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Looking Beyond the Unemployment Rate
Season 1 Episode 24
The unemployment rate has been hovering around 4.2%. But in today’s highly unsettled economy, many people feel this headline number from the Bureau o…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
GDP Was Never Going to Make You Happy
Season 1 Episode 23
Gross Domestic Product is the big dog of economic numbers. But this measure of the economy’s size has massive blind spots. It ignores income inequali…
7 months ago
How to Actually Help Young Men Struggling in Our Economy
Season 1 Episode 22
The "boys and men crisis" conversation set in motion following the 2024 election is now shooting off in erratic directions, leading to a lot of hand-…
7 months, 1 week ago
What You Don’t Know About Poverty
Season 1 Episode 21
About 11% of Americans have a household income that puts them below the official government threshold for poverty. Is poverty a state of being, or a …
7 months, 2 weeks ago
Q&A Part 2: Working Two Jobs, Incentives vs. Handouts, the Gold Standard, and Government ROI
Season 1
Economist Kathryn Edwards is back with more answers. In Part 2, she talks more about student loans, who actually “lives off taxpayers,” why gold rese…
7 months, 3 weeks ago
Q&A Part 1: Tax Philosophy, Liberal vs. Conservative Economists, Marriage vs. Poverty and More
Season 1 Episode 20
In the first of two mailbag episodes, economist Kathryn Edwards answers questions from optimist listeners on taxation on wages vs. investments, wheth…
7 months, 3 weeks ago
A Million Reasons to Raise the Minimum Wage
Season 1 Episode 19
The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour hasn’t been raised since the era of flip phones. Competing bills introduced in Congress recently would set …
8 months ago
Collective Bargaining Without the Unionization Battles
Season 1 Episode 18
Labor unions’ public approval has been increasing since 2009, and is now at levels not seen since the 1960s. And yet rates of union membership have b…
8 months, 1 week ago
The Tax We’re 99.93% Sure That You Will Never Pay
Season 1 Episode 17
The Estate Tax is one that half of Americans worry about, but that affects only the richest 0.07% after they die. For nearly 25 years, the U.S. has –…
8 months, 2 weeks ago
About That College Grad Who Can’t Find a Job…
Season 1 Episode 16
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? (N…
8 months, 3 weeks ago