Recent Podcast Episodes

The attempt by the mainstream economics profession to create economic literacy has turned into a movement to promote economic illiteracy.

Like the Biden administration, the European Union elites are seeking to crush free speech on the Internet in the name of preventing “hate speech” and “disinformation.” Of course, the EU ruling classes won’t have to worry about being censored.

Why have some Americans opposed this nation’s involvement in foreign wars? According to Jacob Heilbrunn of The National Interest, it is because those Americans love bloody dictators like Adolph Hitler.

Mainstream economists believe that economic theory is valid when it “predicts” economic actions or trends. Austrian economists, however, say that the purpose of economic theory is to explain economic events.

Individual rights originated in Western thinking. Today, it is the West that produces the ruling class that disdains individual rights and replaces them with collectivism.

While conservatives and followers of Austrian economics often have much in common, many conservatives are against free trade and free exchange. Austrians need to carefully explain why those beliefs are harmful.

People often stubbornly hold to false beliefs, one of them being that government regulation of driving prevents chaos. However, the opposite seems to be true: government involvement in anything, including driving a car, creates the chaos we claim we want to avoid.

Unsurprisingly, Javier Milei’s free-market and antistate initiatives face opposition in Argentina. Whether he is successful depends on his being able to politically outlast his collectivist opposition.

The only answer lies in eviscerating their budgets, abolishing their enabling legislation, and encouraging aggressive lawfare against the regime in retribution for these agencies' many crimes.

Economists use time preference to explain the existence of interest, but the ability of people to postpone some present consumption in order to save for the future has much broader social ramifications. 

A common knock on libertarianism is that it is so individualistic that it rejects the concept of community. (Think of the political cartoon in which the libertarian lifeguard let people drown.) In truth, strong communities also need free individuals.

The New York Times recently characterized House Republicans that voted to extend government domestic spying and continue to fund wars in the Middle East and Ukraine as “the adults in the room.” This is ironic, as real adults would not spend the country into oblivion. 

Connor O'Keeffe joins Bob to discuss the recent antisemitism bill and why we should be defunding universities. 

Is Consumer Confidence a reliable indicator of the current economy?

Ryan and Tho are joined by Peter St. Onge, a visiting fellow of the Heritage Foundation, to discuss the state and trajectory of the American economy. 

Biden has embraced the trade war. But, if protectionism actually produced competitiveness, American steel manufacturers would have become world leaders long ago. 

Washington Post conservative George Will trots out every tired slogan and bromide in the book to claim that Putin is Hitler and the Ukraine war is a fight for civilization. 

Feminist theorist Judith Butler is calling for mandatory education to confront children with modern gender theory. As David Gordon points out, she wants to use coercion to force people to accept her theories.

While chattel slavery exists in some parts of the world, it mostly has been abolished. Perhaps we should do the same thing to the state.

Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State and Utopia turns fifty this year, and this libertarian classic has stood the test of time.