Is Speculating a Good Thing?

April 27th 2022.

Without government who would build the roads? Should prostitution, speculating and price gouging be outlawed? In this episode Saifedean discusses these questions with eminent Austrian School economist Dr Walter Block. They cover fundamental issues in economics such as whether there is such a thing as a “public good”, whether economics is an empirical science, and whether it is ethical to outlaw “victimless crimes”. Dr Block also shares the story of he became a libertarian and Austrian economist, including the roles played by Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard in his intellectual journey.

Resources

• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
• Dr Block’s paper “The Minimum Wage Once Again” debunking a well-known 1994 study by Card and Krueger.
• Mises Institute article “The Phillips Curve Myth” on the relationship between inflation and unemployment
• Dr Block’s book The Privatization of Roads and Highways
• Dr Block’s book Defending the Undefendable
• Principle of non-aggression explained on Mises Wiki
• List of Walter Block’s publications online
• Dr Block’s book Water Capitalism (2015)
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard