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 116: What Happens When We Make College “Free”?
There’s no such thing as a free lunch or, in this case, a free college education, despite the promises of certain presidential candidates. The federal…
Words & NumbersEpisode 115: The Campus Witch Trials
Many college students seem baffled or even outraged by opinions that differ from their own. We hear phrases like safe spaces, trigger warnings, and virtue…
Words & NumbersEpisode 114: Is It Ok to Pay People for Their Blood Plasma?
Getting paid for your blood—do you have any concerns? Many people are opposed to donors receiving compensation for ethical reasons. Should people only donate…
Words & NumbersEpisode 113: The Origins of the Social Contract, Part 2
Wage gap myths, middle class success, and hate crime statistics are examined this week in order to dispel the calls for a new social contract. In a society…
Words & NumbersEpisode 112: The Origins of the Social Contract, Part 1
Have you ever signed a contract without reading the terms and conditions? According to Elizabeth Warren, part of the “social contract” is to pay your fair…
Words & NumbersEpisode 111: Game of Votes: Electoral vs. Popular
538 Electors. 270 votes. Winner-takes-all! Well, at least for now. Colorado recently became the twelfth state to join an effort to award the presidency to the…
Words & NumbersEpisode 110: Is Facebook a Monopoly?
The dominating online presence of Facebook, Google, and Amazon has often been called monopolistic. Government-enforced monopolies, such as Western Union and Ma…
Words & NumbersEpisode 109: Are You In the Global 1%?
Live from Scottsdale, Arizona! James Harrigan and Antony Davies contend that the median income in the US puts Americans in the top 1 percent in the world. What…
Words & NumbersEpisode 108: Where Are They Now? The Disappearance of Mutual Aid Societies.
This week’s guest, David Beito, professor of History at the University of Alabama, discusses the functions, benefits, and undoing of mutual aid societies…
Words & NumbersEpisode 107: Modern Monetary Theory The Government as Referee, Player, and Scorekeeper
This week, economist and theorist Warren Mosler joins James and Antony to explain the details of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). With 40 years of experience in…
Words & NumbersEpisode 106: Can Anti-Discrimination Laws Get Us Closer to a Meritocracy?
Discrimination happens every single day. Every human, in some way, makes a judgment about other humans and uses that judgment to discriminate, whether that be…
Words & NumbersEpisode 105: The “Problem” with Billionaires
The Outrage Engine that is social media and op-eds has set its sights on a new target: billionaires. Apparently, being a billionaire is a bad, bad thing…
Words & NumbersEpisode 104: “You Just Hate the Poor!” and Other Minimum Wage Misunderstandings
Fun fact: the profit margin for most businesses is about 8 percent. When you’re talking about categories like restaurants and retail stores, that margin drops…
Words & NumbersEpisode 103: What Does “Necessary and Proper” Actually Mean?
Though the United States, as a constitutional republic, is considered to be a “limited government,” it often doesn’t feel that way. Washington keeps churning…
Words & NumbersEpisode 102: “Diversity” Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means
The word “diversity” has become a sticky one. In the last fifteen years, a genuine “diversity industry” has sprung up, particularly at colleges and…
Words & NumbersEpisode 101: Fear Fuels Faulty Reasoning Regarding Rifles
Americans are pretty concerned about violent crime—particularly crimes committed with guns, “assault weapons” most specifically. This concern, statistically…
Words & NumbersEpisode 100: The Good Old Days Weren’t All That Good
People like to talk about the “good old days” where everything used to be so much better than it is today. Everybody feels nostalgic on occasion, and it’s…
Words & NumbersEpisode 99: Buying Kidneys with an Ethics Professor
Happy 2019, everyone! On our first episode of Words & Numbers in the new year, professor James Stacey Taylor joins Antony and James this week to discuss the…
Words & NumbersEpisode 98: Trump, Adams, and Sedition
Within less than a decade of ratification of the Bill of Rights, President John Adams signed the Sedition Act, which blatantly violated the First Amendment’s…
Words & NumbersEpisode 97: Americans Are Remarkably Charitable
Americans have the distinct reputation of being incredibly selfish. All things considered, it’s not exactly unearned. That said, every year, Americans also…
Words & NumbersEpisode 96: What Is Money, Anyway?
Money is one of those things that is so ubiquitous, so completely taken for granted, that we rarely stop to think about what it actually is. The colored bits…
Words & NumbersEpisode 95: Why No One Can “Steal” a Job
We hear a lot about jobs, these days. We have monthly government jobs reports. Our politicians talk about job creation. Some people fear others will “take our…
Words & NumbersEpisode 94: Facebook Is Awful, but What’s the Alternative?
It’s no secret that social media is in a bit of a shambles. The big players like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are purging accounts, censoring content, and…
Words & NumbersEpisode 93: Focus on the Principles, Not the Outcomes
There was once a time when politicians were civil to each other. Neighbors and friends who disagreed politically remained neighborly and friendly to each…
Words & NumbersEpisode 92: America Is Not a Democracy
In the wake of the midterm elections, there’s been a lot of talk about democracy and how it works. Many—largely on the left—are confused and angry because…
Words & NumbersEpisode 91: It’s Not the Government’s Job to Provide Goods and Services
“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…
Words & NumbersEpisode 90: What’s So Creative about Destruction?
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…
Words & NumbersEpisode 89: A Raging Dumpster Fire of Injustice
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…
Words & NumbersEpisode 88: When Is This Year’s “Deficit Day”?
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…
Words & NumbersEpisode 87: Why Do We Even Have Trade Agreements, Anyway?
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…
Words & NumbersEpisode 86: Words and Numbers Listener Special #2
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…
Words & NumbersEpisode 85: Are We Living Madison’s Nightmare?
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…
Words & NumbersEpisode 84: Price-Gouging Bans Don’t Make Things Cheaper, They Make Them More Scarce
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…
Words & NumbersEpisode 83: How the Meanings of "Liberal" and "Conservative" Have Changed
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…
Words & NumbersEpisode 82: Capitalism Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means
The word “capitalism” has become incredibly loaded over the years. And since the term was actually popularized by Karl Marx to be the foil for his own…
Words & NumbersEpisode 81: Despite Its Rebranding, Socialism Is Still Horrific
We’re experiencing the rise of a new kind of socialist. The original definition of socialism—state ownership of the means of production—is beginning to fall by…
Words & NumbersEpisode 80: You Can’t Make College Free
Everybody vaguely familiar with basic economic concepts knows that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. It’s a great phrase and speaks to the principles of…
Words & NumbersEpisode 79: How Not to Be Terrible at College
James and Ant have a lot of experience with both high school and college students. Most of the time, they’re extremely impressed with the high school students…
Words & NumbersEpisode 78: Is a College Degree Worth the Cost?
As the back-to-school season gets into full swing, hundreds of thousands of young people are heading back to class at their chosen college or university. On…
Words & NumbersEpisode 77: 'There Ought to Be a Law’: What that Phrase Actually Means
People tend to have a strange blind spot when it comes to government. We—or a lot of us, at least—tend to assume the best of intentions from our government…
Words & NumbersEpisode 76: Real Numbers Behind Public’s Biggest Concerns
Gallup recently asked 1,000 people about what the most important issue we’re dealing with is in the United States. You might think that the majority answered…
Words & NumbersEpisode 75: If You Want Prosperity for All, Try Economic Freedom
There are many people in this world who like to make the argument, "Correlation is not causation." And this oft-used expression is true. Correlation is not, in…
Words & NumbersEpisode 74: Should the Supreme Court Matter So Much?
Why are we debating the Supreme Court nominees as much as we are? Unbelievably, written requirements of the Supreme Court are non-existent. Where the…
Words & NumbersEpisode 73: How Politics Distorts Our Perceptions
What do you know about the political party you disagree with the most? Who do you think makes the group up? Is it a bunch of “libtard snowflakes” who are all…
Words & NumbersEpisode 72: An Insider’s Indictment of the “Justice” System
The criminal justice system presents a lot of issues, the least of which is discrimination. . . despite what the public may think. Over decades, prosecutors…
Words & NumbersEpisode 71: Ignore the Naysayers, Life Is Amazing
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…
Words & NumbersEpisode 70: The Federal Government is Bankrupt
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…
Words & NumbersEpisode 69: Government Job Reports Can Be Misleading
The jobs report for the month of May has recently been released, and Republicans—particularly President Trump—have been very busy congratulating themselves…
Words & NumbersEpisode 68: As Long As People Are Free, There Will Be Inequality
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…
Words & NumbersEpisode 67: Words and Numbers Listener Special
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 & NumbersEpisode 66: If Your Heart Is in the Right Place, You Better Get Your Facts Straight
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…
Words & NumbersEpisode 65: Which Is More Important, Political Freedom or Economic Freedom?
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…
Words & NumbersEpisode 64: Why We Don't Have Principled Politicians?
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…
Words & NumbersEpisode 63: Can Comedy Change the World?
In today's strange climate of political correctness, free speech exists in a weird place. Safe spaces, First Amendment zones, the attitude of victimization…
Words & NumbersEpisode 62: Progressive Taxation Makes Everyone Worse Off
Every year, the American people spend about $30 billion on accountants and software to file their taxes. That's on top of taxes themselves. Approximately 26…
Words & NumbersEpisode 61: Why Our High Schools Can’t Keep Up with Our Universities?
Much has been said about the high cost of higher education in America. And it is, indeed, quite expensive and getting more so at an alarming rate. For all…
Words & NumbersEpisode 60: Social Security Is Doomed. Now What?
There's no way to sugar-coat it. Social Security is going to fail. There are, of course, ways to possibly extend its life for a few years, or even decades, but…
Words & NumbersEpisode 59: Is Moderation the Next Big Thing in American Politics?
Pundits are declaring that America is a nation divided. In fairness, this is a true statement, but it's not a new phenomenon. America has been a nation divided…
Words & NumbersEpisode 58: Federal Spending Is Out of Control
The American federal government has a serious spending problem. The federal debt, the sum total of all the money the government has borrowed, has hit $21…
Words & NumbersEpisode 57: Death for Dealing... Really?
Rumors have been circulating recently that the Trump Administration is considering including drug dealing among those crimes that can be subject to capital…