The Human Action Podcast

This weekend, we feature a talk that Jeff Deist gave at our recent Mises Circle event in Phoenix, Arizona.

Deist lays out four possible strategic options for Libertarians, including the political option, the strategic withdrawal option, winning hearts and minds, and actual resistance—civil disobedience.

Our guest this weekend is Louis Rouanet, a former summer fellow at the Mises Institute. Louis writes frequently for Mises.org, and he is currently a student at the Paris Institute of Political Studies.

Jeff gets Louis' take on the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, and finds out what the mood is among the French people. They discuss whether the French—like Americans after 9/11—will allow a crackdown on civil liberties in the name of fighting a "war on terror". Jeff and Louis also examine the role that French history (especially in the Middle East and Africa) plays on this whole mess.

If you are interested in what is happening in France from a Libertarian perspective, you will enjoy this interview.

Our guest this weekend is Tom DiLorenzo, a professor of economics and history at Loyola University Maryland, and also a friend and Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute.

Our topic is the PC cancer that is spreading across campuses and universities in America—not only Yale and the University of Missouri.

Tom is particularly well equipped to handle this topic, having fought the PC monster throughout his academic career. He took on the Lincoln Myth, which is one of his great achievements. He also took on and exposed the evil of the Hamiltonian Federalists as the great centralizers in American history.

This is an interesting and informative interview on what is happening with PC on campus, from an insider and academic: Tom DiLorenzo.

That’s what William Boyes says must be done to change education. Boyes makes his case this weekend as part of the Mises Circle at the Hilton Phoenix Airport Saturday, November 7, as he joins Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell, Charles Goyette, and me to examine how to build a world where states are weak and society is strong. Watch at mises.org/live

Public schools at every level paint the economy as merely a machine needing tinkering. There is no free market or Austrian human action perspective. Thus, economics departments are all about modeling and mathematics. This system left Boyes with a PhD in Economics, but with no clue about the real economy. Do prospective students understand this? Are they naïve about what life is like in academia? Knowing what he knows now, would Boyes still follow that high math track to an economics PhD?

Bob Murphy is our returning guest this weekend, as we wrap up a three-part series on the lousy, anti-market healthcare system in the US.

He’s co-authored a terrific new book called 'The Primal Prescription', which may well be the first thorough analysis of the modern American healthcare system by an Austrian economist.

Bob eviscerates the arguments for Obamacare, and debunks all of the many myths progressives use to claim a “right” to healthcare—and to justify interfering with the very market forces that could make medical treatments cheaper and better. His co-author, a libertarian ER doctor, provides some great practical advice about how you should navigate your own health issues, your own doctors, and the absurd insurance networks to protect your health and pocketbook.

Dr. Michel Accad is a practicing cardiologist who blogs for a medical audience at alertandoriented.com. He's written several articles about healthcare for mises.org, and you won't find many MDs as well versed in Austrian economics.

Dr. Accad talks about practicing medicine in the Age of Obamacare, where every symptom and every treatment must fit into an insurance company code. Doctors are miserable, in debt like never before, and slaves to billing systems that consume their time. Worst of all, they've become de facto employees rather than trusted protectors of their patients' well-being.

Without rational market pricing, will the system simply devolve until it collapses? Will a completely state-run system, like those in the UK or Canada, emerge in the US? Or will doctors at the vanguard of open pricing and cash for treatment become a viable alternative?

Charles Hugh Smith and I discuss the absurdly anti-market healthcare system in the US, which has been captured both by regulators and insurance lobbyists. Why do US consumers tolerate not knowing what drugs and procedures really cost? What will it take to allow market pricing in medicine? Will the best and brightest continue to shun medical school in an age of Obamacare? And will the market overcome the system, through cash-only clinics, concierge care arrangements, and medical tourism?

If you're outraged by what the state has done to the profession of medicine, stay tuned for great interview.

Our guest this weekend is Edward Stringham, professor of Economics at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He is the author of a fantastic new book called 'Private Governance: Creating Order in Economic and Social Life'. In this book, Ed looks back at the history of private legal systems, and in so doing demolishes the idea that only the state can manage and adjudicate human conflicts. Today, Ed gives some concrete, real-world examples of how private governance operates in our statist world. If you're interested in Rothbardian and Hoppean anarcho-capitalism, you'll find Ed's book a great addition to your library, and you'll enjoy hearing this interview with Edward Stringham.

Rod Martin, a co-founder of PayPal and world renown philosopher-capitalist, joins Jeff for a wide-ranging interview covering such topics as the refugee situation in Europe, unrest in the Middle East, and why some cultures are more prosperous than others. Martin contrasts the difficulties world governments have in confronting global macro-crises with the hope and resilience of technological innovation and entrepreneurship.

Bill Bonner, founder of Agora Financial, joins the show to discuss the hysteria preceding Janet Yellen's announcement last week that the Fed would not raise interest rates. We also consider various ugly endgames for the US dollar, and whether federal debt will all come crashing down with a bang or a whimper.