Category: Free Market Voices

Tom Woods: Economics Is About Social Cooperation, Not Money or Greed (31m)

Skyler J. Collins (Editor)

This episode features a lecture by historian and Austro-libertarian Tom Woods from 2015. What is it, fundamentally, that fascinates us about economics? Some people hear economics and think greed. But to the contrary, what fascinates us about economics is the phenomenon of social cooperation, which takes place on a global scale despite the lack of any global authority directing it.

Mike Munger: Fair Trade and Free Trade (58m)

Skyler J. Collins (Editor)

This episode features an interview of economist Mike Munger from 2007 by Russ Roberts, host of EconTalk. Does the premium for fair trade coffee end up in the hands of the grower? What economic forces might stop that from happening? They discuss the business strategy of using higher wages as a marketing strategy to attract concerned consumers. They turn to the issue of free trade agreements. If the ideal situation is open borders to foreign products, is it still worthwhile to negotiate bilateral and multilateral agreements that requires delays, exemptions and a bureaucracy to enforce? What is the cost of including environmental and various labor market regulations in these agreements?

Brink Lindsey: Is Income Inequality a Problem? (52m)

Skyler J. Collins (Editor)

This episode features an interview of academic and juris doctorate Brink Lindsey from 2014 by Trevor Burrus and Aaron Powell, hosts of the Free Thoughts podcast. We know income inequality exists, that some people are very rich and others very poor. And this bothers quite a lot of us. Aren’t we right to be concerned about this? Isn’t there something wrong when some people have access to far more resources than others?

Donald Boudreaux: Cleaned by Capitalism (49m)

Skyler J. Collins (Editor)

This episode features a presentation by economics professor Donald Boudreaux from 2013. Legend has it that capitalism might deliver lots of convenient and wonderful material goods and services, but that one of the costs of these benefits is a more polluted and less agreeable environment. This legend is false. Capitalism is history’s greatest anti-pollutant — in ways that most of us take for granted.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: How to Live in a World We Don’t Understand (1h42m)

Skyler J. Collins (Editor)

This episode features a lecture by author, scholar, and statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb from 2013. He discusses his work on uncertainty, randomness, and disorder outlined in his book: Antifragile. Taleb’s works focuses on decision making under uncertainty, as well as technical and philosophical problems with probability and metaprobability, in other words “what to do in a world we don’t understand”.