Words & Numbers

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-firings-brian-stelter-chris-licht-john-malone-warner-bros-discovery-1235096292/ https://www.thewrap.com/don-lemon-jim-acosta-expected-to-stay-cnn-neutral-direction-exclusive/ Foolishness of the Week https://apnews.com/article/nato-covid-health-finland-helsinki-bb9704d5663b68766fcd2376335a29c4 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@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies James R. Harrigan on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 & Storieshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies James R. Harrigan on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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-between-trump-and-his-generals Foolishness of the Week https://www.kiplinger.com/taxes/602142/tax-on-mega-millions-jackpot 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@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies James R. Harrigan on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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-hailed-after-shooting-mall-gunman-2022-07-18/ 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@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies James R. Harrigan on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/19/us/armed-bystander-indiana-mall-shooting.html https://www.cbsnews.com/news/indiana-mall-shooting-elisjsha-dicken-neutralized-gunman-15-seconds/ https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%201-m&geo=US&gprop=news&q=shooting 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@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies James R. Harrigan on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Social Security has become a trillion dollar weight dragging down our economics and politics. On the one hand, according to the Social Security administration itself, the program will be insolvent within a decade. On the other, we can’t shut it down without condemning many elderly to destitution. This week, we talk about a plan that would phase out Social Security, do it without cutting benefits to current retirees, leave future retirees better off, and save the government money. The catch is that the phase-out requires many decades.   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 Week https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/snaiohx-hampton-suites-irvine-orange-county-airport/ https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-new-york-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-queens-congress-7e1d71dec55714872f60a4f34d02b7d7 https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/aoc-laments-insane-cost-of-being-congresswoman Foolishness of the Week https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11022021/Jill-Biden-voices-frustration-Joes-lack-progress-White-House.html https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/20407226/bidens-dissertation.pdf 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@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies James R. Harrigan on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recently, we talked about polls showing a serious erosion of trust in the branches of government. This week, we focus on the media. It turns out that Americans trust the media about as much as they trust Congress - and it’s amazing how little they trust Congress. Interestingly, there’s a sharp division among party lines.   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 Week https://www.amazon.com/Alone/dp/B07RYP2QSW https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/outrage-erupts-white-house-calls-013222807.html Foolishness of the Week https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pregnant-woman-given-hov-ticket-argues-fetus-is-passenger-post-roe/ar-AAZoI2r Topic of the Week https://www.axios.com/2022/07/08/news-republicans-democrats-trust-partisanship 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@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan       Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No matter what we do to tweak our healthcare system, we seem to end up with the same problems decade after decade. Proponents of socialized medicine say that healthcare is simply too complex of a problem to leave to profit-seeking actors in the marketplace. Proponents of free market medicine say that healthcare is a product like any other product and that much of the complexity that exists is actually due to government regulations themselves. This week, we talk with an economic historian and ask, what happened to healthcare in this country? 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 Week https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/wxn8qx/amtrak-spent-11-years-and-dollar450-million-to-save-acela-riders-100-seconds https://www.railpassengers.org/site/assets/files/3480/1.pdf https://news.gallup.com/poll/394283/confidence-institutions-down-average-new-low.aspx Foolishness of the Week https://abcnews.go.com/US/couple-fined-1500-parking-driveway/story?id=86181089 Topic of the Week https://history.umbc.edu/facultystaff/full-time/christy-ford-chapin/ https://www.amazon.com/Ensuring-Americas-Health-Creation-Corporate/dp/1107622875/ref=sr_1_1 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 Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies James R. Harrigan on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Historian Rob McDonald joins us on this Fourth of July week to talk about the events leading up to the founding, and his observation that the Founders thought less that they were declaring independence from Great Britain than that Parliament and the King had effectively declared the colonies independent by failing to fulfill the basic functions of government. 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 Week https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/this-gorgeous-leather-is-made-from-the-hide-of-an-invasive-predatory-fish/ https://www.inversaleathers.com https://www.fb.org/newsroom/cost-of-july-4th-cookout-17-higher-compared-to-year-ago Foolishness of the Week https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-gas-prices-surge-stations-now-hold-up-to-175-of-your-money-when-you-swipe-11656277411 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 Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies James R. Harrigan on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For one-hundred years, the United States has been conducting an experiment in unlimited government wherein politicians spend far beyond the government’s means, kicking the fiscal can down the road for future generations to pay. The future has finally arrived and we are that future generation. The inflation we’re experiencing now is the beginning of the price we’ll be paying for a century of unlimited government. 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 Week https://www.wuft.org/news/2022/06/02/gainesville-residents-and-city-officials-gather-to-strategize-how-to-tackle-affordable-housing-issues-in-the-city/ https://www.sightline.org/2014/09/29/zoning-inclusionary-v-exclusionary/ https://dailytravelpill.com/montane-mansion-hong-kong-monster-building/ https://news.yahoo.com/affordable-housing-california-now-routinely-120027201.html   Foolishness of the Week https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/19/holiday-weekend-sees-massive-amount-of-flight-cancellations.html   Topic of the Week https://www.aier.org/article/a-time-for-reckoning/ 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 Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies James R. Harrigan on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices