Podcasts about booms and busts

Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Northlight Asset Management, says he would not be surprised by the market taking a small pullback heading into the election, rallying after the voting is done, leaving the conversation for next year on whether the market is in a bubble and what could change its trajectory. Zaccarelli notes that the same forces that create booms — like artificial intelligence now, but every major technological advancement in the past — also leaves room for downturns and crashes. Zaccarelli notes that valuations are high, but earnings growth has been so big that it has held classic value measures like price/earnings ratios in check. "If it is a bubble," Zaccarelli says, "we don't think we're at the end yet," adding that investors should ride the wave while diversifying to prepare for its end. Freddie Smith, discusses his book, "Generation F*cked: How Millennials and Gen Z Were Robbed of the American Dream and How We Can Fix Our Futures," and how those younger generations should be responding personally and financially to the challenges that their age groups face as a society.  Chip Lupo, an analyst at WalletHub discusses the site's recent research into the best and worst places to retire, which covered more than 40 indicators of an area's level of "retirement-friendliness," from financial factors like tax rates and the cost of living to things like access to quality medical care and fun activities. While three of the top five cities for retiring were in Florida, but the top overall state for retirement was Wyoming, with Florida second and South Dakota third. Kentucky scored the worst among the 50 states. 

Federal Reserve policy has been to expand credit out of nothing without regard for the real damage it does to the economy.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/credit-out-thin-air-brings-wealth-destruction

Rothbard opens by establishing why the Panic of 1819 matters: it was the first American crisis that could not be pinned on a specific act of government, and thus the first that looked recognizably modern. Confronted with something new, Americans went searching for causes and cures in newspapers, pamphlets, and legislative halls. Rothbard explains that the editors of the day were among the nation's leading economists, and that their debates form a rich and largely untapped record of a people learning to think about depression for the first time.

Rothbard sets the stage with a portrait of a young agrarian republic transformed by the War of 1812. Foreign trade collapsed and domestic manufacturing surged; loosely regulated state banks multiplied, issuing notes with little specie behind them; credit poured into western land purchases at inflated prices. When the Second Bank of the United States reversed course and forced contraction, the whole structure came down. This chapter supplies the economic environment for everything that follows, and answers a question of lasting theoretical interest: was 1819 a genuine business-cycle depression of the modern type?

The debtors' plight was the most visible face of the depression, and the most politically explosive. Rothbard traces two distinct battles: the federal question of the $23 million owed on public land purchases, where Congress and President Monroe moved to forgive interest and permit relinquishment; and the state-level fight over stay laws and minimum appraisal laws, which spread through eight and four states respectively. Relief advocates argued that the rising purchasing power of the dollar had made repayment unjust. Their opponents answered that shielding debtors would destroy creditor confidence and prolong the very depression it aimed to cure.

The hard-money response held that excessive bank credit had caused the depression and that only rigid specie payment could end it. Rothbard catalogs the remedies proposed: confining banks to commercial cities, prohibiting small-denomination notes, barring interbank borrowing, forfeiting charters at the first refusal to redeem. Virginia's statesmen—Jefferson among them, along with Spencer Roane and the editor Thomas Ritchie—were the most uncompromising. This chapter also documents the American formulation of the currency principle and a monetary theory of the business cycle several years ahead of Thomas Joplin in England, and traces the hostility to the Second Bank of the United States that came from hard-money and soft-money camps alike.

Rothbard draws the threads together and challenges the standard historiography. The inflation-versus-hard-money battle cut across region, class, wealth, and occupation—in Tennessee, the two opposing camps were led by wealthy cotton planters from the same city, and several inflationist governors reversed themselves after seeing their paper depreciate. He traces the lasting consequences: the protective movement's 1824 victory, the discrediting of state inconvertible paper, and the conversion of Jackson, Benton, Polk, Kendall, and Condy Raguet to hard money during these years. He closes by arguing that the Panic of 1819 helped launch American economics as a discipline, and left a permanent mark on how the country thought about money, debt, and depression.

Federal Reserve policy has been to expand credit out of nothing without regard for the real damage it does to the economy.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/credit-out-thin-air-brings-wealth-destruction

Kevin Duffy reads gold's bull market through an Austrian investor's lens — America's "imperial bubble" and the gold demand driving it from a rising East.Recorded in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on August 15, 2026. Special thanks to George and Sally Gundrey for sponsoring this event.

Bob returns to the fractional reserve banking debate to clarify a point the critics keep missing: in the Mises-Hayek-Rothbard framework, it's fractional reserve banking itself that sets the boom-bust cycle in motion, not merely central banks.Related:Lawrence White, Free Banking in Britain: Mises.org/HAP561aBob's Previous Episode on Rothbard vs Free Bankers: Mises.org/HAP561bBob's Paper on the History of Fractional Reserve Free Banking: Mises.org/HAP561cRoger Garrison's Presentations on Capital-Based Macroeconomics: Mises.org/HAP561d

Bob returns to the fractional reserve banking debate to clarify a point the critics keep missing: in the Mises-Hayek-Rothbard framework, it's fractional reserve banking itself that sets the boom-bust cycle in motion, not merely central banks.Related:Lawrence White, Free Banking in Britain: Mises.org/HAP561aBob's Previous Episode on Rothbard vs Free Bankers: Mises.org/HAP561bBob's Paper on the History of Fractional Reserve Free Banking: Mises.org/HAP561cRoger Garrison's Presentations on Capital-Based Macroeconomics: Mises.org/HAP561d

Why governments prefer money creation to taxation: the benefits are plain to whoever receives the new money first, while the losses stay hidden from everyone else. Rothbard traces how the two natural checks on a bank—redemption by outsiders and a run by its own clients—were widened by central banking, by suspensions of specie payment, and by campaigns to shame the public out of using gold day to day.

Bob reviews Murray Rothbard's 1988 essay "The Myth of Free Banking in Scotland," his sharp response to Larry White's influential account of Scottish free banking.Related:Rothbard's Article, "The Myth of Free Banking in Scotland": Mises.org/HAP560aBob's Debate with George Selgin on Fractional Reserve Banking: Mises.org/HAP560bGeorge Selgin's Article, "Scottish Banks and the Bank Restriction, 1797–1821": Mises.org/HAP560cJoe Salerno's Article on Mises as Currency School Free Banker: Mises.org/HAP560d

Bob reviews Murray Rothbard's 1988 essay "The Myth of Free Banking in Scotland," his sharp response to Larry White's influential account of Scottish free banking.Related:Rothbard's Article, "The Myth of Free Banking in Scotland": Mises.org/HAP560aBob's Debate with George Selgin on Fractional Reserve Banking: Mises.org/HAP560bGeorge Selgin's Article, "Scottish Banks and the Bank Restriction, 1797–1821": Mises.org/HAP560cJoe Salerno's Article on Mises as Currency School Free Banker: Mises.org/HAP560d

In this episode of Radio Rothbard, recorded live at Mises University 2026, Ryan sits down with Mark Thornton to talk through the economic trends fueling today's unrest.Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at https://Mises.org/RadioRothbardRadio Rothbard mugs are available at the Mises Store. Get yours at https://Mises.org/RothMug PROMO CODE: RothPod for 20% off

In this episode of Radio Rothbard, recorded live at Mises University 2026, Ryan sits down with Mark Thornton to talk through the economic trends fueling today's unrest.Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at https://Mises.org/RadioRothbardRadio Rothbard mugs are available at the Mises Store. Get yours at https://Mises.org/RothMug PROMO CODE: RothPod for 20% off

Record-breaking skyscrapers have a habit of opening just as the economy turns—a pattern Mark Thornton connected to Austrian business cycle theory in his work on the skyscraper curse. Lucas Engelhardt, Thornton's coauthor on the 2015 response to the curse's critics, explains the mechanism: artificially low interest rates raise land prices, and bid-rent theory shows why the effect concentrates downtown, precisely where towers get built. Add larger firms and cheap research and development to solve the engineering, and the record tower and the cyclical peak arrive together. He then works through the critics' statistical case and shows that their own results—including their finding that height and output move together—point the same way.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 24, 2026.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

Money is never neutral. Jeffrey Degner works line by line through the passage of Cantillon's Essay that made the case nearly three centuries ago—showing how new money enters the economy unevenly, enriching those who receive it first and squeezing everyone who receives it last. Cantillon named the losers precisely: those on fixed wages, and property owners locked into leases as their costs rise. Degner then brings the analysis forward, connecting it to the several distinct patterns now described as the "K-shaped economy"—divergence between sectors, between the consumption of high- and low-income households, and between a soaring stock market and consumer sentiment that has fallen below its COVID lows.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 23, 2026.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

What can economics actually teach you about running a business? From the mainstream, Per Bylund argues, very little—its models have no room for the entrepreneur at all. Austrian economics is a different matter. Working from Menger forward, Bylund lays out the sequence every business faces: costs come first and certain, value comes last and unknown. From that he draws the practical implications—why cost-plus pricing is a recipe for failure, why no producer has "pricing power" even as a monopolist, why the firm is best understood as a temporary island of specialization, and why the entrepreneur's only real question is how best to serve the consumer.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 23, 2026.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

Patrick Newman lays out the Austrian theory of the business cycle—one of the school's signature contributions. He first shows how genuine savings drives sustainable growth by lengthening the structure of production, then explains how central-bank credit expansion counterfeits that process: pushing interest rates below their natural level sends a false signal, luring entrepreneurs into long-term investments that real resources can't sustain. The result is a boom that must end in either a cleansing bust or runaway inflation—and, Dr. Newman argues, a modern policy of propping up the malinvestment that has defined the era since 2008.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 21, 2026.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

Bob uses U.S. economic history, centering on the greenback era, to work through some subtle but important distinctions in Austrian monetary theory. He also addresses whether free-market economies have a natural tendency toward price deflation under a commodity standard, why the stock-versus-flow distinction matters for understanding gold production and the price level, and how to distinguish "bad" policy-induced monetary deflation from the "good" price deflation that accompanies genuine productivity growth.Related:Patrick Newman, "The Depression of 1873-1879: An Austrian Perspective": Mises.org/HAP558aClarence Long, "The Course of Money Wages during 1860-1890": Mises.org/HAP558bBob's Understanding Money Mechanics: Mises.org/HAP558cBob's Article, "Hayek's Plan for Private Money": Mises.org/HAP558dThe Charts Shown in this Episode: Mises.org/HAP558e

Bob uses U.S. economic history, centering on the greenback era, to work through some subtle but important distinctions in Austrian monetary theory. He also addresses whether free-market economies have a natural tendency toward price deflation under a commodity standard, why the stock-versus-flow distinction matters for understanding gold production and the price level, and how to distinguish "bad" policy-induced monetary deflation from the "good" price deflation that accompanies genuine productivity growth.Related:Patrick Newman, "The Depression of 1873-1879: An Austrian Perspective": Mises.org/HAP558aClarence Long, "The Course of Money Wages during 1860-1890": Mises.org/HAP558bBob's Understanding Money Mechanics: Mises.org/HAP558cBob's Article, "Hayek's Plan for Private Money": Mises.org/HAP558dThe Charts Shown in this Episode: Mises.org/HAP558e

In the wake of Alan Greenspan's recent passing, Bob revisits two contested claims about his legacy: did the Fed under Greenspan fuel the housing bubble, and did that bubble cause the 2008 financial crisis? Related:Bob's Article from October, 2007, "The Worst Recession in 25 years?": Mises.org/HAP557aPeter Schiff was Right (2006-2007 Edition): Mises.org/HAP557bMark Thornton, 2004, "Housing: Too Good to Be True": Mises.org/HAP557cBob's 2008 Article, "The Importance of Capital Theory": Mises.org/HAP557dThe Charts Shown in this Episode: Mises.org/HAP557e

In the wake of Alan Greenspan's recent passing, Bob revisits two contested claims about his legacy: did the Fed under Greenspan fuel the housing bubble, and did that bubble cause the 2008 financial crisis? Related:Bob's Article from October, 2007, "The Worst Recession in 25 years?": Mises.org/HAP557aPeter Schiff was Right (2006-2007 Edition): Mises.org/HAP557bMark Thornton, 2004, "Housing: Too Good to Be True": Mises.org/HAP557cBob's 2008 Article, "The Importance of Capital Theory": Mises.org/HAP557dThe Charts Shown in this Episode: Mises.org/HAP557e

Lew Rockwell takes on the deepest puzzle in economic theory: why booms and busts recur so regularly. He lays out the Austrian answer—credit expansion and malinvestment—against the classical economists' very different question of how economies grow.

Mark Thornton opens this episode of Minor Issues by tracing how politics shifted from the classical ideal of justice and community order into a Machiavellian struggle for power, privilege, and control. He argues that modern politics is dominated by entrenched elites, special interests, propaganda networks, and a two-party system designed to keep ordinary voters alienated and powerless.On Side B, Mark joins Adrian Day and Rich Checkan for a wide-ranging discussion of inflation, debt, financial repression, gold, commodities, artificial intelligence, the Austrian business cycle, and the rise of socialist sentiment among younger Americans. Mark explains why learning Austrian economics is essential for understanding markets, government failure, and the crises ahead.2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray's 100th birthday—and we're celebrating by giving away free copies of Keynes the Man through June 30. Grab yours today at https://mises.org/issuesfree20% off listener offer on the insulated Minor Issues tumbler and three of Mark's books: https://mises.org/MinorIssuesTumbler. Use coupon code Thornton.Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

On this episode of Minor Issues, Mark Thornton opens with a review of John Mearsheimer's Why Do Politicians Lie?, focusing on strategic deception in international affairs, especially in the Middle East, Israel, Vietnam, Iraq, and America's own constitutional history. Mark argues that political lies are not merely moral failures; they are tools for empire, war, and state expansion.On Side B, Thornton joins What The Finance to explain how runaway spending, Fed liquidity, and Austrian business cycle theory reveal the deeper mechanics behind today's markets. He discusses the AI and data-center bubble, the Fed's role in sustaining malinvestment, the pressure on working families, and why gold, silver, and commodities are benefiting from a long era of monetary inflation and political dysfunction.2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray's 100th birthday—and we're celebrating by giving away free copies of Keynes the Man through June 30. Grab yours today at https://mises.org/issuesfreeRegister for our upcoming Mises Circle, Why Is the Healthcare System Broken?, June 27 in Windham, New Hampshire: https://mises.org/events/why-healthcare-system-broken-mises-circle-new-hampshire20% off listener offer on the insulated Minor Issues tumbler and three of Mark's books: https://mises.org/MinorIssuesTumbler. Use coupon code Thornton.Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

This week, Bob walks through three thought experiments to show how expectations of future supply changes ripple into present prices and production decisions in ways that purely mechanical monetary frameworks like MV=PQ can't capture.Related:How Can Mining Asteroids in the Future Make Us Richer Today?: Mises.org/HAP551aBob's 2008 Article on Oil Prices: Mises.org/HAP551bCelebrate Murray Rothbard's 100th birthday with a free copy of Anatomy of the State. Get yours at Mises.org/HAPodFree

This week, Bob walks through three thought experiments to show how expectations of future supply changes ripple into present prices and production decisions in ways that purely mechanical monetary frameworks like MV=PQ can't capture.Related:How Can Mining Asteroids in the Future Make Us Richer Today?: Mises.org/HAP551aBob's 2008 Article on Oil Prices: Mises.org/HAP551bCelebrate Murray Rothbard's 100th birthday with a free copy of Anatomy of the State. Get yours at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Washington is pursuing industrial policy again, this time being an attempt to form a minerals consortium with other countries to secure minerals vital to US manufacturing. No doubt, this initiative will end up on the ash heap of bad policy.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/minerals-consortium-will-result-malinvestment

Washington is pursuing industrial policy again, this time being an attempt to form a minerals consortium with other countries to secure minerals vital to US manufacturing. No doubt, this initiative will end up on the ash heap of bad policy.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/minerals-consortium-will-result-malinvestment

The standard line among most economists is that deflation is as bad or even worse than inflation. In reality, the economy needs deflation now more than ever.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/deflation-bad-economy

The standard line among most economists is that deflation is as bad or even worse than inflation. In reality, the economy needs deflation now more than ever.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/deflation-bad-economy

Let's slow it down, now. Grab your partner and pull them in tight, and let's spend some extra time rolling through some of the more polarizing names that got drafted in the 3rd and 4th rounds, typically, and whether we faded or backed the right horses. The Old Man Squad has a PATREON now. It's $1 and doesn't get a single benefit. It is entirely to support the mission here but won't change anything we do. https://www.patreon.com/cw/oldmansquad Follow Dan Besbris on Twitter: https://x.com/danbesbris Find Dan on the brand new BlueSky social network: https://bit.ly/3Vo5M0N Check out Dan's Google Sheet with Ranks, Weekly Streaming Schedule Charts & Injury Replacement Adds FREE! https://bit.ly/3XrAdEW Listen and subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/3XiUzQK Listen and subscribe on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3ACCHYe Float on over to the new Old Man Squad Sports Network YouTube page to watch videos from the network's top talent: https://bit.ly/46Z6fvb Join the Old Man Squad Discord to chat with Dan and all the other hosts: https://t.co/aY9cqDrgRY Follow Old Man Squad Fantasy on Instagram for all our short videos: https://bit.ly/3ZQbxrt Podcast logo by https://twitter.com/freekeepoints Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mises described the problem, Hayek proposed the direction, Kirzner explains why the market will not stop. And the market, as so many times before, has already found the first step.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/ex-nihilo-no-more

Daniela Cambone interviews Dr. Mark Thornton on why gold's surge signals a deeper breakdown: collapsing confidence in dollar assets, runaway deficits, and debt-service costs heading for a fiscal wall. Mark also explains why he's even more bullish on silver than gold, warning that precious metals aren't a panacea without real monetary reform.The original interview is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1HNeez2v1g

AI is not the killer—it is the coroner.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/end-artificial-employment

AI is not the killer—it is the coroner.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/end-artificial-employment

Kitco News anchor Jeremy Szafron sits down with Dr. Mark Thornton to break down why central banks are fleeing Treasuries for physical gold and what the "Skyscraper Curse" signals for a 2026 crash. They discuss the massive 150-ton gold purchase by Poland, a strategic move by a NATO ally that signals a loss of trust in the debt-based system. Mark also exposes a critical, under-reported crisis in the silver market: supply is "inelastic" and "wasted" on war and solar panels, meaning the market cannot physically respond to price spikes. With Japanese bond yields spiking and the Jeddah Tower restarting construction, the signals for a major economic pivot are flashing red.The original interview is available on YouTube.

Mark Thornton revisits the Skyscraper Curse—the eerie pattern linking record-height towers to major busts—and argues the next signal is flashing for 2026. Saudi Arabia's Jeddah Tower has restarted and is reportedly adding floors fast, poised to surpass the world record. Mark explains why skyscraper records tend to coincide with late-cycle excess, and how to read the next 12–24 months without superstition.The Skyscraper Curse: And How Austrian Economists Predicted Every Major Economic Crisis of the Last Century by Mark Thornton: https://mises.org/curseAnatomy of the Crash, edited by Tho Bishop: https://mises.org/crashJoin us for the Mises Institute's first event of 2026, featuring Keith Smith, Caitlin Long, Ryan McMaken, Per Bylund, and Timothy Terrell: "Entrepreneurship Beyond Politics: Mises Circle in Oklahoma City." Register today at https://mises.org/okcOrder a Minor Issues tumbler today! https://mises.org/MinorIssuesTumblerEnter the 2026 Stocks vs. Manure Prediction Contest at https://mises.org/form/stocks-vs-manure-2026Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

As government continues to engage in reckless actions from inflation to starting wars, people develop shorter time horizons, creating social vacuums. Increased gambling and other irresponsible behaviors then fill the void.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/kalshi-culture-how-gambling-speculation-and-degeneracy-went-mainstream

As government continues to engage in reckless actions from inflation to starting wars, people develop shorter time horizons, creating social vacuums. Increased gambling and other irresponsible behaviors then fill the void.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/kalshi-culture-how-gambling-speculation-and-degeneracy-went-mainstream

Bob uses three recent controversies–Richard Murphy's “Christmas all year” claim, Elon Musk's net worth, and Ron DeSantis on the Great Depression–to clear up common economic fallacies about work, wealth, and wartime spending.The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Bob uses three recent controversies–Richard Murphy's “Christmas all year” claim, Elon Musk's net worth, and Ron DeSantis on the Great Depression–to clear up common economic fallacies about work, wealth, and wartime spending.The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Mark Thornton joins Scott Horton to discuss the state of the economy, the boom-bust cycle, and why anybody—left, right, and center—who cares about the wellbeing of the working class needs to oppose the existence of the Federal Reserve.Visit the Scott Horton Show at http://scotthortonshow.comBe sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

[Original airdate: 1/9/25] Mary Danielsen welcomes back Britt Gillette and his wealth of knowledge about all things economic. Today’s system that seems to be held together with duct tape reminds me of the children’s nursery rhyme that says, “when the bough breaks…” – and then spells out the end quite clearly. Considering that the economy now global impacts us all on earth, what might 2025 bring? The last couple years have seen threats of bank closures and the cancelling of accounts of those the globalists don’t like, namely, conservatives and Christians. Alarming enough, but there is so much more going on, in particular the over-valuation of the stock market. We will rely on Britt to help us sort that out, along with the real estate market, Asian economics and their stock markets, and how AI will affect the economy in the next several years. According to the IMF, AI is a game changer for labor in particular, but also how considerable funds will be poured into the global markets from everything tech. A complex subject made easier by Britt Gillette, because while most of us rely on our pocketbook to tell us things have gone haywire, we can also rely on people with his expertise to help us dig deeper. His extensive YouTube channel can be found here. Stand Up For The Truth Videos: https://rumble.com/user/CTRNOnline & https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgQQSvKiMcglId7oGc5c46A

Dr. Jonathan Newman joins the Human Action Podcast to discuss his recent QJAE article disputing the claim that 'sticky prices' prevent markets from clearing--i.e., when the quantity supplied equals the quantity demanded. Dr. Newman applies Mises's “plain state of rest” to show that each voluntary exchange equates quantities supplied and demanded, so observed “stickiness” doesn't imply non-clearing markets."There Ain't No Such Thing as a Sticky Price": Mises.org/HAP525aThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Is paying down the federal debt a recession trigger? Bob takes on the MMT claim and checks the record, citing US debt payoffs, Canada's 1990s reforms, and ECB case studies. Conclusion: real wealth beats accounting tricks and paydowns aren't a mechanical path to recession.Read More on Fiscal Austerity: Mises.org/HAP524aThe Upside-Down World of MMT: Mises.org/HAP524bDo Balanced Budgets Cause Depressions?: Mises.org/HAP524cThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

This week, Bob tackles growing concerns about artificial intelligence, automation, and mass unemployment. Using the principles of marginal productivity and comparative advantage, he shows how the standard economic arguments still apply—even in the age of ChatGPT and robotics. Responding directly to viral tweets from Matt Walsh, Bob dismantles the popular belief that AI will inevitably destroy human labor markets. He explains why highly skilled labor has always coexisted with less-skilled workers and why new technologies, despite their disruptive effects, tend to improve standards of living for everyone over time.The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Jonathan Newman returns to join Bob in a critique of Eliezer Yudkowsky's viral theory of investment bubbles. Yudkowsky states that the bad investment during bubbles should be felt before the bubble pops, not after. They argue that his perspective—while clever—fails to consider the Austrian insights on capital structure, time preference, and the business cycle. They use analogies from apple trees to magic mushrooms to show why Austrian economics provides the clearest explanation for booms, busts, and the pain that follows.Eliezer Yudkowsky's Theory on Investment Bubbles: Mises.org/HAP520aBob's Article "Correcting Yudkowsky on the Boom": Mises.org/HAP520bBob's on The Importance of Capital Theory: Mises.org/HAP520cJoe Salerno on Austrian Business Cycle Theory: Mises.org/HAP520dDr. Newman's QJAE Article on Credit Cycles: Mises.org/HAP520eThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree