Bob talks with Dr. Peter Klein about the recent U.S. operation in Venezuela and the social-media backlash against “international law,” using it as a springboard to clarify what law is, how it can exist without a world government, and why Austrians care about polycentric legal orders.

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Has economics fallen to politics? Court economists like Paul Krugman–we might call them "regime economists"–represent a profession in big trouble. Jeff and Bob discuss.

This week, Bob talks with macroeconomist Roger Farmer—who places himself “between Keynes and Hayek”—about how twentieth-century macroeconomics evolved. They discuss how overlapping generations and search theory change the story on unemployment and asset prices, and where Professor Farmer thinks both neoclassicals and MMT advocates go wrong. Farmer contrasts the old “rocking horse” vision of the economy with his preferred “windy boat” metaphor, where the economy can drift for long periods, and variables like unemployment behave more like random walks than quick returns to a single steady state.

Related:

• Professor Farmer's Article, "How New Keynesian Economics Betrays Keynes": Mises.org/HAP532a

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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.

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Bob uses clips from his recent interview with Eric Weinstein to explain why Weinstein thinks gauge theory can fix how economists measure the cost of living, unify competing price indices, and handle changing preferences over time, and why Austrians shouldn’t dismiss him as a crank. He summarizes Eric’s claim that standard mathematical economics relies on the simplest kind of derivative, explaining how much of modern economic modeling is using the wrong math.

Related:

• Bob's Interview with Eric Weinstein on the InFi Podcast: Mises.org/HAP530a

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This week, Bob walks through two related debates: Hoppe’s criticism of Argentina's President Milei for not immediately closing Argentina’s central bank, and the follow-up exchange between Guido Hülsmann and Philipp Bagus on Mises.org over dollarization and the peso. Along the way, he reviews Mises’s distinctions among commodity, credit, and fiat money, the concepts of money substitutes and fiduciary media, and the interesting structure of Argentina’s short-term central bank debt

• Guido Hülsmann and Philipp Bagus' Debate on Mises.org: Mises.org/HAP529a
• The Human Action Podcast Episode with Nicolás Cachanosky: Mises.org/HAP529b
• Bob's Study Guide to The Theory of Money and Credit: Mises.org/HAP529c

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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/HAP528a
• Bob's Talk, "Contrasting Views of the Great Depression": Mises.org/HAP528b
• The WIRED Video, "Economics Professor Answers Great Depression Questions": Mises.org/HAP528c

The 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/HAP527a
• Bob's Dissertation, "Unanticipated Intertemporal Change in Theories of Interest": Mises.org/HAP527b

The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree