Claim OwnershipThe Answer Is Transaction Costs
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© 2026 The Answer Is Transaction Costs
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"The real price of everything is the toil and trouble of acquiring it." -Adam Smith (WoN, Bk I, Chapter 5)
In which the Knower of Important Things shows how transaction costs explain literally everything. Plus TWEJ, and answers to letters.
If YOU have questions, submit them to our email at [email protected]
There are two kinds of episodes here:
1. For the most part, episodes June-August are weekly, short (<20 mins), and address a few topics.
2. Episodes September-May are longer (1 hour), and monthly, with an interview with a guest.
Finally, a quick note: This podcast is NOT for Stacy Hockett. He wanted you to know that.....
89 Episodes
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1Send us Fan Mail A NOTE OF APOLOGY: I uploaded the raw audio, rather than the podcast. So the first of you who listened heard the raw version, where there was some random stuff at the beginning. Sorry to waste your time! Fixed now. We talk with economist Karl Whelan about how sportsbooks actually set odds, why the “balanced book” story falls apart, and how modern betting products are engineered to raise margins. We also trace how regulation, transaction costs, and pred...
Send us Fan Mail We walk through how Chile converts retirement savings into lifelong income and why inflation protection and competition make the design work. Then politics collides with contract law as COVID-era withdrawals test credible commitment and raise transaction costs across the financial system. • how AFP accounts build national savings and deep capital markets • why a pension is more than a savings account, especially under longevity risk • how the renta vitalici...
Send us Fan Mail We trace how Hebrew goes from a “museum language” to a living vernacular by treating language as a coordination good with huge network effects and real transaction costs. We follow Eliezer Ben-Yehuda’s strategy for lowering those costs, then watch the Technion language fight prove Hebrew can carry science, not just prayer. • Hebrew’s revival as a rare case of full language reboot at scale • Jewish linguistic diversity and why German, French, Russian, Polish, and Y...
Send us Fan Mail We tell the story of the Chicago dinner where Ronald Coase walks into a hostile room, and by the end everyone votes with him, led by Milton Friedman changing his mind in real time. Along the way, we unpack why transaction costs, not moral blame, often explain when law and institutions shape outcomes. • the Aaron Director dinner and the vote that flips • why Milton Friedman becomes a political symbol and lightning rod • critiques from the right and left on ...
Send us Fan Mail We walk through the weirdly powerful math that makes a stable $10,000 profit stream worth $50,000 in one world and $1,000,000 in another. Then we apply the same present value logic to politics and show how unpredictable rules raise transaction costs, inflate the effective discount rate, and freeze long-term investment. • the discount rate as the hidden driver of valuation • why the consol bond makes present value intuitive • P = X / R as a shortcut for long-lived assets •...
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