Ep. 276 Even Milton Friedman Slipped in His Defense of Trade Deficits
Bob uses the illustrious Milton Friedman to demonstrate a depressing tendency among economists to overreact in their zeal to defend trade deficits, where they end up arguing that it’s necessarily beneficial to live beyond one’s means. Although this could be true in certain cases, it’s not true in general. Bob then explains that the original mercantilists…
Ep. 8 David R. Henderson on Working in the Reagan Administration, Krugman’s Inflation Memo, and Publicly Challenging the Secretary of Defense
Economist David R. Henderson underwent a personal odyssey in his discovery of free-market economics. David tells Bob the story of his recruitment by Harold Demsetz, and how David ended up at UCLA during its glory days. The conversation turns to David’s time on the Council of Economic Advisors to Ronald Reagan, as well as David’s…
Ep. 6 Steve Landsburg on Learning Economics From Friedman and Stigler
Steve Landsburg went to Chicago to do his graduate work in mathematics but was intrigued by the economics taught by Milton Friedman, George Stigler, Gary Becker, and other luminaries. We discuss the essence of Chicago price theory, the time when Steve was picketed by campus feminists, how Steve can climb aerial silks like Batman (while…