EconTalk with Russ Roberts

[MediumTex]

I would like to mention EcontTalk, a fantastic economics site with a weekly podcast that craig has mentioned in the past and which I think we both enjoy very much.

http://www.econtalk.org/

This week, there is a terrific discussion of Ludwig von Mises.  Harry Browne was a big fan of von Mises, and Mises's ideas influenced the development of the PP concept to a great degree.

The EconTalk archives have so many interesting and insightful interviews, I wouldn't know where to start.  The discussions are always thoughtful and insightful.

For someone who is tired of listening to the hackneyed Keynesianism that permeates the media's coverage of economics, you will find EconTalk to be a breath of fresh air.

[craigr]

It is a good show. Although recently they had a discussion on the gold standard which was horrible. The economist basically blamed the gold standard for the Great Depression and made an assertion that if we had broken the gold standard earlier it wouldn't have happened. He points out other countries that had no gold standard at the time that didn't have as bad of a depression.

At that point I stopped listening because the guy was basically wasting my time.

The fact that he didn't take into account the crippling legislation placed onto the country at the time in the form of price and production controls, attempts at inflation, etc. was puzzling. How can an economist ignore theNational Industrial Recovery Act as having an adverse affect on economic growth? Maybe he was asked about it later, but from the earlier part of the interview the guy was just clueless. Seems the gold standard was the least of our worries.

I think he even had the old saw in there about WWII saving the economy if I remember. Yikes. I'd like to see him set his car on fire to help save GM if he thinks that idea works so well.

[MediumTex]

I am pretty confident that at some point in the future, people will look back on the study of economics in the 20th century and it will be viewed like the early days of medical practice.

In the early days of modern medicine, doctors probably killed more people than they saved (e.g., "Germs?  What's a germ?"), but this was an unfortunate part of the bumbling process of discovering what actually works in any field.

I think that economics is currently in the process of winding up its witch doctor phase (e.g., "Why CAN'T we fix a problem with too much by issuing more debt?").  Against this backdrop, people like Hayek and Mises stand even taller, like a couple of sane people in a loony bin.

Let me put in another plug for Mises's "Human Action" (which is avaiable on-line for free), which exposes the folly of any equilibrium-driven economic analysis, since in the real world any theoretical equilibrium point is constantly changing, as are the degrees to which the actual state of affairs in an economy are oscillating around some dynamic (and largely theoretical) equilibrium.  It's a bit like knowing what the average temperature will be in a region for an entire year (but nothing else), and using that knowledge to determine whether or not to wear warm clothes tomorrow.

Mises was such a strong and nuanced thinker, he made his colleagues (with their fancy math that provided simulations of conditions that existed nowhere except in their minds) look like so many academics dancing around a fire chanting to the gods rhythmically--EQUILIBRIUM...EQUILIBRIUM...EQUILIBRIUM.

[craigr]

The markets may not be perfect all the time, but I have far more faith in it than in economists trying to control things.

[Jan Van]

Thanks for the link! Enjoying the YouTube videos that the site links to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk