The Human Action Podcast

Steve Hanke, professor of economics at Johns Hopkins and head of Cato's Troubled Currencies Projects, is an Austrian—but he's an Austrian who looks at markets first and foremost. He also thinks QE was the right thing for the Fed to do in 2008, Austrians are all wrong to focus on the Fed's balance sheet instead of the M4 "broad money" supply, and US debt is a more distant worry than the risk posed by Trump's tariffs.

An expert on currencies and inflation, Professor Hanke joins the show to explain what's happening in places like Venezuela and Turkey. How and why do currencies fail, and how can hyperinflation be prevented without bailouts by the IMF? What can stop the vicious cycle of printing money to pay bills when no tax base exists? And what do recent past examples in Bulgaria, Russia, and Yugoslavia teach us?

It turns out the best book on Bitcoin was written by someone who thinks the cryptocurrency is not a particularly good form of payment, not particularly anonymous, and not a good investment for most people. Saifedean Ammous, professor of economics at Lebanese American University, wrote 'The Bitcoin Standard' (Mises.org/BitStandard) to cut through the hype and examine crypto technology through a rigorous Austrian lens. The result is a phenomenal book: pro-gold, pro-Mises, and optimistic about the crypto revolution's goal of creating truly private money.

This is the guy you should listen to when it comes to Bitcoin. He sits down with Jeff Deist for a thorough and entertaining interview.

As the events of recent weeks demonstrate beyond doubt, political correctness is very real, deeply authoritarian, and wedded at the hip to progressive government. PC is not about respect or inclusivity, but rather a naked attempt to consciously manipulate language in service of progressive ends. Worst of all, PC creates an atmosphere in which we mostly censor ourselves. When libertarians like Daniel McAdams and Scott Horton find themselves de-platformed by twitter, it's time to see the "state-linguistic complex" for what it really is. Jeff Deist addresses the Federalist Society of Montgomery, Alabama, to make sense of it all.

The Constitution represented a coup from the beginning, and it's a dead letter today. The Declaration of Independence, however, is a truly radical libertarian document still worthy of consideration. Judge Andrew Napolitiano, our Distinguished Scholar in Law and Jurisprudence, recently gave a rousing talk at Mises University on the Declaration's natural law tradition–and how federal courts relentlessly and successfully attacked the principles it represented. This is Judge Nap at his scorching best, and you won't want to miss his comments on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Even many libertarians dismiss gold and precious metals as irrelevant in the global monetary system. Ben Bernanke famously told Ron Paul that gold is a commodity, not money. So why do central banks still hold so much of it, Ron asked? Good question.

Ronni Stöferle from Incrementum AG joins Jeff Deist to talk about everything related to gold: why it's still money, how it might react to rising interest rates, why the IMF still worries about it, and why so much of it seems to be flowing from West to East. You won't want to miss his analysis of why gold and precious metals are complementary assets with respect to cryptocurrencies, and his call for both camps to join forces and promote Hayek's goal of denationalizing money.

Related: Ron Paul on the Dollar Dilemma: Mises.org/wire/dollar-dilemma-where-here

Mises.org editor Ryan McMaken (Mises.org/McMaken) joins Jeff Deist live at Mises U to make the radical case for decentralization of political power. They tackle the Misesian view of self-determination, Professor Bryan Caplan's recent critique of decentralization as mechanism for liberty, how subsidiarity could improve the ugly culture wars in the US, and why smaller states—and smaller electorates—make more sense than political universalism.

The Supreme Court is hopelessly politicized, far too powerful, and relentlessly hostile to liberty.

Our legal expert Allen Mendenhall joins Jeff Deist to discuss the liberal and illiberal aspects of nominee Brett Kavanaugh's record, the limits of originalism, and the intractable reasons why changing the makeup of the Court won't save us from a rapacious federal government.

Daniel Lacalle joins Jeff Deist to discuss how and why central banks are trapped, stuck with ultra-low interest rates and expansionary policies that produce astonishingly little real growth. This is a hard-hitting and sober look at what rising interest rates will mean, why academics and bankers are so clueless about the monetary side of financial markets, and why Austrians need to offer real-world solutions instead of ideology.

Public sector unions think it's okay to force employees who aren't union members to pay dues that fund leftwing lobbying.

Libertarians support any voluntary associations, including unions, but oppose compelled speech and legislatively-mandated collective bargaining.

Our guest Jacob Huebert is the attorney who won the enormously important Janus vs. AFSCME Supreme Court case, this week. He's also an Associated Scholar with the Mises Institute and author of an excellent primer titled Libertarianism Today. Jacob and Jeff Deist break down the libertarian perspective on this landmark case.

Caitlin Long recently joined us in San Francisco for an inside look at how blockchain technology might blow up the financial service and banking industries. This is a presentation you won't want to miss from someone at the cutting edge of both blockchain technology and the legal landscape surrounding it.