The Prof G Pod

"A Few People Want Everything" — Heather Cox Richardson on the Fight Over Inequality

A few people want everything, and the rest of us would like a government that actually serves our needs as well.

The Prof G Pod

$200K Salary, $2.1M Home: The Housing Math Is Broken With Kyla Scanlon and Aziz Sunderji

One of the biggest errors we made was taking housing permitting out of the hands of bureaucrats and putting it into homeowners who obviously have a vested interest in seeing supply remain quite frankly under supplied.

Pivot

Why Elon’s "Flying" Roadster Stunt Is Pure Distraction

America shouldn't be dependent on the kindness of strangers. We should have a progressive tax policy. They should do what they can to make as much profits as possible and return return um gains to their shareholders. And we need to tax these companies at a progressive rate similar to what we did in the ' 80s, 90s, and throughout history.

EconTalk

The Great Fertility Collapse (with Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde)

as retirees become the dominant voting bloc, spending on pensions and health care crowds out roads, schools, and defense. Shrinking economies make public debt harder to service, and fewer births mean fewer scientists, artists, and inventors.

EconTalk

Public Choice and Politics Without Romance (with Mike Munger)

Before you give the government new powers, try the Munger Test: cross out "government" and insert the name of the politician you trust least. Then see if you still like the idea.

The Prof G Pod

America’s $40 Trillion Debt Is Actually Fixable | Office Hours

Budgets reflect values and our values right now or our tax system reflects our values. Our values are that sweat is less noble than money. And that is the money money makes gets taxed at a lower rate.

EconTalk

The Hidden Cause of the Industrial Revolution (with Ben Southwood)

What if the Industrial Revolution wasn't sparked by the steam engine, but by a quiet legal revolution in how England handled property rights?

EconTalk

The Political Economy of Palestine (with Hussein Aboubakr Mansour)

Most discourses about Israel or Palestine are morality plays of good guys vs bad guys. Egyptian-born Hussein Aboubakr Mansour takes a different approach, seeing the conflict as a self-reproducing system of political and economic extraction where Arab regimes, opposition movements, rival states, Western academics, NGOs, and Gulf monarchies like Qatar all convert Palestinian victimhood into their own forms of power, money, and meaning.

EconTalk

The Political Economy of Palestine (with Hussein Aboubakr Mansour)

Most discourses about Israel or Palestine are morality plays of good guys vs bad guys... seeing the conflict as a self-reproducing system of political and economic extraction where Arab regimes, opposition movements, rival states, Western academics, NGOs, and Gulf monarchies like Qatar all convert Palestinian victimhood into their own forms of power, money, and meaning.

The Week

The Week | The Cost of Being Young in America

Once a country decides its houses are supposed to make everyone rich, it has to keep prices rising forever, which means restricting supply, blocking development, and quietly pricing out each new generation, which works until it doesn't.

Prof G Markets

The Week | Is the Market Rigged for Insiders?

The best way to increase your stock price in America today isn't to improve your product or to sell more goods and services. It is to have your stock anointed by the high priest of American markets, aka the president. If you can do that, great things will occur.

Pivot

Trump's Latest Crypto Earnings Show "Astonishing" Grift | Pivot

It's not a conflict of interest. It's a business model. And essentially what you have in America is slowly but surely we're monetizing everything. We monetize healthcare. We monetize education. We monetize uh enragement online. And now the president is monetizing the full faith and credit and power of the White House.

Idea Knock Down

Should There Be a Wealth Limit for Politicians? | Idea Knock Down | TED

Authoritarianism is uh flaring up around the globe. Not because of anything authoritarianism is doing right, but because of what democracy is getting wrong and in particular that democracy is not delivering like real tangible improvements in people's lives, in particular financial improvements and there is a massive correlation between countries that have extreme uh income inequality and see erosions of democracy, which is understandable because like why would you vote for a system that isn't working for you?

Book of the Day

Sen. Chris Murphy wants the left and right to fix the country’s 'spiritual rot'

Somebody is getting screwed in this country and somebody is doing the screwing. It's just not immigrants and Muslims and gay kids and drag shows. It's corporations and billionaires and super PACs.

The Prof G Pod

Scott Galloway: Social Security Is Failing Young People | Office Hours

The thing that's going to gut this economy is the fact that we're now spending 40% of our federal budget on programs for seniors, you know, uh Medicare and um and social security and all these basically old people vote and the Dian democracy is working too well and we keep transferring money from young people are more productive to old people who are less productive.

Diet TBPN

Social Network Sequel Trailer, Fable 5 Sparks Safety Debate, SpaceX IPO Watch | Diet TBPN

We're twice as big as the biggest country on earth. We're not frightened of Congress. We're post government around here.

EconTalk

Adam Smith's Warning About Wealth, Fame, and Status (with Ross Levine)

Smith's sobering warning that when a society admires wealth and power for their own sake, it breeds servility and undermines freedom.