Show Notes
Send us Fan Mail Chris Cornette, a longtime securities trader who grew up in the business, reveals how the most important innovation that made US capital markets preeminent in the world was the exchange itself. • Cornette's father worked in the P&S (Purchase and Sales) department on Wall Street, eventually becoming the controller of an American Stock Exchange specialist unit • The original Buttonwood Agreement from 1792 created exclusivity among traders that helped establish trust in the...
More from The Answer Is Transaction Costs
Send us Fan Mail We walk through how Chile converts retirement savings into lifelong income and why inflation protection and competition make the design work. Then politics collides with contract law as COVID-era withdrawals test credible commitment and raise transaction costs across the financial system. • how AFP accounts build national savings and deep capital markets • why a pension is more than a savings account, especially under longevity risk • how the renta vitalici...
Send us Fan Mail We trace how Hebrew goes from a “museum language” to a living vernacular by treating language as a coordination good with huge network effects and real transaction costs. We follow Eliezer Ben-Yehuda’s strategy for lowering those costs, then watch the Technion language fight prove Hebrew can carry science, not just prayer. • Hebrew’s revival as a rare case of full language reboot at scale • Jewish linguistic diversity and why German, French, Russian, Polish, and Y...
Send us Fan Mail We tell the story of the Chicago dinner where Ronald Coase walks into a hostile room, and by the end everyone votes with him, led by Milton Friedman changing his mind in real time. Along the way, we unpack why transaction costs, not moral blame, often explain when law and institutions shape outcomes. • the Aaron Director dinner and the vote that flips • why Milton Friedman becomes a political symbol and lightning rod • critiques from the right and left on ...
Send us Fan Mail We walk through the weirdly powerful math that makes a stable $10,000 profit stream worth $50,000 in one world and $1,000,000 in another. Then we apply the same present value logic to politics and show how unpredictable rules raise transaction costs, inflate the effective discount rate, and freeze long-term investment. • the discount rate as the hidden driver of valuation • why the consol bond makes present value intuitive • P = X / R as a shortcut for long-lived assets •...
Send us Fan Mail We argue that “friction” is not always a flaw and can be a deliberate shield against bad collective decisions. We use Buchanan and Tullock’s public choice framework to show why supermajorities, veto points, and other transaction costs can protect rights while still leaving room for day to day governing. • contrasting cheap outrage with intentional institutional friction • explaining why constitutional amendment rules use supermajorities • breaking down exter...