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 176: The Supreme Court’s Qualified Mishap
Clark Neily joins us to discuss policing, the origin and effect of qualified immunity, and what the courts have said about whether police have a duty to…
Words & NumbersEpisode 175: Listener Special #6
In this episode, we answer listener questions that we didn’t have time to cover in the previous listener special episode. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and…
Words & NumbersEpisode 174: Day of the Debt
Deficit Day - the hypothetical day on which the federal government’s tax revenues for the year run out - lands on June 21. Not only is that the earliest…
Words & NumbersEpisode 173: Understanding the Perfect Storm
The riots sweeping the country are the result of a perfect storm. It’s about racism, but more. It’s about police accountability, but more. It’s about too many…
Words & NumbersEpisode 172: Listener Special #5
In this episode, we answer listener questions. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com Show Your Support for Words…
Words & NumbersEpisode 171: Are Social Distancing Violations the New Stop and Frisk?
In New York City, stop and frisk was controversial because it was a violation of the Fourth Amendment. As implemented, police would stop and frisk people…
Words & NumbersEpisode 170: John Stossel Joins Words and Numbers Pt. 2
This week is part two of Stossel in the Classroom meets Words & Numbers. We continue the conversation with John Stossel about economics, politics, and society…
Words & NumbersEpisode 169: John Stossel Joins Words and Numbers Pt. 1
John Stossel joins us this week to talk about economics, politics, and society. This is part one of two, so be sure to tune in next week for more exciting…
Words & NumbersEpisode 168: Not Your Great-Grandfather's Depression
A depression differs from a recession in both the severity of the downturn and the duration. Recessions typically last months; the Great Depression lasted a…
Words & NumbersEpisode 167: Viewing the World Through Panic-Tinted Glasses
In times of crisis, humans develop a dangerous, asymmetric view of events. We readily see the damage the crisis causes, but we don’t readily see the potential…
Words & NumbersEpisode 166: The Economics of Optimism
Vernon Smith, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in economics joins us on this episode to talk about the economic impact of the coronavirus and why, though we will…
Words & NumbersEpisode 165: Constitutional Crisis
In response to the virus, state and city governments are exercising powers that they wouldn’t have in normal times. State and local governments are ordering…
Words & NumbersEpisode 164: The Future of Public Schooling
In the debate over the future of public schooling in the U.S., charter schools may show the way forward. Similar to public schools, charter schools are open to…
Words & NumbersEpisode 163: Interview with Lincoln Chafee
Lincoln Chafee is possibly the only politician in US history who has served as mayor, governor, and US Senator and been elected as a Republican, a Democrat…
Words & NumbersEpisode 162: The Law of Demanding More Supplies
The laws of economics aren’t social conventions that we can choose to follow or ignore as it suits us. When demand for a product outstrips supply, the price of…
Words & NumbersEpisode 161: Why Is It So Hard to Sue the Police?
When a person harms another, the harmed party can go to the courts to seek redress. But the Supreme Court sets police and prosecutors above the law. If someone…
Words & NumbersEpisode 160: Crude Reactions
Ten years ago, an explosion on the oil rig Deepwater Horizon killed almost a dozen people and resulted in the worst oil spill in US history. This week…
Words & NumbersEpisode 159: Missing the Marx
Karl Marx’s thoughts on socialism are popular among politicians and humanities professors, but not so much among business people and economics professors. In…
Words & NumbersEpisode 158: Incivility
We’ve all experienced incivility on the Internet. But today’s incivility is more than people being rude to each other online. Political leaders have become…
Words & NumbersEpisode 157: Black Markets
Many people imagine that, when the government bans something, the banned thing goes away. In fact, what banning does is to remove government protections…
Words & NumbersEpisode 156: The Government’s Rosy Outlook
The Congressional Budget Office is tasked with forecasting the federal budget. Over the past twenty years, the CBO has tended to over-estimate future tax…
Words & NumbersEpisode 155: David Schmidtz on Equality and Justice
When most people say, “equality,” they mean income equality. Economists draw a finer distinction between income equality and wealth equality. Political…
Words & NumbersEpisode 154: Cracks in the Ivory Tower
The rising cost of tuition is merely a symptom of a disease. The disease, which is much more complex, involves misplaced incentives from administrators to…
Words & NumbersEpisode 153: Prohibition and Constitutional Constraints
The 18th Amendment was ratified a century ago, beginning the United States’ fourteen-year experiment with prohibition. An Amendment was needed because the…
Words & NumbersEpisode 152: Government Schools and the Freedom to Choose
“School choice” is much more than parents being able to choose which schools their children will attend. It is also teachers being free to design and teach…
Words & NumbersEpisode 151: New Year Resolutions
It’s the New Year, a time when people like to make resolutions. In this episode, James and Ant look at surveys on what Americans pick for their New Year…
Words & NumbersEpisode 150: A Culture of Envy
People tend to talk about income inequality as if it were necessarily a bad thing. In so doing, they often confuse inequality and poverty and, in the process…
Words & NumbersEpisode 149: Predictions and Reality of Net Neutrality
A year ago, FCC repealed net neutrality - the law that required internet service providers to treat all data passing through their servers the same. Proponents…
Words & NumbersEpisode 148: The Cost of Living
Large countries, like the United States, span multiple time zones and have multiple climates. They also have multiple economies, each with different price…
Words & NumbersEpisode 147: Patently Absurd
One of the few enumerated powers that the Founders granted to the federal government was the power to issue patents. Patents are a compromise between two…
Words & NumbersEpisode 146: A Time to Give Thanks
Sometimes, the things we take for granted are the things we should be most thankful for. Football games on your television, climate control in your…
Words & NumbersEpisode 145: Morality and Economics
James and Antony record before a live audience at Truman State University, asking the question, “Is Capitalism moral?” Their answer wends its way through the…
Words & NumbersEpisode 144: How Does Direct Access Primary Care Work?
The US health care system is rife with many variables affecting the prices of and access to medical care. iHealth is a health care provider that does not take…
Words & NumbersEpisode 143: The Difference Between Socialism and Transferism
Using a historical definition of the term, socialism designated a political system where the government owns the means of production. However, for many people…
Words & NumbersEpisode 142: Are There Limits to Free Speech?
Many attention-grabbing headlines talk about laws restricting speech. It seems some legislators don’t know the constitutionality of these proposed laws. What…
Words & NumbersEpisode 141: Who Are the Real Presidential Contenders?
It’s debate season, and speculation about who will be the next president has already begun. Looming over the current president are constant calls for…
Words & NumbersEpisode 140: What Can We Learn from Joker?
Sean Malone, the creator of the Out of Frame video series and Director of Media at FEE, gives us his unique perspective on the film Joker. Do art and cinema…
Words & NumbersEpisode 139: Happy Deficit Day!
This year, October 3, 2019, is Deficit Day, the day the federal government’s income runs out. For a long time, the government has been spending more money than…
Words & NumbersEpisode 138: Vaping, Firearms, and the Leading Causes of Death in the US
As the saying goes, nothing can be certain except death and taxes. Thousands of people die every year from a remarkably wide variety of causes. What are the…
Words & NumbersEpisode 137: Tank Man
In this episode, James and Ant interview Robert Anthony Peters, producer and director of Tank Man, the story of the everyday person who stood down the Chinese…
Words & NumbersEpisode 136: To Find Solutions, Follow the Incentives
Tuition increases seem to indicate that colleges might have an incentive to admit students who may not succeed. Meanwhile, many professors are being required…
Words & NumbersEpisode 135: The Reality of Legal Immigration
Immigration policy in the United States is fraught with obstacles. Visas, green cards, and work permits all have complicated stipulations that must be…
Words & NumbersEpisode 134: Benevolence Backfires: The Cobra Effect
Many proposed solutions to society’s problems produce unintended consequences. Some laws passed in good faith, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act…
Words & NumbersEpisode 133: What’s Up With the National Debates?
If you haven’t seen either of the previous Democratic primary debates, here’s a summary: Twenty candidates debate free health care and slavery reparations…
Words & NumbersEpisode 132: Words & Numbers Listener Special #4
Which historical figures do you respect? Which economic concepts should be taught to children? How do you trust statistics? James Harrigan and Antony Davies…
Words & NumbersEpisode 131: Can Incentives Save the World?
When it comes to wildlife conservation and other environmental concerns, the ideas of free markets and private property are frequently laughed off as silly by…
Words & NumbersEpisode 130: Unschooling and Encouraging Self-Directed Children
For many children, compulsory education and authority figures tend to inadvertently turn off their sense of curiosity and wonder about the world. Additionally…
Words & NumbersEpisode 129: When Do We Reach Adulthood?
As we reach pivotal milestones, such as the legal driving age, we’re met with serious questions: Who decided I’m not old enough to vote? Why can I drive but…
Words & NumbersEpisode 128: Are Corporations People?
Citizens United, a conservative non-profit corporation, was once caught in the crosshairs of campaign finance law. The company violated the Bipartisan Campaign…
Words & NumbersEpisode 127: What Is a Wealth of Data Worth?
As people like, share, and upload on social media platforms, data is generated by users and gathered by tech companies. It’s a bit unclear, however, how…
Words & NumbersEpisode 126: Who Owns Outer Space?
When it comes to the final frontier, we must inevitably outline the government’s role in interplanetary colonization. Perhaps during the next century, there…
Words & NumbersEpisode 125: Celebrating American Independence
This week’s guest, Robert McDonald, author of Confounding Father talks about the quintessential American philosopher: Thomas Jefferson. During the birth of…
Words & NumbersEpisode 124: Arguing Outcomes Instead of Principles Puts the Cart Before the Horse
There appears to be a large problem in America with outcome-based thinking, particularly with regards to hot-button political issues. We skip straight to the…
Words & NumbersEpisode 123: What Does Equality Even Mean?
The word “equality” is a tricky one. It means different things to different people in different contexts. Do we mean “income equality”? “Wealth equality”?…
Words & NumbersEpisode 122: Changing the Rules for Social Security
As the saying goes, if you want less of something, tax it. Recently, a House bill was proposed that would raise the taxable income cap for Social Security to…
Words & NumbersEpisode 121: Are Hot Button Issues Actually Important?
If life is an inalienable right, does that take the death penalty off the table? Is there really a need for social safety nets? Taxation, the Articles of…
Words & NumbersEpisode 120: What Is Impeachment and How Does It Work?
Only twice has the U.S. House of Representatives impeached a president, and never has the Senate voted to remove an impeached president from office. People…
Words & NumbersEpisode 119: Words & Numbers Listener Special #3
If the federal government disappeared, would there still be a United States? Does every country fall on a spectrum between two extremes, capitalism and…
Words & NumbersEpisode 118: Household Debt: The Good, the Bad, and the Politicized
Americans, as individuals, carry a lot of debt. But don’t panic! Not all debt is created equal, and not all debt is necessarily a bad thing. Some debt—like…
Words & NumbersEpisode 117: What’s Your Fair Share?
Lately, headlines seem to focus on big companies that pay no corporate taxes. However, most of those big companies are still paying payroll taxes. So, have…