Ep. 448 Unpacking Dave Smith’s Analysis of Jimmy Kimmel
In another crossover, Adam Haman returns to critically assess Dave Smith’s intriguing arguments regarding the firing (with FCC pressure) of Jimmy Kimmel.
Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:
- The YouTube version of this conversation.
- The link for the 2025 ExPat Money Summit.
- This episode’s sponsor, The Swan Brothers.
- Dave Smith’s Part of the Problem episode 1306.
- Bob’s article in The Misesian on identifying businesses allied with the State.
- The HamanNature substack.
- Help support the Bob Murphy Show.
About the author, Robert
Christian and economist, Chief Economist at infineo, and Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute.
Dave Smith sure spends a lot of effort trying to claim that you can use libertarian principles to arrive at the conclusion that you should go and do aggression to somebody who is not doing anything to you or anybody else.
At what point does he stop pretending he is a libertarian?
right after he’s lost you as a fan
Never really was one.
Hi Bob,
Not related to the episode, but the “deflation boogeyman” arguments are resurfacing. I remember watching some Mises Institute rebuttals about 10 years ago about deflation, but it is becoming relevant again and could be an interesting topic to revisit.
Economic commenters are happy to repeat the conjecture that deflation = people will hide money under a mattress and grind the economy to a halt. Nevermind that people store money in banks and the stock market, not under a mattress. It doesn’t make sense to me that the official report says that inflation was 8% in 2022, but it is treated like “whoopsie daisy, let’s try for 2% next year.” Inflation is currently 2.9%, but I do not see a clamoring for raising interest rates because it is alarmingly above the 2% target. Inflation is treated so casually in mainstream commentary.
A 0.1% rate of deflation is talked about as if it is a guaranteed nightmare that directly causes unemployment and economic depression while the downsides of inflation are swept under the rug. The 2% inflation target is talked about as if it is a settled matter that everybody knows is ideal. None of this sounds right, but I haven’t come across a recent “exploding” of the deflation arguments.
A popular Youtube channel “The Plain Bagel”, that breaks down economic issues in laymen’s terms, just put out a video today “Why Central Banks Target 2% Inflation.” There is an annoying attitude of “Hey, we have already figured out the correct inflation target scientifically; end of discussion”.
From,
A fellow Robert (there are too many of us)
Thanks for the tip Robert!