Tim Harford looks at some of the numbers in the news and in life. This week:
Is church-going making a comeback in the UK?
Is it true that every day, 1000 people begin claiming personal independence payments, or PIP?
When the government talks about how it “returns” illegal immigrants, what does it mean?
Can a new telescope really see golf balls on the moon?
If you’ve seen a number you think looks suspicious, email the More or Less team: moreorless@bbc.co.uk
More or Less is produced in partnership with the Open University.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producers: Lizzy McNeill, Nicholas Barrett, David Verry
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: Gareth Jones
Editor: Richard Vadon
We are back with another edition of listener questions! In this round, we tackle recession pop, why the job market feels so crummy for IT grads, and whether President Trump saying that Walmart "eat the tariffs" is a form of price control.
President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is a bad piece of legislation. It includes trillions of dollars in tax cuts that are very much tilted toward the rich, along with savage cuts to Medicaid, nutrition assistance and green energy.
And on Tuesday, July 1, the Senate passed it in a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance as the tiebreaker.
But bad policy only matters if people know about it, and a lot of people don’t — partly because there are an overwhelming number of provisions, and partly because the Trump administration is already flooding the zone with so many other major policy fights.
So I asked Matt Yglesias, the author of the Slow Boring newsletter, back on the show to go through what is in this bill and why it has been so hard to build momentum for pushback. We spoke on Thursday, June 26.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Jack McCordick and Rollin Hu. Fact-checking by Kelsey Kudak. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Michelle Harris, Elias Isquith, Marina King, Jan Kobal, and Kristin Lin. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
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The massive tax and spending bill central to President Trump's agenda is one step closer to reality.
After weeks of negotiations and 49 consecutive votes that started Monday morning, the senate approved President Trump's signature domestic policy bill around lunch time Tuesday. It now goes back to the House of Representatives where Republican Speaker Mike Johnson will have to reconcile the senate changes with his members' competing priorities.
Michael Ricci has had a long career in republican politics, including working as Speaker Paul Ryan's communications director and Speaker John Boehner's Chief Speech writer. We talked with him about the stakes, and the bill's prospects in the House.
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To better understand history, we must understand how people thought and acted in the context of their times and the prevailing worldviews of that era. Unfortunately, modern historians insist on looking at US History from modern collectivists viewpoints.
Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has emerged as a serious challenger to Andrew Cuomo in the race for mayor of New York City. If Mamdani wins, he promises to vastly expand government control of housing and businesses there.
His policies took more than a million people off the income tax rolls, and 98 percent of Americans paid no income tax at the end of his term. As a result, America prospered under Coolidge. Real economic growth averaged 7 percent per year while he was in office.
In the latest installment of the ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein, Brad Lingo joins in to discuss Grove City College.
Subscribe to Mark's new channel on:
Spotify: tinyurl.com/mufv3xzw
Apple Podcasts: tinyurl.com/3w32d42x
Intro music by Jack Bauerlein.
In a free society, legitimate economic success does not fall from the sky or come by force. Behind every fortune lies effort, risk, savings, time, discovery, validation, and social coordination.
