The Human Action Podcast

America's "Old Right"—rooted in 19th century liberalism but birthed in the 1930s to oppose the New Deal—was strongly laissez-faire and non-interventionist. Murray Rothbard wrote the comprehensive story of that movement, it's influences and influence, and its destruction at the hands of Buckleyite Cold Warriorism. Modern conservatism sadly bears little resemblance to the Old Right, and America is worse off for it.

Dr. Patrick Newman and Tho Bishop join the show to dissect the book, which is both a critical history and a fascinating political memoir of Rothbard's own journey to libertarianism.

Read this historic work at https://Mises.org/Betrayal

Rothbard called Mises's The Theory of Money and Credit "the best book on money ever written." But Rothbard himself may have written the best money book for lay readers, namely What Has Government Done to Our Money?

Bob Murphy joins the show to discuss this superb and eminently readable tract: a mini-course on money itself, from its origins and uses to its degradation by kings, politicians, and central bankers. In only 119 short pages, Rothbard gives us everything we need to know about this most critical commodity in society—along with the ruinous development of fully fiat (unbacked) state money. Readers also enjoy a brilliant history of money regimes, from early barter to the classical gold standard and the ultimate collapse of the Bretton Woods agreement.

Read this fantastic book for free in HTML format: https://Mises.org/WHGD

Bob Murphy's series, "Understanding Money Mechanics": https://Mises.org/MM

Bob Murphy interviews Fed economist David Andolfatto on the devaluation of money, among other topics: https://Mises.org/BMS175

Hans-Hermann Hoppe reconsiders Hutt's seminal article, "The Yield from Money Held": https://Mises.org/HoppeHutt

Politics degrades our lives in innumerable ways, from personal relationships to work to places of worship. Even sports and movies now seem to have become deeply politicized. The political class and political system in America appear intent on creating division and hatred rather than cooperation. The two political tribes in America—red and blue—are divided on everything: abortion, guns, immigration, Trump, and now Covid. Is there any way to reclaim some semblance of a truce between these warring nations?

Our guest Ross Benes has written an engrossing memoir of his experiences in both worlds, from small town life in his ultra-red Nebraska hometown to his writing career in ultra-blue Brooklyn. It's a fascinating look at how and why we have allowed politicians to alienate us, and a hopeful call for a less political America.

Find Rural Rebellion: How Nebraska Became a Republican Stronghold​ at https://Mises.org/RuralBook

Ryan McMaken joins the show for a lengthy discussion of Rothbard's brief but devastating essay Anatomy of the State. This book demands that readers understand the stark nature of government, without fairy tales or niceties. It applies the same lens to public and private criminality. It challenges every myth surrounding politics and statecraft, ranging from "the government is us" to judicial review. It explains how the state maintains legitimacy, how it expands, how it deals with other states, and ultimately how it works to prevent domestic threats to its power. And it still serves as the baseline analysis for understanding state power, nearly 50 years after Rothbard helped create a burgeoning anarcho-capitalist movement. Anatomy of the State is a book that everyone, from anarchist to statist, needs to read and consider.

Read Rothbard's Anatomy of the State at https://Mises.org/AnatomyBook

Allen Mendenhall joins the show to expand last week's discussion on the intellectual state of America. Are we living in a decidedly anti-intellectual age, or has America always been predisposed toward doers over thinkers? Have Americans simply stopped reading books? Have we lost our ability to think deeply, due to the constant distractions of the digital age? And what does the shift away from any shared baseline cultural knowledge mean for our future? Don't miss this fascinating but sobering discussion.

Listen to HAPod episode with Dan McCarthy at https://Mises.org/HAP63

Daniel McCarthy joins the show to continue last week's discussion of the rapid breakdown of America's political order, with wokeism rising on the Left and Reaganism dying on the Right. McCarthy gives us his critique of the liberal technocratic order, and makes his case for where libertarians go wrong in their utilitarian and acultural approach. His prescription is for a new Right fusionism, with a reinvigorated Rothbardian populism as one critical element. The legacy of Ron Paul's presidential campaigns, McCarthy explains, is the philosophical critique of welfarism and warfarism. But changing society is a long game—one the Left plays well—so we must do the same.

Find McCarthy's article Why Libertarians Are Wrong at https://Mises.org/McCarthyArticle

Donald Devine is a legend in Washington, DC conservative circles, where he gained fame wrestling civil service bloat as head of Reagan's Office of Personnel Management. His new book The Enduring Tension: Capitalism and the Moral Order starts with Schumpter's creative destruction and asks the tough question: can capitalism alone hold America together? Channeling Hayek, Devine argues that markets are critical but not sufficient. Free and equal individualism requires a mythos and a logos, a moral order rooted in God, morality, law, or tradition—otherwise we devolve into warring factions. Bureaucratic, centralized, and unworkable government perversely encourages these factions as America rejects its federalist structure and Thomist underpinnings. This is a challenging and far-ranging book, and an excellent one for readers concerned with the tension between Locke's liberty and politically engineered license.

Find The Enduring Tension: Capitalism and the Moral Order at https://Mises.org/DevineBook

Our great friend Daniel Lacalle joins the show from Madrid to discuss the post-Covid economy from the framework of his newest book, Freedom or Equality. Real human cooperation happens via markets and property, not government or central bank edicts. Socially beneficial behavior needs the right incentives—without prices and profits, we have no way to measure merit or benefit.

If leaders are serious about economic recovery after lockdowns, they need to dispense with authoritarian controls and let markets work. Lacalle considers interest rates, inequality, stakeholder theory, global debt, and much more in this powerful discussion of today's economic reality.

Find Freedom or Equality: The Key to Prosperity Through Social Capitalism at Mises.org/DLbook

Normally we discuss books on The Human Action Podcast, but this new academic paper by Professor Philipp Bagus is too important to ignore. "COVID-19 and the Political Economy of Mass Hysteria" is the one journal article you need to read this year. In only about ten pages it makes the devastating case that perverse political incentives—along with a nexus of state-connected media and scientists—combine to create and amplify "public health" hysteria. Echoing Hoppe and public choice theory, Bagus explains how politicians enjoy asymmetric rewards for exaggerating risks and creating fear. The result is gross policy errors we will all pay for over many decades. Don't miss this show!

Read Dr. Bagus's paper at Mises.org/BagusPaper

And read Jeff Deist's summary of the paper at Mises.org/DeistBagus

Find Deep Freeze: Iceland's Economic Collapse online at Mises.org/DeepFreeze

Find The Tragedy of the Euro​ online at Mises.org/TragedyEuro

Professor Patrick Newman, known for his incredible work editing Murray Rothbard's The Progressive Era and Conceived in Liberty, just finished a staggering new historical work titled Cronyism: Liberty vs. Power in Early America. Newman joins the show to give us a preview of this tour de force book, which chronicles the special interests and state favoritism embedded in US society almost from the start. The Rothbardian analysis of "liberty vs. power" informs Newman's approach throughout, and history buffs will want to get their hands on this book immediately upon release later in 2021. You will never see the American colonies, revolution, Constitution, or great men like Hamilton, Madison, and Jefferson the same way after reading this book.

Read Rothbard's The Progressive Era at Mises.org/ProgEra