Platypus Economics with Justin Wolfers

The people building the most powerful AI see faster science, better medicines, and explosive economic growth. Others see catastrophe. Justin Wolfers steps into that argument with the one tool that can actually weigh the two: economics.
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What's the relationship between journalism and borrowing costs?
When a local paper shuts down, something surprising happens: the town starts paying higher interest on its debt. Justin Wolfers sits down with producer Augusta to answer viewer questions about why press freedom isn't just a civics-class ideal — it's an economic force that touches your mortgage rate, your government's bond yields, and the whole institutional plumbing that keeps prosperity running.
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The White House is floating a temporary ban on U.S. diesel exports, and the pitch sounds simple: keep the diesel here, and prices fall for farmers and truckers.
In this episode of Diving In, Justin Wolfers walks through why that story falls apart the moment you follow the economics past its first sentence.
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In this episode of the Professor Is In, Justin Wolfers answers your questions about poverty in America. Justin walks through the official poverty measure ($32,649 for two adults and two kids), the newer supplemental measure ($41,701 for a renting family that adjusts for local costs and now counts internet and phone as essentials), and why the two disagree about how many people are poor.
Justin also digs into the hard questions: is redistribution always a leaky bucket, or can fairness make the pie bigger? Why don't we just end poverty with a universal basic income?
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When the White House pulled the press badges of CNN, MS Now, and Politico, most of us reached for the First Amendment. Justin Wolfers asks a different question: what does a free press actually DO for us? What happens to your wallet when a president gets leverage over the reporters?
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on Substack 👉 https://newsletter.platypuseconomics.com
the Podcast 👉 https://platypuseconomics.com/podcast
Follow on Social Media @PlatypusEconomics and @JustinWolfers