Economics and Free Markets: GodArchy Podcast #8

Why should we embrace free-market economics?I’ve had a lot of people tell me we should focus so much on economics. After all, there is more to life than money. We can’t boil down everything to an economic calculation.

And yet these same people vigorously advocate for imposing policies that are fundamentally economic in nature.

Murray Rothbard wrote:

“It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.”

In this episode of the GodArchy podcast, I attempt to cut through some of that economic ignorance. I cover two fundamental economic truths everybody needs to understand, what it actually means to have a “free market” (it’s not what most people imagine), and why every government intervention is ultimately doomed to fail.

Show Notes

• Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics–Henry Hazlitt
• Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Scholar’s Edition–Murray Rothbard
• Human Action: A Treatise on Economics — Ludwig Von Mises
• Contra Krugman: Smashing the Errors of America’s Most Famous Keynesian — Robert Murphy
• Basic Economics — Thomas Sowell
• I, Pencil – Leonard Read
• The Use of Knowledge in Society – Friedrich A. Hayek
• That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Not Seen – Frédéric Bastiat
• The Law–Frédéric Bastiat
• Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse–Tom Woods
• Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination? — Walter Williams