The Human Action Podcast

Updated: 09 Apr 2025 • 291 episodes
mises.org/podcasts/human-action-podcast

The Human Action Podcast features in-depth interviews on current topics in economics through an Austro libertarian lens.

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In this episode, Bob breaks down the Triffin dilemma, explaining why it's wrong to assume that maintaining global reserve currency status requires ever-increasing U.S. trade deficits. He shows that America’s chronic deficits are driven more by government spending and fiat money than by global necessity, making the case

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Jonathan Newman joins Bob to discuss the debate between Austrians and MMTers on the origins of money. In the Anti-MMT panel at the Austrian Economics Research Conference (AERC), Jonathan presented his research on the archeological evidence that silver was used as money in ancient Mesopotamia and how the evidence vindic

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Patrick Newman joins Bob to discuss one of his talks at the Austrian Economics Research Conference (AERC), where he explained that Simon Kuznets–who developed the method of calculating GNP and GDP statistics–had serious doubts about how to include government expenditures.Patrick's Talk at the 2025 AERC: Mises.org/HAP49

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Bob responds to recent tweets that believe trade deficits are a sign of economic strength. He also includes an op-ed from Robert Barro and a clip from Milton Friedman, to show that even big gun economists can often speak in misleading ways when it comes to trade deficits.Bob's Article on Free Traders Defending Deficits

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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/HAP491a The Mises Institut

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Bob first reviews the standard libertarian case for legalizing drugs as the way to neutralize the Mexican drug cartels. Then he plays a recent clip where Dave Smith argues that drug prohibition leads to violence because (among other factors) you can't call the cops if someone steals your product. Bob argues that libert

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