Free Lunch

The Salem Center
  • 0.0 (0)
  • EDUCATION
Free Lunch

The Salem Center Faculty and Staff discuss various current policy issues in a free form discussion format. The Salem Center will occasionally be joined by outside guests. Texas Podcast Network is brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. Podcasts are produced by faculty members and staffers at UT Austin who work with University Communications to craft content that adheres to journalistic best practices. The University of Texas at Austin offers these podcasts at no charge. Podcasts appearing on the network and this webpage represent the views of the hosts, not of The University of Texas at Austin.

Episodes

  1. Free Lunch, Anti-trust and the FTC

    13/04/2022

    Free Lunch, Anti-trust and the FTC

    A discussion on anti-trust laws and the Federal Trade Commission.

  2. 18/02/2022

    One Year of Biden and the Freedom Convoy

    Free Lunch

  3. Elections have Consequences

    19/11/2021

    Elections have Consequences

    Show Notes: Trip Gabriel's Thread on McAuilffe's polling: https://twitter.com/tripgabriel/status/1458227755250765827 Vox article with plot of McAuliffe v Northam vote share: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/11/4/22761168/virginia-governor-glenn-youngkin-critical-race-theory The NJ election we mentioned - Durr over Sweeney: https://www.nj.com/politics/2021/11/how-a-truck-driver-spent-153-on-his-nj-election-campaign-to-likely-dethrone-a-political-kingpin.html SALT is a giveaway to the rich: https://www.yahoo.com/news/second-biggest-program-democrats-spending-202418744.html (It's a Washington Post article but this version via Yahoo is ungated now) Randomizing Media Strategy study "How Large and Long-lasting Are the Persuasive Effects of Televised Campaign Ads? Results from a Randomized Field Experiment": https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/how-large-and-longlasting-are-the-persuasive-effects-of-televised-campaign-ads-results-from-a-randomized-field-experiment/DA29FE8A5581C772006A1DEBB21CFC4C Little difference in outcomes between Democratic and Republican governors: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/noisy-retrospection-the-effect-of-party-control-on-policy-outcomes/A87D42DD1778755E71DC65B1825B64D5 Literature review about how much political campaigns matter: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-polisci-072012-113556 Thermostatic Voting: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2111666?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents John Cochrane on a progressive VAT: https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2017/04/a-progressive-vat.html

  4. Judge Glock on Political Polarization

    07/10/2021

    Judge Glock on Political Polarization

    Judge Glock, the Chief Policy Officer of the Cicero Institute joins Salem Center Scholars Greg Salmieri and Dima Shamoun and Executive Director Carlos Carvalho to discuss Judge Glock's article "The Mismeasurement of Polarization" (link: https://nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-mismeasurement-of-polarization)

  5. The Aftermath of 9/11: A Discussion on Domestic Politics, Values and Civil Liberties

    15/09/2021

    The Aftermath of 9/11: A Discussion on Domestic Politics, Values and Civil Liberties

    Show Notes: The Pew survey on American exceptionalism: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/30/most-americans-say-the-u-s-is-among-the-greatest-countries-in-the-world/ The USS Cole was attacked on October 12, 2000. The shoe bomber was caught on December 22, 2001. The authorization of force in Iraq: https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-joint-resolution/114

  6. 24/06/2021

    Open Borders

    This episode we had the pleasure of being joined by Bryan Caplan, a professor of economics from George Mason University. Bryan gamely answered questions from Carlos, Greg, and Steve (who may have been a tad tooexcited and dominated the early question asking).

  7. Poverty, Homelessness, Minimum Wage & Measurement

    11/05/2021

    Poverty, Homelessness, Minimum Wage & Measurement

    Show Notes Welcome to the second episode of Free Lunch! This week featured Carlos, Greg, Scott, and Steve talking about poverty, homelessness, the minimum wage, and measurement issues. As Greg notes at the end, if you think we’ve missed something please email us at Steven.Rashin@McCombs.UTexas.edu. Free Lunch is part of the Texas Podcast Network -the conversations changing the world -brought to you by the University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of the University of Texas at Austin. Salem Center Events Referenced Valentin Bolotnyy and Natalia Emanuel’s excellent paper “Why Do Women Earn Less Than Men? Evidence from Bus and Train Operators” and Bolotnyy’s Salem Center presentation David Neumark’s talk on poverty and the minimum wageBruce Meyer’s talk on measuring poverty and the interagency reportJudge Glock’s talk on street homelessness in Texas Poverty/Minimum Wage President Biden signed an executive order that raised the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15/hour; in signing the order, he stated “I believe no one should work full time and still live in poverty. That’s why today, I raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour for people working on federal contracts.” Given this background, our conversation is organized around the question: suppose you were Joe Manchin and had the power to basically set the minimum wage anywhere between $7.25 and $15. Minimum Wage Literature David Neumark’s latest paper “Myth or Measurement: What Does the New Minimum Wage Research Say about Minimum Wages and Job Loss in the United States?*”Arin Dube’s literature review for the UK government on the effects of raising the minimum wage Table 2 from Joseph Sabia’s paper “Minimum Wages: An Antiquated and Ineffective Antipoverty Tool” is the source of the claim that raising the minimum wage would primarily benefit families with earnings three times the poverty line The poverty line for a household with three people is $21,960 https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-poverty-thresholds.htmlA cool paper that none of us mentioned is Orly Ashenfelter et al’s new piece “Wages, Minimum Wages, and Price Pass-Through: The Case of McDonald’s Restaurants” Minimum Wage Additional Context/Stats David Neumark notes that helping low-wage workers is not conceptually the same as helping those in poverty This distinction is important because the benefits of an increase in the minimum wage alone (i.e. without any other interventions) will mostly accrue to households above the poverty line The above is not to say that many below the poverty line won’t benefit or that policymakers should or should not raise the minimum wage it’s to point out that there are tradeoffs that politicians and voters need to considerThe highest minimum wage is in Geneva, Switzerland, where the minimum wage is $25/hour as of September 2020Highest national minimum wages are equivalent to $13.40 USD / hour in Australia and Luxembourg (based on 2019 prices and converted into US dollars)Countries with minimum wages close to the US include Israel at $8/hour and Korea at $7.20 an hour. Denmark, which has been in the national debate recently for their relatively cheap big macs and relatively generous wages paid to McDonald's workers, does not have a minimum wage but has an entirely different labor system called “flexicurity”. The system is basically the combination of a right to work state with strong unions, generous social insurance, and universal healthcare. The highest minimum wage is in Geneva, Switzerland, where the minimum wage is $25/hour as of September 2020Highest national minimum wages are equivalent to $13.40 USD / hour in Australia and Luxembourg (based on 2019 prices and converted into US dollars)Working a full time (40 hours/week) job 50 weeks a year at $15/hour would make you $30,000. At $7.25

  8. 05/04/2021

    Big Tech & Lessons from the Electricity Crisis

    Show Notes  On the first episode of “Free Lunch” we discussed two main issues: the influence of big tech and the fallout from the February 2021 blackouts in Texas. The notes below contain links to relevant Salem Center events, academic studies, and newspaper articles.  We would love to hear your feedback about the podcast.  My email is steven.rashin@mccombs.utexas.edu.  Big Tech  Salem Center events on the Big Tech:  Is Big Tech Too Big? https://salemcenter.org/event/is-big-tech-too-big/   Additional notes/context/links:  Steve mentioned Facebook’s role in violence in Myanmar.  Here’s more detail on Facebook’s role in inciting the violence (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html) One of Greg’s talks on free speech (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKPwQKfMbVQ&ab_channel=SalemCenterforPolicy)   Electricity Crisis  Salem Center events on the Texas Electricity crisis:  Does Texas Value Reliable Energy https://salemcenter.org/event/does-texas-value-reliable-energy/ Forget About What Broke:  Why Poor Policies Made Texas Blackouts Inevitable https://salemcenter.org/event/forget-about-what-broke-why-poor-policies-made-texas-blackouts-inevitable/  Exploring Tradeoffs in the Texas Engergy System https://salemcenter.org/event/exploring-tradeoffs-in-the-texas-energy-system/   Additional notes/context/links:  A Wall Street Journal article about the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) raising electricity prices to $9,000 a megawatt hour.  https://www.wsj.com/articles/texas-power-regulators-decision-to-raise-prices-in-freeze-generates-criticism-11614268158.  Typically, prices are quoted per kilowatt hour (1/1000th of a megawatt hour).  In Texas the average price of electricity before the crisis was $0.1139 per kilowatt hour (https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a) – which is $113.9 per megawatt hour.  Reuters notes that “[o]ne megawatt typically provides enough power for 200 homes on a hot summer day.” (https://www.reuters.com/article/texas-power-summer/update-1-after-winter-crisis-texas-power-grid-assures-will-meet-record-summer-demand-idUSL1N2LN27Q) Carlos mentioned a paper that shows that the cost of natural disasters hasn’t increased.  In Bjorn Lornberg’s piece “Welfare in the 21st century: Increasing development, reducing inequality, the impact of climate change, and the cost of climate policies,” (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.119981) he cites John McAneney et al.’s 2019 paper “Normalised insurance losses from Australian natural disasters: 1966-2017”  (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17477891.2019.1609406)

  • 8 Episodes

About

The Salem Center Faculty and Staff discuss various current policy issues in a free form discussion format. The Salem Center will occasionally be joined by outside guests. Texas Podcast Network is brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. Podcasts are produced by faculty members and staffers at UT Austin who work with University Communications to craft content that adheres to journalistic best practices. The University of Texas at Austin offers these podcasts at no charge. Podcasts appearing on the network and this webpage represent the views of the hosts, not of The University of Texas at Austin.

Information

  • Creator
    The Salem Center
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2022
  • Episodes
    8
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    Free Lunch

More From The University of Texas at Austin

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada