The Human Action Podcast

Slavery Was Propped Up by Government: A Misesian Analysis

Bob walks through what Ludwig von Mises wrote about slavery in Human Action, arguing that the institution was not — as the 1619 Project claims — the foundation of American capitalism.Related:Ludwig von Mises, Human Action: Mises.org/HAP556a

From 2008 to the Coming Reset: Larry Lepard's Case for Sound Money

Bob sits down with fund manager and author Lawrence Lepard to discuss his book The Big Print, which argues that the core problem with modern America is not corporate greed or partisan politics, but a monetary system deliberately structured to benefit those closest to the Fed at the expense of wage earners and savers.Related:The Big Print: What Happened To America And How Sound Money Will Fix It: Mises.org/HAP555a

A Harvard Economist Tests Austrian Capital Theory

Bob sits down with Harvard Economics Professor Pol Antràs to discuss his new paper applying Böhm-Bawerk's average period of production to international trade, testing whether countries with lower interest rates tend to export goods requiring longer, more roundabout production processes.Related:Professor Antràs' Paper, "An ‘Austrian’ Model of International Specialization": Mises.org/HAP554aBob's Article, "The Reswitching Question": Mises.org/HAP554b

The Fed's Real Job: Propping Up Dollar Reserve Currency Status

Bob sits down with economists Alexander Salter and Joshua Hendrickson to discuss their new paper arguing that the standard Austrian critique of the Fed while correct, is fundamentally incomplete. They argue that the Fed's actual institutional role is to backstop U.S. dollar hegemony: the deliberately constructed post-Bretton Woods system in which the dollar serves as the world's reserve currency, U.S. Treasuries as the global safe asset, and the Fed as buyer of last resort for sovereign debt worldwide.Related:Hendrickson & Salter, "Should We End the Fed? Can We?": Mises.org/HAP553a

A Scholarly Takedown of MMT: Emmanuel Maggiori on the Theory's Fatal Flaws

Bob sits down with economist Emmanuel Maggiori to discuss his new book If You Can Just Print Money, Why Do I Pay Taxes?, a carefully researched, point-by-point critique of Modern Monetary Theory that engages MMT on its own terms, drawing on the MMTers' own textbook, papers, and responses to critics.Related:If You Can Just Print Money, Why Do I Pay Taxes?: Mises.org/HAP552aBob's Mises Daily Article, "The Upside-Down World of MMT": Mises.org/HAP552bJonathan Newman and Bob's MisesU Lecture on MMT: Mises.org/HAP552c