Recent Podcast Episodes
No Matter Who Is President, Don’t Trust Government Data
Whether President Trump overreacted to the recent BLS is irrelevant to the fact that government data often is inaccurate and politically suspect.
Anarcho-Capitalism: The Nine Most Important Objections
"Anarcho-Capitalism is good in theory, but it would never work in the real world." That is a common objection to A-C, but is it correct? What are the objections and how do we answer them. Stanisław Wójtowicz provides some answers.
From Bad to Worse, Irish Rent Control
Apparently, Ireland's government has not learned any lessons from rent control disasters elsewhere. Thus, the Irish will have to learn this hard lesson and face the consequences of their economic folly.
Jeff Bezos’s Yacht: Driver of Economic Activity
A yacht—like any good exchanged on the free market—represents countless value-maximizing exchanges and represents an industry that employs thousands of people to provide goods and services to others.
The Complexity of Historical Narratives
Understanding any era of history requires the ability to view complex things. However, people often employ simple narratives as their historical guides, which leads to wrong conclusions. The pre-war history of the American South is one that is much more complex than the narratives imply.
The Fed Says It Is “Data-Driven.” But the Data Isn’t Any Good.
What use is the Fed's supposed devotion to being "data-driven" when the data itself is unreliable and the Fed is basing its policies on data that is thoroughly wrong?
How Does Money Acquire its Value?
Thanks for modern Keynesian economics, most people believe money gains its value from the government that issues it. Money's value, however, is historically tied to the value of the commodity from which money was derived.
How JFK and the CIA Gave NYC Zohran Mamdani (and Obama to the US)
In an attempt to compete with the Soviet Union by bringing future elite political leaders from Africa to study in US universities, Sen. John Kennedy and the CIA inadvertently spread Marxism here and abroad. One product of this program was bringing Mamdani's Marxist father to the US.
A Thunderously Bad Deal: Oklahoma City’s Crony Arena Tax
Oklahoma City will be building a new arena for the 2025 NBA Champions Thunder. Not surprisingly, the taxpayers will be the ones carrying most of the financial burden.
Responding to Richard Werner on Banking
Bob Murphy and Jonathan Newman offer a comprehensive Austrian response to Richard Werner’s claims on the Tucker Carlson Show about banks, money creation, and credit theory.
The Great Precious Metal Premium Conspiracy
Mark Thornton dives into the misunderstood world of precious metal premiums.
The Origins of FDR’s Teutonophobia
It was no secret that President Franklin Roosevelt hated Germany and all things German. Heavily influenced by Silas Marcus MacVane. FDR embraced MacVane's left-leaning progressivism.
Austrian Perspectives on Social Justice
Many "social justice" advocates claim to appeal to a “higher law,” but they usually refuse to acknowledge economic laws because those laws stand in their way of creating the "just" society.
The Fed and Our Stagnating Economy
This week we cover the Fed's latest policy meeting, the awful new jobs report, and rising debt levels
Tanenhaus and God at Buckley
The long-awaited biography of William F. Buckley Jr. is hardly worth the wait of thirty years. David Brady, Jr., reviews it, saving our readers the pain of reading themselves.
Jefferson Davis von Hayek?
While Hayek did not write directly about the American Civil War, some of his writings provide insights on the conflict.
Why Governments Burned Money
While it is true that colonial era governments sometimes burned paper money after receiving it in the form of taxation, why they burned the money is for reasons other than what MMT advocates are claiming. In the end, the MMT promoters are telling a false history.
Rothbard: The Constitution Was a Coup d’État
Rothbard took the American Revolution to be mainly libertarian in its inspiration, but he contends that the libertarian impulses of the Revolution were betrayed by a centralizing coup d’état.
MMT Is Wrong about the History of the Origins of Money
Not only are modern monetary theory (MMT) cultists dishonest about the role of money, they also are dishonest about money‘s history. By taking issue with Carl Menger‘s historical version, they expose their own ignorance of how money came about.