Ep. 119 Guido Hulsmann Protests the Lockdown in France, and Discusses His Mises Biography and Novel Theory of Interest
Guido Hulsmann is a Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute and professor of economics at the University of Angers in France. He first discusses his article protesting the covid-19 lockdown in France. The conversation then turns to Guido’s biography of Ludwig von Mises. The final segment of the episode is devoted to Guido’s novel theory of interest, which rejects the standard pure time preference theory.
Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:
- The YouTube version of this interview.
- Guido Hulsmann’s CV.
- Guido’s essay, “A Protest from France.”
- Guido’s 2002 QJAE article, “A Theory of Interest.”
- Guido’s biography of Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism.
- The time Batman saved the Mises files from the Nazis (really).
- Bob’s 3-part series on interest theory in the Austrian tradition.
- Sample issues of the Lara-Murphy Report.
- Help support the Bob Murphy Show.
The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.
About the author, Robert
Christian and economist, Chief Economist at infineo, and Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute.
Has the community of Austrian economists responded to you or Hulsmann for either the critiques of the time preference or separately the competing theories?
I have wondered what is to prevent the Mises Institute from ossifying and becoming equivalent to the Ayn Rand Institute?
I know Jeff Herbener defended the orthodox theory in this lecture, but I can’t remember if he spends a lot of time on Guido or me. I would have to re-watch it.
What a treat to hear two of the brightest economists in our movement both critique the movement’s founders and (implicitly, based on Bob’s final question) argue cogently and civilly against each other!
I thought that Guido’s means/end explanation was brilliant until Bob’s question about duration. I wonder, could Guido’s explanation hold if we say that increased duration brings increased uncertainty, which then widens the means/end gap?
Here is a piece of useless trivia: I met Mr Huelsmann once and he must be at least 2 meters tall. I said it was useless!! 🙂
You are not right. I can prove it.