For lots of people the stock market seems hopelessly complicated, and people who discuss it seem to employ a strange lingo outsiders can never master. So today we answered a bunch of questions submitted by my Supporting Listeners . Guests today: Gene Epstein, formerly of Barron’s and… Read More
Ep. 1282 DEBATE: Should Israel Give Up Territory?
Elliot Resnick and Gene Epstein debate the resolution: “Israel should keep every inch of land it currently possesses.” About the Debaters Elliot Resnick, arguing in the affirmative, is chief editor of The Jewish Press . Gene Epstein, arguing in the negative, is former economics editor of Barron’s and director of… Read More
Ep. 1272 Gene Epstein on How to Debate a Socialist
Fresh off his Soho Forum debate victory (as measured by Oxford-style rules) against Jacobin magazine editor Bhaskar Sunkara, Gene Epstein joins me for a review of the event and the arguments that gave his opponent so much difficulty. Sponsor Skillshare is an online learning community with over… Read More
Ep. 1249 Continually Mistaken, Chronically Admired: The Strange Case of an Establishment Economist
Joseph Stiglitz is something of a celebrity economist, yet he’s been grotesquely wrong both economically and morally so often. His case tells us a lot about the American establishment if he is the kind of person they hold up for our admiration. Gene Epstein joins… Read More
Ep. 1232 Are Workers Getting Shafted?
We hear on a regular basis that workers, whether because of free trade, or capitalism generally, or whatever other institution or trend, are getting the short end of the stick. An ever-smaller share of national income is making its way into workers’ pockets. But is… Read More
Ep. 1188 Just When You Thought We’d Smashed the Schools Good, Along Comes Gene Epstein
Gene Epstein joins me to make if anything an even more radical case against the existing education system than Bryan Caplan does in the latter’s recent book The Case Against Education. Whatever “but surely you agree we have to have X!” arguments you’ve heard, Gene anticipates… Read More
Ep. 1131 DEBATE EPISODE: Trump’s Tariffs, Pro and Con
With tariffs in the news and stirring up debate, I thought a Tom Woods Show debate on the subject would be enlightening for everyone. Dan McCarthy, editor of the venerable conservative journal Modern Age and editor-at-large of The American Conservative, and Gene Epstein, formerly of Barron’s, square off in… Read More
Ep. 1089 Noam Chomsky: The Good and the Bad
Gene Epstein, formerly of Barron’s, joins me to discuss the work of Noam Chomsky, whose views in some areas are so well formed, and in others are simplistic and disappointing. Chomsky is one of the people who Gene says led him to libertarianism, so this is… Read More
Ep. 1063 Nat Turner’s Rebellion: Why a Historical Novel Was So Controversial
Gene Epstein returns on the 50th anniversary of William Styron’s historical novel The Confessions of Nat Turner, the slave who led a famous revolt in Virginia. Since Styron was a white southerner who wrote a Nat Turner novel in the first person, you can imagine… Read More
Ep. 1021 The Nobel Prize and Behavioral Economics: Anything Here for Austrians?
Gene Epstein of Barron’s joins me to discuss Richard Thaler, this year’s recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics, who has helped to popularize “behavioral economics,” and how to deal with situations in which people behave “irrationally” (that is, unlike the way neoclassical economics expects… Read More
