Bob Murphy Show

Alastair Roberts works for the Biblically-grounded Theopolis and Davenant Institutes. He talks with Bob about the work of Rene Girard on scapegoating, and his forthcoming Bible commentary.

Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:

• The YouTube version of this interview.
• Alastair Roberts' YouTube channel and Soundcloud link to his podcast.
• The Theopolis and Davenant Institutes.
• BMS ep. 15 with David Gornoski.
• Help support the Bob Murphy Show.

The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.

Harold Hotelling in 1931 wrote the pioneering article "The Economics of Exhaustible Resources" that described the equilibrium prices over time for a finite resource such as oil or coal. Bob explains the answer and how it matches with the Austrian view of time preference.

Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:

• Bob's EconLib article on the market trajectory of oil consumption and prices.
• Harold Hotelling's pioneering 1931 article on "The Economics of Exhaustible Resources" (pdf).
• Help support the Bob Murphy Show.

The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.

Mahyar Tousi has a popular show out of the UK who has been intimately involved in making the case for Brexit, coming from a classical liberal free trade perspective.

Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:

• The YouTube version of this interview.
• Mahyar Tousi's YouTube channel.
• Help support the Bob Murphy Show.

The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.

Recently Tim Poole alluded to the so-called "shopping cart theory" of why self-governance is impossible. Specifically, because people can't even bother to take back the shopping cart when this is clearly the socially right thing to do, we can't hope to have a system relying on everyone's good nature. Bob explains what's wrong with this argument.

Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:

• The blog post for the "Adventures in Pacifism: Louis CK edition" contest.
• Ben Powell on Somalia.
• Bob's book Chaos Theory, his article on libertarian law and military defense, his lecture on the market for security, and his lecture on military defense.
• The Federalist No. 51.
• Help support the Bob Murphy Show.

The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.

Mario Rizzo is a professor in the Department of Economics at NYU--where he was Bob's dissertation chair. He talks about how he found the Austrian School and his own contributions to economics.

Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:

• The YouTube version of this interview.
• Mario Rizzo's homepage.
• Mario's books The Economics of Time and Ignorance (with Gerald O'Driscoll) and Escaping Paternalism. #CommissionsEarned (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)
• Jeff Deist and Bob Murphy discuss Henry Hazlitt on BMS ep. 160.
• Paul Davidson's review of The Economics of Time & Ignorance.
• Help support the Bob Murphy Show.

The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.

Personal finance guru Dave Ramsey recently called IBC a scam on his popular show. Ramsey alleged that the dividends received from a mutual life insurance company were just deliberate overcharges to make the customer think he was earning a profit, even though it all came out of the customer's own pocket. Bob sets the record straight.

Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:

• The YouTube version of this episode (recommended!).
• The YouTube video where Dave Ramsey calls IBC a "scam."
• An Investopedia article explaining the history of cash-value life insurance and the Modified Endowment Contract (MEC) tax rules.
• Someone else's YouTube video showcasing Dave's dismissal of Peter Schiff as an "idiot" and "kook."
• The "Foundations of IBC" video series, put out by the Nelson Nash Institute.
• The Case for IBC (authored by Nelson Nash, Carlos Lara, and Bob Murphy).
• A listing of graduates of the IBC Practitioner Course.
• Help support the Bob Murphy Show.

The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.

Gad Saad is Professor of Marketing and holds the Concordia University Research Chair in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences and Darwinian Consumption. He talks with Bob about his new book, The Parasitic Mind, and its relationship to the culture wars.

Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:

• The YouTube version of this interview.
• Gad Saad's website.
• Saad's books The Parasitic Mind and The Evolutionary Basis of Consumption. #CommissionsEarned (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)
• Gavin de Becker's The Gift of Fear. #CommissionsEarned
• The famous honey badger video (NSFW).
• Help support the Bob Murphy Show.

The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.

First Bob explains his contest involving Adventures in Pacifism--winner gets 100 smackers. Then he explains the incredibly powerful, and surprisingly Austrian, result by which Kenneth Arrow showed it was impossible to coherently aggregate individual preferences into a social ranking.

Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:

• The blog post explaining the rules for the contest, Adventures in Pacifism: Louie CK Edition.
• Bob's link for those interested in joining Liberty Classroom. (If you use this link, the site will remember who sent you if you end up joining.)
• Bob's mises.org's article explaining Arrow's Theorem in the context of the 2020 election.
• The Bob Murphy Show ep. 7, explaining Godel's Incompleteness Theorems.
• Help support the Bob Murphy Show.

The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.

Dan McCarthy, Editor at Large of The American Conservative, joins Bob to discuss his view that conservatives and libertarians should stop heaping contempt on democracy. McCarthy argues that the elites are the real threat to liberty, not the masses.

Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:

• The YouTube version of this interview.
• The homepages for Modern Age and The American Conservative.
• Help support the Bob Murphy Show.

The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.

Bob explains a problem with arguments against mask mandates that claim vindication whether new case loads are very low or very high. He then points out that Biden's own expert on covid-19 was skeptical of mask mandates in a June 2020 podcast episode.

Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:

• Michael Osterholm's CIDRAP episode. His March 2020 appearance on Joe Rogan.
• Bob's article on funny defenses of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH).
• Help support the Bob Murphy Show.

The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.