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Welcome to rationally speaking, the podcast where we explore the borderlands between reason and nonsense.

I'm your host, Julia Galef, and my guest today is Alex Tabarach.

Alex is an economist at George Mason University and a blogger at Marginal Revolution.

His latest book is Why Are the Prices So Damn High? It's co-authored with Eric Helland and available for free on the Mercatus Center website. And it's about specifically

why are the prices so damn high in health care and education. As you may have noticed, while the

prices of many consumer goods have been plummeting like electronics and toys, the price of services like a hospital visit or a college education have gone up by a lot, about 200% just in the last two decades.

And that's in real dollars. That's adjusting for inflation. And they've been climbing pretty steadily since the middle of last century.

So this is the big mystery. Why are the prices so damn high? And getting damn high. And they've been climbing pretty steadily since the middle of last century.

So this is the big mystery.

Why are the prices so damn high and getting damn higher?

Alex, great to have you on the show finally.

It's fantastic to be here.

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