Send us a text We explore why money became the default middleman and how a modern platform can make barter practical by slashing the costs of search, matching, and trust. Founder Jassim Baqer shares the story behind Tbadel, what people actually trade, and how reputation, bundling, and scale (might) make swaps work. • Adam Smith’s "double coincidence of wants" problem and transaction costs • Platforms as connection engines that lower search and matching costs • Tabottle’s origin, goals and na...
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 We explore why money became the default middleman and how a modern platform can make barter practical by slashing the costs of search, matching, and trust. Founder Jassim Baqer shares the story behind Tbadel, what people actually trade, and how reputation, bundling, and scale (might) make swaps work. • Adam Smith’s "double coincidence of wants" problem and transaction costs • Platforms as connection engines that lower search and matching costs • Tabottle’s origin, goals and na...
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...
The Answer Is Transaction Costs
Send us a text We explore why money became the default middleman and how a modern platform can make barter practical by slashing the costs of search, matching, and trust. Founder Jassim Baqer shares the story behind Tbadel, what people actually trade, and how reputation, bundling, and scale (might) make swaps work. • Adam Smith’s "double coincidence of wants" problem and transaction costs • Platforms as connection engines that lower search and matching costs • Tabottle’s origin, goals and na...
