March 20, 2025· 34 min

The Great Jones Act Debate

Orality
Model
68%
Oral-dominant (speeches, podcasts, storytelling)

Speaker Breakdown

HostTracy Alloway(1,074 words)
M:29%
GuestColin Grabow(2,179 words)
M:29%
GuestSara Fuentes(2,126 words)
M:28%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic27%
literally, completely, obviously
Engagement79%
you, our, your
Memory Aids100%
listen, now, like
Repetition100%
jones (69x), right (57x), it's (52x)
Parallelism57%
And I'm Jill Wiesenthal...., So we've joked for years and y..., And since we waited so long, I...
Sound Patterns100%
86 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"
Formulaic Phrases6%
i mean, to be honest

Literate Indicators

Hedging9%
may, quite, probably
Passive Voice6%
was heated, be repealed, be crewed
Abstract Nouns17%
investment, recommendation, community
Subordination6%
because, since, though
Sentence Length26%
Avg: 11.5 words/sentence
Word Complexity48%
investment, analyze, anticipate
Academic Markers0%
Impersonal Style21%
565 personal pronouns found
Descriptive Style78%
literally, completely, apply

Description

We finally did it. We finally did an episode on the Jones Act. For years on the podcast, we've been referencing this controversial law from 1920, which places restrictions on domestic port-to-port transport in the United States. But we had never actually done an episode on what it is, why it was created, and why people feel so fervently about either keeping or maintaining it. There are plenty of people who feel that this law is an inhibitor of US growth, because domestic water-based shipment of goods requires a US-flagged, US-crewed, and US-built vessel. And yet the law persists — for over a century now. At our live show in Washington DC, we spoked with the Cato Institute's Colin Grabow (who took the anti side) and the Transportation Institute's Sara Fuentes (who took the pro side). They explained their respective positions on questions of the economics and national security in a lively, heated (but polite) debate. Read more: Jones Act Descended From Centuries of Lazy Protectionism East Coast Gas Would Only Drop a Dime If Jones Act Lifted, Says JPMorgan Jones Act Ships Competitive for US Fuel Exports as Freight Soars Only Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at  bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.