unintended consequences abound in pretty much every aspect of regulated life to various degrees. Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick Hits

Man cited for sheltering the homeless (David Wilson)

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/elgin-greg-schiller-slumber-parties-homeless-cold-467714563.html

Philip Morris getting out of the cigarette business?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/01/03/philip-morris-marlboro-wants-give-up-cigarettes-go-smoke-free/1001442001/

Foolishness of the Week

President Trump, apparently not interested in Steve Bannon’s criticism, seeks to block the release “Sloppy Steve’s” book.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-book-20180104-story.html

https://www.mediaite.com/online/trump-rage-tweets-about-wolff-and-sloppy-steve-bannon-phony-book-is-full-of-lies/

Topic of the Week: Unintended Consequences

Gun buyback

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ae0c/469a9f5d95dd2fc8112bcdadb614183aa520.pdf

Seat belt laws

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/260352

Payday lending

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203806504577183240533438580

Fishing quotas

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12098697

CEO pay

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116062249630690247

Three strikes law

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0887403405277001

Bounty on cobras

http://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-cobra-effect-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

Mexico city air pollution

http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/ldavis/Davis%20JPE%202008.pdf

California fuel economy mandates

https://web.stanford.edu/~goulder/Papers/Published%20Papers/Unintended%20Consequences%20(Pavley%20Paper)%20-%20JEEM%20March%202012.pdf

Americans with Disabilities Act

https://economics.mit.edu/files/273

Electrician licensing requirements

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01044518

Red-light cameras

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/03/AR2005100301844.html

Cash for clunkers

http://www.nber.org/papers/w16351

Venezuela

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuelas-paradox-people-are-hungry-but-farmers-cant-feed-them/2017/05/21/ce460726-3987-11e7-a59b-26e0451a96fd_story.html?utm_term=.32c5dd1398b0

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

Episode 47: Should We Abolish Government Regulation? Jan 03, 2018

Show notes

What do you do on any given day that is not somehow regulated by government in some way? There really isn't much. In point of fact, there are well over one hundred thousand pages of federal regulations alone, to say nothing of state and local regulations. We have government-mandated guidelines for everything from space exploration to how your dog can behave in a city park. While many people concede that there is an acceptable minimum level of government regulation, and others maintain that there is no such thing as an unregulated market, even in the absence of government guidance, it's clear that as things currently stand, we are a highly overregulated nation. So if there is, indeed, a legitimate purpose for regulation, what is it? What are we trying to accomplish with these regulations? Who benefits? And how far is too far? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they talk about this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick Hits

Police killed in the line of duty

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/12/28/number-officers-killed-2017-hits-nearly-50-year-low/984477001/

26 year-old gives birth to 24 year-old

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/record-baby-26-year-old-gives-birth-daughter-frozen-24-years-ago/

Alcohol

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/12/28/how-many-alcoholic-drinks-too-many-per-week/822604001/

Venezuelan cryptocurrency

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/29/venezuela-oil-backed-cryptocurrency-to-launch-in-days.html

Foolishness of the Week http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/pew-trump-media-three-times-more-negative-than-for-obama-just-5-percent-positive/article/2644448 This Week’s Topic

Magnitude of regulation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkNPjC0gVSo

What regulations did Trump eliminate?

https://cei.org/blog/so-what-regulations-did-trump-eliminate

Regulation of social media http://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/354006-regulate-social-media-just-like-other-media

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/21/its-time-to-crack-down-on-facebook-and-twitter-commentary.html

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/twitter-egyptian-journalist-ban.php

Regulating florists because dirt might be infected

https://goldwaterinstitute.org/article/protection-racket-occupational-licensing-laws-and/

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

Episode 46: Actually, Things Are Kind of Amazing Dec 27, 2017

Show notes

It seems, these days, that you can't turn on the TV or log on to social media without someone griping about how awful things are. They complain about everything, from taxes to avocados to bills to cell signal strength. But the truth of things is a lot rosier than popular media would lead you to believe. Global illiteracy rates are below 14 percent. Global rates of extreme poverty are below 10 percent. Despite there being more people currently alive on the planet than ever before, there are also more calories per capita than ever before. This is not to say that there aren't improvements to be made or that there aren't bad things happening, but perhaps bearing these facts in mind might improve our outlook on life. Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they talk about thankfulness and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Walmart employs 1% of Americans

http://www.businessinsider.com/largest-employers-each-us-state-2017-6

http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-employees-pay

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/13/business/walmart-workers-pay-advances.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/12/nearly-every-american-spent-money-at-wal-mart-last-year.html

High school reports 100% college placement rate

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/12/17/570255742/teachers-around-the-country-react-to-investigation-into-ballou-high-school

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/11/28/564054556/what-really-happened-at-the-school-where-every-senior-got-into-college

Data

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/09/how-americans-compare-with-the-global-middle-class/

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/cell-phones-demography-nielsen-data-breaks-mobile-phone/story?id=11468925

https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/products/gear/entertainment/2005-04-10-brick-cell-phone_x.htm

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A939RX0Q048SBEA

http://graphics.wsj.com/what-percent/

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

Episode 45: What Can Colorado Teach Us About Legalizing Weed? Dec 20, 2017

Show notes

There has been quite the groundswell in recent years in the efforts to legalize marijuana. In fact, a majority of US states have at least some sort of access to legal weed, despite its still being criminalized at the federal level. But the state of Colorado led the nation when it legalized marijuana for all purposes, even recreational ones, in January of 2014. The anti-marijuana advocates warned that such an action would lead to increased drug use — especially among teens — higher crimes rates, and a whole spate of other undesirable consequences. Nevertheless, the plant prevailed. It's still early days, but we do have almost four years of data about the effects of legalizing marijuana to look at. Were the anti-marijuana crusaders correct? Are teen drug use and violent crime rampant? Are visitors shunning Colorado? Was it all a huge mistake? Antony Davies and James Harrigan discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick Hits Unemployment rate is at its lowest level?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2017/12/08/why-you-cant-rely-on-the-unemployment-rate-as-primary-economic-indicator/

Sweet Briar college no longer discounting tuition

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/beloved-womens-college-slashes-tuition-prices-30/

https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/college-costs/college-costs-faqs

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/05/16/discount-rates-rise-yet-again-private-colleges-and-universities

Venezuela’s diaspora is growing: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/12/14/flood-venezuelans-fleeing-their-depressed-country/941463001/

US better educated now than at any time in its history: http://triblive.com/news/education/classroom/13077368-74/us-more-educated-than-ever-before-census-bureau-says

Foolishness of the week Bulletproof glass is an indignity

http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/15/philly-votes-to-regulate-bulletproof-gla

Marijuana and Crime

Adolescent pot use is falling in Colorado

http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/12/contradicting-prohibitionists-survey-say/amp?__twitter_impression=true

The war on marijuana has failed

http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/11974018-74/marijuana-colorado-drug

Colorado’s pot full of benefits

http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/6487136-74/marijuana-state-war

Commercial pot in Colorado

http://gazette.com/editorial-the-sad-anniversary-of-big-commercial-pot-in-colorado/article/1614900

Milton Friedman on drug criminalization https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLsCC0LZxkY

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on marijuana policy http://www.newsweek.com/will-jeff-sessions-war-marijuana-next-week-744089

Teen marijuana use is down since legalization https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/11/following-marijuana-legalization-teen-drug-use-is-down-in-colorado

Data

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cbi/colorado-crime-statistics-ucr

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cbi/crime-colorado1

http://worldpopulationreview.com/states/colorado-population/

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/tables/table-1

https://www.denverite.com/chronic-homelessness-ten-year-high-metro-denver-heres-citys-38546/

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/PW_ISVP_PDO_Heroin-in-Colorado-2017.pdf

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

Episode 44: Americans' Generosity Can Help the Poor Better Than Government Dec 13, 2017

Show notes

Christmas is right around the corner, and people everywhere are in the holiday spirit. In addition to giving gifts to loved ones, Americans are also giving to their preferred charities. Indeed, about a third of all charitable donations occur during the month of December. And Americans are, in general, incredibly generous. Recent estimates have the total dollar amount of charitable giving, both cash and labor, at about $600 billion. That's more than almost all other countries take in via taxation. Most of this money comes from those "selfish" rich people you read so much about, and all but about 5 percent of it comes from individuals. Businesses, for all their fanfare and PR campaigns, give very little in comparison. Of course, not all of this giving goes to what might be called poverty relief, but about 82 percent of it does, about $500 billion, as of 2016. And all of this giving is completely separate from what the government takes through taxation and redistributes through what is loosely defined as "welfare spending." So how does all of this private charity compare to what the government is doing? What does the future for government welfare look like? Is the market capable of taking on the role of the "first line" of help for those who need it? Antony Davies and James Harrigan discuss on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Episode Data and Articles:

Voluntary Giving

http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/11522510-74/christmas-war-holiday

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/charitable-giving-generosity-government-poverty-20171204.html

Welfare

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/01/12/no-we-dont-spend-1-trillion-on-welfare-each-year/?utm_term=.e907f7625b56

https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_2017USbn_17bs6n_2030#usgs302

Data

https://givingusa.org/giving-usa-2017-total-charitable-donations-rise-to-new-high-of-390-05-billion/

https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Giving-Tuesday-Haul-Is-an/238534

https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-giving-statistics/

https://www.independentsector.org/resource/the-value-of-volunteer-time/

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2056.html

https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=42

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

Episode 43: The CBO Is Almost, but Not Quite, Useless Dec 06, 2017

Show notes

Economist Paul Krugman is well-known for his pro-Democrat stances. Recently, he's claimed that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has said that if the Individual Mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, is repealed, 22 million Americans will "lose" their health insurance. What he doesn't say is that the vast majority of those 22 million people are simply opting out. They are _choosing_ not to have health insurance. But here's the problem with CBO forecasts: they're usually wrong. And they're wrong in almost the exact same way. Why are the CBO forecasts so bad? Why do they consistently get it wrong in such a consistent way? And what does this mean for our economy? James Harrigan and Antony Davies discuss this and more in this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Emirates’ new 777

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericrosen/2017/11/13/new-emirates-first-class-suites-on-777-300er-revealed-at-the-dubai-air-show/#13ce46a256b8

Curing disease by rewriting our DNA

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/first-scientists-try-edit-faulty-dna-inside-patients-body-cure-genetic-disease/

iHeart Radio:https://www.wsj.com/articles/iheart-creditors-reject-another-offer-from-company-as-they-push-for-chapter-11-1512090362

Jeff Sessions on marijuana:http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/11/sessions-hints-at-a-coming-crackdown-on-recreational-weed.html

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/29/politics/sessions-opioid-news-conference-marijuana/index.html

http://reason.com/blog/2017/10/26/sessions-continues-to-push-gateway-drug

Foolishness of the weekhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/us/politics/republican-tax-bill-moves-closer-to-senate-passage.html

The CBO

https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2017/07/22/cbo-three-fourths-of-coverage-difference-between-obamacare-gop-bills-driven-by-individual-mandate/#327a3b9e3627

Follow us on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

https://twitter.com/AntonyDavies

Join the Words and Numbers Backstage FB group, where the conversation continueshttps://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

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

Related Podcasts