Tom Wainwright on Narconomics

EconTalk

Library of Economics and Liberty

Economics, Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Education, Science, Books, Philosophy, History, Ethics, Courses, Business, Interviews

4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2017

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When fighting the war on drugs, governments typically devote enormous resources trying to reduce the supply. But is this effective? Journalist and author Tom Wainwright of the Economist and author of Narconomics talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ways that the drug cartels respond to government attempts to reduce the availability of drugs. Like any business trying to maintain profitability, cartels look for ways to cut costs and maintain or grow revenue. Wainwright uses extensive on-the-ground interviews and reporting to understand the behavior of the cartels and argues that reducing demand would be a much more effective strategy for reducing drug use.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:09.3	I'm your host, Russ Roberts, of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:13.8	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find
0:18.9	links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:21.7	You'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done going
0:26.1	back to 2006.
0:28.3	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org.
0:30.8	We'd love to hear from you.
0:34.6	Today is February 2nd, 2017, and before introducing today's guest, I want to share your 10 favorite
0:41.2	episodes of 2016 as revealed by those responded to our annual survey.
0:46.5	Over 2,000 people voted, by the way, and want to thank you all for participating.
0:50.7	And I hope to do a bonus episode where I share some additional insights from the survey,
0:54.8	respond to your excellent comments and suggestions.
0:58.2	So thanks again, here are the top 10.
1:00.5	Number 10 was Angus Deaton on inequality trade in the Robinhood principle.
1:05.6	Number 9, Angela Duckworth on grit.
1:08.8	Number 8, Terry Anderson on Native American Economics.
1:12.8	Number 7, David Otter on trade shine in US labor markets.
1:16.6	Number 6, Doug Lamab on reading.
1:19.2	And number 5, Matt Ridley on the evolution of everything.
1:22.4	Number 4, Chuck Closterman on But What If We're Wrong.
1:26.8	Number 3, Cathy O'Neill on weapons of mass destruction.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Library of Economics and Liberty, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Library of Economics and Liberty and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.