Author Archive
Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show/id1548604447?i=1000540488241
Federal student loan interest and payments are set to resume after January for about 45 million Americans who carry an astounding $1.8 trillion in student debt. Louise Seamster, a sociologist at the University of Iowa, discusses wealth disparities between black and white borrowers and how student debt shapes the lives of young people. Seamster also considers solutions to the student debt crisis, one of which includes debt cancellation.
Original Air Date: November 2, 2021
Length: 58 Minutes 11 Seconds
Link: https://www.npr.org/2021/09/29/1041638804/that-time-the-u-s-paid-off-the-entire-national-debt-classic
In mid-October, Congress raised the national debt limit to prevent defaulting. This episode discusses how the United States got into this mess, where all this debt comes from, who came up with the idea of a debt ceiling, and what happened when it was paid off.
Date Posted: September 29, 2021
Length: 21 Minutes 12 Seconds
Link: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/20/1047777081/keep-calm-its-just-the-bullwhip-effect
As we already know, the whole world is struggling to get items shipped to distributors because of supply chain issues. The Beergame App, created by logistics expert Mathais Le Scaon, uses the demand of cases of beer to demonstrate the bullwhip effect, where small fluctuations in demand at the retail level cause increasing larger fluctuations up the supply chain. After participating in the game, members of tPlanet Money’s indicator team find that fixing the supply chain is no simple task.
Original Air Date: October 20, 2021
Length: 9 minutes 52 seconds
Link: https://www.npr.org/2021/05/14/996921658/blood-money
The United States provides two thirds of the world’s blood plasma and incentivizes donors with money each time they donate. The more they donate, the more money they receive which is something the World Health Organization and many other countries are against. When discussing the moral issues of paying donors, a doctor from Brazil argues that moral implications are the least of our worries when a shortage of blood plasma could be a death sentence for his patients.
Original Air Date: May 14, 2021
Length: 26 minutes 46 seconds
Link: https://www.marketplace.org/2021/10/12/nobel-prize-economist-david-card-on-testing-econ-101-theories-in-the-real-world/
2021 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences recipient David Card used a natural experiment to challenge the Econ 101 concept that a higher minimum wage drives unemployment. Through his research, Card also discovered a way to possibly address issues like the gender wage gap and the wage gap between nonwhite and white workers.
Later in the segment, Card discusses his recognized research on how immigration does not reduce wages according to the Modern Growth Theory.
Original Air Date: October 12, 2021
Length: 10 minutes 48 seconds
Link: https://www.aeaweb.org/research/electric-transition-banning-gasoline-vehicles
Norway, the United Kingdom, California and many other places worldwide plan to ban the sale of gasoline cars within the next 10-15 years. Economist Stephen P. Holland discusses the implications of a simple ban, and instead encourages policies that will incentivize car manufactures to decrease production of gas cars without devastating the economy.
Citation: Holland, Stephen P., Erin T. Mansur, and Andrew J. Yates. 2021. “The Electric Vehicle Transition and the Economics of Banning Gasoline Vehicles.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 13 (3): 316-44. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20200120
Original Air Date: September 29, 2021
Length: 21 minutes 32 seconds
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