Podcasts about capital and interest theory

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.

Paul Cwik and Shawn Ritenour trace what happened to the Austrian school after Menger, Böhm-Bawerk, and Wieser—as it spread beyond Vienna and produced a generation of thinkers most students never encounter. Philip Wicksteed, the Unitarian minister who dispensed with the supply curve; William Smart, who gave English readers Böhm-Bawerk; Herbert Davenport and Frank Fetter, the core of the American school; and Richard von Strigl, the last Austrian in Vienna. Then the harder question: why that flourishing stalled, and what it took to revive it.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 makes a society prosper? Shawn Ritenour lays out the Austrian theory of economic progress, and its quarrel with mainstream growth theory. There is no single cause of prosperity, he argues—four "vehicles" drive it: the division of labor, capital accumulation, technological advance, and entrepreneurship. Conventional models can analyze each in isolation but miss the harder task of synthesis: how they must work together. And they leave out the one factor that coordinates the rest—the entrepreneur, the driving force who directs capital, labor, and technology toward what people actually want.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 22, 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.

Jeffrey Herbener builds the Austrian theory of interest from the ground up. Interest, he argues, isn't the productivity of capital or a mere cost of borrowing—it's the "originary" premium that arises because human beings are temporal and prefer the same satisfaction sooner rather than later. From time preference he derives the pure rate of interest, shows why a single rate integrates the entire economy from credit cards to capital investment, and explains why productivity discounts back through the rate rather than setting it.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.

Is capital a uniform "pool" that can be reshaped into anything, or a delicate, time-structured web of complementary pieces? Paul Cwik traces the question from Menger and Böhm-Bawerk through the great debates with J.B. Clark and Frank Knight, and shows why the answer matters enormously. Because capital is heterogeneous, a fall in consumption need not mean recession—it can mean the economy is lengthening its structure of production to build future growth, a shift the mainstream, assuming capital is homogeneous, simply cannot see.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.

On the day Greenspan died, this 2001 essay by Joseph T. Salerno deserves a second life. It documented what the mainstream refused to see: that Greenspan replaced economic theory with intuition, replaced analysis with data-worship, and called his guesswork a science.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/greenspans-empty-talk

On the day Greenspan died, this 2001 essay by Joseph T. Salerno deserves a second life. It documented what the mainstream refused to see: that Greenspan replaced economic theory with intuition, replaced analysis with data-worship, and called his guesswork a science.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/greenspans-empty-talk

Bob sits down with Harvard Economics Professor Pol Antràs to discuss his new paper applying Böhm-Bawerk's average period of production to international trade, testing whether countries with lower interest rates tend to export goods requiring longer, more roundabout production processes.Related:Professor Antràs' Paper, "An ‘Austrian' Model of International Specialization": Mises.org/HAP554aBob's Article, "The Reswitching Question": Mises.org/HAP554b

Bob sits down with Harvard Economics Professor Pol Antràs to discuss his new paper applying Böhm-Bawerk's average period of production to international trade, testing whether countries with lower interest rates tend to export goods requiring longer, more roundabout production processes.Related:Professor Antràs' Paper, "An ‘Austrian' Model of International Specialization": Mises.org/HAP554aBob's Article, "The Reswitching Question": Mises.org/HAP554b

Time is a unique resource in economics because we cannot create more of it and are subject to its limitations. Ludwig von Mises and the Austrians understand the role of time in economic better than most other mainstream economists.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/subjective-nature-time-bergson-mises

Time is a unique resource in economics because we cannot create more of it and are subject to its limitations. Ludwig von Mises and the Austrians understand the role of time in economic better than most other mainstream economists.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/subjective-nature-time-bergson-mises

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

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

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.Part of the faculty panel entitled "What Rothbard Can Teach the Informed Layperson About Economics". The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian school, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition.

Milton Friedman and others tried to explain interest rates using liquidity, economic activity, and inflation expectations. These things, however, only describe interest but do not explain it. Only the Austrian theory of time preference correctly explains interest.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/popular-interest-rate-theory-describes-fails-explain

Milton Friedman and others tried to explain interest rates using liquidity, economic activity, and inflation expectations. These things, however, only describe interest but do not explain it. Only the Austrian theory of time preference correctly explains interest.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/popular-interest-rate-theory-describes-fails-explain

The US economy is hooked on easy money and artificially low interest rates. Huge credit expansions are not “stimulating” the economy; they are destroying it.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/next-economic-downturn-will-be-here-soon-enough

The US economy is hooked on easy money and artificially low interest rates. Huge credit expansions are not “stimulating” the economy; they are destroying it.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/next-economic-downturn-will-be-here-soon-enough

Bob walks through a recent WIRED video on “the economics behind the Great Depression,” correcting its claims on lax regulation, Hoover's alleged inaction, the role of the Fed and the gold standard, and the notion that World War II ended the slump.Bob's Article, "The Depression You've Never Heard Of: 1920-1921": Mises.org/HAP528aBob's Talk, "Contrasting Views of the Great Depression": Mises.org/HAP528bThe WIRED Video, "Economics Professor Answers Great Depression Questions": Mises.org/HAP528cThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Bob walks through a recent WIRED video on “the economics behind the Great Depression,” correcting its claims on lax regulation, Hoover's alleged inaction, the role of the Fed and the gold standard, and the notion that World War II ended the slump.Bob's Article, "The Depression You've Never Heard Of: 1920-1921": Mises.org/HAP528aBob's Talk, "Contrasting Views of the Great Depression": Mises.org/HAP528bThe WIRED Video, "Economics Professor Answers Great Depression Questions": Mises.org/HAP528cThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Bob revisits capital and interest theory to show why the textbook result “interest = MPK” only holds in a one-good world, and why in actual markets the interest rate emerges from time, prices, and capital valuation—not raw productivity.Bob and Alberto Bisin Discuss the Use of Mathematics in Economics: Mises.org/HAP527aBob's Dissertation, "Unanticipated Intertemporal Change in Theories of Interest": Mises.org/HAP527bThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Bob revisits capital and interest theory to show why the textbook result “interest = MPK” only holds in a one-good world, and why in actual markets the interest rate emerges from time, prices, and capital valuation—not raw productivity.Bob and Alberto Bisin Discuss the Use of Mathematics in Economics: Mises.org/HAP527aBob's Dissertation, "Unanticipated Intertemporal Change in Theories of Interest": Mises.org/HAP527bThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

A yacht—like any good exchanged on the free market—represents countless value-maximizing exchanges and represents an industry that employs thousands of people to provide goods and services to others.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/jeff-bezoss-yacht-driver-economic-activity

A yacht—like any good exchanged on the free market—represents countless value-maximizing exchanges and represents an industry that employs thousands of people to provide goods and services to others.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/jeff-bezoss-yacht-driver-economic-activity

Patrick Newman introduces Austrian capital theory: how savings, time, and production structures drive economic growth. Without capital goods and roundabout production, we'd still be living like primitive hunters, and without savings, growth halts altogether.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 22, 2025.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 do COVID lockdowns, currency collapses, and hyperinflation all have in common? According to Steve Hanke, they all reveal how central planners manipulate fear, money, and power to control society.The Friedrich A. Hayek Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Jerry Dowell.The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian school, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. For more information, visit https://Mises.org

One of the common worries about a hard money like gold or Bitcoin is that large price deflation could make lending and investment impossible because nominal interest rates can't go below 0%. Bob explains why these fears are invalid.The Charts Used in This Episode Can Be Viewed Here: Mises.org/HAP491aThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Murray Rothbard's, What Has Government Done to Our Money? Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFreeJoin us May 15–17, 2025, at the Mises Institute for our Revisionist History of War Conference: Mises.org/RHW

One of the common worries about a hard money like gold or Bitcoin is that large price deflation could make lending and investment impossible because nominal interest rates can't go below 0%. Bob explains why these fears are invalid.The Charts Used in This Episode Can Be Viewed Here: Mises.org/HAP491aThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Murray Rothbard's, What Has Government Done to Our Money? Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFreeJoin us May 15–17, 2025, at the Mises Institute for our Revisionist History of War Conference: Mises.org/RHW

Bob walks through diagrams from Hayek's famous LSE lectures to explain the Austrian view of the boom-bust cycle.The Diagrams Referenced in this Episode: Mises.org/HAP481aHayek's Prices and Production: Mises.org/HAP481bRothbard's Man, Economy, and State: Mises.org/HAP481cBob's Study Guide to Man, Economy, and State: Mises.org/HAP481dRoger Garrison's PowerPoint on the Hayekian Triangle: Mises.org/HAP481eThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Murray Rothbard's, What Has Government Done to Our Money? Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Bob walks through diagrams from Hayek's famous LSE lectures to explain the Austrian view of the boom-bust cycle.The Diagrams Referenced in this Episode: Mises.org/HAP481aHayek's Prices and Production: Mises.org/HAP481bRothbard's Man, Economy, and State: Mises.org/HAP481cBob's Study Guide to Man, Economy, and State: Mises.org/HAP481dRoger Garrison's PowerPoint on the Hayekian Triangle: Mises.org/HAP481eThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Murray Rothbard's, What Has Government Done to Our Money? Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

As the Federal Reserve engineers one financial bubble after another, we are reminded that the Austrian Business Cycle Theory explains what is happening and how there is a better way. Original article: Why Austrian Business Cycle Theory Is Better than Keynesianism

As the Federal Reserve engineers one financial bubble after another, we are reminded that the Austrian Business Cycle Theory explains what is happening and how there is a better way. Original article: Why Austrian Business Cycle Theory Is Better than Keynesianism

Presented in Fort Myers, Florida, on November 9, 2024.

After explaining the backstory of how Bob put forth a proposal for codifying property rights in space-based resources, Bob then explains how the prospect of a future inflow of extraterrestrial riches could boost the standard of living on Earth in the near term.Bob Murphy Show, "Scott Horton on American Interference in the 1996 Russian Election": Mises.org/HAP473aThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Murray Rothbard's, What Has Government Done to Our Money? Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

After explaining the backstory of how Bob put forth a proposal for codifying property rights in space-based resources, Bob then explains how the prospect of a future inflow of extraterrestrial riches could boost the standard of living on Earth in the near term.Bob Murphy Show, "Scott Horton on American Interference in the 1996 Russian Election": Mises.org/HAP473aThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Murray Rothbard's, What Has Government Done to Our Money? Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

One of the myths of Keynesian theory is that through monetary injections and government purchases, an economy can spend itself into prosperity. While such a scenario is economically impossible, most mainstream economists still believe it.Original article: The Keynesian Multiplier Fairy Tale

One of the myths of Keynesian theory is that through monetary injections and government purchases, an economy can spend itself into prosperity. While such a scenario is economically impossible, most mainstream economists still believe it.Original article: The Keynesian Multiplier Fairy Tale

Presented in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina on Friday, October 11, 2024.Includes awarding the 2024 Mises Institute Peterson-Luddy Chair in Austrian Economics to Dr. Jeffrey Herbener.

Ask most people why our economy is advanced, and they will likely will answer, “Technology.” Yet, technical knowledge is meaningless without capital development, and capital development is impossible without real savings.Original article: Does Technical Knowledge by Itself Drive Economic Growth?

Ask most people why our economy is advanced, and they will likely will answer, “Technology.” Yet, technical knowledge is meaningless without capital development, and capital development is impossible without real savings.Original article: Does Technical Knowledge by Itself Drive Economic Growth?

Paul Cwik revisits the podcast to explain his new book, which aims to simplify ABCT for economics students and professors, especially those teaching at the principles level. Dr. Cwik critiques mainstream economic theories for oversimplifying business cycles, arguing that the Austrian theory better explains systemic errors and the boom-bust cycle driven by distorted interest rates.Dr. Cwik's New Book, Austrian Business Cycle Theory: An Introduction: Mises.org/HAP468aRoger Garrison's Famous Lecture, "The Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle": Mises.org/HAP468bRichard Ebeling's Monograph, The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle: Mises.org/HAP468cCarilli and Dempster, "Expectations in Austrian Business Cycle Theory: An Application of the Prisoner's Dilemma": Mises.org/HAP468dThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Murray Rothbard's, What Has Government Done to Our Money? Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Paul Cwik revisits the podcast to explain his new book, which aims to simplify ABCT for economics students and professors, especially those teaching at the principles level. Dr. Cwik critiques mainstream economic theories for oversimplifying business cycles, arguing that the Austrian theory better explains systemic errors and the boom-bust cycle driven by distorted interest rates.Dr. Cwik's New Book, Austrian Business Cycle Theory: An Introduction: Mises.org/HAP468aRoger Garrison's Famous Lecture, "The Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle": Mises.org/HAP468bRichard Ebeling's Monograph, The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle: Mises.org/HAP468cCarilli and Dempster, "Expectations in Austrian Business Cycle Theory: An Application of the Prisoner's Dilemma": Mises.org/HAP468dThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Murray Rothbard's, What Has Government Done to Our Money? Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

While the world is abuzz over artificial intelligence (AI), present technologies are limited more than most people want to believe. The situation is ripe for malinvestments.Original article: Is Artificial Intelligence the Next Easy-Money Bust?

While the world is abuzz over artificial intelligence (AI), present technologies are limited more than most people want to believe. The situation is ripe for malinvestments.Original article: Is Artificial Intelligence the Next Easy-Money Bust?

Capital is the sum of the whole complex of goods destined for acquisition, evaluated in money terms.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 30, 2024.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.

Jason Purcell is an analyst at a major financial institution with a specialty in bond analysis. He joins Bob to discuss his historical analysis of yield curves (in both UK and US) going back to the 1870s, which shows that central banks do indeed manipulate short-term interest rates.Bob's Article on the Inverted Yield Curve: Mises.org/HAP457aGoerge Selgin's Cato Article on the Fed: Mises.org/HAP457bThe Charts Referenced in this Episode: Mises.org/HAP457cJoin us in Fort Myers, Florida, on November 9, 2024, to cut through the political noise and discuss the state of the economy. Distinguished speakers Tom DiLorenzo, Mark Thornton, and Murray Sabrin will challenge prevailing economic myths and take a critical look at the US political theater, offering insights into how political interventions distort our economy. It's an opportunity to move beyond partisan rhetoric and examine the way the government affects our lives and livelihoods. Register now: Mises.org/FtMyers24The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Murray Rothbard's, What Has Government Done to Our Money? Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Bob critiques MMT godfather Warren Mosler's recent interview on the Odd Lots podcast, where Mosler argued that the Fed rate hikes have been fueling the strong economy.Bob's Critique of Stephanie Kelton's MMT Documentary: Mises.org/HAP456aJoin us in Fort Myers, Florida, on November 9, 2024, to cut through the political noise and discuss the state of the economy. Distinguished speakers Tom DiLorenzo, Mark Thornton, and Murray Sabrin will challenge prevailing economic myths and take a critical look at the US political theater, offering insights into how political interventions distort our economy. It's an opportunity to move beyond partisan rhetoric and examine the way the government affects our lives and livelihoods. Register now: Mises.org/FtMyers24The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Murray Rothbard's, What Has Government Done to Our Money? Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree