Thirty million Americans, more or less, work for themselves. They freelance, do gig work, have solo LLCs, or — as a certain economist says — participate in “ non-employee employment.” The economics of their situation is harder than it needs to be. Making self-employment more viable is good for everyone in the labor market, because when workers have options, they also have more power. Plus: Kathryn Anne Edwards testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, and a congressman implied she wasn't a real American. She has thoughts.

Chapters:

0:00 — Start/Announcements

1:21 — Retcon: Bad banks, good overtime, and testifying before Congress (again)

18:17 — Big Pilcrow: Freelancers & non-employer businesses

44:42 — Executive orders: national anthem singing rules, Congressional attendance policy

47:20 — Spiritual sponsors: Supportive listeners and horchada + cold brew coffee

49:01 — Credits

(Originally aired 7/1/2025) Newly minted college graduates are having a harder time landing that first job than in recent years. Is it AI? Is college useless? Is it a crisis? (No. No. And not yet…) College graduates under 27 still have significantly lower unemployment rates (5.8%) than high school graduates of the same age (6.9%). What economist Kathryn Edwards finds worrying is that these new workers, who are typically a lagging economic indicator, may in this case be a bellwether of a weakening economy. 

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Complete show notes with links to articles and data at optimisteconomy.com.

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A certain kind of wealthy American has been griping out loud lately — about taxes, about progressive cities, about how unappreciated they are for the jobs they create, the stuff they buy, and the tips they hand out. A narrative is coalescing around them too: that the top 10% of earners now do so much of the spending, the U.S. economy relies on them. But an economy that depends so much on the people at the top isn't the healthy one the country deserves — it’s just wearing a nice suit.

Chapters:

00:00:56 Announcements: Q&A episode questions wanted
00:01:18 Retcon: The 86 debate; FDR's full "calamity howling executives" quote 00:05:32 Terms & Conditions: Wealth Effect and Zugzwang
00:09:26 Big Pilcrow: Should we cherish the ultra-wealthy?
00:36:41 Executive Orders: Retire "mummies"; union credits on red carpets 00:39:34 Spiritual Sponsors: Mellow Cello podcast; enormous floral arrangements

Further Reading

Moody's claim that the top 10% of earners now drive nearly half of consumer spending in the WSJ:
https://www.wsj.com/economy/consumers/us-economy-strength-rich-spending-2c34a571

The Minneapolis Fed on what the underlying data actually shows. https://www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2026/have-us-consumers-gone-k-shaped-a-review-of-the-data

Wealthy part-time New Yorkers reacting to a proposed pied-à-terre tax in the Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/3283eaab-e9cf-41e6-a028-5a02fb6f4615

The Wall Street Journal on second-home taxes spreading from New York City to other states, including the San Diego homeowner who'd like to be cherished. https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/taxes-on-second-homes-are-springing-up-across-america-93a64448

Full reading list at https://optimisteconomy.substack.com

Got economic questions, concerns, or executive orders?  Send them to [email protected]

It wasn’t just hourly factory jobs that were supposed to come with a 40-hour workweek. Even salaried jobs were supposed to get overtime pay, though very few do do anymore. Overtime protections are the only legal mechanism enforcing work-hour limits, and for 50 years, the salary threshold that determines who qualifies to receive overtime has been left to erode. Employers found another workaround too: just call the sandwich maker a "sandwich manager." Now, the new no-tax-on-overtime deduction isn't protecting workers — it's rewarding the kind of overwork it was overtime was originally designed to punish. Fixing the law governing overtime would be a huge and instant boost not just to the U.S. economy, but to our work-life balance.

Chapters:
00:01:43 Announcements
00:02:32 Retcon: Economic data reliability
00:05:54 Terms & Conditions: Tenterhooks; Perquisite 
00:08:23 Big Pilcrow: Overtime 
00:45:27 Executive Orders: Badge of shame for working past 40 hours; more colorful cars
00:46:52 Spiritual Sponsors: Awesome first bosses; Faraday e-bike

Got economic questions, concerns, or executive orders?  Send them to [email protected]

Cash is dirty, inconvenient, and so last century. Some 70% of Americans under age 50 think its days are numbered. But we still need those greenbacks, if as an alternative to banks. More than 4% of households are “unbanked,” and three times as many are “underbanked,” meaning bank services mostly don’t work for them, so rely on services like check cashers or payday lenders. And that's before you get to the racial disparities in who banks approve for credit. Reviving banking services at the post office might be one way to help the unbanked and keep from handing yet more power to the finance sector. 

Chapters:

00:00:48 Announcements

00:02:30  Retcon: Semiquincentennia 

00:03:35 Terms & Conditions: ChexSystems, Unbanked

00:05:46  Big Pilcrow: What’s keeping the U.S. from going cashless?

00:38:28  Executive Orders: Regulate youth sports schedules; Airline baggage fees by weight.

00:40:56  Spiritual Sponsors: Artemis splashdown; Friends with season tickets.

Have a questions for our next Q&A? Send it to [email protected]

Consumer sentiment is in the basement. Jobs aren't being added. Prices keep climbing. GDP barely grew at the end of 2025, and a ‘meh’ 2% last quarter. Shouldn’t this be a recession? Not so far. Economist Kathryn Anne Edwards walks through the clear cause of each bad number: Tariffs explain the prices and foul mood. Mass deportations explain the jobs. The government shutdown explained last quarter. Still, knowing the passing reasons for economic pain doesn't make it hurt less. And none of it changes the long-term economic reforms we still need.

Chapters: 

00:01:06 Announcements

00:01:57 Retcon: Wealth at retirement

00:03:52 Terms & Conditions: Recession, Slack, Tight, Loose, Goodflation/Badflation

00:09:10 Centerpiece: What is going on with the U.S. Economy right now? The vibe is don’t panic. But don’t not panic. 

00:53:38 Executive Orders: Free work parking. Legislators do their own taxes.

00:55:00 Spiritual Sponsors: Genre-specific bookstores and great newstands

Send us your economic questions and concerns at [email protected]

(Originally aired 5/06/25) What sparks progress? The right political conditions? Social pressure? Economic upheaval? In response to two listeners’ questions, we say… both none of those and all of the above. As an example, we talk through just one bit of the New Deal in the 1930s, which was the law to limit child labor. That movement started decades earlier, and continued decades afterward. For those keeping score at home, this a sneaky third installment of Kathryn’s 68-part series on the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. 

Chapters: 

00:01:08 Announcements

00:01:43 Retcon

00:03:58 Terms & Conditions

00:07:03 Centerpiece

00:42:56 Executive Orders

00:46:25 Spiritual Sponsors

Average U.S. wages have barely budged since the early '80s — and if you account for today's labor force being older and more college-educated, wage growth basically disappears. Economists have cycled through explanations: workers lacked technical skills, then couldn't compete with global labor, then lost the policies that once lifted paychecks, like strong unions and a meaningful minimum wage. The latest chapter is monopsony — the idea that as employers consolidate, people have fewer choices of where to work, and fewer places to land if they lose a job. Fix the market, and the paychecks follow.

Chapters:

00:00:45 Announcements

00:01:01  Retcon: Double Taxation and Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act

00:03:10 Terms & Conditions: Monopsony, Septel

00:07:07  Big Pilcrow: Why Aren’t Wages Growing?

00:40:37  Executive Orders: Reverse Billing, Leaked Chat Table Readings

00:42:49  Spiritual Sponsors: Dole Whip, Sad Songs, Being Recognized in the Wild

From California to Washington to New York, states are trying to tax the very rich. The press keeps rehashing whether millionaires and billionaires will flee those states. Wrong question. The more important one is why we’re improvising tax policy state to state when it’s the federal government that should be dealing with health care, child care and affordability—all of which are national problems. Meanwhile, some Senate Democrats are proposing to take even more people out of the tax system entirely. None of these specific proposals make income taxes simpler or fairer, but they do suggest there’s an appetite for reform. 

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Chapters:

00:01:18 Announcements

00:02:33 Retcon: Occupational Licenses

00:06:16 Terms & Conditions: Progressive

00:07:59  Big Pilcrow: Everyone Wants to Tax Millionaires

00:38:23  Executive Orders: Unreadable Menus and Tax Complainer Merch

00:41:42  Spiritual Sponsors: Dream Robin & the Nobel Laureate’s WNBA Contract

Got economics questions, anxieties, or executive orders? Send them to [email protected]

Americans used to move a lot in search of opportunity. But in 2024, the share of Americans who moved at all hit a 76-year low. Barely 2% of us moved across state lines. Some of that is by choice: people are more rooted, and that's not nothing. But when workers stop moving, rich cities pull further away from poor ones, wages stagnate, and the gaps between thriving labor markets and struggling ones get harder to close. And when there’s a shock to a local labor market, moving is an important release valve. Fixing a fraction of this worker mobility breakdown could improve the labor market for everyone.

Chapters:

00:00:33  Opening

00:01:45  Retcon: Trump Accounts & Career Pivots

00:07:27  Terms & Conditions: Spatial Equilibrium

00:09:55  Big Pilcrow: Does it Matter to the U.S. Economy if We Don’t Move from Place to Place?

00:39:10  Executive Orders: Frances Perkins miniseries; Sleep Shaming; Election Day Weekend

00:43:07  Spiritual Sponsors: The National Consumers League motto ("Investigate, Agitate, Legislate"); ACFC’s winning start

READ MORE:

The increasingly mobile US is a myth that needs to move on | Aeon Essays

Who Moves? Who Stays Put? Where’s Home? | Pew Research Center

Job Changing and the Decline in Long-Distance Migration in the United States | Demography | Duke University Press

The Economics of Internal Migration: Advances and Policy Questions

Population & Migration | Economic Research Service

Stranded! How Rising Inequality Suppressed US Migration and Hurt Those Left Behind