Recent Podcast Episodes

Iran escalation, fragile debt markets, and gold flashing warning signs. Mark Thornton explains why this bubble won’t end gently.

 The Trump White House can't decide on a reason for why it went to war. But one goal is clearly regime change. Ryan McMaken and Zachary Yost discuss the many obstacles to this unlikely outcome. 

As we celebrate the Centennial of the birth of Murray Rothbard, we look at his commentary on the American Revolution, where it promoted liberty and where the creation of the Constitution became liberty’s roadblock.

The current US conflict with Iran has its roots in the CIA-backed coup in 1953, which removed a democratically-elected prime minister and replaced him with the Shah. The Shah’s government ultimately collapsed, leading to the current Islamic republic.

Trump has brought the US into war with Iran. Ryan, Tho, and Connor talk about the initial execution, the domestic fallout, the global costs, and what may come next. 

When it comes to foreign policy, what matters are powerful interest groups. The ordinary voters who pay all the bills don't matter. The interest groups pushing for pro-Israel wars in the Middle East are especially powerful.

It has been 20 years since the Duke Lacrosse Case dominated the news media. It was a story in which false narratives of guilt pushed by corrupt police and prosecutors, radical members of Duke’s faculty, and the legacy media nearly railroaded three innocent men into prison.

Those who believe in the free and unhampered market economy should be especially skeptical of war and military action. War, after all, is the ultimate government program.

The problem with this new campaign in Iran is not merely that it will likely have bad near-term consequences, but that it represents the American government doubling down on the imperial project that is causing our accelerating national crisis.

The current war is a timely reminder that the US ruling elites regard the US taxpayers and ordinary Americans as little more than inconvenient afterthoughts in US foreign policy.

Bob uses Trump’s call to ban congressional insider trading as a springboard to explain why, from an Austro-libertarian perspective, insider trading and speculation could help markets work, while still justifying special rules for government employees.

Into the heart of the peasant and nomadic Arab world of the Middle East there came, on the backs and on the bayonets of British imperialism, a largely European colonizing people.

Are we emphasizing “the negative”? In a sense, yes, but what else are we to stress when our values, our principles, our very being are under attack from a relentless foe?

Is the US riding an “everything bubble” to the next crisis? Mark Thornton joins Paul Buitink to diagnose the dollar, the debt, and the Fed’s distortion machine.

When the Massachusetts colony issued its own unredeemable paper money in 1690, it was with the promise that it would soon be redeemable in specie. Like all paper money issued by government, it lost value and the confidence of the people.

On this episode of Power and Market, we feel compelled to discuss this week's State of the Union speech.

Dr. Keith Smith recounts how the Surgery Center of Oklahoma and the Free Market Medical Association are exposing the hospital–insurance cartel—posting honest, bundled prices, triggering price wars, and proving that free-market medicine can deliver higher quality care at a fraction of the cost.

Dr. Timothy Terrell explains how entrepreneurs and property rights can protect forests, wildlife, and open spaces better than bureaucracies, using real-world examples of “enviropreneurs” who profit by conserving nature instead of exploiting it.

We are told that the Bill of Rights is the bedrock of our freedom, yet this same Bill of Rights ultimately has been used as a weapon against state sovereignty and against our individual rights.

The current outburst of protests against President Trump’s enforcement of immigration laws is overshadowing a question that is not being asked: Can we defend having national borders in the first place?