Okay, now you sound normal.

Thank God, okay.

What do I sound like?

You sound normal too, which is also a good thing. Okay, all right, let's, okay, guys, let's, let's all pretend that we're professionals and we're doing a professional show right now.

Chris, are you recording?

In fact, I am.

It's the only way I could hear your audience, so I'm definitely recording.

Okay, I am not recording because as we've established things are fucked over here.

Yep, you're fucked.

Yes.

Okay. here. Yeah, you're fucked. Yes. Okay, then if Noah is good to go, Noah confirm you're good to go. I am good to go. I'm good to go. Welcome everybody to the Tech Beam ride home experience for August 11th.

We are joined today by Noah Smith, economist I suppose.

That's really how Brian talks about you, but we've got a number of interesting topics,

conversations mostly about the economy, about where we're at, where it's going.

It feels like it's been quite the roller coaster so far this year.

It is somewhat the doldrums of August and yet the news and the hits keep

on coming. So Brian, where are you at? How you doing? I'm, I'm, I could be doing better, audio, but hey Noah I do think of you as an economist

are you are you literally are you literally that or are you just an economics columnist?

I self-identify as an economics blogger.

Because too many people identify as economists who don't deserve it.

And I'm, you know, for example, Ben Stein, who was just an actor,

identified as an economist because he had played a boring teacher for about five minutes in the movie Ferris Buehler's day off.

...