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The Answer Is Transaction Costs

npub1htzpg24fvsta2xwv0seccjmxymq950vg7zwc8dmtgrme9gu4elpq39vsze@drss.io

**"*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 taitc.email@gmail.com  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.....

The Main Course was Transaction Costs: Milton's Dinner with Ronald

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Regime Uncertainty: Political Risk is Transaction Cost!

11 Aug 2026

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) 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

The Senate Is The Enemy And Other Friction Stories

4 Aug 2026

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) We argue that “friction” is not always a flaw and can be a deliberate shield against bad collective decisions. We use Buchanan

Two Bakers Walk Into A Cartel

28 Jul 2026

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) We test a simple bakery price-fixing pact and watch it unravel, then use that failure to explain how transaction costs shape

Contracting with Yourself: Akrasia and Transaction Costs

21 Jul 2026

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) We start with a simple mystery: how the same person can make a proud plan at night and break it in the morning, even while still

When Mass Outrage is Cheap: TC Origins of Cancel Culture

14 Jul 2026

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) We trace a straight line from a 1697 blasphemy execution to modern cancel culture by focusing on one variable: the cost of turning

You are NOT "Sorry I'm Late"!!

7 Jul 2026

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) We tell a story about German “academic quarter hours” and use it to argue that lateness is an economics problem of coordination,

Transaction Costs Killed the Medical Stars

30 Jun 2026

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) We try to make sense of a real problem many of us feel: paying a lot for U.S. healthcare while still waiting months to see a doctor.

Parasites And Property Rights

23 Jun 2026

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) We follow the idea of the “social parasite” through socialist writing and show how it shifts from moral accusation to an

Books Don't Bet, They Match

16 Jun 2026

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) We break down how sportsbooks function as brokers that match contracts, set prices through the point spread, and earn their living

At Least You Know Which Idiot Is Next

9 Jun 2026

At Least You Know Which Idiot Is Next

9 Jun 2026

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) Hereditary monarchy seems like a ridiculous way to pick a leader, yet it dominates most of human political history. We argue the

Swollen Permits? Call Chile!

31 May 2026

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) Permits feel like “just paperwork”, until they quietly become the biggest barrier to building, investing, and even basic

Swollen Permits? Call Chile!

31 May 2026

Honor Among Thieves: Anja Shortland and Ransomware

28 Apr 2026

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) A talk with Dr Anya Shortland about the economics of ransomware and the gray-zone institutions that let extortion markets function

Honor Among Thieves: Anja Shortland and Ransomware

28 Apr 2026

Are Transaction Costs Really Just Human Distance

24 Mar 2026

Are Transaction Costs Really Just Human Distance

24 Mar 2026

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) We connect Adam Smith’s moral psychology to the modern idea of transaction costs and argue that the biggest frictions in markets

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations Episode 10: Always Contemporary

24 Feb 2026

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) We assess Adam Smith’s enduring ideas—moral authorization of commerce, division of labor, emergent order—and confront where

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations Episode 10: Always Contemporary

24 Feb 2026

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations Episode 9: Spending, Taxing, and Debt

27 Jan 2026

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) We walk through Book Five of The Wealth of Nations to map a state that defends, adjudicates, and builds wisely, then pays for it

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations Episode 9: Spending, Taxing, and Debt

27 Jan 2026

Adam Smith Episode 8: A Nation of Shopkeepers

30 Dec 2025

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) Smith closes Book IV by dismantling mercantilism through the lens of colonial policy, monopoly, and rent seeking, then weighs

Adam Smith Episode 8: A Nation of Shopkeepers

30 Dec 2025

Parts is (Not) Parts: The Life Cycle Problem for Heavy Equipment

23 Dec 2025

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) We trace how Alex Schuessler, the once and once-again President of SmartEquip--also a scholar of expressive choice!--built a

Parts is (Not) Parts: The Life Cycle Problem for Heavy Equipment

23 Dec 2025

Money Killed Barter; Can a Platform Bring It Back?

9 Dec 2025

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) We explore why money became the default middleman and how a modern platform can make barter practical by slashing the costs of

Money Killed Barter; Can a Platform Bring It Back?

9 Dec 2025

Adam Smith Episode 7: The Errors of Mercantilism--Bullion, Balances, and Bounties

25 Nov 2025

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) Tracing out Adam Smith’s Book IV, chapters 1–6, to show how mercantilism mistakes money for wealth, how protection creates

Adam Smith Episode 7: The Errors of Mercantilism--Bullion, Balances, and Bounties

25 Nov 2025

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations Episode 6--Division of Land

21 Oct 2025

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) We trace how Adam Smith solves a historical puzzle: why Europe’s path to prosperity inverted the “natural order,” and how

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations Episode 6--Division of Land

21 Oct 2025

Little's Law: The Transaction Costs of (Re)Drawing Lines

14 Oct 2025

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) A conversation with Andrew Wagner, production and manufacturing engineer, now in aerospace, but with experience also in the auto

Little's Law: The Transaction Costs of (Re)Drawing Lines

14 Oct 2025

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: Episode 5--The Text of Book II

30 Sep 2025

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: Episode 5--The Text of Book II

30 Sep 2025

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) This episode explores Book 2 of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, focusing on his revolutionary concept of the "division of stock" and

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: Episode 4--Capital and Book II: Introduction

23 Sep 2025

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: Episode 4--Capital and Book II: Introduction

23 Sep 2025

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) Book Two of Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" provides the conceptual foundation for understanding how commercial society

The Innovation is the Exchange Itself!

16 Sep 2025

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) Chris Cornette, a longtime securities trader who grew up in the business, reveals how the most important innovation that made US

The Innovation is the Exchange Itself!

16 Sep 2025

When Bribes Become the System: Understanding Lock-In

26 Aug 2025

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) Corruption persists not because people like it, but because it becomes embedded in the incentive structure of the state, creating

When Bribes Become the System: Understanding Lock-In

26 Aug 2025

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: Episode #3--Introduction and Book I

19 Aug 2025

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: Episode #3--Introduction and Book I

19 Aug 2025

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" developed from decades of lectures on jurisprudence, examining how market exchange creates

Second Place Is The First Loser: Strategy Over Speed

12 Aug 2025

Second Place Is The First Loser: Strategy Over Speed

12 Aug 2025

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) The ancient tradition of Il Palio in Siena showcases a complex system of strategic corruption, neighborhood rivalries, and

When Bats Attack: Understanding Insurance

5 Aug 2025

When Bats Attack: Understanding Insurance

5 Aug 2025

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) Mike Munger explores insurance economics through the lens of transaction costs and risk management, culminating in an amusing case

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: Episode #2--The "Model"

29 Jul 2025

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2186249/fan_mail/new) Transaction costs provide the key to understanding Adam Smith's complete philosophical system and how his two great works form an

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: Episode #2--The "Model"

29 Jul 2025