The Human Action Podcast

This week, Bob talks with Dr. Patrick Newman about his new book, Cronyism: Rise of the Corporatist State, 1849–1929, which reviews how big business built the regulatory state, the Fed, and cartels like the AMA, all justified in the name of the "public interest."

Related:

• Cronyism: Rise of the Corporatist State, 1849–1929: Mises.org/HAP562a
• Bob on the Speaker Panel, Why Is the Healthcare System Broken?: Mises.org/HAP562b

Bob returns to the fractional reserve banking debate to clarify a point the critics keep missing: in the Mises-Hayek-Rothbard framework, it's fractional reserve banking itself that sets the boom-bust cycle in motion, not merely central banks.

Related:

• Lawrence White, Free Banking in Britain: Mises.org/HAP561a
• Bob's Previous Episode on Rothbard vs Free Bankers: Mises.org/HAP561b
• Bob's Paper on the History of Fractional Reserve Free Banking: Mises.org/HAP561c
• Roger Garrison's Presentations on Capital-Based Macroeconomics: Mises.org/HAP561d

Bob reviews Murray Rothbard's 1988 essay "The Myth of Free Banking in Scotland," his sharp response to Larry White's influential account of Scottish free banking.

Related:

• Rothbard's Article, "The Myth of Free Banking in Scotland": Mises.org/HAP560a
• Bob's Debate with George Selgin on Fractional Reserve Banking: Mises.org/HAP560b
• George Selgin's Article, "Scottish Banks and the Bank Restriction, 1797–1821": Mises.org/HAP560c
• Joe Salerno's Article on Mises as Currency School Free Banker: Mises.org/HAP560d
• Lawrence White, Free Banking in Britain Mises.org/HAP560e

Bob sits down with the managing editor of the Libertarian Institute, Keith Knight, to sample arguments from his recent four-hour video cataloguing sixty-four problems with democratic socialism.

Related:

• Find More from Keith Here: Mises.org/HAP559a
• 64 Arguments Against Democratic Socialism: Mises.org/HAP559b
• Keith's Domestic Imperialism: Nine Reasons I Left Progressivism: Mises.org/HAP559c

Bob uses U.S. economic history, centering on the greenback era, to work through some subtle but important distinctions in Austrian monetary theory. He also addresses whether free-market economies have a natural tendency toward price deflation under a commodity standard, why the stock-versus-flow distinction matters for understanding gold production and the price level, and how to distinguish "bad" policy-induced monetary deflation from the "good" price deflation that accompanies genuine productivity growth.

Related:

• Patrick Newman, "The Depression of 1873-1879: An Austrian Perspective": Mises.org/HAP558a
• Clarence Long, "The Course of Money Wages during 1860-1890": Mises.org/HAP558b
• Bob's Understanding Money Mechanics: Mises.org/HAP558c
• Bob's Article, "Hayek’s Plan for Private Money": Mises.org/HAP558d
• The Charts Shown in this Episode: Mises.org/HAP558e

In the wake of Alan Greenspan's recent passing, Bob revisits two contested claims about his legacy: did the Fed under Greenspan fuel the housing bubble, and did that bubble cause the 2008 financial crisis? 

Related:

• Bob's Article from October, 2007, "The Worst Recession in 25 years?": Mises.org/HAP557a
• Peter Schiff was Right (2006-2007 Edition): Mises.org/HAP557b
• Mark Thornton, 2004, "Housing: Too Good to Be True": Mises.org/HAP557c
• Bob's 2008 Article, "The Importance of Capital Theory": Mises.org/HAP557d
• The Charts Shown in this Episode: Mises.org/HAP557e

Bob walks through what Ludwig von Mises wrote about slavery in Human Action, arguing that the institution was not — as the 1619 Project claims — the foundation of American capitalism.

Related:

• Ludwig von Mises, Human Action: Mises.org/HAP556a

Bob sits down with fund manager and author Lawrence Lepard to discuss his book The Big Print, which argues that the core problem with modern America is not corporate greed or partisan politics, but a monetary system deliberately structured to benefit those closest to the Fed at the expense of wage earners and savers.

Related:

• The Big Print: What Happened To America And How Sound Money Will Fix It: Mises.org/HAP555a

Bob sits down with Harvard Economics Professor Pol Antràs to discuss his new paper applying Böhm-Bawerk's average period of production to international trade, testing whether countries with lower interest rates tend to export goods requiring longer, more roundabout production processes.

Related:

• Professor Antràs' Paper, "An ‘Austrian’ Model of International Specialization": Mises.org/HAP554a
• Bob's Article, "The Reswitching Question": Mises.org/HAP554b

Bob sits down with economists Alexander Salter and Joshua Hendrickson to discuss their new paper arguing that the standard Austrian critique of the Fed while correct, is fundamentally incomplete. They argue that the Fed's actual institutional role is to backstop U.S. dollar hegemony: the deliberately constructed post-Bretton Woods system in which the dollar serves as the world's reserve currency, U.S. Treasuries as the global safe asset, and the Fed as buyer of last resort for sovereign debt worldwide.

Related:

• Hendrickson & Salter, "Should We End the Fed? Can We?": Mises.org/HAP553a