Why has the American political scene seemed to be so irrational in the past several years? Economist and author Bryan Caplan says it all comes down to social desirability bias, the observation that people prefer what sounds good to what's true. In this episode, Bryan returns to Political Economy to explain why free markets are so unpopular, what people really mean when they complain about Big Tech and privacy, and much more.

Bryan is a best-selling author and Professor of Economics at George Mason University. His latest books are Labor Econ Versus the World and How Evil Are Politicians?, the first two volumes of an eight-volume collection of his best essays.