The Economist Next Door

How much have state budgets been taken over by the federal government? Is anything wrong with the Bureau of Labor Statistics? And what's nationalist about trade surpluses?

Tony Woodlief joins Econception to discuss.

Tony Woodlief is State Policy Network's Senior Executive Vice President and Senior Fellow for SPN's Center for Practical Federalism.

Are the economic doomers right? How does government policy influence which industries thrive in America? Can rich people who think their taxes are too low pay more to the government instead?

Jeremy Horpedahl joins Econception to discuss these questions and more.

Dr. Jeremy Horpedahl is the Director of ACRE and an associate professor of economics at the University of Central Arkansas.

What's the purpose of business? What's the purpose of government? Has 20 years of higher education spending led to better student performance?

Dominic Pino is joined by David Bahnsen to explore these questions on the latest episode of Econception.

David Bahnsen is the founder and managing partner of The Bahnsen Group, a national private wealth management firm managing over $4 billion in client assets. Prior to launching The Bahnsen Group, he spent eight years as a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley and six years as a Vice President at UBS. Bahnsen is also a contributor to several prominent outlets and a best-selling author.

What's going on with the market reforms in Argentina? What have other countries done to fix their social security programs? And how did FedEx change the world?

Manhattan Institute Fellow Daniel DiMartino joins Econception to discuss.

What's going on with the Republican tax bill? How different can state budgets really be from one another? And how does Amtrak justify its barely used services?

Adam Michel joins Econception to discuss.

Adam N. Michel is director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, where he focuses on analyzing the economic and budgetary effects of taxation in the United States.

Where do Trump's tariffs stand legally? Are foreign students banned from American universities? And are we really going to have to prove that mind control doesn't work again in New York City?

Dominic Dino works through these questions and more on Econception.

What's going on with the tariff deals? How free trade really is the United States? And what have the Popes taught about socialism?

Dave Hebert joins Econception to discuss these questions and more with Dominic Pino.

Dave Hebert, Ph.D, is a senior research fellow at AIER. Dr. Hebert's research has been published in academic journals such as Public Choice, Constitutional Political Economy, and The Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice and popular outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Investor's Business Daily, RealClearPolicy, RealClearMarkets, The Hill, and The Daily Caller.

What's the matter with Medicaid? Have Germany's manufacturing policies been successful? And are Greece and Argentina the new role models for fiscal responsibility?

We look through those questions today with Brian Blase and Paul Winfree.

Brian Blase, Ph.D., is the President of Paragon Health Institute. Brian was Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the White House's National Economic Council (NEC) from 2017-2019, where he coordinated the development and execution of numerous health policies and advised the President, NEC director, and senior officials. After leaving the White House, Brian founded Blase Policy Strategies and served as its CEO.

Dr. Paul Winfree is the Founder, President, and CEO of the Economic Policy Innovation Center in Washington, D.C. He is also a Research Affiliate at the Queen's University Centre for Economic History (Queen's University Belfast), and an Advisor at the Centre for Economics, Policy and History (Trinity College Dublin and Queen's University Belfast). His research focuses on public finance, the political economy, and U.S. economic history.

What's the case for free trade? What's the history of free trade in the United States? And is undoing free trade a sound grand strategy for the United States?

Dominic Pino looks through these questions on the latest episode of Econception.

How can government policy be more family-friendly? Can socialism exist without coercion? How did bad monetary policy encourage DEI and ESG?

Susannah Petitt joins Dominic to discuss.

Susannah Petitt is a Social Mobility Fellow at Young Voices and Programs Manager at the Mercatus Center.