Economic Rockstar

Connecting Brilliant Minds in Economics and Finance

146: David Kyle Johnson on Science Fiction as Philosophy and Finding Nietzsche’s Übermensch in Economics

by

Play in New WindowDownload

146: David Kyle Johnson on Science Fiction as Philosophy and Finding Nietzsche’s Übermensch in Economics

David Kyle Johnson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He earned a master’s degree and doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oklahoma.

At Oklahoma, he won the coveted Kenneth Merrill Graduate Teaching Award. In 2011, the American Philosophical Association’s committee on public philosophy gave him an award for his ability to make philosophy accessible to the general public.

Professor Johnson regularly teaches classes on metaphysics, philosophy of religion, philosophy of mind, and logic, as well as courses on critical thinking and scientific reasoning. He has published papers on human freedom, the problem of natural evil, the multiverse, the existence of souls, and many related topics in such journals as Religious Studies, Sophia, Philo, Philosophy and Literature, and Think. He also maintains two blogs for Psychology Today.

Professor Johnson also publishes on the intersection of pop culture and philosophy. One of his books, Inception and Philosophy: Because It’s Never Just a Dream, inspired an authors@Google talk with more than half-a-million YouTube views. He also has written numerous articles that explore the relationship between philosophical questions and such pop cultural phenomena as The Hobbit, Doctor Who, Batman, South Park, Johnny Cash, Quentin Tarantino, and Christmas.

Economics:

In this episode Kyle discusses/mentions: Mercantilism, Capitalism, Socialism, Marxism, free trade and poverty.

Economists mentioned in this Episode:

  • Adam Smith, Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes.

Philosophers mentioned in this Episode:

  • John Locke, Nietzsche and John Rawls.

People mentioned in this Episode:

Shows/Movies mentioned in this Episode:

  • Black Mirror
  • Twilight Zone
  • Star Trek
  • Star Wars
  • Doctor Who
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey
  • Lord of the Rings
  • The Simpsons
  • Futurama

Books:

  • Inception and Philosophy by David Kyle Johnson
  • Introducing Philosophy Through Pop Culture: From Socrates to South Park, Hume to House by David Kyle Johnson
  • Heroes and Philosophy: Buy the Book, Save the World by David Kyle Johnson
  • The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
  • Lord of the Rings

Courses:

  • Sci-Phi: Science Fiction as Philosophy with David Kyle Johnson
  • The Big Questions of Philosophy
  • Exploring Metaphysics with David Kyle Johnson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

052: Alex Tabarrok on Globalisation, Bounty Hunters and Leveraging Online Education

by

Play in New WindowDownload

052: Alex Tabarrok on Globalisation, Bounty Hunters and Leveraging Online Education

Alex Tabarrok is Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University and co-founder (with Tyler Cowen) of Marginal Revolution University, an online platform for learning economics.Alex Tabarrok

Alex is Senior Fellow and former Research Director for The Independent Institute, Assistant Editor of The Independent Review, Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center and Director of the Center for Study of Public Choice.

Alex is the author or editor of a number of books including the introductory economics textbooks, Modern Principles, The Voluntary City and Changing the Guard: Private Prisons and the Control of Crime.

Alex is a TED speaker with over 640,000 views of his TED talk, How Ideas Trump Crises.

Alex received his Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University, and he has taught at the University of Virginia and Ball State University.

“I hope to be teaching long after I’m dead” – Alex Tabarrok

Click To Tweet

In this episode, you will learn:

  • how to ensure that criminals turn up of trial and to reduce the possibility of them becoming a fugitive.
  • how bounty hunters are more successful than the police in catching criminals.
  • why bounty hunters and bail bondsmen are the most best for the taxpayer.
  • why bounty hunters invited Alex Tabarrok to join them in a bounty hunting.
  • why a mother’s signature on a bail bond is the most effective way of making sure a criminal repays its  due.
  • how effective are the police in deterring crime.
  • how a police strike in Montreal in 1967 resulted in an spike in crime.
  • how the terror alert level results in an increase in police presence and results in a decrease in local crime.
  • whether we should reward the police for reducing crime and the problems that could arise from this reward system.
  • about the use of value-added tests for identifying teacher quality.
  • whether the best teachers have a positive impact on the future earnings of their students.
  • if a country can have a welfare state and open borders.
  • how the next generation of immigrants revert to the average of their adopted country including crime.
  • why immigrants to the United States are the most entrepreneurial.
  • why Alex co-founded Marginal Revolution University.
  • what Marginal Revolution University is about and who it’s for.
  • how to leverage the best teachers and leverage their experience.
  • how teaching will evolve into a format that’s similar to how plays evolved into movies with leading actors being paid millions of dollars and the production being created just once.
  • how artificial intelligence and computer adaptive learning programmes will be the next wave of teaching and learning.
  • what is the ideal length for a recorded educational video.
  • why universities will have to adapt to online technologies.
  • why parents and politicians want colleges to use online technologies.

Immigrants have lower crime rates, but the children of immigrants have about average crime rates. It’s unfortunate that the immigrants adopt our ways. They assimilate to American crime rates – Alex Tabarrok

Personal Habits:

I love doing what I do and that removes a lot of barriers. It gets you up in the mornings – Alex Tabarrok

Takeaway:

“Economics is fun. Economics brings in these world histories, things about climate, geography and history” – Alex Tabarrok

Economics:

In this interview, Alex mentions: crime, incentives, causality, elasticity, Baumol’s Cost Disease, rewards, redistribution, welfare, taxes, entrepreneurship, human capital, globalisation, public goods, free trade, structural unemployment and trade.

Economists:

In this interview, Alex mentions: Tyler Cowen, Greg Mankiw, Paul Krugman, Eric Callan, John Click, Milton Freidamn, John Nash, Bryan Caplan, Robin Hanson, Joseph Schumpeter, Adam Smith, David Hume and Richard Cantillon.

“This is a cliche, but Adam Smith really is great” – Alex Tabarrok

Click To Tweet

Ted:

  • How Ideas Trump Crises by Alex Tabarrok
  • Comment: Solving Crises Through Innovation and Ideas or Creating Problems Through Marginalisation and Displacement by Frank Conway

My TED talk is 75% of my entire teaching. So that 15 minute talk has been seen by so many people that that’s the majority – the big majority of all my teaching in my life. – Alex Tabarrok

Podcasts:

Books:

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download

    041: Dermot Hayes on Comparative Advantage, Feeding the Chinese and the Malthusian Catastrophe

    by

    Play in New WindowDownload

    041: Dermot Hayes on Comparative Advantage, Feeding the Chinese and the Malthusian Catastrophe

    Dermot Hayes is the Pioneer Chair of Agribusiness, professor of economics, and professor of finance at Iowa State University. He heads theDermot Hayes 2 Trade and Agricultural Policy Division at CARD, a position he also held from 1990 through 1998.

    He is co-director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, a research center dually administered through the Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State and at the University of Missouri at Columbia. He is also a leader of the Policy Task Force of the Plant Science Institute at Iowa State.

    A native of the Republic of Ireland, Dermot obtained his degree in agriculture science from University College, Dublin and his Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley with a major in international trade.

    Dermot has distinguished himself with many awards at the college and university levels for his work as a teacher and researcher.

    In 2006 he received a Publication of Enduring Quality award from the American Agricultural Economics Association, who subsequently named him a Fellow in 2007.

    Besides his analysis of U.S. farm policy and international agricultural trade, Dermot’s other research interests include food safety, livestock modelling, demand analysis, and commodity markets.

    Economics:

    In this interview, Dermot mentions and discusses: market inefficiencies, government intervention, agricultural economics, property rights, comparative advantage, autarky, incentives, scarcity, Malthusian Catastrophe, free-trade, unemployment, subsidies and taxes.

    Economists:

    In this interview, Dermot mentions and discusses: Jason Shogren, Paul Dolan, David Zetland, David Simon, Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, David Zilberman, Milton Friedman and Josh Angrist.

    Influencer:

    Milton Firedman

    “Whenever prices rise, farmers and technology companies have an incentive to work harder to take advantage of high prices. And of course they do that by producing more and that brings prices back down again.” – Dermot Hayes

    “Malthus was wrong. He was a negative person. But having said that, with more people and less efficient use of land, we are going to have to bring more land into cultivation – this is devastating to the environment.” – Dermot Hayes

    In this episode, you will learn:

    • how China is finding ways to feed its people and how self-sufficiency no longer works.
    • about China’s ever-increasing demands for soybeans, sugar, wine, etc and how this is putting demands on the global agricultural industry.
    • how Ireland lost its comparative advantage in milk production by joining the EU.
    • about Kerrygold Irish grass-fed butter and Bullet-proof coffee.
    • why Kerry Group are only ‘scratching the surface’ in the US market.
    • what high-value, labor-intensive products China should concentrate on producing in order to feed their population and trade with other countries.
    • about if the Chinese government owns much of the land and property rights in China.
    • ‘terminator seeds’ and how private companies could be incentivised to manufacture them.
    • about the use of beta agonists, such as ractopomine, in the use of animal food production.
    • why Europe’s method of testing agricultural technologies frustrates Dermot.
    • about Dermot’s work on free-trade agreements between countries.
    • about Dermot’s ‘controversial’ ethanol research paper.
    • why Dermot created a formula that allowed the price of corn to track crude oil prices and how he bought agricultural land based on his findings.
    • how academic research can open up hatred and attacks amongst your peers and the industry to which you maybe researching.
    • what advice Dermot would give a government regarding the taxing and subsidies of goods and services for the purpose of trade.

    Takeaway:

    “If you haven’t travelled to strange places like Burma or Uruguay, find a way to do so and you’l come back a changed person.” – Dermot Hayes

    Recommended Books:

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download