Category: 3-EconSometimeCommentary

Continuing our series on Enviromental Economics, host Jordan Lofthouse chats with Katie Wright about sustainability, extensive and intensive margins, intellectual humility in statistical analysis, how her experience in Mercatus fellowships has aided her research, the nature of the water scarcity problem in the Western United States, and more.

Katherine (Katie) Wright is a research fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC). She is an expert on water policy and her current work includes exploration of solutions to western water scarcity. Katie is an alum of the Mercatus Oskar Morgenstern Fellowship.

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Virtual Sentiments, our new podcast series from the Hayek Program is now streaming! Subscribe today and listen to season one on digital democracy.

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Why are these sudsy roadside stops one of the fastest growing industries in America? Zachary Crockett takes a look under the hood.

 

RESOURCES:

• "Private Equity Wants to Wash Your Car," by Miriam Gottfried (The Wall Street Journal, 2022).
• "California Labor Commissioner Recovers $282,000 for Car Wash Wage Citations," State of California Department of Industrial Relations News Release (2022).
• "Sgt. Clean’s Future Shines Bright Thanks to Subscription Model, Strong Reputation," by Vince Guerrieri (Crain's Cleveland Business, 2018).
• "One California Drought Winner? The Local Car Wash," by Lauren Sommer (Marketplace, 2015).
• Sonny's CarWash College.

 

SOURCES:

• Brian Krusz, co-founder and director of growth & development at Sgt. Clean Car Wash.
• Eric Wulf, C.E.O. of the International Carwash Association.

Note: There is swearing in this episode.

In 2017, The University of Minnesota asked comedian Maria Bamford to give their commencement speech. But the University may not have known what it was in for. In her speech, Bamford told the crowd of graduates how much the university offered to pay her (nothing), her counteroffer ($20,000), and the amount they settled on ($10,000), which (after taxes and fees, etc.) she gave away to students in the audience to pay down their student loans.

Maria Bamford is a big believer in full disclosure of her finances, a philosophy she's adopted after decades in a Debtors Anonymous support group. In meetings, she learned important financial tips and tricks to go from thousands of dollars in debt to her current net worth of $3.5 million (a number which, true to her philosophy, she will share with anyone).

She spoke with us about her financial issues, how she recovered, and why she believes in total financial transparency, even when it makes her look kinda bad.

Disclaimer: Planet Money is not qualified or certified to give financial advice. And Maria is not a spokesperson for Debtors Anonymous in any way.

This show was hosted by Kenny Malone and Mary Childs. It was produced by Emma Peaslee, edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Neisha Heinis. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Prices go up. Occasionally, prices go down. But for 70 years, the price of a bottle of Coca-Cola didn't change. From 1886 until the late 1950s, a bottle of coke cost just a nickel.

On today's show, we find out why. The answer includes a half a million vending machines, a 7.5 cent coin, and a company president who just wanted to get a couple of lawyers out of his office.

This episode originally ran in 2012.

This episode was hosted by David Kestenbaum. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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More people than ever before are getting tattoos — but social media has flipped the trade’s business model on its head. Zachary Crockett dips into the ink.

 

RESOURCES:

• "32% of Americans Have a Tattoo, Including 22% Who Have More Than One," by Katherine Schaeffer and Shradha Dinesh (Pew Research Center, 2023).
• "Tattoo Removal Business Draws Up High-Growth Potential," by Tim Clark (Forbes, 2023).
• "The Secret, Chronic Pain of Tattoo Artists," by Devon Abelman (Allure, 2020).
• The Other End of the Needle: Continuity and Change Among Tattoo Workers, by David C. Lane (2020).
• "How Instagram Revolutionized the Tattoo Industry," by Salvador Rodriguez (CNBC, 2020).
• "How Do Tattoo Artists Get Paid?" by Erica Salvalaggio (Inside Out, 2019).
• "Hey, Pro Athletes: Your Tattoo Is Going to Get You Sued," by Ira Boudway (Bloomberg, 2013).

 

SOURCES:

• Tyler Adams, tattoo artist and owner of Grizzly Tattoo.
• Stacey Martin Smith, tattoo artist.

In 2007, Uruguay had a massive problem with no obvious fix. The economy of this country of 3.5 million people was growing, but there wasn't enough energy to power all that growth.

Ramón Méndez Galain was, at the time, a particle physicist, but he wanted to apply his scientific mind to this issue. He started researching different energy sources and eventually wrote up a plan for how Uruguay's power grid could transition to renewable energy. It would be better for the climate, and, he thought, in the long run it would be the most economical choice Uruguay could make.

Méndez Galain shared his plan online and in a series of informal lectures. Then, one day he received a phone call from the office of the president of Uruguay, inviting him to put his plan into action.

Countries all over the world have announced lofty goals to reduce the emissions that cause climate change. But Uruguay actually did it. In a typical year, 98% of Uruguay's grid is powered by green energy. How did it get there? It involved a scientist, an innovative approach to infrastructure funding, and a whole lot of wind.

Today's show was hosted by Erika Beras and Amanda Aroncyzk. It was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Emma Peaslee. It was engineered by Maggie Luthar, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and edited by Keith Romer. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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When contract negotiations between Alaska Airlines and their flight attendants' union broke down in 1993, the union had a choice to make.

The union — The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA — knew that if they chose to strike, Alaska Airlines could use a plan. While Alaska Airlines technically couldn't fire someone on strike, they could permanently replace the striking flight attendants with new workers. Essentially, if the union went on strike, they could risk thousands of people's jobs. The flight attendants knew they needed a counter-strategy.

They went with a strategy they called CHAOS: "Create Havoc Around Our System."

The strategy had two phases. Phase one: The union kept Alaska guessing about when, where, and how a strike might happen. They kept everyone, even their own members, in the dark. And in turn, Alaska Airlines had to be prepared for a strike at any place and any time. Phase two was to go on strike in a targeted and strategic way.

The havoc that the flight attendants created set off a sort-of labor-dispute arms race and would go on to inspire strikes today. And, it showed how powerful it can be to introduce a little chaos into negotiations.

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On this episode, we’ll hear a book panel discussion on Randall Holcombe’s book, Following Their Leaders: Political Preferences and Public Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2023). In it, Holcombe examines how expressive voting preferences are determined and how we tend to adopt the preferences of the political elite. The panel is moderated by Christopher J. Coyne, and they are joined on the panel by:

• Roger D. Congleton, Truist Professor of Economics at West Virginia University
• Bobbi Herzberg, Distinguished Senior Fellow for the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and a Senior Research Fellow
• Michael C. Munger, Professor of Political Science, and Director of the PPE Certificate Program at Duke University

Randall G. Holcombe is the DeVoe Moore Professor of Economics at Florida State 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 season one on digital democracy.

Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgram

Learn more about Academic & Student Programs

Follow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatus

CC Music: Twisterium

There’s more than meets the eye to the box that stores the pie. Zachary Crockett cracks the lid.

 

RESOURCES

• "Who Is the Fastest Pizza Box Folder?! World Pizza Games 2021," video by The Laughing Lion (2021).
• "Pizza Box Contamination Doesn’t Impede Recyclability, Association Says," by Megan Smalley (Recycling Today, 2020).
• "Scott's Pizza Chronicles: A Brief History of the Pizza Box," by Scott Wiener (Serious Eats, 2018).
• "Apple Patented a Pizza Box, for Pizzas," by Jacob Kastrenakes (The Verge, 2017).
• "We Eat 100 Acres of Pizza a Day in the U.S.," by Lenny Bernstein (The Washington Post, 2015).
• Pizza Tiger, by Thomas Monaghan (1986).

 

SOURCES:

• Patrick Kivits, president of corrugated packaging at WestRock.
• Eric Nelson, green business program manager for Johnson County, Kansas.
• Scott Wiener, founder of Scott's Pizza Tours.

Ba-dee-yah! Say do you remember? Ba-dee-yah! Questions in September!

That's right - it's time for Listener Questions!

Every so often, we like to hear from listeners about what's on their minds, and we try to get to the bottom of their economic mysteries. On today's show, we have questions like:

Why is September historically the worst month for the stock market?
How did the Bass Pro Shops hat get so popular in Ecuador?
Are casinos banks?
What is the Federal Reserve's new plan to make bank transfers faster?

Today's show was hosted by Sarah Gonzalez and produced by James Sneed. The audio engineer for this episode was Josephine Nyounai. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez and edited by Dave Blanchard. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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