In this episode, Matt and Jadrian are trying a couple of new things. First, they’re doing this episode on a very quick turnaround. The BLS’s monthly inflation report came on Wednesday, May 10th and this episode was posted Thursday, May 11th. As a result, you may see a delay coming soon so that Matt and Jadrian can catch up on some other things. On top of that, they’ve invited Brian O’Roark to join them and chat about how he talks about inflation with his classes. Brian is our first official guest of the show, and we think it turned out nicely. Let us know what you think!
In this episode, we discuss:
How economists and the BLS measure inflation rates
The different measures of inflation that economists care about
Ways people respond to news about inflation around rental prices and houses
Pop culture references
And much more!
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Some show notes:
Another week where Jadrian has a beer brewer in Virginia: the Tripel Note from Starr Hill Brewery. Matt went down the road and picked up a Moon Dust from Rusty Rail Brewing Company. Brian isn’t much of a beer drinker, so he went with a mint julep in honor of Derby Day last week. It turns out that mint juleps are Jadrian’s favorite cocktails!
The guys talked about the April inflation numbers based on the BLS’s latest release. You can read about those here. We spent some time digging into the data and discussing different measures of inflation around items like energy, food, and rental prices. Here’s a look at the annualized inflation rate for the past 10 years:
This week’s pop culture references:
Matt went with a clip from The Office, where Dwight introduced Schrute Bucks. Towards the end, Creed attempts to cause hyperinflation by flooding the “money” supply.
Brian went with an anecdote out of Harry Potter in which the prices of things like newspapers and wands change as you read the series. What starts as expensive in some books suddenly gets cheaper later in the series.
Jadrian had trouble picking his favorite reference but ultimately settled on a music video that the Bank of Jamaica put out on the importance of low and steady inflation. It’s very catchy:
Brian was quick to join in with Planet Money’s release of a song from the 1970s on inflation. It’s also a catchy tune that tells of what life was like nearly 50 years ago:
Buy Brian’s Book!
Brian does a lot of cool things, but one of his most recent projects was writing about the connection between superheroes and economics. If you’re looking to see the overlap, we all recommend buying Brian’s book: Why Superman Doesn’t Take Over the World:
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