Ep. 283 Oren Cass Warns Conservatives to Rethink Economic Libertarianism
Oren Cass is the founder of American Compass, which has a new handbook advising conservatives on how to rebuild American capitalism. Bob provides a skeptical but friendly forum for Oren to explain his dissatisfaction with the standard libertarian position on free trade and labor unions. Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest: The YouTube…
Ep. 276 Even Milton Friedman Slipped in His Defense of Trade Deficits
Bob uses the illustrious Milton Friedman to demonstrate a depressing tendency among economists to overreact in their zeal to defend trade deficits, where they end up arguing that it’s necessarily beneficial to live beyond one’s means. Although this could be true in certain cases, it’s not true in general. Bob then explains that the original mercantilists…
Ep. 258 Responding to the Dave Smith/Curtis Yarvin Discussion on Libertarianism, Part 1
Bob addresses Curtis Yarvin’s claim that free trade policy has hurt America, and that libertarians don’t have a good response to it. Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest: The Michael Malice episode featuring Yarvin vs. Smith. FRED charts showing manufacturing employment, index of total manufacturing production, components of manufacturing, and domestic auto production.…
Ep. 202 “What Did Bob Learn?” Part 1 of 3
In response to a listener request, Bob starts a 3-part series explaining areas where his views have changed. In this episode, he covers trade deficits, justice vs. mercy, the 2000 election, WMDs in Iraq, and Arrow’s Theorem. Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest: Bob’s article on why free traders should be more…
Ep. 156 Econtradictions: Bob Discusses Free Trade, Welfare Benefits, Price Gouging, and Utility Theory
Bob unveils a new series in which he explains and then evaluates apparent contradictions in the way free-market libertarians handle certain issues. Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest: Bastiat’s “Petition of the Candlemakers” Bob’s article on price gouging. Help support the Bob Murphy Show. The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth…