Calculation and Knowledge

A socialist management would be like a man forced to spend his life blindfolded.

Bob has Steve Patterson back on the show, to concede that Steve’s skepticism of higher mathematics was right all along.

Left-wing intellectuals such as Polanyi are always weeping about the "Coca-Colaization" of the rest of the world, bemoaning the supposedly lost glories of "folk culture" in the undeveloped countries, writes Rothbard.

Trade-offs are made necessary by scarcity. Individuals must choose between the alternatives forced upon them by reality. A refusal to acknowledge this leads to big problems.  

Demonstrated preference has everything to do with the choices an economic actor faces in a given moment, not all the conceivable options.

Acton says the muse of the historian is Rhadamanthus, the avenger of innocent blood: "The historian must be a judge, and a hanging judge at that, to right the wrongs of history."

Bob reviews Mark Spitznagel's latest book, Safe Haven: Investing for Financial Storms, on which he was a consultant.

Robert Murphy joins the show for a fascinating look at Mark Spitznagel's new book Safe Haven. If you're interested in the intersection of investing and Austrian economics, don't miss this episode!

Creating a functioning and sustainable local economy is much more time consuming and complicated than sprucing up a few buildings to look good on a TV show.

The Soviet Union in 1991 was dissolved. Murray Rothbard explains how socialism and central planning led to the economic collapse.