Three New Videos

Better than a Three-Leaf Clover

I keep telling people that it’s simultaneously the best and worst time to be teaching economics. It’s the best because every day presents something insane for me to discuss. It’s the worst because I can see common-sense economics ignored by leadership and the public.

So I’ve posted a few videos to help increase economic literacy. Under each link, I have some bullet points on what you’ll find.

How to Talk About Tariffs Without Being Clueless

• This is a primer on the purposes of tariffs (the three Rs: revenue, restriction, reciprocity).

• It starts with Trump’s “history” of tariffs, which I turned into a really catchy pop/country song. It gets stuck in your head!

• I break down the actual history of tariffs and the big events that shifted America’s goals

• I do NOT cover the incidence of tariffs. I have a really good way to teach this, and it will probably be in the next video I publish.

This One Thing Kills Economies Everywhere

• This goes over the problems uncertainty, and specifically policy uncertainty, creates for the economy.

• I use a lot of mini case studies. I’m looking at India, Argentina, and the US. It also ranges across history. I use India’s crisis in the early 1990s, Argentina’s hyper-inflation in the 1980s, the 2008 recession, and the Great Depression.

How to Talk About Inflation Without Being Clueless

• A primer on inflation

• Addresses some big misconceptions about inflation, such as greedflation and shrinkflation

• I cover the basic idea of how we measure inflation (basket of goods)

• I tackle that pesky M1 graph and whether 75% of the money that circulates today existed 5 years ago (spoiler: it did, we didn’t turn into Zimbabwe overnight)

• Personally, I think this is one of my best technically executed videos. The content is engaging, the presentation is unique, and the information is important.