Episodes

Henry Hazlitt (1894-1993) was one of the greatest economic journalists of the 20th century. He is the author of “Economics in One Lesson,” among twenty other books; was a chief editorial writer for the New York Times; and wrote weekly for Newsweek. He was a founding board member of the Foundation for Economic Education, where he served in an editorial capacity at The Freeman. Join Ed and Ron as they discuss FEE’s free book, The Essential Henry Hazlit, the last of five books in this Memorable Men...

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do “Free-Rider Friday.” Most of our shows are “topic” driven, where we dive deep into one subject. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be “event” driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no...

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do “Free-Rider Friday.” Most of our shows are “topic” driven, where we dive deep into one subject. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be “event” driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no...

The AICPA and CPA.com have some interesting innovative initiatives in the offering. Join Ed and Ron as they discuss what's new at both of these organizations with Greg LaFollette of CPA.com, and Mark S. Burns of the AICPA.

Ron and Ed were at Sage Summit 2017 in Toronto and recorded an episode featuring a great panel discussion on the bookkeepers and accountants of the future. While the job description for accounting professionals has largely stayed the same, technologies and laws have come into play to change the way business is done. It is time that accountants alter the way they do business to keep up with the shifting tide. Join our discussion with Dianne Mueller, Rachel Fisch, and Tamar Satov. Tamar Satov is t...

People do not like to admit being sold, but they brag about what they buy. Forget selling; focus on what the customer buys. Join Ed and Ron for a discussion of human psychology as it relates to buying behavior. Topics to be explored: Relative, not absolute price matters; price psychology; Search, Experience, and Credence Goods, and understanding the importance of customer risk.

Leonard Edward Read (September 26, 1898 – May 14, 1983) was the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), which was one of the first modern libertarian institutions of its kind in the United States. He wrote 29 books and numerous essays, including the well-known I, Pencil (1958). Read and Henry Hazlitt founded the Foundation for Economic Education in 1946. In 1950, Read joined the board of directors for the newly founded periodical The Freeman, a free market magazine that was a for...

Ron and Ed were at Sage Summit 2017 in Toronto and recorded an episode featuring a great panel discussion on the bookkeepers and accountants of the future. While the job description for accounting professionals has largely stayed the same, technologies and laws have come into play to change the way business is done. It is time that accountants alter the way they do business to keep up with the shifting tide. Join our discussion with Dianne Mueller, Rachel Fisch, and Tamar Satov.

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do “Free-Rider Friday.” Most of our shows are “topic” driven, where we dive deep into one subject. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be “event” driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no...

From the Profit First Professionals Website: Everyone on the planet knew it. It was a cold, hard fact. The world was flat. Until it wasn’t. That’s when everything changed. Society is addicted to axioms: beliefs that have become so entrenched in our global culture that they are never challenged. Sales – Expenses = Profit is one of those axioms. For centuries entrepreneurs have followed the “profit comes last” formula off the proverbial financial cliff. Now everything has changed… In his globally ...

Have you ever changed your mind on a significant issue? Nearly everyone we ask answers yes. What was the process like? How long did it take? How did you go about learning the new position? Philosopher Amélie Oksenberg Rorty wrote the crucial principle for coming to know the truth is, namely: Our ability to engage in continuous conversation, testing one another, discovering our hidden presuppositions, changing our minds because we have listened to the voices of our fellows. Lunatics also change t...

Ron and Ed were at Sage Summit 2017 in Atlanta and recorded an episode (or two) featuring a great panel discussion on the premise that accounting and innovation are not opposites (i.e. not an oxymoron). While the job description for accounting professionals has largely stayed the same, technologies and laws have come into play to change the way business is done. It is time that accountants alter the way they do business to keep up with the shifting tide.

Adrian Simmons is so interested in creating value, he’s been studying the history of the theory of value. He’ll enlighten us with what he’s learned, as well as explain how he uses these insights to create more value in his CPA firm.

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do “Free-Rider Friday.” Most of our shows are “topic” driven, where we dive deep into one subject. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be “event” driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no...

Ron and Ed were at Sage Summit 2017 in Atlanta and recorded an episode (or two) featuring a great panel discussion on the premise that accounting and innovation are not opposites (i.e. not an oxymoron). While the job description for accounting professionals has largely stayed the same, technologies and laws have come into play to change the way business is done. It is time that accountants alter the way they do business to keep up with the shifting tide. Panelist Jodie Padar Gail Perry Gary Boom...

An enormous amount of ink has been spilled on the topic of Generation X, Y, Z, etc. One reason is there are more generations interacting in the workforce today than in the past. Another is life expectancy. The average knowledge worker today will outlive their employer, with an average active work life of approximately fifty years compared to the average organizational life of thirty. This translates into the average worker today having many more jobs, and even careers, than those of their ancest...

This Friday, Ron and Ed will profile Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992), one of the most prodigious classical liberal scholars of the 20th century. He won the 1974 Nobel Prize in economics, published 130 articles and twenty-five books on topics ranging from technical economics to theoretical psychology, from political philosophy to legal anthropology, and from the philosophy of science to the history of ideas. The focus of our conversation will be around the essays published in the free eBook entitled,...

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do “Free-Rider Friday.” Most of our shows are “topic” driven, where we dive deep into one subject. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be “event” driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no...

Over the years, many fellows at VeraSage Institute have coined various laws, such as Baker's Law: Bad customers drive out good customers. In this episode, Ed and Ron will explore more famous, and infamous, VeraSage Laws.

In an ironic twist on Karl Marx’s idea of the proletarian revolution, in today’s capitalist society, labor trumps capital as the chief source of all wealth. According to The World Bank, 80% of the developed world’s wealth lies in human capital. Today, knowledge workers themselves own the firm’s means of production, in their heads. This is a seismic shift in our economy, the ramifications of which we are still trying to comprehend. Thinking in terms of human capital investors lends dignity and re...

In 1997, Ron attended Disney Institute’s professional development program: The Disney Approach to Customer Loyalty: Creating Service that Keeps Your Customers Coming Back. How does Disney create superior value for its guests? They have a foundation that is composed of three components: core competencies, core offering, and core customers. Here was the Walt Disney World Resort promise to its Guests in 1997: “We create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment to people of all ages, every...

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do “Free-Rider Friday.” Most of our shows are “topic” driven, where we dive deep into one subject. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be “event” driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no...

Request For Proposals have become more commonplace as competitive bidding has replaced negotiation for price buyers. It is as if dysfunctional buying practices have arisen to counter dysfunctional selling practices. It is important to judge the seriousness of potential buyers going out to bid, as a lot of the RFPs are, in reality, nothing but hammers used against incumbents to obtain price concessions. That said, many firms have to do a certain amount of RFPs. If you do, you should be well verse...

Ron and Ed interview for a second time Father Robert A. Sirico, the president and co-founder of the Acton Institute and the pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, both in Grand Rapids, MI. A regular writer and commentator on religious, political, economic, and social issues, Rev. Sirico's contributions have been carried by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Times, CNN, ABC, CBS, NPR, and the BBC, among others. In his recent book Defending the Free Market: The Mo...