Episodes

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...

This week Ron and Ed are thrilled to have Steven E. Landsburg, professor of Economics at the University of Rochester, where students recently elected him Professor of the Year. He is the author of The Armchair Economist, Fair Play, More Sex is Safer Sex, The Big Questions, two textbooks in economics, a forthcoming textbook on general relativity and cosmology, and over 30 journal articles in mathematics, economics and philosophy. His current research is in the area of quantum game theory. He writ...

Ed and Ron will discuss the eight myths of capitalism as explained in Jay Richard's 2009 book, Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem. Richard's book is in the pantheon of literature that offers a moral argument for capitalism, along with the work of George Gilder, Michael Novak, Father Robert Sirico, Deirdre McCloskey, and Rabbi Daniel Lapin, and others. Join Ed and Ron as they shatter the idea of Utopia, Greed, Zero-sum thinking.

Ed and Ron will interview Greg LaFollette, CPA. Greg will give us his take on the future of the accounting profession, as well as the Richard and Daniel Susskind book, The Future of the Professions -see our show from January 8, 2016, interview with Daniel Susskind-, cloud accounting, transitioning to higher value advisory services, among other topics.

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...

Expensify does expense reports that don't suck! by importing expenses and receipts from your credit cards and mobile phones, submitting expense reports through email, and reimbursing everything online. It has raised over $6M in venture funding, has hundreds of thousands of users, has won awards aplenty, and is basically taking the small-business expense reporting space by storm. Ed and Ron will discuss the state of the accounting profession, cloud and app technology, what it’s like to found a co...

Accounting statements are like bikinis: “What they show is interesting, but what they conceal is significant.” According to Baruch Lev and Feng Gu, in their new book, The End of Accounting, “Today’s financial reports provide a trifling 5-6 percent of the information relevant to, and used by, investors.” Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and traditional financial statements are suffering from what philosophers call a deteriorating paradigm: the theory gets more and more complex to account ...

Welcome to the 100th Episode of The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Knowledge Economy, which first aired on July 4, 2014. Thanks to everyone who makes this show possible: Our listeners, our sponsors, callers, and the entire Team at VoiceAmerica who run a professional organization. Ron and Ed will look back on some of our 30 guests, our memorable show topics, and a discussion on the Brexit vote and more on blockchain technology.

The Blockchain has been labeled “The Trust Protocol,” by Don and Alex Tapscott in their book, Blockchain Revolution. Other labels include, the World Wide Ledger of value, and a public (distributed) ledger, or distributed (decentralized) database. The Economist labeled Blockchain “The Trust Machine. Trust the math, not the people (“in math we trust”). Either way, Blockchain is a Meta Technology, that is, it affects other technologies. Ron and Ed have a follow-up conversation with Doug Sleeter and...

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. Our show on July 24, 2015 dealt with some of these laws. In this show, Ed and Ron will explore even more VeraSage Laws.

This week Ron and Ed interview Doug Sleeter, founder of the Sleeter Group and self professed blockchain obsessed entrepreneur. As founder of The Sleeter Group, Doug created a national group of accounting software consultants who serve small and medium-sized businesses. He is the author of several books including the QuickBooks Consultant's Reference Guide, and the leading market college textbooks QuickBooks Fundamentals and QuickBooks Complete.

According to Wikipedia, an unconditional basic income is a form of social security system in which all citizens or residents of a country regularly receive an unconditional sum of money

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...

How you charge is often more important than how much you charge. And one fact is irrefutable: Customers love choice. What we’re willing to pay for something is insanely dependent upon what we compare it to. Offering three choices to the customer puts your product in context. It’s why most businesses offer three of everything: small, medium, large, coach, business, and first-class, Tall, Grande, Venti, etc. This is a ubiquitous strategy because it comports with how human beings make choices and b...

Thousands of business books are published each year. Some are worthless, others have merit, fewer still have lasting value, but a handful possess the ability to transform your business (and possibly, your life). Yet with today’s busy and demanding schedules, do you feel you don’t devote enough time to reading and absorbing new ideas? Then this show is for you. Ed and Ron will explore the best business books ever written, summarizing their favorite all-time business books. If you want to share yo...

Ed and I are honored to be able to interview Colonel Rick Searfoss, Astronaut and Space Shuttle Commander. In addition to piloting two space flights, and commanding a third, he consults and is a test pilot on leading-edge aerospace projects, including serving as the Chief Judge for the $10 million Ansari X Prize for the first private reusable human spacecraft and test flying the world’s only liquid-fueled experimental rocket plane. Rick completed a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engi...

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...

There is no doubt that human reliance on fossil fuels has been incredible beneficial for mankind. That said, controversy swirls about this continued reliance on them and their impact on the environment. On this week's episode, Ron Baker and Ed Kless will interview a true expert in this field, Dr. Mark Miller. Mark has enjoyed a long and varied career in the oil and gas industry – petroleum engineer, University of Texas faculty member, worldwide petroleum engineering consultant, and small busines...

Economic Puzzles and Paradoxes: Do corporations pay taxes? Join Ed and Ron for a fascinating look at this and other everyday economic questions in this new series: Economic Puzzles and Paradoxes. This episode will focus on taxes, in celebration of April 15th. We will strive to follow the wisdom of the great economist Frederic Bastiat: “There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into accou...

Join Ron Baker and Ed Kless Host of “The soul of enterprise” as they cover the Libertarian POTUS Debate at the LP Texas Convention LIVE. Tune in to our events page to listen live at 8 pm Central time to hear the entire Debate plus before and after commentary and interviews with Ron and ED!

In Italian, the word risk derives from risicare, which means “to dare,” which implies a choice, not a fate. Risk is an economic positive. It is where profits come from. There are five responses when confronted with risk: avoid it, reduce it, transfer it, accept it, or increase it. In the final analysis, a business cannot eliminate risk. Attempting to avoid risk and uncertainty, as with cost-plus pricing or hourly billing, is a self-imposed ceiling on a firm’s earnings. Ed and Ron will discuss th...

“The more things change, the more you must depend upon those things that never change” is a theme that Rabbi Daniel Lapin injects into his presentations. Ed and Ron are honored to have the opportunity to interview Rabbi Lapin a second time, the first being on our November 14, 2014 show. Rabbi Lapin is one of America’s most eloquent speakers and his ability to extract life principles from the Bible and transmit them in an entertaining manner has brought countless numbers of Jews and Christians cl...

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.