Thursday, March 28, 2013

Policy Fallacy 004: Disability and Food Trucks

In this episode, Rex and Joe examine why the soda ban was banned, what the unintended consequence-ability of disability insurance is, and how the proposed DC food truck regulations could lead to more IRS audits.

Listen to the episode (download)

Links of the week
NYC soda ban overturned (WSJ)
Article on disability insurance in America (NPR)
Critique of part of the NPR article (Center for Economic and Policy Research)
Summary of proposed DC food truck regulations (Washington Post)
Angry food truck vendors vent about proposed regulations (Food Truck Fiesta)

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Policy Fallacy 002: A Coin of Consequence

On this week's podcast, Joe and Rex discuss the unintended consequences of collecting coins and of playing baseball with hand grenades.

Listen to the podcast (download)

Links of the week
The trillion dollar coin law (see Section K): http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/5112
The article about the hole in the debt ceiling law (NPR): http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/01/22/169996031/debt-limit-what-debt-limit
The article about Wal-Mart's zero tolerance policy: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323301104578256183164905720.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Very similar article about Wal-Mart that's not behind a pay wall: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-01-21/business/sns-rt-us-walmart-suppliersbre90l057-20130121_1_facility-bangladeshi-authorities-wal-mart-stores-inc-plans-rajan-kamalanathan

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Welcome to Policy Fallacy 001

Welcome, webwonks, to Policy Fallacy: The Podcast of Unintended Consequences. In their inaugural podcast, Regulator Joe and Wonkasaurus Rex discuss the side effects of selective treatment of tuberculosis and the potential unintended consequences of the pending soda ban in New York City.

Listen to the podcast (mp3 download).

WSJ article on TB: http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/11/23/the-wall-street-journals-investigation-on-tuberculosis/
Soda ban explained (NYT): http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/opinion/soda-ban-explained.html?_r=0