Money for Nothing: How Higher Ed Became Scammy

Tim Terrell offers a critical examination of higher education’s economic structure, exploring how federal subsidies, credential inflation, and misaligned incentives have driven rising costs and declining academic rigor. Drawing on Austrian insights, he questions whether universities still serve their educational mission, or have become consumption-driven institutions shaped by bureaucratic interests and distorted signals. Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 24, 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.