Recent Podcast Episodes

Government corruption isn’t an anomaly. It is part of the system itself. We should expect government to be corrupt. Free markets are the antidote to this corruption.

The existence of the arsenal makes the State of Israel ineligible for US aid under US law. This is a problem for US supporters of military and economic aid to the State of Israel. 

This week, Bob explains Cantillon effects: the insight that new money doesn't raise all prices equally or simultaneously, but flows through the economy in a sequence that benefits early recipients at the expense of everyone else. Then, he shows why this phenomenon is the foundation on which the entire Austrian theory of the business cycle is built.

The real founders of economic science actually wrote hundreds of years before Adam Smith. 

By opposing justice and throwing aside the facts of hard science, the Duke faculty and administration damaged all of higher education during the infamous lacrosse hoax.

The process of naturalization is a government-created "right" with no basis in property rights. In other words, there is no libertarian case for birthright citizenship. 

To call Trump’s actions king-like is to greatly understate the problem. What we actually face is a massive, self-amplifying executive branch that makes deranged presidents far more dangerous than an actual king could ever be.

For Rothbard — as for Locke — it is not the use of force that is disputable, but the use of force against peaceful and innocent people.

America’s industrial revolution didn’t just happen. It came about because of the free market initiatives that came from the Andrew Jackson presidency.

Mark Thornton explains the gold and silver selloff.

Foreign policy scholar Brandan Buck joins Ryan McMaken to talk about whether or not a US tactical victory in Iran can lead to a strategic victory as well. And what does victory for the Iranian state look like? Are there any prospects for a lasting peace? 

Bob untangles two arguments that even Austrian economists sometimes conflate: Mises' calculation problem and Hayek's knowledge problem. Then, he explains why the distinction matters, especially in light of recent claims that AI and modern computing could finally make central planning viable.

Drawing on Rothbard's writings on money and central banking, Murray Sabrin makes the case that inflation is a hidden tax, the Federal Reserve is neither independent nor beneficial, and that ending central banking is the unfinished business of the American Revolution.

Dr. Tate Fegley uses Rothbard's theory of demonstrated preference to dismantle the mainstream public goods framework, showing that claims of market failure and welfare improvement by the state have no scientific basis because they contradict what individuals actually reveal through their choices.

Dr. Per Bylund unpacks Rothbard's concept of the capitalist entrepreneur as the economy's true mover and shaker: the figure who not only forecasts future consumer demand but puts real capital behind those forecasts, bearing uncertainty and driving the structure of production.

Drawing on Rothbard's essay on inequality and the division of labor, Dr. Lucas Engelhardt argues that human diversity is the very foundation of comparative advantage and prosperity, and that billionaires arise either by serving large numbers of people through the market or by extracting wealth through political connections.

Drawing on Man, Economy, and State, Dr. Jonathan Newman walks through Rothbard's theory of price formation and competition, showing that prices reflect subjective preferences, not seller greed, and that the only consumer-harming monopolies are those created by the state.

The TSA stories, especially at Atlanta, are illustrations of interventionist non-intervention: non-delivery of promised, paid-for, and monopolized service.

On this episode of Power and Market, Ryan, Tho, and Connor talk about the historic waits thanks to DC's monopoly on airport security, and Joe Kent's resignation over the Iran War.

When accusations of rape and assault were made against Duke University’s lacrosse team in 2006, both the Durham City Police and District Attorney Michael Nifong engaged in law breaking to indict three young men that clearly were innocent.