Platypus Economics with Justin Wolfers

President Trump says he’s brought $21 trillion of new investment into America since taking office. Sometimes it’s $18 trillion, sometimes $22 trillion. The exact figure isn’t the problem. All of them are wrong, by a lot.
In this episode, Justin Wolfers gives you the questions you need to ask to test any huge number.
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Unemployment is low, inflation has cooled, and by most hard numbers the economy is doing okay — yet Americans sound miserable. Consumer sentiment this summer sat at 52, roughly where it was in May 1980, when unemployment was nearly twice as high and inflation was running around 14%. Justin Wolfers thinks he's cracked the puzzle: the 30-point gap between how you feel and how the economy is actually performing lines up almost exactly with how little Americans trust the people running economic policy right now.
In this office-hours episode, producer Augusta Chapman tries to poke holes in that story, and Justin defends it. Does the gloom cause the distrust, or the other way around? Does sentiment even matter if you keep spending anyway?
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Tax-free red dye diesel won't make a single extra drop — so who really pays for it?
President Trump signed an executive order letting truckers fill up with red dye diesel — the cheaper, untaxed fuel normally reserved for tractors and bulldozers — and the White House says it'll save truckers about $60 a tank. In this "Professor Is In" episode, Justin Wolfers and producer Augusta Chapman take your questions and show why the tax-free diesel policy creates no new fuel at all. There's only so much diesel in the world, so every gallon truckers gain, farmers lose.
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Why is inflation rising faster than your wages? It's a cost-push energy shock, not the good kind.
Justin Wolfers and Bloomberg's Stacey Vanek Smith dig into the latest inflation report on Off the Clock, and the news isn't fun: prices are climbing 3.7% while wages crawl along at 3%, which means the average American — maybe you — is quietly falling behind. Justin walks through the difference between demand-pull inflation (the economy runs hot, prices rise, but your paycheck rises too) and cost-push inflation (energy and tariffs push costs up, prices rise, and nobody hands you a raise). Guess which one we're living through.
Along the way, Justin grades new Fed chair Kevin Warsh (forecasters gave him a shaky report card), explains why computers are suddenly getting pricier again, and announces the first-ever Platypus Economics Halloween costume contest.
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the Podcast 👉 https://platypuseconomics.com/podcast
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Prices rose 3.7% over the past year, core inflation is stuck around 2.6%, and your paycheck is buying less than it used to — yet it feels like everything costs way more than that. Economist Justin Wolfers sits down with producer Augusta Chapman for office-hours-style answers to your questions: why your gut says prices doubled.
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the Podcast 👉 https://platypuseconomics.com/podcast
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