Kathryn answers listeners’ economic questions, with Robin’s stopwatch running. In under an hour, we cover risks to U.S. economic data, college tuition, taxes, bonds, degrowth, mortgages, tariffs vs. income taxes, wealth concentration, and why the future can’t be built on lies. Finally, for those of you not from Wisconsin, do you know how to pronounce Waukesha? Because Robin sure didn’t. And apparently it’s not Wauke$ha, either.

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Child care is exhibit A that not everything can be solved by private marketplaces. It is too expensive and too scarce — and nothing will change that fact. (Maybe you’ve heard someone say that preschool costs more than state university tuition? True in 38 states.) Even among those who think that there’s a role for the government to play in early childhood care, there are still very strong disagreements about what public support should look like and who it should go to. This is a sequel of sorts to our conversation last week about U.S. birth rates last week and the demographics that might force big policy changes in the years to come.

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The declining birth rate in the United States is often discussed not only as a major demographic shift, but as a looming economic disaster. The White House recently floated ideas such as giving a $5,000 baby bonus to new parents and (truly) giving medals to women who have a half-dozen babies. But what are the real contours of this supposed crisis? Indeed, if we haven’t done anything to remove the constraints on having kids, can we call it a crisis at all?

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