Category: 3-EconSometimeCommentary

Graphite is sort of the one-hit wonder of minerals. And that hit? Pencils. Everyone loves to talk about pencils when it comes to graphite. If graphite were to perform a concert, they'd close out the show with "pencils," and everyone would clap and cheer. But true fans of graphite would be shouting out "batteries!" Because graphite is a key ingredient in another important thing that we all use in our everyday lives: lithium ion batteries.

Almost all of the battery-ready graphite in the world comes from one place: China. That's actually true of lots of the materials that go into batteries, like processed lithium and processed cobalt. Which is why it was such a big deal when, earlier this year, President Biden announced a tariff package that will make a bunch of Chinese imports more expensive. Included in this package are some tariffs on Chinese graphite. He wants to create a new battery future—one that doesn't rely so much on China.

In this episode, we get down on the ground to look at this big supply chain story through the lens of one critical mineral. And we visit a small town that realizes that it might be the perfect place to create an American graphite industry. And we find that declaring a new battery future is one thing, but making it happen is another thing entirely.

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On this episode, we’ll hear a book panel discussion on Peter Boettke’s book, The Struggle for a Better World (Mercatus Center at George Mason University, 2021). In his comments, Boettke provides an overview of his book, emphasizes the role that institutions play in human societies, and discusses his focus on improving the human condition by lifting up those who are least prosperous in our world. The panel is moderated by Stefanie Haeffele, and they are joined on the panel by:

• Emily Chamlee-Wright, President and CEO of the Institute for Humane Studies, and co-author of How We Came Back: Voices from Post-Katrina New Orleans (2015)
• Alain Marciano, Professor of Economics and Statistics at the University of Turin, distinguished affiliated fellow with the Hayek Program, and author of James Buchanan and Peaceful Cooperation: From Public Finance to a Theory of Collective Action (2024)
• Mark Pennington, Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy and Director of the Center for the Study of Governance and Society at King’s College London, and author of Robust Political Economy: Classical Liberalism and the Future of Public Policy (2011)

View Emily Chamlee-Wright's "The Four Corners of Liberalism" graphic here.

Peter Boettke is a Distinguished University Professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University and Director of the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He has published numerous books including Living Economics: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (2012) and F. A. Hayek: Economics, Political Economy and Social Philosophy (2018).

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Why do we use a specific kind of tree-bark tissue to seal up 70 percent of wine bottles? Zachary Crockett takes a sniff and gives the waiter a nod.

 

• SOURCES:
  • Carlos De Jesus, director of communications at Amorim Cork.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • "This Ancient Material Is Displacing Plastics and Creating a Billion-Dollar Industry," by Marta Vidal (The Washington Post, 2024).
  • "Troubled Times For Wine In 2023: Global Production And Consumption Shrinking," by Per and Britt Karlsson (Forbes, 2024).
  • "Three Studies Take A Look At Various Wine Bottle Closure Preferences," by Thomas Pellechia (Forbes, 2019).
  • "How Millennials (Almost) Killed the Wine Cork," by John Gifford (The Atlantic, 2016).

Most economic textbooks will tell you that there can be real dangers in running up a big national debt. A major concern is how the debt you add now could slow down economic growth in the future. Economists have not been able to nail down how much debt a country can safely take on. But they have tried.

Back in 2010, two economists took a look at 20 countries over the course of decades, and sometimes centuries, and came back with a number. Their analysis suggested that economic growth slowed significantly once national debt passed 90% of annual GDP... and that is when the fight over debt and growth really took off.

On today's episode: a deep dive on what we know, and what we don't know, about when exactly national debt becomes a problem. We will also try to figure out how worried we should be about the United States' current debt total of 26 trillion dollars.

This episode was hosted by Keith Romer and Nick Fountain. It was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Molly Messick. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez with help from Sofia Shchukina and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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For thousands of years, getting light was a huge hassle. You had to make candles from scratch. This is not as romantic as it sounds. You had to get a cow, raise the cow, feed the cow, kill the cow, get the fat out of the cow, cook the fat, dip wicks into the fat. All that--for not very much light. Now, if we want to light a whole room, we just flip a switch.

The history of light explains why the world today is the way it is. It explains why we aren't all subsistence farmers, and why we can afford to have artists and massage therapists and plumbers. (And, yes, people who make podcasts about the history of light.) The history of light is the history of economic growth--of things getting faster, cheaper, and more efficient.

On today's show: How we got from dim little candles made out of cow fat, to as much light as we want at the flick of a switch.

Today's show was hosted by Jacob Goldstein and David Kestenbaum. It was originally produced by Caitlin Kenney and Damiano Marchetti. Today's rerun was produced by James Sneed, and edited by Jenny Lawton. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Engineering by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Grocery stores have turned shoppers into cashiers. Zachary Crockett runs two bags of chips and a Gatorade over the scanner.

 

• SOURCES:
  • Sara Alloy, experience retail lead for North America at Publicis Sapient.
  • Christopher Andrews, professor of sociology at Drew University.
  • Phil Lempert, founder and C.E.O. of SupermarketGuru.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • "Feeling Rewarded and Entitled to Be Served: Understanding the Influence of Self- Versus Regular Checkout on Customer Loyalty," by Farhana Nusrat and Yanliu Huang (Journal of Business Research, 2024).
  • "It’s Not Just You: Self-Checkout Is Awful. These Retailers Finally Agree," by Sarah Bregel (Fast Company, 2023).
  • "'I'm Banned From Walmart Over a Bag of Reese's,' Houston-Area Woman Says After Self-Checkout 'issue,'" by Matthew Seedorff (Fox26, 2023).
  • "Self-Checkout Is a Failed Experiment," by Amanda Mull (The Atlantic, 2023).
  • The Overworked Consumer: Self-Checkouts, Supermarkets, and the Do-It-Yourself Economy, by Christopher Andrews (2018).
  • "The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery," by Rene Chun (The Atlantic, 2018).
  • "Self-Service Checkouts Can Turn Customers Into Shoplifters, Study Says," by Christopher Mele (The New York Times, 2016).
  • "Check This Out: A Revolution in the Supermarket," by Daniel P. Puzo (Los Angeles Times, 1987).

 

• EXTRAS:
  • "How the Supermarket Helped America Win the Cold War," by Freakonomics Radio (2019).

There is a constant arms race between law enforcement and criminals, especially when it comes to technology. For years, law enforcement has been frustrated with encrypted messaging apps, like Signal and Telegram. And law enforcement has been even more frustrated by encrypted phones, specifically designed to thwart authorities from snooping.

But in 2018, in a story that seems like it's straight out of a spy novel, the FBI was approached with an offer: Would they like to get into the encrypted cell phone business? What if they could convince criminals to use their phones to plan and document their crimes — all while the FBI was secretly watching? It could be an unprecedented peek into the criminal underground.

To pull off this massive sting operation, the FBI needed to design a cell phone that criminals wanted to use and adopt. Their mission: to make a tech platform for the criminal underworld. And in many ways, the FBI's journey was filled with all the hallmarks of many Silicon Valley start-ups.

On this show, we talk with journalist Joseph Cox, who wrote a new book about the FBI's cell phone business, called Dark Wire. And we hear from the federal prosecutor who became an unlikely tech company founder.

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We are living in a kind of golden age for online fraudsters. As the number of apps and services for storing and sending money has exploded – so too have the schemes that bad actors have cooked up to steal that money. Every year, we hear more and more stories of financial heartbreak. What you don't often hear about is what happens after the scam?

On today's show, we follow one woman who was scammed out of over $800,000 on her quest to get her money back. That journey takes her from the halls of the FBI to the fraud departments of some of the country's biggest financial institutions. And it offers a window into how the systems that are theoretically designed to help the victims of financial cybercrime actually work in practice.

This episode was hosted by Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi and Jeff Guo. It was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Keith Romer. It was engineered by Neal Rauch and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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This is the first episode of a three-part miniseries on entangled political economy (EPE), hosted by Mikayla Novak. Entangled political economy is a sub-discipline of political economy that explicitly views individuals and the private and public sectors as being intertwined in overlapping exchange relationships along competitive and collaborative dimensions.

On this episode, Mikayla Novak interviews Richard Wagner on entangled political economy. Wagner discusses the framework’s origins, influenced by James Buchanan, and critiques governmental inefficiency, advocating for privately ordered governance. Wagner reflects on his teaching experiences which integrated anthropology, sociology, and other social sciences, and how these shaped his understanding of economics as a broad social science encompassing various forms of exchange and societal interactions. He highlights Vincent Ostrom's work on the limitations of government, and considers the future directions of EPE.

Richard Wagner is Emeritus Professor of Economics at George Mason University and Distinguished Senior Fellow with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Virtual Sentiments, our new podcast series from the Hayek Program is now streaming! Subscribe today and listen to seasons one and two!

Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgram

Learn more about Academic & Student Programs

Follow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatus

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Does anyone ever win the giant teddy bear? Zachary Crockett steps right up.

 

• SOURCES:
  • Matthew Gryczan, retired journalist and engineer.
  • Elliot Simmons, former carnival game worker.
  • Olivia Turner, general manager of Redbone Products.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • "AG Platkin Announces 10-Year Ban of Amusement Games Licenses and a Fine for Wildwood Games Operator," by the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General (2023).
  • "N.H. Man Loses Life Savings on Carnival Game," (C.B.S. News Boston, 2013).
  • "Carnival Games: Walking the Line Between Illegal Gambling and Amusement," by J. Royce Fichtner (Drake Law Review, 2012).
  • "Carnivals: Law Enforcement on the Midway," by Bruce Walstad (F.B.I. Law Enforcement Bulletin, 1997).
  • Carnival Secrets: How to Win at Carnival Games, Which Games to Avoid, How to Make Your Own Games, by Matthew Gryczan (1988).