Pennies, Ozempic, Are Ideas harder to find? and Slop

In this inaugural episode of Econ Nerds Live, hosts Matt Hill and Ariel Slonim discuss various economic topics, including the recent decision to stop minting pennies, the impact of AI on jobs, the price fluctuations of Ozempic. They also explore the challenges of innovation and idea generation, the pricing of non-alcoholic beverages, and the economic lessons learned from personal experiences, such as dealing with crows in the backyard.

00:00 - Introduction to Econ Nerds Podcast

01:13 - The Death of the Penny

07:56 - AI and Job Market Changes

09:59 - Video of the Week: Ozempic Pricing Loophole

14:51 - Post of the Week: Scott Sumner on Populism

19:46 - Paper of the Week: Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find, Nicholas Decker summarizes the paper here

22:44 - The Price is right? Price of Mocktails and Non-Alcoholic Beverages

29:48 - Consumer Surplus and Deadweight Loss of the week

33:55 - Archaeology Meets Economics - How to find ancient cities with trade theory

39:20 - The Impact of War on Economies

43:41 - Econ in the Wild: Personal Anecdotes

Other posts mentioned:

• Infinite Scroll on slop: https://www.infinitescroll.us/p/stop-calling-everything-slop?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1543281&post_id=164064724

• Pessimist’s Archive on Apple: https://newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/thinking-different-is-never-popular?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=247795&post_id=162898051