The Human Action Podcast

Michael Boldin from the Tenth Amendment Center (http://TenthAmendmentCenter.com) joins Jeff Deist to discuss the philosophical, electoral, and logistic realities standing in the way of creating a more politically decentralized America. Beyond thorny questions about federal land, federal entitlements, and "national defense," there are a million small ways to move power away from Washington. Both conservatives and progressives claim to want just that—so what holds us back? Michael, a onetime progressive, has the strategic and practical answers for liberty-minded people.

Our final show of the year features a talk given by Dr. Bob Murphy at a recent Mises Institute event in Orlando. His topic is the culture wars– and if you think America is divided now, just wait until we have another crash like '08. But Bob is ready with a prescription: less politics & smaller polities. It's time to stop hating each other and start reducing the political power wielded over us, as Bob conveys in his own unique and humorous style.

Wall Street Journal and USA Today writer James Bovard joins Jeff Deist to diagnose what's wrong with our body politic today. From relentlessly tribal voting to rank hypocrisy and "whataboutism," Americans are angry bunch. And their credulous belief in the sanctity of authorities like the FBI is almost entirely determined by whether their party holds the presidency. Is there any political system that can survive the division created by politics in the first place? Jim Bovard brings his Menckenesque perspective to Mises Weekends to discuss our slavish devotion to politics. And don't miss Jim's great article on the FBI as America's secret police or his new book on political perfidy. Find Jim's new book at Mises.org/Frauds.

So far, the federal investigation into Russian collusion during the 2016 election has been a farce. Lawless and corrupt federal prosecutors—and their pet police agency, the FBI—dominate the headlines. Yet, the Constitution never provided for a federal police force, and lists very few federal crimes. So, how and why did federal prosecutors and agents become so powerful? Mises.org editor Ryan McMaken joins Jeff Deist to discuss. For further reading, see Bill Anderson's Mises Wire article, "Federal Prosecutors Are Running Amok" at Mises.org/Run-Amok.

Professor Lucas Engelhardt, a popular lecturer at Mises University (Mises.org/MU18), joins Jeff Deist to discuss the monetary policy landscape. Janet Yellen makes jokes about $20 trillion in federal debt, but what about the trillions the Fed added to its own balance sheet since the Crash of '08? What will happen to the extraordinary amount of bank reserves parked in no-man's land, not being lent by banks? Can Mises's work help us understand what happens when the supply of money increases much faster than demand for it? How does new money and credit flow into the economy unevenly, benefiting those closest to the government and central bank troughs? And is there an ugly endgame scenario, where rapid asset price inflation (i.e. equity and real estate markets) devolves into rapid consumer price inflation?

Fifteen years ago Gabriel Calzada was a Fellow at the Mises Institute who aspired to bring the Spanish Scholastics' tradition of liberty (mises.org/library/spanish-scholastics) to Latin America. Today he is president of Universidad Francisco Marroquín (ufm.edu/index.php/At_a_Glance), the truly remarkable private school in Guatemala. All students at UFM, regardless of major, take a core curriculum in libertarian thought. The board of directors and almost all professors are entrepreneurs rather than academics. And UFM's charter provides the freedom to experiment and think outside the box, resulting in projects like a business cycle observatory and MOOCs (massive open online course) on subjects like Don Quixote (donquijote.ufm.edu/en). If you're interested in what entrepreneurial education grounded in free-market economics can look like, don't miss this interview.

Chris Calton, host of the Mises Institute's "Historical Controversies" podcast, is back with a second season. If you enjoyed his revisionist view of America's drug war during the first season, you'll love his take on U.S. history during the latter 1800s. This episode, titled "The March to America's Civil War", is a fascinating account of the antebellum era. Tune in and find out why this podcast series is creating one of Stitcher's fastest growing audiences. Historical Controversies is available online at: https://Mises.org/HCPod via RSS: https://mises.org/itunes/622 on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/historical-controversies/id1304510096?mt=2 Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/I3vmki7pz7jxond4x7qx5dfjv7y?t=Historical_Controversies Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/misesmedia/sets/historical-controversies and Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=147145

Dr. Liliana Stern, professor of economics at Auburn University, joins Jeff Deist in studio to discuss the realities of life under communism. Growing up in Ukraine, Dr. Stern experienced privations that would be unthinkable to her undergraduate students. Even today, hot running water remains a rationed luxury in the region. But if recent polls are correct, many of her students don't understand at all the horrors of collectivism. And they sometimes scoff at her terrifying depiction of what "single-payer" healthcare really means. Dr. Stern considers it her life's work to make Americans understand how good they've got it under (relative) capitalism, and to save young people from profound ahistorical ignorance. You don't want to miss this show—and be sure to listen for her description of Ukrainian dentistry without anesthesia.

Our guest Trey Goff drafted a remarkable "Voluntaryist Constitution" designed to serve as the foundational legal document for a private society. Trey attempts nothing less than to define the characteristics and rules underlying a common law society, in the form of a polycentric constitutional order as envisioned by Murray Rothbard and legal scholar Randy Barnett. His goal was to create a blueprint for libertarians organizing startup or breakaway societies, one that deals with private property, rights, contracts, justice, and coercion in a rational and humane manner. The result is an inspiring and controversial document, as discussed in this great interview. Read the Voluntaryist Constitution at Mises.org/Goff-VC.

Switzerland is no libertarian paradise. It has bureaucrats and a wayward central bank. But it remains an astonishing modern example of the principles of federalism and subsidiarity in action. In fact, it exemplifies Lew Rockwell's daydream: nobody much knows or cares who is president. Its federal administrative state demonstrates humility instead of hubris. And virtually all political decisions, from taxes to welfare to immigration, are decided locally. Claudio Grass joins Jeff Deist to discuss what libertarians can learn from Switzerland, and how neutrality in two disastrous European wars shapes Swiss DNA today.

Dr. Joseph Salerno, speaking at our 35th Anniversary Gala in New York last weekend, makes the case for Murray Rothbard as the preeminent modern Austrian economist—and the rightful heir to Ludwig von Mises. This great talk will change your perspective on Rothbard the economist, especially when Joe reveals what Hayek had to say about Murray's place in the Austrian school.

Daniel Lacalle, a Spanish economist and libertarian who runs Mises Hispano, joins Jeff Deist for an in-depth discussion of the facts behind the Catalan independence vote. Daniel makes the case against secession, based on economics, history, constitutionalism, anti-socialism, and his strong view that independence would result in less freedom for Catalans. Jeff disagrees, arguing for self-determination as a fundamental libertarian political principle that contemplates freedom to choose even bad political arrangements. Don't miss this show if you want to understand what is happening in Catalonia beyond the headlines.

Professor Thornbury is president of a very different kind of school, The King's College in Manhattan. He joins Jeff Deist to discuss everything wrong—and everything that could be right—with universities today. Dr. Thornbury's prescriptions are radical: make education a la carte, offering a mix of degrees, certificates, and micro-certificates. Tailor programs to teach specific skills, and shorten the time undergraduates spend in school dramatically. Insist that all graduates have rigorous writing and public speaking skills. End the publishing model for academics, and replace it with a focus on classroom skills and open inquiry. Finally, make sure students still learn enough about history, philosophy, ethics, classics, languages, and rhetoric to navigate life beyond the digital world.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen announced the bank would begin selling assets it has relentlessly bought since the Crash of '08. The financial press, including the Wall Street Journal, dutifully praised Yellen for her steady hand. But our guest Dr. Mark Thornton has a different take on what it all means for stock markets, investors, and the US economy. Can quantitative easing—a roundabout form of monetizing debt—actually work? Can monetary policy make us rich? Or, are Fed officials just groping in the dark, putting off a day of reckoning? Jeff Deist and Mark Thornton unwind the narrative.

Jake Lindsey is a brilliant young Harvard grad who majored in economics. His favorite thinkers? Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard. But unlike most young fans of the Mises Institute, Jake was a dominant linebacker for the Harvard Crimson who attracted the attention of scouts from the Buffalo Bills. He's fresh off a pre-season tryout and looking to start a career in the NFL. Jake joins Jeff for a candid interview about his two passions, football and Austrian economics.

Our guest Scott Horton just released an important new book—'Fools Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan' (Mises.org/HortonBook). This is the definitive treatment of the war itself, the history and factions involved, and the disturbing policy mindset that keeps this deeply unpopular conflict churning. Don't miss this interview with one of the leading antiwar libertarians of our time.

The culture wars have infected every aspect of American life. It's not just Red vs. Blue anymore, or urban vs. rural, it's Antifa vs. the alt-Right—sometimes literally in the streets. Have libertarians lost the narrative in the midst of all this? Are they mired in the same Left/Right divisions that plague society generally? Our good friend Dave Smith, a comedian and a frequent guest on Fox News, joins Jeff Deist to discuss.

Daniel McAdams from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity joins Jeff to discuss Trumpian foreign policy in light of the president's recent speech on Afghanistan. The costs of our wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria—human and economic—keep piling up. How do such deeply unpopular wars go on so long? Why do sensible notions of peace and non-intervention fail to gain a foothold in Congress or the White House? How does the War Party in DC plays both sides? And, how do they silence anti-war voices like Tulsi Gabbard? This is a no-holds-barred discussion of the grim realities behind US foreign policy.

For this week's Mises Weekends, we're excited to share the first episode of a new Mises Institute podcast, Historical Controversies. Hosted by Chris Calton, a Mises Fellow, Historical Controversies is a series that applies a Rothbardian revisionist look at important sagas in American history. The first season covers the War on Drugs, highlighting the role of the US government in fanning the flames of America's drug epidemic. As Murray Rothbard said, "History necessarily means narrative, discussion of real persons as well as their abstract theories, and includes triumphs, tragedies, and conflicts, conflicts which are often moral as well as purely theoretical." Along these lines, Chris interweaves personal stories alongside facts and anecdotes that you will never find in a government approved curriculum. The result is a show that will both entertain and enlighten. We hope you will enjoy the first episode of Historical Controversies, and will subscribe for a new episode every Wednesday.

This week's episode features Tom Woods' opening lecture at Mises University 2017. Tom shares his experiences meeting Murray Rothbard, how Murray shaped Tom's intellectual development, plus some valuable lessons for us all.

Our guests are Luis Cirocco and Dr. Rafael Acevedo, two Venezuelans who attend Mises University last week. Their report from that troubled country is chilling and depressing: food shortages, a lack of medical care and prescription drugs, soldiers and police running black markets, and an entrenched elite made rich after decades of crony socialism under Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro. Oil prices remain very low, and the country's economy is so bad that civil war looms. But our guests remind us that the opposition, pushed by the US CIA, is hardly better—"socialist lite," as they term it. Intellectuals in Venezuelan universities, many of them (badly) trained at Ivy League social science departments, offer nothing more than support for price controls and currency pegs. Horrific hyperinflation is the result. What Venezuela needs is a wholesale intellectual revolution, toward markets and away from deeply ingrained socialism. Listen to this interview and better understand just how quickly Venezuela is unraveling—and how it could happen here.

Recorded live at Mises University 2017 at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama. Jeff Deist interviews Mises Institute founder and Chairman, Lew Rockwell. Recorded on 29 July 2017.

Lysander Spooner called it "The Constitution of no authority." Conservatives fetishize it, but don't follow it. Progressives want it annulled. So, what should libertarians think about America's founding document? Our guests Brion McClanahan and Allen Mendenhall give us the unadulterated history and unpleasant truths about constitutionalism—but also consider its underappreciated benefits.This is a discussion of the Constitution you won't hear anywhere else.

Dr. Mark Thornton joins Mises Weekends to explain the "business cycle" for what it really is: a series of booms (credit expansion) and busts (debt de-leveraging) engineered by central banks. There's nothing natural, real, or sustainable about the current Yellen boom—so stay tuned for Mark's explanation of how it can all unravel.

Our old friend Richard Ebeling joins Mises Weekends to discuss the health of—and future prospects for—the Austrian school. There are far more Austrian and Austrian-friendly thinkers in academia, business, and the financial industry than ever before. Richard attended the famous South Royalton conference, so he knows just how far we've come. But are Austrians making real progress against the dominant neo-Keynesian orthodoxy? Are we growing on a per-capita basis? And what would Hayek, Rothbard, and Margit von Mises—all of whom Dr. Ebeling knew and spent time with—think of Austrian economics today?

Dr. Ron Paul joins Jeff Deist to talk about his decades as a congressman fighting the Fed, his efforts to legalize the use of gold and silver as untaxed currency, and his involvement with sound money initiatives in states like Arizona and Wyoming. Plus, Dr. Paul shares some great anecdotes about Reagan's Gold Commission, Alan Greenspan, and Paul Volcker.

The US criminal justice system is hopelessly broken, riddled with bad incentives and bad actors. In the wake of recent police shootings, Dr. Ed Stringham joins Jeff Deist to help us understand how and why private security firms could create vastly better outcomes for crime victims, society, and even perpetrators. This is a fascinating discussion you won't want to miss. Recommended reading: Private Governance: Creating Order in Economic and Social Life

Arguments for a "rules based" Fed are gaining momentum on both the political Left and Right— and even among some libertarians. Would the adoption of ideas like NGDP targeting and the "Taylor Rule" really make make the Fed less dangerous? Would they be an improvement on the Fed's current discretionary approach? Can monetary "rules" really contain booms and busts, or would Yellen and Co. simply break them at the first sign of the next crash? Professor Peter Klein joins Jeff to discuss.

David Gordon joins Jeff to consider the important philosophy—and philosophers—libertarians need to know. Starting with Mises's influences in Human Action, Dr. Gordon moves through the 20th century with a great discussion of John Rawls and Robert Nozick. He also suggests the books that Austro-libertarians need to read, even if they're primarily interested in politics or economics.

Dr. Joe Salerno and Karl-Friedrich Israel join Jeff Deist to discuss Mises's Human Action, perhaps the greatest treatise on economics ever written. But the book can be daunting for many, given its length and the sheer enormity of the systematic thought it presents. Our guests break down how and why everyone should read it, echoing Mises's belief that economics was the proper area of study for every thinking person. This is a great discussion of the history and behind a masterpiece of economics, epistemology, and philosophy. Read it free, here: https://mises.org/HumanAction

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?

One of the highlights of our Austrian Economics Research Conference is the interaction between scholars and entrepreneurs, and the new ideas that such conversations spark. Here business consultant Hunter Hastings outlines how technological innovation is already making centralized "designed" systems obsolete, and how artificial intelligence opens up a whole new era of spontaneous order.

David Hart, editor and librarian at Liberty Fund, joined us in Auburn today to deliver a dynamite lecture on his favorite subject: Frederic Bastiat the radical. We think we know Bastiat from The Law, but his work in economics and social theory actually spans thousands of pages. And he was a thoroughgoing radical in his personal and professional life, both in his Basque hometown of Bayonne and in the "Babylon" of Paris. Hart makes the case that Bastiat was not only a serious and underappreciated thinker, but also a proto-Austrian to whom we owe a huge intellectual debt. This is a very entertaining and revealing look at one of the true founders of modern libertarian thought.

Our show this weekend features Overstock.com’s Patrick Byrne, who spoke at our event last weekend in San Diego. Byrne, the rare philosopher-capitalist, discusses the historical origins of liberty and explains the greatest threats to it that exist today.

Dr. Kevin Gutzman is a history professor at Western Connecticut State University, a New York Times best-selling author, and one of the leading Constitutional scholars in the country today. He and Jeff talk about his new book, 'Thomas Jefferson—Revolutionary: A Radical's Struggle to Remake America'. Dr. Gutzman discusses some of the overlooked ways Jefferson shaped America, and how his radical views are often underplayed by many academics today. Jefferson’s views on self-governance freedom of conscious, and rejection of centralized control made him perhaps the most libertarian Founding Father — one whose ideas are still relevant today.

This weekend, we welcome back Michael Boldin, founder of the Tenth Amendment Center and fearless advocate for political decentralization. Michael joins us next weekend at our event in San Diego (see Mises.org/Events), so we decided to ask him about the burgeoning CalExit movement and the Left's newfound appreciation for secession. Think California couldn't survive as an independent country? Think the current US boundaries are written in stone? If so, Michael will change how you think about the possibility of local rule in a deeply divided America. Stay tuned.

Overstock.com founder Patrick Byrne, the keynote speaker at our upcoming event in San Diego, is a brilliant innovator and freedom advocate. He holds a PhD in philosophy from Stanford, but understands e-commerce and blockchain technology like an engineer. He also understands Austrian economics, and courageously uses his public profile to make the Hayekian case for a decentralized political, economic, and social order. This video is excerpted from his talk given on our Auburn campus discussing the relationship between Austrian theory and the blockchain, and what it means for the eventual demise of government gatekeepers and middlemen.

Brutus, writing in 'The Antifederalist Papers', had this to say about judges: There is no power above them, to control any of their decisions. There is no authority that can remove them, and they cannot be controlled by the laws of the legislature. In short, they are independent of the people, of the legislature, and of every power under heaven. Men placed in this situation will generally soon feel themselves independent of heaven itself. Now, Trump has announced his nominee for the Supreme Court. Here to explain everything from a libertarian perspective is Allen Mendenhall, a lawyer, PhD, and director of the Blackstone and Burke Center. How will Gorsuch likely rule on important issues, given what we know about him? Is he an activist, an authoritarian, an originalist, or a positivist? Is he too cozy with federal power, or does he show a libertarian Coloradan streak? And, if confirmed, will he occupy a "stolen" seat?

Jeff Deist and Tom Woods discuss everything happening with Donald Trump in Washington, DC—especially the Left-Progressive reaction to it—and analyze Trump from a libertarian perspective.

Our guest this weekend is John Tamny, a writer and editor at Real Clear Markets (RealCleearMarkets.com) and 'Forbes'. Jeff Deist and John dissect Trump's economics, especially Trump's reflexive trade protectionism and fetish for exports over imports. They also talk about the policies Trump might get right, especially when it comes to the Fed. John has a great Misesian take on everything the new administration might mean, pro and con — so don't miss this interview.

We've all heard the term crony capitalism, but what does it mean exactly? We know it involves using government to enrich certain interests, through contracts, lobbying, and rent-seeking. But, crony capitalism is far more: it is a systematic distortion of real capitalism, from local restaurants and real estate all the way up to global commodities and FOREX markets. Here to consider all the angles is our guest Nick Sorrentino, proprietor of AgainstCronyCapitalism.org. Nick and Jeff Deist discuss how huge public companies—think defense giants like Lockheed Martin and Boeing—engage in an obvious form of fiscal cronyism, while Wall Street funds and investment banks engage in what we might call monetary cronyism. And we also discuss how average people reap undue benefits in a million small ways, from selling their homes in artificially overheated markets to making money from small businesses made possible only by bubbles. Is that tech startup really "worth" a $50 million payout to the founders? Thanks to the endless distortions of crony capitalism, we may never know.