An article at AlterNet called “11 Questions You Should Ask Libertarians to See If They’re Hypocrites” is just crying out to be discussed and demolished on the Tom Woods Show. Today is your lucky day. Article Discussed “ 11 Questions You Should Ask Libertarians to See If They’re Hypocrites ,” by RJ Eskow Book Mentioned 33 Questions You’re Not Supposed to Ask ,… Read More
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Ep. 1347 Hooray for Billionaires
“The rich” are one of the few groups we’re supposed to hate. Unfortunately, among the so-called rich we have vanishingly few people capable of launching a full-throated defense of themselves against ignorant criticisms. Most are pathetically apologetic, desperately hoping to be loved. Boo. Stand up… Read More
Ep. 1346 Libertarianism vs. Postmodernism and “Social Justice” Ideology
Professor Michael Rectenwald, the former Marxist who will deliver the Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture at the Mises Institute’s Austrian Economics Research Conference this year, returns for a sneak preview of what he plans to say there about postmodernism, authoritarianism, and “social justice.” We also… Read More
Ep. 1345 The Making of Michael Malice, #1 Tom Woods Show Guest
Both times I’ve surveyed my listeners, Michael Malice has been chosen as their favorite guest on the Tom Woods Show. Here I try to uncover what makes him tick. That takes us back to his birth in the Soviet Union, his move to the United… Read More
Ep. 1344 More Unknown History: People Weren’t Always Clueless About the Boom-Bust Cycle
When you read old — and I mean old, like nineteenth century old — American writers on money and banking, something jumps out at you: they understood things with a surprising clarity, and had a proto-Austrian conception of why the economy experienced boom-bust cycles. Suddenly… Read More
Ep. 1343 From Blackstone to Marxism: The Strange Journey of American Legal Thought
Stephen Presser and I go from William Blackstone, whose Commentaries on the Laws of England played such a central role in influencing early American ideas about the law, all the way to the Marxist-inspired Critical Legal Studies movement, the feminist legal critique, and back again… Read More
Ep. 1342 Money, Morality, and the Crisis of 2008
How many times has this crisis been chalked up to “greed”? As if people hadn’t been greedy three weeks earlier. It’s time our amateur moralizers learned a little something, and that’s the purpose of this episode. My thanks to the Acton Institute, where I delivered… Read More
Ep. 1341 Young Americans for Liberty: A Dissenting Voice Amidst the Groupthink
Cliff Maloney, president of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) — an organization I have enthusiastically supported for over ten years — joins me to discuss their strategy for the campuses and society at large. YAL developed out of Students for Ron Paul, and are on… Read More
Ep. 1340 Conservatives and Libertarians: Natural Allies?
Ben Lewis and I go back into conservative/libertarian history to discuss the work of Frank Meyer, who thought the conservative and libertarian positions were not so difficult to reconcile. Conservative stalwart Russell Kirk wasn’t buying it, and the two feuded vigorously. Murray Rothbard, too, weighed… Read More
Ep. 1339 The Wrong Way to Argue for the Free Market
Friends and foes of the market alike refer to capitalism as a system of “competition.” Is that really its characteristic feature, and is that what distinguishes it from other systems? This is actually a misunderstanding, and one that probably turns plenty of people off to… Read More