The Human Action Podcast

You probably haven't read Carl Menger's 'Principles of Economics', but you should: it's a groundbreaking work that created a new theory of value and built a foundation for praxeology. Dr. Joe Salerno joins us for the definitive podcast on the founder of the Austrian school. Dr. Joe Salerno's brief biography of Menger: https://mises.org/library/biography-carl-menger-founder-austrian-school-1840-1921 Dr. Peter Klein's foreword to Principles of Economics: https://mises.org/library/menger-revolutionary-1 Carl Menger's Principles of Economics online in PDF and ePub formats: https://mises.org/library/biography-carl-menger-founder-austrian-school-1840-1921

Professor Peter Klein (Mises.org/Klein) joins The Human Action Podcast to explain how and why.

This is the last Mises Weekends episode! But don't despair, Jeff will soon be back with a brand new format: The Human Action Podcast. The new show is not radically different, but focuses more exclusively on Austrian economics, its great books, and its great thinkers–with longer, more in-depth interviews. But don't take our word for it, tune in next week to the first show with David Gordon! Your RSS-fed platforms like Stitcher and SoundCloud will continue to support the new show, while Mises.org will still host both streaming and downloadable audio files. And your iTunes subscription will redirect you from Mises Weekends to The Human Action Podcast. This week Jeff takes a hard look at socialism and why it seems to gain greater support in the US and across the West. Do people really understand socialism as Mises did, and do they really want collective ownership of industry? Or do they just want what he termed "pseudo-socialist" economic systems that redistribute wealth? What motivates socialists? And how do they reconcile their moralizing self-regard with the doctrine that socialism is inevitable and inexorable? Mises's Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis: mises.org/socialism Jeff Deist on why support for socialism persists: mises.org/power-market/still-fighting-last-war-against-socialism

Dr. Joe Salerno will address the annual Students for Liberty conference (mises.org/LibertyCon19) this week on the topic of his seminal article, "Mises on Nationalism, the Right of Self Determination, and the Problem of Immigration" (mises.org/MisesNationalism). While Mises had plenty to say about nation states and liberalism, his wrote relatively little about immigration per se. Dr. Salerno and Jeff Deist discuss Mises's conception of nation and state, breakaway movements, borders, and self-determination in polyglot societies. Nationalism and immigration are the most contentious political issues today, and Mises's perspectives remain remarkably fresh and relevant.

Jeff Deist joins Australian podcaster Stephan Livera (@StephanLivera) for a in-depth look at money in an era of crazed monetary policy. They tackle how Austrian economics relates to cryptos, why gold still matters, how deflation and "hoarding" are healthy for an economy, and how any challenge to the central bank cartel could create a political upheaval far beyond banking and economics.

Our great friend Daniel Lacalle (dlacalle.com/en/), author of Escape from the Central Bank Trap, joins the show to discuss the perilous condition facing central banks after a decade of their own malfeasance. Daniel and Jeff discuss absurd reactions to the Fed's tiny interest rate hikes, the fragility of central bank policy in the face of enormous sovereign, corporate, and household debt, why expansionary monetary policy always hurts poor people, and what the Fed and ECB might do– realistically– under current conditions. This is a must-listen interview with one of the best and most visible central bank critics.

The great comic Dave Smith (ComicDaveSmith.com) is the proud dad of a newborn baby girl. Will she witness fewer American wars in her lifetime than a girl born in 1918? Dave and Jeff Deist discuss the astounding news from Trump about reducing troops in Syria and Afghanistan, the growing push-back against neoconservative foreign policy from ordinary Americans of all stripes, the impassible rift in Conservatism Inc. caused by Trump, and how Rand Paul may lead a new noninterventionist resurgence.

Professor Carmen Dorobăț (Mises.org/Dorobat) grew up in Romania—too young to remember Ceaușescu, but deeply aware of what socialism did to her country. Fortunately, she discovered Ludwig von Mises during her university years and found her passion for economics. She joins Jeff Deist to discuss how Mises's work and legacy paved the way for her and an entire generation of younger scholars.

Climate Change (née Global Warming) is based on three premises: the earth's atmosphere is warming; humans are responsible for that warming; and warming is inherently bad. But even if we accept these premises, what economic trade-offs are warranted in response? No more air conditioning or private automobiles? Heavy carbon taxes? Outlawing relatively cheap fossil fuels and mandating expensive renewable sources? Slower economic growth in the developing world? One child policies? Dr. Robert Murphy (mises.org/murphy) joins Jeff Deist to discuss how the political landscape and media narratives fail to consider obvious choices and trade-offs inherent in the climate change debate.

Former Dallas Fed official Danielle DiMartino Booth (DiMartinoBooth.com) joins the show just as Chairman Jay Powell faces his first major challenge: will he keep raising rates as promised now that autos, housing, employment, and even tech stocks look soft? And if not, will he effectively signal that the US economy is in big trouble? DiMartino Booth and Jeff Deist discuss Powell's performance to date, the credulity of the financial press, the ugly ticking time bomb of US corporate debt, and whether Austrians and permabears overestimate the Fed's influence on the economy.

The midterm elections failed to produce an overwhelming Blue Wave, and political rancor in the US remains feverishly high. Now an astonishing new article in The Intelligencer (nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/11/maybe-its-time-for-america-to-split-up.html) considers the idea of a "federated" America, broken up into several political entities associated via compacts. It's not a dystopian view of a possible future, but rather a clear-eyed projection of what a political breakup of America might actually look like. But is a breakup feasible? Does it have to involve outright secession by several states, or can some form of federalism allow Team Red and Team Blue to live together, even uneasily? Is Mises's conception of true self-determination, implemented by smaller administrative units rather than huge centralized states, lost to us today? Michael Boldin (mises.org/Boldin) of the Tenth Amendment Center joins Jeff Deist to discuss the realities behind breaking up the US politically.

The legacy media doesn't report news, it produces a show. "The Show" lies to us, divides us, inflames the culture wars, and creates political division. The old broadcast networks, cable channels, newspapers, and magazines all actively work against liberty and correct economics—so the importance of alternative sources for news, economics, history, and politics has never been greater. Jeff Deist spoke on the topic of new and old media at our recent event in Texas.

Dr. Yoram Hazony's new book 'The Virtue of Nationalism' (Mises.org/HazonyBook) asks several provocative questions: are nation-states necessarily illiberal? Are globalism and universalism inevitable? If so, why do we blithely assume a post-national world will be liberal and benign? Are movements toward supranational governance, always ordered around western political conceptions, a new form of imperialism? And what does history teach us about ordering human affairs to best ensure prosperity, peace, and human flourishing? Ludwig von Mises—quoted in the book—asked these questions almost a century ago in 'Liberalism' (Mises.org/Liberalism), and they're every bit as relevant today in the age of Trump. Dr. Hazony joins Jeff Deist for a compelling interview. Related article: Dr. Joe Salerno on Mises and the nation state (Mises.org/wire/mises-nationalism-right-self-determination-and-problem-immigration).

This week, we feature a recent episode of Ryan McMaken's Radio Rothbard podcast (Mises.org/RothPod). We continue to hear about how capitalism and industrialization distract us from the important things in life. In reality, the historical record shows that it was industrialization and capitalism that propagated the conditions under which we can afford to treat each other more humanely. Radio Rothbard is a series of short podcasts based on columns and research from the Mises Institute's Mises Wire (Mises.org/Wire). Topics include economics, comparative politics, and history. Subscribe to Radio Rothbard (Mises.org/RothPod) today on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or via RSS. Ryan McMaken (Mises.org/McMaken) is the editor of Mises Wire and The Austrian.

Silicon Valley used to be a hotbed of libertarian thought, a place where innovation mattered more than government. Today, companies like Twitter and Facebook serve as de facto editors, banning users like Alex Jones for "wrong-think." Google dominates search, but may steer search results. And Amazon serves nefarious clients like the NSA with its cloud infrastructure. And all of them employ plenty of lobbyists to avoid the kind of government anti-trust suit Microsoft faced nearly 20 years ago. Libertarians oppose regulation, but also oppose censorship and politically correct culling of opinion. Dr. Peter Klein recently addressed these topics and more, in a talk addressing how how the technology sector has drastically changed in recent years—and how tech firms evolved into media companies focused on influence instead of innovation. He argues that social-media companies put on a public facade of being private and free of government influence, but behind the really lobby for protection against competition.

Allen Mendenhall from Faulkner University Law School joins Jeff Deist to break down the hyper-politicized spectacle of the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. How did the Supreme Court become so wildly powerful, even while rubber-stamping the excesses of the executive and legislative branches? How much longer can America survive having deeply contentious issues like abortion and gun control decided by a de facto super-legislature? Why is the Constitution a malleable "living document" but Supreme Court precedents are sacrosanct? And how will we ever overcome deep-seated public misconceptions about the role and powers of the Court?

We take a break from economics this week to welcome our old friend Jim Bovard (Mises.org/Bovard) for an unflinching look at the disastrous politicization of everything in America. The nasty fight over Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation is only the latest example of a trend Rothbard identified decades ago, one that intensifies in the Trump era. Can we ever make politics matter less again? Can we ever stop filtering everything that happens through a noxious lens of race, sex, class, oppression, and intersectionality? And can we ever stop seeking to vanquish people politically?

This weekend’s show features Jeff’s recent appearance on the radio show Turning Hard Times into Good Times hosted by Jay Taylor. They discuss the big picture aspects of the US economy—namely, what's going on civilizationally with debt and central banking, and the seemingly endless civil wars in the middle east. They also deconstruct the poisoned political landscape in Washington DC, despite the lack of any meaningful policy differences between the two dominant ideologies of today: neoliberalism and neoconservatism. This is an eye-opening discussion about the state of things in DC and beyond.

The intellectual landscape today is far more favorable to markets and Austrian economics than 30, 50, or 100 years ago. Our job is to take the digital means at our disposal and make economics the stuff of everyday life, something relevant to ordinary people. So let’s drop the scrappy underdog posture, the quietism, the retreatism, and the remnant mentality, and fully restore proper economics to its rightful place in academia, business, and civilization itself.

Mary Ruwart (Mises.org/Ruwart) is a PhD chemist who worked for 20 years in Big Pharma, and she's seen regulatory capture at the FDA up close. She joins Mises Weekends to discuss the sobering reality of our medical cartel, and what all of us must do in the fight for health freedom in the US. How does government thwart radical research that might eliminate cancer, HIV, and chronic diseases like diabetes? Who really funds the FDA? Why do doctors go along with it? Can we measure how many deaths the FDA causes each year, rather than prevents? And will health supplements or alternative health modalities remain legal and widely available in the US?

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.

Mises.org editor Ryan McMaken joins Jeff Deist for an entertaining look at the California ballot measure that would split the Golden State into three distinct parts. It's long overdue, says Ryan, and not as far-fetched as it sounds.

Danielle Booth, a veteran of the Dallas Fed and author of 'Fed Up: An Insider's Take on Why the Federal Reserve is Bad for America' (Mises.org/FedUp), joins the show to consider whether—or if—the Fed can ever return to "normal" monetary policy. Raising interest rates might slow or even crash equity markets, while causing US debt service to spike. But leaving rates low keeps the US economy in zombie status, punishing savers and preventing bad debt and malinvestment from clearing. It's a no-win situation for new Fed Chair Jay Powell.

The Left makes excuses for Venezuela, college students wear Che Guevara shirts, and polls show growing support for socialism among millennials. Our friend Yuri Maltsev, a Soviet expat with no illusions about the real nature of state planning, joins the show to explain why (deluded and rich) western progressives, academics, elites, and media won't let go of their socialist project.

Jeff Deist joins his friend John O'Donnell on Power Trading Radio to talk about everything from money to Marx to whether "unilateral" free trade is a good idea.

This week, Mises Weekends features a 1988 lecture from Dr. Hans-Hermann Hoppe on Marxist and Austrian class analysis. It might surprise some that Dr. Hoppe sees some "intellectual affinities" between the two, in the way that each identifies exploitation among a ruling class. Of course, for Austrians, we identify that it is the state - not the bourgeois - who is the threat to the masses. Tune in for a fascinating talk.

Sandwiched between progressive avatars Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and FDR, Calvin Coolidge gets little acclaim. But Coolidge historian and biographer Amity Shlaes (AmityShlaes.com) makes the case for libertarians to view "Silent Cal" favorably, as someone who deeply and instinctively distrusted grandiose government. With the Great War over, Coolidge called for "normalcy" — meaning peace — staying out of the League of Nations, and a humble America First foreign policy (Mises.org/SilentCal). The Fed was in its infancy, but Coolidge instructed Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon to pursue a monetary policy that yielded deflation, arguing that "inflation is repudiation." And when he left office in 1929 the US federal budget was nominally smaller than when he first became president, a great feat in any era. See also Mises.org/ShlaesBook (The Forgotten Man) and Mises.org/TFM (The Forgotten Man Graphic Novel).

Our guest is Dr. Per Bylund of Oklahoma State University, who joins Jeff Deist to dispel some of the myths surrounding artificial intelligence and mass data collection. AI is just the next evolution of smart software, Bylund argues, and should be celebrated like all technology as higher order capital goods that increase productivity and wealth. He also argues that Hayek's knowledge problem won't be overcome by computing power anytime soon, because no amount of data can fully explain subjective human wants and values. What makes AI and data mining potentially dangerous, Bylund reminds us, is their misuse by government. See Per Bylund's article "What Makes AI Dangerous? The State" here: https://mises.org/power-market/what-makes-ai-dangerous-state

A week ago Trump tweeted about leaving Syria. Now the US and other western nations stand at the brink of a new war in Syria, one that threatens much greater conflict with Russia. Daniel McAdams from the Ron Paul Institute joins Jeff Deist to discuss whether John Bolton is now running US foreign policy, what Bibi Netanyahu told Trump on the phone, and whether cooler heads in the administration are thinking about second and third order effects. Have we learned anything at all from Libya and Iraq? And, how do interventionists maintain wars with no popular support beyond the Beltway? The editorial "Against War in Syria" is available at Mises.org/Syria

At last month's Austrian Economics Research Conference, we were honored to be joined by Kevin Dowd, an Emeritus Professor of Economics at Nottingham University. Dowd presented a blistering critique of modern central bankers and their mania for monetary stimulus. In this excerpt from his talk, he explains how policies like negative interest rates not only reflect bad economic thinking, but also pose a danger to the civil liberties. What will the Fed and European Central Bank do next, if ersatz economic growth cools in a period of rising interest rates? Don't miss this masterful explanation of how central banks destabilize and distort every aspect of the economy.

Our guest Michael Watson joins Jeff Deist after delivering a provocative paper last week at our research conference comparing Mises and Thomas Aquinas. They discuss Misesian praxeology, Catholicism, charity, altruism, and personal relationships in an attempt to decide what acts lie within and without the scope of economics. Are humans really super-rational Homo Economicus beings, per John Stuart Mills? No, according to Mises, who posits that we operate under conditions of bounded rationality using means-ends approaches. How do we reconcile our ethical worldviews with value-free economics? And how can we apply economics and praxeology to things like religious faith, love, and even involuntary conditions like slavery and war?

The great James Bovard addresses our annual research conference in Auburn on the dismal failures of government regulation — from farm subsidies to steel tariffs to FDA drug trials.

After watching students across the nation march this week against gun rights, are we seeing young Americans abandoning liberty? Joining Dr. Paul and Daniel McAdams on the Liberty Report, Jeff explains that he thinks the media exaggerates the appeal of the left to Millennials and their successors in "Generation Z."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions was at it again last week, insisting that the supremacy of federal law is "settled"—which is his way of saying nullification and secession are illegal. But Sessions is hardly alone in his thinking, which would be right at home on the pages of Salon or National Review. Michael Boldin of the Tenth Amendment Center joins Jeff Deist to discuss how we can fight back against the cult of federal supremacy, and why decentralization is a far more pragmatic and humane way to create greater freedom than trying to win national elections.

Economist Dan Mitchell joins Jeff Deist to discuss what might be the biggest threat of all to American prosperity: the shocking and unconscionable US government debt. What does $20 trillion in Treasury IOUs really mean for the private economy? Will the US government ever default and force bond holders to take a well-deserved haircut—or will the Fed continue to bail out Congress with low interest rates? Can this go on indefinitely, especially since other governments often have even worse fiscal and monetary policies? This is a sobering discussion of a reality politicians don't want to face.

The gun control debate is nothing more than a smokescreen: another divisive and emotional issue in a country obsessed with politicizing every human ill, all premised on the wildly irrational idea that we can get rid of 300 million firearms. But there is a market for safe schools and safe public spaces, a market security entrepreneurs could fill if government got out of the way. Mises.org editor Ryan McMaken joins Jeff to discuss private solutions to gun violence, the kind of solutions only available to private property owners with skin in the game. It's time to apply market incentives to school security.

North Korea is not the poorest country on earth, but it is undoubtedly the most miserable. Michael Malice has been there, and joins Jeff Deist to discuss the bizarre economics of life in a country with virtually no outside trade. China and Russia provide critical imports, especially oil and grain, without which the DPRK would truly grind to a halt. But this is foreign aid disguised as trade for worthless North Korean "currency." Beyond that a depressing form of autarky reigns, whereby the Central People's Committee creates economic plans that produce nothing but starvation and crumbling concrete. This is a fascinating conversation about "prison camp economics," and how concepts of exchange and calculation scarcely apply where market goods, technology, and price information are almost nonexistent. North Korea is a stark reminder of where omnipotent government leads.

With stock markets in turmoil earlier this week, the Mises Institute's resident expert on booms and busts joins Jeff Deist to make sense of it. Will new Fed Chair Jerome Powell do everything possible to prop up markets, or will he be more hawkish than Janet Yellen? What kinds of indicators does Mark look for to predict trouble (hint: it's not the VIX). Why does the volume of margin loans matter, and why is the Russell 2000 Index a better predictor than the Dow or Nasdaq? Are cryptocurrencies now bound up with macro trends? And is Austrian business cycle theory necessarily incomplete as a tool to help investors? See Mark Thornton's 2004 article "Housing: Too Good to be True" at Mises.org/Thornton-Housing.

Daniel McAdams from the Ron Paul Institute joins Jeff Deist for an unbridled discussion of the true costs of war. We know the US spends more on "defense" than many big countries combined, but what are the actual numbers? How long can the federal budget sustain empire and entitlements? Will rising interest rates finally force Congress to stop expanding wars, building bases, buying useless weapons systems, and meddling around the world? And is Trump the president far more hawkish than Trump the candidate? This is a great conversation with one of the leading libertarian foreign policy voices.

Jeff Deist joins his friend "Mance Rayder" to discuss the political and economic state of the union, the endless fractures within libertarianism, a different way to look at immigration, and how Rothbard's fans and detractors alike benefit from reading him.

By every measure extreme poverty in Third World nations is decreasing rapidly. But what about the US and the West? Economist and mises.org editor Ryan McMaken joins Jeff Deist for a wide-ranging discussion of what makes people rich, and how economists should measure wealth. This great discussion explains the decline of real incomes and savings rates in the West, the moral hazards created by central banks, and how a happy combination of technology and market innovation often manages to outpace rapacious governments. Is deflation, horribly mischaracterized by economists, the real source of wealth in a society? And should we judge our personal finances in terms of net worth or lifestyle?