Words & Numbers

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 regulate through choice. Some government regulations protect people from harm. But some purport to protect people from harm while actually protecting favored businesses from competition. In this live episode, recorded at Susquehanna University, we talk about the good and bad of regulation.   Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://www.livescience.com/quantum-computing https://www.heatbit.com https://cointelegraph.com/news/repurposing-bitcoin-mining-heat-can-solve-global-energy-crisis-arcane https://dnyuz.com/2022/12/06/in-sweeping-new-law-indonesia-outlaws-sex-outside-of-marriage Foolishness of the Week https://www.newsweek.com/ka

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 problems forty years ago. One important difference is that whereas we are politically divided today, then we were politically united. Going by electoral votes, Ronald Reagan was the last President who united the country, and the only President to unite it to a greater degree than George Washington.   Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/23/new-york-governor-signs-law-cracking-down-on-bitcoin-mining.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_volunteer_computing_projects https://www.wsj.com/articles/employers-rethink-need-for-college-degrees-in-tight-labor-market-11669432133 Foolishness of the Weekhttps://studyfi

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 fact that population growth has slowed to near zero in the developed world, and that future population growth will come mostly from Africa.   Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://inoculation.science https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/22/business/budweiser-unsold-beer-world-cup/index.html https://www.si.com/soccer/2022/11/19/qatar-world-cup-2022-beer-stadium-ban-fifa-gianni-infantino https://www.npr.org/2022/11/19/1137783957/world-cup-qatar-fan-restrictions-alcohol https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/18/success/home-heating-prices/index.html Foolishness of the Weekhttps://apnews.com/article/religion-new-york-brooklyn-796a0304635738768e52d21a6dd

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 mass starvation. Time and again, the experts end up being both right and wrong. They tend to be right in their projections that the world population is exploding, but they are always wrong about it leading to mass starvation. In fact, today’s 8 billion people live far better lives than did the 1 billion that lived back in the late 1700s.   Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hitshttps://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7kbq/palmer-luckey-made-a-vr-headset-that-kills-the-user-if-they-die-in-the-game https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/election-deniers-lose-races-for-key-state-offices-in-every-2020-battleground/ar-AA1433zT https://www.politico.com/news/20

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 figures that people quote concerning income inequality exclude all the tax and transfer adjustments we deliberately make to mitigate income inequality.   Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/08/billionaires-emit-a-million-times-more-greenhouse-gases-than-the-average-person-oxfam.html Foolishness of the Week https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/india/us-national-park-service-warns-people-to-stop-licking-toad-that-causes-hallucinations/ar-AA13Rs8d Topic of the Week https://www.amazon.com/Myth-American-Inequality-Government-Biases/dp/1538167387/ Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com

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 seriously.   Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/11/new-york-gun-buyback-rules-3d-printed-parts https://studyfinds.org/americans-unsure-about-god-politics-white-evangelicals/ Foolishness of the Week https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/sympathisers-mark-centenary-of-mussolinis-rise-to-power-in-italy/ar-AA13xayV Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Storieshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig More Ant on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/antonydavies Let Us Know What You Think mailto:

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 a discussion of Treasury notes, bills, and bonds.   Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/21/tax-revenue-spending-budget-deficit-drop-deficit-00062923 https://taxfoundation.org/federal-tax-collections-inflation-surging/ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/23/salman-rushdie-has-lost-sight-in-one-eye-and-use-of-one-hand-says-agent https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/17/salman-rushdie-survive-attacker-00052549 Foolishness of the Week https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2022/08/30/dea-warns-brightly-colored-fentanyl-used-target-young-americans Topic of the Weekhttps://www.treasurydirect.gov J

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 of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://slashdot.org/story/22/10/08/2234213/paypal-says-it-wont-fine-customers-2500-for-misinformation https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/-check-walker-acknowledges-giving-700-ex-denies-claim-knew-was-abortio-rcna52252 Foolishness of the Week https://nypost.com/2022/10/17/home-asking-prices-tumble-at-record-pace-as-mortgage-rates-surge/ Topic of the Weekhttps://foreignpolicy.com/2012/02/27/were-all-the-1-percent/ Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Storieshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ

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 you do, the world never looks the same.   Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://fortune.com/2022/10/03/how-to-get-stimulus-check-california-inflation-relief/ Foolishness of the Week https://www.theguardian.com/music/commentisfree/2022/oct/07/kanye-west-white-lives-matter-tucker-carlson Topic of the Weekhttps://mscee.org Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Storieshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig More Ant on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/antonydavies Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@g

People - including some economists - are so used to governments establishing currencies that we are unaware that there are alternatives. Money is simply a tool that reduces the frictional costs of trading goods and services and of saving. Markets can evolve money in the same way that they evolve all manner of other solutions to even more complex problems. Prof. Lawrence H. White joins us this week to talk about alternatives to government-created currencies. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/publications/trends-in-youth-arrests.pdf https://observer.com/2022/09/nft-trading-volume-plunges-97-since-january-raising-questions-about-their-future/ Foolishness of the Week https://news.yahoo.com/us-home-prices-now-posting-040100770.html Topic of the Week https://www.amazon.com/La

Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution lists the things the Federal government is permitted to do. Somewhere in our history, citizens have come to regard the Constitution as a document that outlines what the government is not allowed to do. That’s exactly the opposite of what the Founders intended. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/22/turkey-cuts-interest-rates-again-as-country-struggles-under-inflation.html https://www.thelocal.es/20220923/spain-to-tax-rich-to-offset-inflation-relief-measures/ Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Storieshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig More Ant on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/antonydavies Let Us Know Wha

Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution lists the things the Federal government is permitted to do. Somewhere in our history, citizens have come to regard the Constitution as a document that outlines what the government is not allowed to do. That’s exactly the opposite of what the Founders intended. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://www.guntab.com/insights/new-mcc-code-for-gun-stores-is-step-toward-suspicious-transaction-reports/ https://www-wtae-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.wtae.com/amp/article/pennsylvania-alcohol-self-imposed-ban-proposed/41233874 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/08/29/nasa-dart-crash-dart-asteroid-how-to-see/7926449001/   Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & S

The “age of majority” is the age at which a person is considered, legally, an adult. Not only does the age of majority vary by state and over time, it also varies by activity. Someone who is considered an adult for the purpose of voting, may not be for the purpose of drinking. As only adults can exercise their freedoms fully, the question of what constitutes an adult goes to the heart of what it is to be a free person.   Words & Numbers Website https://www.wordsandnumbers.org Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/10/guns-credit-card-trackable Foolishness of the Week https://www.cnsnews.com/article/washington/terence-p-jeffrey/americans-spent-more-taxes-2021-food-clothing-and-health-care Topic of the Week https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-ranki

This episode is an excerpt of an interview we gave with Dr. Anwar Dunbar for his YouTube channel, Big Discussions. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Carson Collins’ Award-Winning Video on the Minimum Wage  https://www.viddler.com/v/5e4c1764 Quick Hits https://data.oecd.org/emp/hours-worked.htm https://www.sltrib.com/news/nation-world/2022/09/05/prevent-martian-plague-nasa-will/ Foolishness of the Week https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/contact-lenses-might-soon-replace-our-phone-screens-8131768/ Topic of the Week https://bigwordsarepowerful.com https://www.youtube.com/c/BigDiscussions76 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF2pol-wUtQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEkRHqbj0zU   Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/1300294

We discuss two topics in-depth this week: student loan forgiveness and lying to pollsters. There’s an interesting technique for distinguishing between what voters say they believe and what they actually believe, and there’s a recent poll that uses this technique in asking people about their attitudes toward controversial topics. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://reason.com/2022/08/29/what-americans-think-about-marijuana-in-2022/ Foolishness of the Week https://reason.com/2022/08/25/ben-shapiro-podcast-movement-harm-done-twitter/ Topic of the Week https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59153bc0e6f2e109b2a85cbc/t/62fd07b49271c657d243505d/1660749762686/ Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Storieshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_v

Today’s woke-ism evolved from political correctness of the 1990s. While people have embraced many lessons about inclusion and empathy from the era of political correctness, people appear to be rejecting the woke-ism that tries to insinuate itself into popular culture. Post-covid movies provide a good example. Elite critics are applauding, and audiences are largely rejecting movies that use entertainment to teach woke-ism. Meanwhile, audiences are handing their dollars to movie makers (woke or otherwise) who entertain. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://www.cato.org/blog/senate-bill-irs-funding-hypocrisy https://nypost.com/2022/08/03/why-irs-80b-expansion-is-a-nightmare-for-small-business/ https://apnews.com/article/inflation-ap-fact-check-congress-government-and-politics-11eae023a3dc3a04584371843234cab7 https://deadline.com/2022/08/cnn-f

Maybe we’re in a recession, but maybe we’re not. This week, we talk about what a recession is and what it means, practically, for people.   Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hitshttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/us/columbia-us-news-rankings.html https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/ https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/liz-cheney-s-political-life-is-likely-ending-and-just-beginning/ar-AA10FNr7 https://theweek.com/liz-cheney/1015866/inside-the-liz-cheney-presidential-run-speculation https://finance.yahoo.com/news/spaghetti-sauce-under-threat-water-124539175.html Foolishness of the Weekhttps://reason.com/2022/08/14/spain-bans-a-c-below-80-degrees-during-record-setting-summer-heat/ Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & St

The Founders gave strong philosophical arguments for why secession from Great Britain was right and proper. Yet, when the Confederacy tried to secede from the Union, philosophical arguments against secession were few. Clearly, ending slavery was right and proper. And, the question of secession was, practically speaking, answered with the eradication of slavery. But the question of whether it is right and proper for states to secede remains, at least from a philosophical perspective, unaddressed. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hitshttps://theaviationgeekclub.com/heres-why-producing-thousand-gallons-of-jp-7-fuel-used-in-the-sr-71-blackbird-mach-3-spy-plane-caused-a-nationwide-shortage-of-flit-insecticide/ https://www.fastcompany.com/90775427/amazon-grandma-alexa-evolution-text-to-speech https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/inside-the-war-betwe

Part of the reason we make little progress on this topic of guns in this country is that the pro- and anti-gun camps talk past each other. This is fueled by a media that tends to show only one side of the story, causing both sides in the debate to become paranoid - one side comes to think that half the country is looking to disarm them, and the other side comes to think that half the country is blind to gun violence. A recent shooting gives us the opportunity to think about the topic from a more balanced perspective. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Weekhttps://abcnews.go.com/US/video/biden-tests-positive-covid-19-paxlovid-87762070 Foolishness of the Week https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/beyonce-offensive-lyric-ableist-slur-spaz-170000669.html Topic of the Week https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/indiana-passer-by-hail

Oddly, there’s not a lot in the news this week. Given what we’ve all been through the past couple of years, that’s likely a good thing. This week, we sit back and take a casual look at inflation, economic growth, entrepreneurs, standardization, and the gig economy. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits and Foolishness of the Weekhttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GASREGW https://gasprices.aaa.com https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ice-cream-trucks-are-the-latest-target-of-inflation/ar-AAZYTxK Foolishness of the Week https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_Bruce#Death_and_posthumous_pardon https://www.npr.org/2022/07/21/1112722821/dave-chappelle-minneapolis-show-canceled Topic of the Week https://www.usacarry.com/40-yards-elisjsha-dicken-landed-shots-mall-shooter/ https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/19/us/eli-dicken-indiana-mall-shooting-bystander/index.html