Recent Podcast Episodes

Wage differences between men and women often are automatically attributed to sex discrimination against women. However, as research has shown time and again, other factors are at work. 

Not all news from the gold and monetary fronts is bad. In fact, gold made a number of advancements in seven states, including exemptions from taxes and attempts by states to restrict Federal Reserve behavior. Gold is alive and well.

Historical revisionism is nothing new, and recent attempts to label an “antiracist” approach to history have wrongly been called “revisionist.” To better understand revisionism, one must first be grounded in reality, then apply reality-based thought to studying the past.

Progressives blame the free market for insulin prices and want to impose price controls. But, government regulation is to blame. 

David Glasner shares his perspectives on the famous Sraffa-Hayek debate, a topic on which he has expressed disagreement with Bob in print.

Government spending does not reflect true economic value the way personal spending does.

Interest rates, inflation, home prices, and federal spending all pose big challenges to a Trump administration that is ill-prepared to deal with the deep-seated problems in the US economy. 

The FBI has always acted as secret police for the established political class.

Using state power to enforce social orthodoxy is always a recipe for disaster. Radical Republican governments in the post-war South attempted to do just that, sowing seeds of hatred and discord in the process.

Tariffs don‘t just raise consumer prices. They also affect capital flows and, on numerous occasions, have triggered stock market crises. What tariffs don‘t bring is prosperity.

The darling of America‘s political elites, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, now touts a “Five-Point Plan” that surely will extend the war and ultimately make his country even worse off. It is time to end this farce.

While people who “prep” for disaster (called preppers) are ridiculed by political elites and their media, their actions are perfectly rational. In this article, economist Mark Thornton explains why prepping for natural disasters makes economic sense.

The Fed lowers interest rates ostensibly to “stimulate” the economy. But while the Fed claims it is strengthening the economy, it actually weakens it through its easy-money policies.

Modern progressives are obsessed with collective guilt, demanding that Americans pay reparations for slavery even though it ended in the US 160 years ago. However, by employing collective guilt and collective punishment, those seeking reparations violate natural law.

For nearly 30 years, the Fed has pursued an easy-money policy that has made the economy increasingly dependent upon the next round of “stimulus.” Reversing that policy will mean, at least in the short run, a stiff recession before the economy rebounds, which is a non-starter today.

The political theorist Anthony de Jasay takes on the left‘s ideas of equality, and David Gordon is there to agree—and disagree. Jasay likens the left‘s view of equality to the Indian Rope Trick.

Originally published in the Mises Institute’s Studies in Classical Liberalism series in 1999.

Capitalism is characterized by the private ownership of capital, coming from Lockean homesteading principles, and not from state coercion and force.

While it is tempting to think of state power as being maintained by sheer force, it still needs a “theological” justification, be it secular or religious. The US state is no exception.

Supporters of intellectual property laws claim that people will not innovate unless they are protected by such legislation. In reality, people are more likely to be innovative when they encounter real free markets, not markets characterized by artificial scarcity.