Michael Munger on Giving Away Money: An Economist's Guide to Political Life

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2006

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Mike Munger, of Duke University, and Russ Roberts talk about the economics of politics, rent-seeking, lobbying and the sometimes perverse incentives of the political world.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, coming to you from the Library of Economics and Liberty, I'm your
0:06.0	host, Russ Roberts of George Mason University.
0:09.4	You can find more Econ Talk at www.econtalk.org, along with readings and links related to
0:15.6	this podcast.
0:17.1	My guest today is Mike Munger of Duke University, coming to us today from Myrtle Beach, South
0:21.6	Carolina.
0:22.6	How is it there, Mike?
0:23.6	It's terrific.
0:24.6	I can say that most of the oysters are afraid of me, but otherwise things are going fine.
0:29.9	That's an impressive achievement to instill fear in a noister, I didn't know you had it
0:34.2	in you.
0:35.2	I'm actually trying to do an undercover investigation of the seafood industry here so that I think
0:40.4	the fish are also frightened, but I do want to say that in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,
0:44.7	competition is alive and well.
0:46.4	The quality of the restaurants is great, the prices are low.
0:50.3	And you think that is, you don't think it's because they just really appreciate what
0:53.7	a fine person you are?
0:54.7	They anticipated me coming at, no, actually it can't possibly be true.
0:58.5	So what it is is that they're trying to make money and the way to make money in markets
1:02.6	is provide good service and charge low prices.
1:06.7	Adam Smith had a very nice observation about markets creating virtue that way.
1:11.4	It forces you to have some fellow feeling, you have to have some idea that when Mike
	...

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