The Human Action Podcast

More than 20 years after his death, Murray Rothbard continues to publish new books! Our guest Patrick Newman is the editor of a Rothbard manuscript dating to the 1970s entitled Roots of the Modern State, which the Mises Institute will release as a book later this year.

Rothbard's topic is the Progressive Era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he doesn't disappoint. Murray exposes the puritanical impulses of the Roosevelts, Tafts, and Wilsons, along with the self-interested motivations behind the then-burgeoning intellectual-business partnership. Altar and throne, the power centers of previous ages, were replaced by a technocratic elite and the veneer of democracy. Scientism replaced religion, libertarian self-reliance fell to public schooling and labor unions, and statism replaced (relative) laissez-faire.

If you want to understand the roots of modern progressivism, and how the West went wrong, you need to read this book. Professor Patrick Newman, a Mises Institute scholar and assistant professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, joins us to discuss Rothbard's unique analysis of this critical time in US history.

The media insists the US economy has recovered from the 2008 crash. Equities markets have enjoyed a bull run since the election. Housing prices are rising in expensive coastal cities. Government offices continue to report that GDP is growing while inflation remains in check. And insiders like JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon insist that American consumers and businesses are upbeat about the future.

But is the supposed recovery an illusion, fueled by an artificial supply of money and cheap credit from the Fed? Are housing and equity prices headed for a fall? Is inflation actually much higher than reported? Will older Americans ever recover their savings lost in the last crash? Will savers continue to lose ground to artificially low interest rates?

Has the US economy recovered, or is it a house of cards? Jeff Deist assesses the Trump economy.

The great Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek celebrated a birthday earlier this week, while the prominent monetarist (and Fed historian) Allan Meltzer passed away the same day. Joining us to discuss monetarism is our friend Bob Murphy, who lays out the central tenets of the Chicago school and its godfather Milton Friedman. At its heart, Bob explains, monetarism is a cousin of Keynesianism—one advocates fiscal stimulus, the other monetary stimulus. Both go astray when it comes to money, and both fail to see the trees in the macro forest. Bob explains why in this great discussion of the differences between the Austrian and Chicago schools.

Dr. Hoppe's book The Economics and Ethics of Private Property is among the most important modern contributions to libertarian thought. Hoppe, like Rothbard, connects laissez-faire economics to normative libertarian theory with laserlike precision and inexorable logic. Property isn't just a social construct determined by legislative fiat, but rather a necessary component of self-ownership and the foundation of a free society. Hoppe details many of the arguments made in the book during a talk entitled "A World Without Theft", delivered at a Mises Institute event in 2006. This is a fantastic talk you won't want to miss.

Mises Institute Fellow Jonathan Newman, author of the article "Neil Ty, the Scientism Guy" (https://Mises.org/Scientism), joins Jeff Deist to discuss the recent March for Science—and how politicized pseudoscience peddled by the likes of Bill Nye silences debate and drives dubious public policy.

The Mises Institute's hometown of Auburn, Alabama made national news this week as Richard Spencer was allowed to speak on the university's campus following a court ruling. The event was a win for free speech, but also revealed Spencer's affinity for socialism and the state. Instead of being a dangerous "thought criminal", is Richard Spencer really just a naïve statist? Of course, the best way to win in the battle of ideas is not to simply ignore or censor those you disagree with, and there is no need for libertarians to run from topics such as nation and culture. As demonstrated by scholars such as Mises, Rothbard, and Hoppe, these ideas are in no way at odds with liberty and individualism, and are best preserved by decentralizing power and grounding society in a respect for private property rights.

Danielle DiMartino Booth: Inside the FedJeff Deist interviews Danielle DiMartino Booth.Danielle DiMartino Booth is a former Dallas Fed staffer and author of the new book 'Fed Up: An Insider's Take on Why the Federal Reserve is Bad for America'. She joins Jeff Deist to talk about her years watching Ivy League PhDs make gross and fundamental errors in an almost comically cloistered environment.

Have Fed economists even read Mises and Hayek? Do they recognize malinvestment as a byproduct of interest-rate setting? Do they know anything about their own institutional history, or at least enough to recognize how mission creep has turned the Fed into a central planning Politburo? And how will Janet Yellen deal with the inherent tension between raising interest rates and keeping the cost of US debt service in check?

Our guest this week is Caitlin Long, president and chairman of the smart contracts platform company Symbiont. Caitlin is a twenty-year Wall Street veteran, and now she's turned her focus toward using blockchain technology to revolutionize the business world.

Caitlin and Jeff discuss how blockchain technology could vastly reduce the role of middlemen in all kinds of everyday transactions, obviating the need for a lot of regulation in the process. Who needs lawyers and endless contract negotiations when the element of distrust between parties can be mitigated? Will the blockchain eliminate the need for "trust agent" intermediaries in real estate and M&A transactions? What will true peer-to-peer exchange mean for banks and stock exchanges? And will we even recognize the financial services industry in 20 or 30 years?

This week, Theresa May made Brexit official, triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. Our friend Godfrey Bloom, a legendary voice for British sovereignty and a founding member of UKIP, joins Mises Weekends to discuss what happens next. Is globalism truly on the decline? And does the rise of Marine Le Pen mean Frexit may also be possible?

Our guest this week is Professor Per Bylund, a man who studies entrepreneurship for a living. Why is the role of the entrepreneur—the individual who risks capital, time, and energy to build a business—almost completely disregarded by most economists? Does the Austrian focus on individual human action explain why business schools are far more willing to embrace Austrian principles? Can real-world entrepreneurs improve their business skills in traditional university settings, or are much-hyped campus incubators a waste of time? Why do progressives dismiss entrepreneurs with their "You didn't build that" mentality? And how do socialist policies in places like Dr. Bylund's native Sweden kill the spirit that makes us rich?