Show notes
They say money makes the world go round-- and economics explains how. But despite our best efforts and most sophisticated model-making, most economic predictions end up being woefully inaccurate. The lesser-known Austrian School of Economics has a different take. Are governments and even nobel-prize winning economists making some basic errors, leading to crises like the 2008 housing bubble? Is tinkering with the economy a fruitless effort, destined only to make things worse? Does the Austrian school of economics have some insights that better explain the patterns we see in our world? In episode XXVII, Katy and Chris are joined by Austrian economics advocate Justin Longo of podcast Longo Convo and libertarian thinktank, The Independence Institute (see links below). We’ll look at the global financial and political systems through the lens of Austrian economics- a school of thought that has led many innocent econ nerds to become anarchists. What can Austrian economics tell us about policy, and what does it miss? 0:00 - Introduction 3:15 - The economics of anarchy 9:05 - Differences between Austrian economics, Keynesian economics, and other neoclassical schools 17:25 - Scientism vs abstract theories: why economic predictions are always wrong 21:15 - The One Lesson 22:30 - The Broken Window Fallacy, real wealth production, and the importance of the unseen 30:30 - Austrian business cycle theory, and the insanity of negative interest rates 36:00 - Are jobs ‘good?’ Minimum wage? UBI? But think of the bureaucrats! 1:03:50 - Inflation: the most insidious form of theft 1:12:10 - Bitcoin, gold, and free banking 1:25:05 - The power of the status quo 1:29:50 - Justin shouts from the rooftops! 1:32:30 - The importance of the pricing mechanism, and why socialist programs are groping around in the dark 1:42:40 - Not all priorities are accounted for in the pricing mechanism 1:48:40 - Can we solve our own problems freely? 1:54:30 - Conclusion REFERENCES & RESOURCES: Henry Hazlitt, 'Economics in One Lesson' https://amzn.to/2NmAoMy Mises, 'Human Action' https://amzn.to/2PAZ077 Bastiat, 'That Which is Seen and That Which is Not Seen' http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html Joseph Schumpeter, 'Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy' (on creative destruction) https://amzn.to/2MZN78V MORE JUSTIN LONGO: Longo Convo https://www.longoconvo.com/ The Independence Institute https://i2i.org/ Liberty on the Rocks https://libertyontherocks.org/ Complete Colorado https://completecolorado.com/
