The Answer Is Transaction Costs

EXPLORE

Society & Culture

Health & Fitness

© 2024 PodJoint

https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts211/v4/9a/5e/b0/9a5eb06b-5caa-0b32-7c04-d80bbf616c4e/mza_14015595691550327099.jpg/600x600bb.jpg

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

Michael Munger

54 episodes

1 day ago

Send us a text Middlemen are not parasites but essential "engineers of exchange" who create value by connecting buyers and sellers who might never find each other otherwise. • The word "monger" (and Munger) comes from a Saxon root--Mancgere-- meaning trader or merchant • Middlemen historically seen as parasites for buying cheap and selling dear without improving products • 11th-century "mancgere" traders defended their value despite not changing the goods they sold • RA Radford's 1945 POW ca...

Show more...

Social Sciences

All content for The Answer Is Transaction Costs is the property of Michael Munger and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Send us a text Middlemen are not parasites but essential "engineers of exchange" who create value by connecting buyers and sellers who might never find each other otherwise. • The word "monger" (and Munger) comes from a Saxon root--Mancgere-- meaning trader or merchant • Middlemen historically seen as parasites for buying cheap and selling dear without improving products • 11th-century "mancgere" traders defended their value despite not changing the goods they sold • RA Radford's 1945 POW ca...

Show more...

Social Sciences

Episodes (20/54)

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

The Engineers of Exchange: Middlemen, Part Deux

Send us a text Middlemen are not parasites but essential "engineers of exchange" who create value by connecting buyers and sellers who might never find each other otherwise. • The word "monger" (and Munger) comes from a Saxon root--Mancgere-- meaning trader or merchant • Middlemen historically seen as parasites for buying cheap and selling dear without improving products • 11th-century "mancgere" traders defended their value despite not changing the goods they sold • RA Radford's 1945 POW ca...

15 hours ago

16 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

FA Hayek: Price Whisperer

Send us a text The price system solves a profound coordination problem by communicating dispersed knowledge that no central planner could ever fully access or comprehend. We explore Hayek's insight about how prices serve as both information and incentives, allowing self-interested actions to inadvertently benefit society. • The "knowledge problem" – why information needed for economic decisions is dispersed among millions of individuals • Tale of two farmers – how profit-seeking Mo unknowing...

1 week ago

18 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

The Price of Pennies: Make or Buy?

Send us a text The make-or-buy decision is a fundamental aspect of economics that applies to businesses, households, and nations, with the U.S. penny providing a fascinating case study in economic inefficiency. • It costs 2.72 cents to manufacture one penny, representing a loss of 1.7 cents per coin to taxpayers • The U.S. Treasury loses between $85-120 million annually due to penny production costs • There are approximately 130 billion pennies in existence, but only 5-10% actively circulate...

2 weeks ago

19 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

Pretty Pigs and Talking Dogs

Send us a text How should we decide which political-economic systems are best for organizing society? Let's peer through the lens of the "Pretty Pig Problem," which highlights the flaws in comparing the actual implementation of systems we dislike with idealized versions of systems we prefer. The PPP shows that we must compare real-world options rather than theoretical ideals. Some details: • Only three social systems are viable at scale: authoritarianism, capitalism, and democratic so...

3 weeks ago

11 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

Barking Cats: On the "Nature" of Bureaucracy

Send us a text Transaction costs are the friction in the gears of society, but the worst transaction costs are the ones that reflect government failure. You can see it in ever cliche about government, from the dreaded DMV lines to the passport control bottleneck. Drawing on Milton Friedman's "Barking Cats" essay from 1973, I explore why bureaucracy remains fundamentally immune to reform efforts, regardless of which political party holds power. The frustrating reality is that bureaucracies op...

4 weeks ago

21 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

Pins: Division of Labor is Limited by Transaction Costs

Send us a text Adam Smith's pin factory example from "The Wealth of Nations" demonstrates how dividing labor into specialized tasks dramatically increases productivity. Ten workers specializing in different aspects of pin-making could produce 48,000 pins daily, while individually they might struggle to make even 20 pins each—a productivity increase of at least 240 times. This division of labor, Smith argued, is limited by the extent of the market. Transaction costs—expenses associated with e...

1 month ago

22 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

Commerce and Sociology: Novak on Entangled Political Economy

Send us a text What happens when we stop seeing politics and markets as separate spheres and start recognizing their deep entanglement? Mikayla Novak, senior fellow at the Mercatus Center, challenges conventional economic thinking in favor of Dick Wager's "entangled political economy." Drawing from her fascinating career path through Australia's Treasury, free market think tanks, and her pursuit of multiple courses of study, Novak offers unique insights into institutional economics and polit...

1 month ago

1 hour 20 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

The Paradox of Political Rationality: Lynch

Send us a text Why do harmful policies like tariffs keep coming back despite universal condemnation from economists? The answer lies in the dynamics of collective action and concentrated interests. In this eye-opening conversation with G. Patrick Lynch, Senior Fellow at Liberty Fund, Mike Munger explores the fascinating world of public choice theory and how it explains some of democracy's most persistent puzzles. Lynch, a self-described "popularizer of public choice," breaks down complex eco...

2 months ago

1 hour 8 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

Curation Bubbles, Verification, and the Splintering of Ideology: Green

Send us a text What happens when we no longer consume scarce information through trusted, verified institutions, but instead through an abundance of unbundled content without context or curation? John Green, rising star in political science from Duke University, takes us on a tour of the rapidly evolving landscape of political information. Green challenges conventional wisdom about how ideologies function, arguing they're not so much coherent philosophical systems as they are socially ...

3 months ago

56 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

The Socialist Generation Debate: Boettke

Send us a text Join economist Peter Boettke as he discusses how transaction costs impact market efficiency and our everyday decisions. We delve deep into historical examples, particularly the Soviet Union, to highlight the consequences of centralized planning versus individual market actions. Through engaging anecdotes and rigorous analysis, Boettke reveals why understanding transaction costs is essential for navigating the complexities of modern economies. We also explore the evolving...

4 months ago

1 hour 5 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

Transaction Costs and Constitutions: India's Balancing Act, with Shruti Rajagopalan

Send us a textWhat if transaction costs could shape entire political and economic systems? Join us for an insightful discussion with Shruti Rajagopalan, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, as she takes us through her fascinating journey from the University of Delhi to George Mason University. Her research on India's economic liberalization shaped her understanding of economics and public choice theory, and now she is looking at the Indian Constitution as a subject of study. She s...

5 months ago

1 hour 3 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

Political Capitalism and the Power of Elites: Randall Holcombe

Send us a textThis episode explores the intersection of democracy and capitalism, focusing on the concept of political capitalism and its relation to cronyism. Randall Holcomb discusses transaction costs, charismatic leadership, and critiques the idea that democracy and separation of powers inherently checks coercion, stressing the need for competing elites to foster accountability.• Transaction costs hinder citizen engagement in political processes • Political capitalism defined as capitalis...

6 months ago

1 hour 2 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

Prison Gangs and Governance: David Skarbek

Send us a textCurious about how the world of prison economics operates? Get ready to uncover a hidden universe with our guest, David Skarbek, a leading voice in political economy. David takes us on a captivating journey from his early days in construction to his groundbreaking research at George Mason University, where he was inspired to explore the economics of unconventional spaces. His insights reveal the sophisticated systems of governance designed by prison gangs to maintain order and ma...

7 months ago

1 hour 1 minute

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

Certainty, Common Law, and Statutory Law: Todd Zywicki of Scalia Law

Send us a textTodd Zywicky, professor at George Mason's Scalia Law School, challenges some conventional legal doctrine, taking up the views of Bruno Leone and Friedrich Hayek. What if the legal world has underestimated the power of spontaneous order? Todd's intellectual journey sheds light on how these groundbreaking ideas contrast sharply with the dominant constructivist views shaping contemporary legal thought. Todd offers perspectives on the role of intuition and reasonableness in the cour...

8 months ago

53 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

From Law to Legislation: A Natural Process

Send us a textHave you ever wondered how common law rules and market prices both "emerge"? Inspired by the works of James Buchanan, F.A. Hayek, and Bruno Leoni, Donald Boudreaux explains how decentralized processes can lead to the emergence of effective norms, such as queuing and speeding rules, without the need for top-down legislation. We discuss the significance of individuals spending their own money versus others' and how these incentives impact societal outcomes, highlighting the deep w...

9 months ago

54 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

Why Bosses Don't Wear Bunny Slippers: TAITC

Send us a textEver wondered why firms exist in a market-driven economy? This month's episode promises to unravel this question by diving deep into Ronald Coase's seminal 1937 paper, "The Nature of the Firm." Join me, Mike Munger, as I reflect on our first 16 months of podcasting and share the insights and wisdom that have shaped our journey. You'll gain a thorough understanding of how transaction costs influence economic behaviors and organizational structures, with fascinating examples from ...

10 months ago

23 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

Price Gouging or Price Information?

Send us a textCan high prices during emergencies actually save lives? Using North Carolina as an example, we dissect the economic and legal implications of these laws, exploring the ambiguities in terms like "unreasonably excessive" and the chilling effect on commerce. Discover how artificially low prices can lead to resource misallocation, discourage stockpiling, and hinder the transportation of vital supplies during crises. Allowing higher prices is, perhaps surprisingly, the only way...

10 months ago

18 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

All Housing is Affordable Housing

Send us a textAre housing regulations making affordable homes a pipe dream? We promise you'll gain a deeper understanding of how transaction costs and regulatory hurdles impede new housing development, frustrating both market responses and the dreams of potential homeowners. We'll explore how the very laws intended to protect affordable housing often backfire, pushing developers toward luxury projects instead.Vicki Been; Ingrid Gould Ellen; Katherine O’Regan, 2018. "Supply Skepticism," https:...

10 months ago

24 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

We Get Letters!

Send us a textWhat is it that beach parking lots are actually selling? Why do beer bottles cost more than cans? And just what are costs of the thing, as opposed to the costs of selling or buying the thing? Can you really separate them out?Mass MOCA: "Wilco's Solid Sound" Music Festival https://massmoca.org/event/solid-sound-2024/"To Consumers, ALL Costs are Transaction Costs." AIER, by Michael Munger. https://www.aier.org/article/to-consumers-all-costs-are-transaction-costs/Yogi Berra "quotes...

11 months ago

20 minutes

The Answer Is Transaction Costs

Shibumi! Legit Idea, or Shady Dealings?

Send us a textYou can throw shade, but can you own the idea of shade? Shibumi's sunshade has become an essential part of the coastal landscape, but that has sparked some fierce legal battles. We'll talk patents, beginning with the evolution of shade solutions from caveman ingenuity to Shibumi's wind-powered marvel. Plus, you'll get the inside scoop on the recent lawsuit where Shibumi defended its designs against Beach Shade LLC, demonstrating the high stakes of protecting intellectual propert...

11 months ago

23 minutes