Platypus Economics with Justin Wolfers

The latest inflation report just dropped, and Justin Wolfers digs into why it's worse than Wall Street expected. Headline inflation came in at an eye-popping 3.7% — well above the Fed's 2% target — and core inflation is stuck above 2.6%. The really worrying part is the latest month: prices rose 0.6% in a single month, and whatever momentum was pulling inflation back toward normal seems to have vanished.

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Americans feel almost exactly as gloomy today as they did in 1980 — when inflation was near 14% and unemployment was close to 8%. Today those numbers are a fraction of that, yet consumer sentiment hit an all-time low. Justin Wolfers treats this like a detective case: the standard economic statistics predict sentiment should sit around 82, but the actual reading is 52 — a 30-point gap begging for an explanation.
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Why Robert Hall and Michael Woodford won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Economics — explained simply.
This morning Robert Hall and Michael Woodford won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Economics, and Justin Wolfers couldn't wait to explain what they figured out — and why it touches how much you spend every month. By the end of the episode you'll understand why your next big purchase hinges more on what you think is coming than on what's in your bank account today, how modern macro got built, and why this is the way we all teach and read the economy now.
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Justin Wolfers takes apart a headline that circled the globe: the G7 announcing it will release 100 million barrels of oil it had already promised to release back in March 2026. On this episode of Diving In, producer Augusta Chapman brings him your questions, office-hours style, and Justin explains why a press release dressed up as a deal does nothing to lower the price you pay at the pump.
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Justin Wolfers digs into President Trump's new executive order letting truckers fill up with red diesel — the tax-free fuel normally reserved for farmers, construction crews, and miners — and deferring the 24.4-cent federal highway tax until after the election. The White House says it'll save a trucker about $60 a fill-up. But diesel hit a record $6.52 a gallon a few weeks ago, and this order doesn't create a single new drop of it.
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