Recent Podcast Episodes

Private ownership of the means of production is the fundamental institution of the market economy.

Joan Samson was a Depression baby, born in 1937. In 1975, the year before her death, she published her only novel, The Auctioneer . This seems to be just about the sum total of what is publicly known about her, and that is a damn shame.

Charles, the third Viscount Townshend (1700–1764), has been shamefully neglected by virtually all historians of economic thought.

The environment determines the situation but not the response. To the same situation different modes of reacting are thinkable and feasible.

If Scott can excoriate most of his fellow historians for confounding "civilization" with "state-making," he himself can be excoriated for confounding statelessness with lack of government.

Ira Levin died just over three years ago, on November 12, 2007, at the age of 78, the largely unsung author of one of the top half-dozen libertarian novels ever published in our language. This Perfect Day has been out of print in recent years, so largely unsung is it.

The Gilded Age ushered in industrial leaders in capitalistic achievement. Success in the world of commerce reflected certain characteristics.

Instead of each person doing all of the work creating what he needs and wants, dividing the labor amongst all of us into specialties is clearly superior by increasing the productivity of labor.

Profit and loss is the heart of business and economic change. Entrepreneurs drive the market at every level, predicting future wants and taking risks with their property. Earning profits is never guaranteed.

Deposit banking rests on the bank honoring property rights. Loan banking rests on making good loans that will pay off. But when loan banking and deposit banking merged, the temptation to loan out much more than was actually in the bank arose.

Austrian economists differ from mainstream economists mainly in this way: they do not rely on mathematical models, but on understanding what causes success or failure in the real world. Opportunity costs determine the choices people make.

Like today’s central bankers, John Law proposed to “supply the nation” with a sufficiency of money.

A man who is obliged to justify his handling of a matter in the eyes of other people often resorts to a pretext.

When he was in his 20s, having newly discovered libertarian ideas, having read Rand, Rothbard, Mises, Hayek, and others, having met Rothbard and conversed with him at length, Nozick was fired up with excitement.

Plans are already in the works to put the initiative back on the ballot for 2012, which is expected to have higher turnout from young people.

Recorded at the Mises Circle at Furman Universityon November 13th, 2010.

Recorded at the Mises Circle at Furman University, November 13th, 2010.

Recorded at the Mises Circle at Furman University on November 13th, 2010.

Recorded at the Mises Circle at Furman University on November 13th, 2010.

Recorded at the Mises Circle at Furman University on November 13th, 2010.