Podcasts about money and banking

Reviewing Lawrence H. White's Free Banking in Britain, Murray Rothbard dismantles the claim that Scotland enjoyed a century of successful free banking before the Peel Act of 1845. Drawing on Sydney Checkland's history, he shows that the Scottish banks pyramided credit on the Bank of England rather than standing on their own specie, suspended payment alongside England from 1797 to 1821, and let reserves fall from 10–20 percent to as little as 1 percent, while depositors who asked for gold met argument, rebuff, and the threat of losing future credit. The rarity of bank failure that White counts as proof of success, Rothbard argues, is evidence of the opposite.

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

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.

Modern Monetary Theory's central claim is that a government with a printing press is never budget constrained — so the only real limit on spending is inflation, not debt. Jonathan Newman takes MMT on in its own words, working through clips of MMT proponents making their case before responding. He shows why "their deficit is your surplus" collapses once you ask how debt service is financed, why the WWII economy MMT holds up as a model was a depression for private citizens once government spending is stripped from GDP, and—drawing on his chapter in a forthcoming Mises Institute book—why the archaeological record of ancient Mesopotamia flatly contradicts MMT's account of where money came from.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.

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.

Will Gen Z ever be able to buy a house? Timothy Terrell starts by clearing away the popular explanations—institutional investors buy under two percent of homes, the median first-time buyer is still 33, and a 1950s house was half the size, often without indoor plumbing. Then he turns to the causes that hold up: Federal Reserve inflation inflating home prices while first-time buyers sit on cash, zoning rules that let existing owners vote down new supply, and Dodd-Frank regulations that killed off the small mortgages starter homes depend on.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.

Drawing on his new book Cronyism: Rise of the Corporate Estate, 1849–1929, Patrick Newman makes the case that the Federal Reserve is the signature example of policy that serves a special interest at the public's expense. He first dismantles the standard justification — modern research finds the pre-Fed panics were less severe than advertised, and the real problems traced to regulations like the branch-banking ban. He then follows the money: Wall Street's declining market share, its campaign for a New York–controlled central bank, the Jekyll Island meeting, and what followed — a rising share of bank reserves, the dollar's ascent over the pound, and a credit expansion that ended in 1929.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.

Where does money come from? Sandy Klein walks through the Mengerian answer: not from a king's decree or a social contract, but spontaneously, as traders gravitated to the most saleable good until one commodity became universally accepted. Along the way she shows why barter can't sustain a real economy, why gold and silver kept winning out, and why—following Rothbard—there's no such thing as an "optimal" money supply.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 20, 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.

Why is a lecture on banking scheduled for the very first day of Mises University? Because, Jonathan Newman argues, banking is where money gets strange. Following Rothbard's Mystery of Banking, he separates the two things a bank can do—safekeeping your deposits and lending out savings—and shows that neither one expands the money supply. The trouble begins when a bank promises your deposit is available on demand while quietly lending most of it away.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 20, 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.

The essay added later to the collection: a critique of proposals to nationalize banking and credit, weighing bureaucratic against profit management and warning of credit overexpansion and immobilization.

Guido Hülsmann examines the interest rate through both economic analysis and moral theology—tracing the debate from Aristotle through Aquinas and Heinrich Pesch to the Austrian School. His conclusion overturns the traditional doctrine: interest income from voluntary lending is intrinsically just and good, both for the contracting parties and for society as a whole, because it funds the division of labor in finance, strengthens social bonds between savers and borrowers, fuels economic growth through longer production processes, and creates a natural saturation mechanism that prevents capital accumulation from becoming an end in itself.However—and this is the essay's most important turn—the legitimacy of interest income is corrupted when it arises through unjust institutions, particularly the fiat money system. Central banks override the natural saturation of capital accumulation, inflate credit markets beyond any limit that would exist under sound money, and redistribute income from the poor to those closest to money creation. The scholastics were wrong to condemn all interest as usury. But the income generated by today's monetary system—artificial, coerced, and redistributive—is precisely the institutionalized usury that Bernard Dempsey warned about in 1943.Read the original article: https://mises.org/articles-interest/economics-and-ethics-interest-rates

The two great confusions about money and interest, from Aristotle's “money cannot beget money” to modern credit expansion, and how monetary manipulation by banks and governments produces inflation and the business cycle.

Money did originate from the state, no matter how many times contemporary monetary theorists might claim otherwise.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/backwards-history-money

Money did originate from the state, no matter how many times contemporary monetary theorists might claim otherwise.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/backwards-history-money

Bob sits down with fund manager and author Lawrence Lepard to discuss his book The Big Print, which argues that the core problem with modern America is not corporate greed or partisan politics, but a monetary system deliberately structured to benefit those closest to the Fed at the expense of wage earners and savers.Related:The Big Print: What Happened To America And How Sound Money Will Fix It: Mises.org/HAP555a

Bob sits down with fund manager and author Lawrence Lepard to discuss his book The Big Print, which argues that the core problem with modern America is not corporate greed or partisan politics, but a monetary system deliberately structured to benefit those closest to the Fed at the expense of wage earners and savers.Related:The Big Print: What Happened To America And How Sound Money Will Fix It: Mises.org/HAP555a

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

Despite support from some economists in the free market camp, fractional reserve free banking is doomed for failure, as Murray Rothbard pointed out.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/case-against-free-bankers

Despite support from some economists in the free market camp, fractional reserve free banking is doomed for failure, as Murray Rothbard pointed out.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/case-against-free-bankers

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

Before J. M. Keynes and Stephanie Kelton, there was John Law. The promise of free money never seems to die.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/irresistible-promise-john-law

Despite the claims of the chartalists and modern monetary theory advocates, early American monetary history tells a much different story. In fact, much of the historical evidence illustrates Menger's theory.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/barter-media-exchange-and-colonial-america

Elon Musk recently claimed that artificial intelligence will make money itself obsolete. He needs to read the literature of Austrian economics.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/elon-musk-claims-money-will-become-irrelevant-he-right

Elon Musk recently claimed that artificial intelligence will make money itself obsolete. He needs to read the literature of Austrian economics.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/elon-musk-claims-money-will-become-irrelevant-he-right

Dr. Shawn Ritenour draws on Mises to show that specialization and trade align long-run interests and raise living standards when prices are guided by sound money. He also argues that state interventions—especially Fed bailouts and credit expansion—pit citizen against citizen and fuel inequality, underscoring the need for real economic education of the kind fostered by the Mises Institute.Sponsored by Don Printz.Recorded at the Mises Supporters Summit in Delray Beach, Florida, on October 17, 2025.

Dr. Alex Pollock explains how monopoly money empowers the state to finance deficits and wars, and why legal tender laws should give way to free choice in money. He explores why genuine competitors—likely led by gold—would discipline issuers, noting central banks' renewed appetite for bullion as an emergent currency competition.Sponsored by Yousif Almoayyed.Recorded at the Mises Supporters Summit in Delray Beach, Florida, on October 17, 2025.

Professor Georgy Ganev joins Bob to explain that, contrary to the claims of David Graeber and the MMTers, the barter origin of money has not been refuted. The anthropological evidence is consistent with the Mengerian story, and Mises' regression theorem remains the only coherent explanation for money's value. Professor Ganev's Paper, "Has the barter theory of the origins of money been rejected?": Mises.org/HAP519aThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Professor Georgy Ganev joins Bob to explain that, contrary to the claims of David Graeber and the MMTers, the barter origin of money has not been refuted. The anthropological evidence is consistent with the Mengerian story, and Mises' regression theorem remains the only coherent explanation for money's value. Professor Ganev's Paper, "Has the barter theory of the origins of money been rejected?": Mises.org/HAP519aThe 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 takes on the hot-button debate over Federal Reserve “independence” in light of Trump's moves against Fed Governor Lisa Cook. He explains why the Fed has never truly been independent, drawing on the Treasury-Fed Accord of 1951 and the institution's long history of serving political power. Recalling Elizabeth Warren's attacks on Jay Powell to insider trading scandals among Fed officials, Bob exposes the hypocrisy of politicians and media figures who cry about independence only when it suits them. He also highlights how the Fed's structure—unanimous FOMC votes, backroom bailouts, and secrecy over bank rescues—makes it clear the central bank is not a neutral force, but a political engine of inflation and business cycles.A Comprehensive Case for Ending the Fed: Mises.org/HAP516aShould Economists Champion Fed “Independence”?: Mises.org/HAP516bThe 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 takes on the hot-button debate over Federal Reserve “independence” in light of Trump's moves against Fed Governor Lisa Cook. He explains why the Fed has never truly been independent, drawing on the Treasury-Fed Accord of 1951 and the institution's long history of serving political power. Recalling Elizabeth Warren's attacks on Jay Powell to insider trading scandals among Fed officials, Bob exposes the hypocrisy of politicians and media figures who cry about independence only when it suits them. He also highlights how the Fed's structure—unanimous FOMC votes, backroom bailouts, and secrecy over bank rescues—makes it clear the central bank is not a neutral force, but a political engine of inflation and business cycles.A Comprehensive Case for Ending the Fed: Mises.org/HAP516aShould Economists Champion Fed “Independence”?: Mises.org/HAP516bThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Bob is joined by Dr. Peter Klein to take a look at the Mises Institute's new book, Hayek for the 21st Century. The discussion highlights Hayek's insights on tacit knowledge, why markets outperform central planners, the dangers of political power, and how monetary freedom could stop inflation. Along the way, Bob and Peter connect these timeless ideas to today's debates over technology, government control, and economic liberty. The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Bob is joined by Dr. Peter Klein to take a look at the Mises Institute's new book, Hayek for the 21st Century. The discussion highlights Hayek's insights on tacit knowledge, why markets outperform central planners, the dangers of political power, and how monetary freedom could stop inflation. Along the way, Bob and Peter connect these timeless ideas to today's debates over technology, government control, and economic liberty. The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

In his underappreciated work The Mystery of Banking, Murray Rothbard first explained how a regime of "free banking" would put strict limits on the ability of the private commercial banks to reduce their reserve ratios and inflate the money supply. Then Rothbard showed that the textbook operation of a central bank systematically neutralized the market's safeguards, and paved the way for credit expansion by a cartel of privileged private banks.The Mystery of Banking by Murray N. Rothbard: https://mises.org/HAP514a"How Private Banks Can Create Money, But Not Like the Fed Can" (Human Action Podcast): https://mises.org/HAP514bThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century Get your free copy at https://Mises.org/HAPodFree21st Century Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

In his underappreciated work The Mystery of Banking, Murray Rothbard first explained how a regime of "free banking" would put strict limits on the ability of the private commercial banks to reduce their reserve ratios and inflate the money supply. Then Rothbard showed that the textbook operation of a central bank systematically neutralized the market's safeguards, and paved the way for credit expansion by a cartel of privileged private banks.The Mystery of Banking by Murray N. Rothbard: https://mises.org/HAP514a"How Private Banks Can Create Money, But Not Like the Fed Can" (Human Action Podcast): https://mises.org/HAP514bThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century Get your free copy at https://Mises.org/HAPodFree21st Century Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Bob explains the mechanics of modern banking and how liabilities and assets on bank balance sheets differ from popular assumptions. He shows how interest rates and central bank policy shape lending and deposit behavior, and why private companies move money differently than commercial banks. Bob also critiques the perspectives of Richard Werner, Steve Keen, and George Selgin, showing where their explanations align or fall short.Bob's Infineo Article, "A Biz vs. a Bank vs. the Fed": Mises.org/HAP513aThe Charts Used in this Episode: Mises.org/HAP513bThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

Bob explains the mechanics of modern banking and how liabilities and assets on bank balance sheets differ from popular assumptions. He shows how interest rates and central bank policy shape lending and deposit behavior, and why private companies move money differently than commercial banks. Bob also critiques the perspectives of Richard Werner, Steve Keen, and George Selgin, showing where their explanations align or fall short.Bob's Infineo Article, "A Biz vs. a Bank vs. the Fed": Mises.org/HAP513aThe Charts Used in this Episode: Mises.org/HAP513bThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

David Howden reveals how banking, especially fractional reserves and central bank manipulations, creates instability and inflation. He also explains why a 100% reserve system could prevent crises, and why no one on Wall Street wants that to happen.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 21, 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.

Dr. Sandy Klein walks through the origins and essential functions of money, showing how barter's pitfalls led to the spontaneous emergence of money as a medium of exchange. She explains Menger's and Mises's insights into money's evolution, why gold and silver prevailed, and how inflation and counterfeiting distort economies.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 21, 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.

In the latest episode of Minor Issues, Mark Thornton unpacks a deceptively simple question and follows its answer deep into the heart of economic history and theory. Drawing on insights from Hayek, Cantillon, Menger, and even WWII prisoner-of-war camps, Mark explores how money actually emerged—not from the decrees of kings or bureaucrats, but from the spontaneous actions of everyday people solving real problems in a barter economy. Mark challenges the fable of state-created money and confronts the dangerous logic of Modern Monetary Theory. This is not just a history lesson—it's a blueprint for understanding inflation, fiat failure, and the path to sound money.Additional Resources"Who Really Invented Bitcoin?" (Minor Issues, episode 128): https://mises.org/MI_128An Essay on Economic Theory by Richard Cantillon (see Part 1, Chapter 17, "Metals and Money, and especially of Gold and Silver"): https://mises.org/MI_128_ARegister for the 2025 Mises Institute Supporters Summit in Delray Beach, Florida, October 16–18: https://mises.org/ss25Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

Governments have so corrupted money that we forget that sound money, by providing both fungibility and privacy, has been a defense against overreaching governments. While sound money is in the interests of citizens, governments have managed to destroy it.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/privacy-and-fungibility-forgotten-virtues-sound-money

Governments have so corrupted money that we forget that sound money, by providing both fungibility and privacy, has been a defense against overreaching governments. While sound money is in the interests of citizens, governments have managed to destroy it.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/privacy-and-fungibility-forgotten-virtues-sound-money

As US debt soars and foreign central banks stockpile gold, members of Congress introduce a bill to require a comprehensive audit of America's gold reserves.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/members-congress-introduce-comprehensive-us-gold-audit-legislation

As US debt soars and foreign central banks stockpile gold, members of Congress introduce a bill to require a comprehensive audit of America's gold reserves.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/members-congress-introduce-comprehensive-us-gold-audit-legislation

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

Mises Fellow Kristoffer Hansen joins Bob to discuss Mises' perspective on fractional reserve banking and free banking. Earlier this month, Larry White referenced Hansen's work on fractional reserve banking, asserting that Hansen indicated Mises acknowledged the benefits of FRB. Kristoffer clarifies his paper and examines what Mises wrote in Human Action on the topic.Additionally, Bob and Kristoffer delve into the influence of the Currency School on banking and economic instability, as well as how commodity-backed money might impact the business cycle.Kristoffer's Article in the QJAE, "Sound Money without Free Banking": Mises.org/HAP472aKristoffer and Jonathan Newman's Article in the QJAE Clarifying Rothbard's Definition of Inflation: Mises.org/HAP472bHuman Action Podcast Episode 470 on the Debate Over Fractional Reserve Banking: Mises.org/HAP472cThe 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

Murphy lays out the various camps in the debate over FRB. He endorses the view of Joe Salerno, namely that Mises favored "free banking" as the best means for limiting credit expansion and ensuring banks carry high reserve ratios.Bob's Article in the QJAE on Fractional Reserve Banking: Mises.org/HAP470aJoe Salerno, "Ludwig von Mises as Currency School Free Banker": Mises.org/HAP470bThe 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

Dr. Philipp Bagus explains the main ideas from his new book, Full Reserve Banking versus the Real Bills Doctrine, which defends Misesian business cycle theory from a recent critique. Bagus provides an in-depth criticism of the Real Bills Doctrine, emphasizing the importance of real savings in economic stability. He defends full reserve banking and critiques fractional reserve systems for creating money without real economic backing, leading to inflation and business cycles.Full Reserve Banking versus the Real Bills Doctrine: Mises.org/HAP469aBob's Study Guide to The Theory of Money and Credit: Mises.org/HAP469bPhilipp Bagus, "Entrepreneurial Error Does Not Equal Market Failure" Mises.org/HAP469cThe 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