Shows / Words & Numbers
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.
Episodes
Words & NumbersEpisode 354: Academic Fraud
Three former professors discuss the fraud that universities are perpetrating on students and taxpayers.. Foolishness of the Week: 11:59 Main episode: 15:20 Get…
Words & NumbersEpisode 353: What’s a Few Trillion Among Friends?
Over ten years ago, we predicted that, as the Federal government approached insolvency, the Federal Reserve would start printing money to monetize the…
Words & NumbersEpisode 352: Fraud, Fairness, and Value
An elderly couple, an antiques dealer, and an African mask spark a conversation about fraud, fairness, and value. Foolishness of the Week: 11:00 Main episode…
Words & NumbersEpisode 351: The Snooty Stuff
Composer and musician Josh Nichols was annoyed when, on an earlier episode, James referred to “high culture,” and Ant said, “you mean the snooty stuff?” Being…
Words & NumbersEpisode 350: The Economics of Taylor Swift
Fans are applauding Taylor Swift for contributing billions to the country’s GDP. Yet Taylor Swift (three-quarters of a billionaire) is doing less for the…
Words & NumbersEpisode 349: Should Experts Dictate What Teachers Teach?
More than a decade ago, experts decided to change how students are taught to read. Without testing whether the new method worked or, apparently, even checking…
Words & NumbersEpisode 348: Error Corrections
From time to time, listeners write to tell us what we’ve gotten wrong. This week, we go back through predictions and analyses we’ve made that have turned out…
Words & NumbersEpisode 347: Workplace Harassment with Vince White
Attorney Vince White joins us this week. Vince’s law firm does more workplace harassment and sexual discrimination cases than any other US law firm. His firm…
Words & NumbersEpisode 346: Are the Rich Killing Social Security?
Robert Reich (not an economist) recorded a video recently in which he claims that the rich are not paying their fair share of Social Security. But the…
Words & NumbersEpisode 345: Did Masks Save Lives?
Economist Bryan McCannon gives us two things to think about this week: his research into whether covid mask mandates saved lives, and that journal editors were…
Words & NumbersEpisode 344: Burning Man
Burning Man, a modern day Woodstock, occurs each year in the desert. This year brought 87,000 people together to live, if only for a few days, in a cooperative…
Words & NumbersEpisode 343: What About Unions?
Union membership in the private sector has been declining for decades, while union membership in the public sector has been increasing. This is consistent with…
Words & NumbersEpisode 342: The Start of the Season
The Republicans held their first primary debate. What they said wasn’t interesting. What they didn’t say was. Foolishness of the week: 07:00 Main episode…
Words & NumbersEpisode 341: Strangers With Candy
Economist Art Carden joins us this week to talk about his popular book, Strangers With Candy. Foolishness of the week: 04:27 Main episode: 18:01 Get Your Copy…
Words & NumbersEpisode 340: Wrongfully Convicted
Michael Semanchik, Director of the Innocence Center, joins us to talk about freeing the wrongfully imprisoned, and reforming the criminal justice system to…
Words & NumbersEpisode 339: The Meanings of Words
The point of communicating is to transfer thoughts from one person’s brain to another. In most forms of human communication, words are the tools we use. But if…
Words & NumbersEpisode 338: Age, Ability, and Incumbency
The Constitution sets lower age limits for members of Congress and the President, but sets no upper limits. Before modern medicine, this wasn’t as much of a…
Words & NumbersEpisode 337: The (Hollow) Sound of Freedom
James and I both went to see the recent box office hit, The Sound of Freedom. I liked it. James didn’t. But we both were appalled at what appear to be…
Words & NumbersEpisode 336: A Fireside Chat Without the Fire
Howie Baetjer, Rob McDonald, James Stacey Taylor, and Clark Neily join us to talk about gun rights, canceling the Founders, and animal rights. Get Your Copy of…
Words & NumbersEncore Episode 335: When Benevolence Backfires
This encore performance is of our most popular episode. This episode, in which we explore unintended consequences, first aired in September of 2019…
Words & NumbersEpisode 334: Live at Brookfield Academy, pt.2
James and Ant field questions from students at Brookfield Academy on possible fixes for Social Security, the politics of taxation and spending, and how we’ve…
Words & NumbersEpisode 333: Live at Brookfield Academy, pt.1
James and Ant field questions from students at Brookfield Academy on possible fixes for Social Security, the politics of taxation and spending, and how we’ve…
Words & NumbersEpisode 332: Should Speech be Free?
This week’s episode is a live recording of a panel discussion on free speech at the University of Washington. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now!…
Words & NumbersEpisode 331: A Fireside Chat
This week, historian Rob McDonald, Constitutional scholar and lawyer Clark Neily, philosophy James Stacey Taylor, and economist Howard Baetjer join James and…
Words & NumbersEpisode 330: What’s Up in the Economy?
Weird things are happening. Retail sales have stagnated, savings are markedly down, yet unemployment is low, inflation isn’t as bad as it was. Have we reached…
Words & NumbersEpisode 329: The Chevron Doctrine
For decades and where the law is ambiguous, courts have invoked the Chevron doctrine in allowing regulatory agencies to decide for themselves the meaning of…
Words & NumbersEpisode 328: Artificial Intelligence
People are saying that artificial intelligence will destroy jobs and enslave humans. We’ve heard this many times before. Before artificial intelligence, people…
Words & NumbersEpisode 327: To Vote or Not To Vote
Episode 327: To Vote or Not To Vote This week’s episode comes live from Sandy High School in Sandy Oregon where James and I give arguments for and against…
Words & NumbersEpisode 326: Gender and Race Wage Gaps
We hear that women make 80 cents for every dollar that men make, and that blacks earn less than whites. This week, we delve into the data and find these claims…
Words & NumbersEpisode 325: Central Bank Digital Currencies
One of the things that cryptocurrency has done is to prompt central banks to develop their own digital currencies. These will combine the downsides of private…
Words & NumbersEpisode 324: How Much Do Americans Earn?
The question, “How much do Americans earn?” seems simple. But there are so many moving parts below the surface that there is no single answer. For example, by…
Words & NumbersEpisode 323: Losing the Dollar
What happens if the dollar is no longer a world currency? Financial expert Pete Earle joins us to discuss his recent article on the end of the dollar as the…
Words & NumbersEpisode 322: A Smorgasbord of Topics
Bank runs, green investing, doctor shortage in Europe, are people getting dumber? Foolishness of the week: 09:07 Main episode: 11:32 Get Your Copy of…
Words & NumbersEpisode 321: Space and Property
Episode 321: Space and Property As humans venture out into space - not just under the auspices of government, but now as private citizens - establishing and…
Words & NumbersEpisode 320: Politics, Anarchy, and Baseball
Episode 320: Politics, Anarchy, and Baseball Economist, former mayor, self-professed anarchist, and baseball fan Randy Simmons joins us this week to talk about…
Words & NumbersEpisode 319: The Death of Silicon Valley Bank
Many listeners have asked that we do an episode on the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and its implications for the rest of the banking sector. Peter Earle…
Words & NumbersEpisode 318: Nostalgia and Pop-Culture
Foolishness of the week: 12:19 Main episode: 16:54 People’s view of the past is biased because we tend to forget the bad things. The (inexplicable to an…
Words & NumbersWords and Numbers Trailer
Words and Numbers is a weekly half-hour podcast that explores current events through the eyes of an economist and political scientist. The show is an…
Words & NumbersEpisode 317: Slavery, Capitalism, and The 1619 Project, Pt. 2
Foolishness of the week: 07:11 Main episode: 11:20 Economic historian Phil Magness joins us to talk about how the popular 1619 Project gets both the history…
Words & NumbersEpisode 316: Slavery, Capitalism, and The 1619 Project, Pt. 1
Foolishness of the week: 04:55 Main episode: 07:34 Economic historian Phil Magness joins us to talk about how the popular 1619 Project gets both the history…
Words & NumbersEpisode 315: Are We Done With Inflation?
Foolishness of the Week: 06:19 Main episode: 07:37 As recently as two months ago, many economists were concerned that significant inflation was here to stay…
Words & NumbersEpisode 314: What Happened to Trade?
There is much evidence pointing to a relationship between increased trade and improved socio-economic factors like income, poverty, equality, and the…
Words & NumbersEpisode 313: Nudging and Capturing
Foolishness of the week: 10:57 Main episode: 11:17 The USDA is experimenting with paying people to eat fruits and vegetables. That sounds like a good idea, but…
Words & NumbersEpisode 312: The Next American Economy
Dr. Samuel Gregg joins us to talk about his latest book, The Next American Economy, in which he describes emerging problems and potential solutions to…
Words & NumbersEpisode 311: Supply Chains Revisited
A year ago, Mikhail Rasner joined us to talk about shortages and supply chains. A year later, he’s back to talk about what’s happened, both expected and…
Words & NumbersEpisode 310: The Ratchet Effect and Civil Disagreement (fixed)
This week, we answer listener questions about the ratchet effect, how to disagree civilly, and who our dream guest would be. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and…
Words & NumbersEpisode 309: Liabilities, Rights, the Commerce Clause, and Significance
This week, we answer listener questions about unfunded liabilities, different types of rights, what would happen if the Supreme Court overturned the broad…
Words & NumbersEpisode 308: The Pursuit of Wealth
Pope Francis devoted his Christmas homily to speaking out about the evils of pursuing wealth. This week, James and Ant share their different takes on the…
Words & NumbersEpisode 307: Listener Questions: Central Banking, National Divorce, and Public Companies
Listener questions this week include: What are the benefits of central banking? Is it time for the states to have an amicable divorce? What would it take to…
Words & NumbersEpisode 306: Listener Questions: Contagion, Lawsuits, and Socialism, Pt. 1
This week, listeners ask whether it’s right to think of contagion as pollution, and if so, whether government has a role in containing contagion, why are we so…
Words & NumbersEpisode 305: How Did We Get Here?
Over the past century, three constraints on the federal government have failed. When we started ignoring Constitutional constraints, we opened the door to…
Words & NumbersEpisode 304: Good and Bad Regulations
Whether regulations are a good thing or a bad thing is a more complicated question than it appears. Government can regulate through law. But consumers can also…
Words & NumbersEpisode 303: Ronald Reagan
Our greatest immediate concerns are the combination of inflation and recession, and the threat of war with Russia. The United States faced this combination of…
Words & NumbersEpisode 302: Population Growth
Last week, we talked about the world population crossing the 8 billion mark. This week, we look at a related topic, population growth. We find the interesting…
Words & NumbersEpisode 301: 8 Billion
The world population crossed the 8 billion mark this week. As far back as at least the late 1700s, experts were predicting that overpopulation would lead to…
Words & NumbersEpisode 300: Economic Inequality in America
For our 300th episode, Senator Phil Gramm joins us to talk about his recent book on income inequality in America. The disturbing thing is that the government…
Words & NumbersEpisode 299: The Rights of the Dead
Do the dead have rights? This Halloween, philosopher James Stacey Taylor joins us for a live (heh) recording of Words & Numbers to take this question…
Words & NumbersEpisode 298: How do Treasury Bills Work?
People spend a lot of time talking about the debt and deficit, but most are unaware of the mechanics involved. This week, we cover some of those mechanics with…
Words & NumbersEpisode 297: What Happened to Poverty?
This month, the world takes stock of international poverty, and James and Ant put poverty into perspective both across countries and across time. Get Your Copy…
Words & NumbersEpisode 296: Think Like an Economist
All of economics boils down to a single fact: people respond to incentives. The first step to thinking like an economist is to take that fact seriously. Once…