In this episode, we first travel more than 4,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia, mostly modern-day Iraq. I will first describe the slow death of the Sumerian gods, and in the second half of the episode, their revival as an unintended consequence of Iceland’s tax system. Yes, cold and windy Iceland.  

A necessary note: this episode is not about the Anunnaki, as popular as that subject may be. Also, talking about the disappearance of the Sumerian religion is talking about thousands of years of Mesopotamian history with its peoples, cities, and rising and falling empires. I will do my best to summarize this, and if you have ever been intrigued by the evolution of this region in ancient times, you will certainly enjoy this first part of the episode.     

Although two suspicious brothers are involved in the story, the unintended consequence of Iceland’s religious tax was the revival of a religion long forgotten from faraway foreign lands. Perhaps the ancient Sumerian gods Enlil and Inanna were not offered proper ritual this time, but, somehow, they came to life in the Icelandic Zuist Church. Coming from Southern Iraq, I bet they expect to reappear next time in a warmer climate.  

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Thank you for listening. For additional information and social media links, you can visit https://www.thecobraeffectpodcast.com

You can support the show on Buy Me a Coffee or become a monthly member. Links on the website. You help me to cover my costs, and your contribution keeps this project going.

Feel free to reach out via social media or email. The email address is [email protected]

I would appreciate hearing your questions, comments, or suggestions for future topics. See you in two weeks for another episode of The Cobra Effect Podcast.

In this episode, we first travel 2,400 years back to ancient Athens, where the playwright Aristophanes satirizes the notion of communal property leading to reliance on slaves. But the central theme of the episode is the town of New Harmony, in Indiana, United States. Founded in 1825 by Robert Owen, a Welsh reformer and philanthropist, his idea was to create a society without poverty or individualism through the collective sharing of property and production. Despite initial optimism, New Harmony collapsed by 1828 due to inefficiency, scarcity, and mismanagement, mirroring later 20th-century communist failures. Owen’s vision of equal remuneration regardless of contribution led to low productivity, surveillance, and punishment of dissent, as noted by his son Robert Dale and others. Historical parallels in other places of the United States in the 19th century, including Étienne Cabet’s Icarian communities and Brook Farm, further illustrate the recurring failure of such collectivist experiments. Aristotle’s ancient critique in “Politics” underscores this, arguing that shared property receives minimal care —a lesson reiterated by New Harmony’s demise, which highlights the unintended consequences of utopian collectivism.

For a full list of sources and other relevant links, please see the Full Transcript of this episode.

Support the show

Thank you for listening. For additional information and social media links, you can visit https://www.thecobraeffectpodcast.com

You can support the show on Buy Me a Coffee or become a monthly member. Links on the website. You help me to cover my costs, and your contribution keeps this project going.

Feel free to reach out via social media or email. The email address is [email protected]

I would appreciate hearing your questions, comments, or suggestions for future topics. See you in two weeks for another episode of The Cobra Effect Podcast.

In this episode, we first travel 700 years to the Mali Empire in West Africa. Mansa Musa, the ninth ruler of the Mali Empire, is the protagonist of our episode. In 1324, as a devout Muslim, Mansa Musa embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca. On his way, he spent and gave away so much gold in Cairo that his actions disrupted the gold market's value there for at least 12 years. 

His good deeds in foreign lands are among the first examples in History of how an altruistic idea can lead to adverse, unintended consequences. There are examples in our world today, particularly in foreign aid, where the generosity of wealthy nations and international organizations can have adverse effects on the impoverished communities they aim to help. 

We will discuss this further at the end of the episode, after covering the events related to Mansa Musa. We will also discuss the California Gold Rush of the 19th century, as it will help us understand how a sudden influx of gold can create inflation, similar to what happened in Cairo in 1324.

Mansa Musa's generosity, the California Gold Rush, inflation, and foreign aid are the recipe ingredients for today's episode of The Cobra Effect Podcast. 

For a full list of sources and other relevant links, please see the Full Transcript of this episode.

Support the show

Thank you for listening. For additional information and social media links, you can visit https://www.thecobraeffectpodcast.com

You can support the show on Buy Me a Coffee or become a monthly member. Links on the website. You help me to cover my costs, and your contribution keeps this project going.

Feel free to reach out via social media or email. The email address is [email protected]

I would appreciate hearing your questions, comments, or suggestions for future topics. See you in two weeks for another episode of The Cobra Effect Podcast.

In this episode, we first travel more than 100 years to the city of Delhi, in India. 

The British colonial government decided to eliminate the overpopulation of cobras slithering around and put a bounty on each of them. The economic incentive initially worked well. However, the authorities did not foresee other subsequent events... Based on this story, in 2002, the German economist Horst Siebert coined the term “cobra effect” to describe cases of unintended consequences when the proposed solution backfires, making the problem worse. Hence, the title of this podcast! 

Today, we will also discuss two other cases of "cobra effects" in Vietnam and Brazil related to rats. 

These examples illustrate how unintended consequences transform good intentions into bad policies. From ancient Mesopotamia to current world events, The Cobra Effect Podcast explores the unintended consequences of government policies, including taxation, price and wage controls, foreign aid, collectivization, environmental issues, and more. Four millennia of history on all continents demonstrate that we repeat the mistakes of the past when judging ideas by intentions rather than results.

Sources:

1- Cobras 

https://www.amazon.com/Kobra-Effekt-Irrwege-Wirtschaftspolitik-vermeidet/dp/3421056781 

https://fee.org/articles/the-cobra-effect-lessons-in-unintended-consequences/ 

https://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-cobra-effect-2/ 

2- Rats in Vietnam

https://www.hanoivietnam.fr/le-massacre-des-rats-de-hanoi-en-1902/ 

https://madeinchinajournal.com/2020/08/20/the-great-hanoi-rat-hunt/ 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41299413?typeAccessWorkflow=login

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41938159?typeAccessWorkflow=login 

3- Rats in Brazil

https://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/en/war-on-the-plague/ 

https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/https%3A//agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/node/1474734 

https://oswaldocruz.fiocruz.br/index.php/en/biography/scientific-career/general-directorate-of-public-health/the-campaign-against-the-bubonic-plague 

Bastiat’s essay: https://oll.libertyfund.org/page/wswns 

Support the show

Thank you for listening. For additional information and social media links, you can visit https://www.thecobraeffectpodcast.com

You can support the show on Buy Me a Coffee or become a monthly member. Links on the website. You help me to cover my costs, and your contribution keeps this project going.

Feel free to reach out via social media or email. The email address is [email protected]

I would appreciate hearing your questions, comments, or suggestions for future topics. See you in two weeks for another episode of The Cobra Effect Podcast.