The Attractiveness of Austrian Economics | Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

[@frederickmorris2216]

I love Tom because his voice is clear and easy to hear and has a way to keep your attention apart from a very important lecture..

[@BV-jq2vg]

I went to a private christian k-12 school and we were required to take personal finances classes, thank God. It was Dave Ramsey online courses. They were probably good enough to give us a leg up but starting with people like Milton Friedman or Tom Woods would’ve been a much better foundation. Glad I found these videos 10 years later.

[@TheSkoaler10]

This was such a great talk. I keep watching over and over. The last ten minutes is the best.

[@88spammer]

I love Tom Woods, you are my Hero!

[@PKent]

The mises university is like the jedi school on yavin 4. Without it the sith would rule the galaxy.

[@JD-os2kr]

I really like Tom's style. Great speaker. His passion for liberty and his own output are amazing. I know he's giving much love to Rothbard...but sheesh, Woods is no slouch. That guy works and works and works.

[@BobWidlefish]

*@J D* I love Tom too, though he probably “only” has an IQ of 150-160 or so. :) Rothbard was further to the right on that bell curve in *very* rarified territory. I think we only get one or two people at that level per century. Tom (and virtually everyone who had the chance to study his works and meet him) seems to agree Rothbard was the smartest of the all the smart people, a true polymath, a high-order genius that was also approachable and funny. In terms of output, Rothbard is tough to beat - he’s still produced after his death.

[@andrewaccount954]

Gotta work for those smackers

[@leavesofdecember]

Thom Woods just has to be the happiest man alive! I mean, just look at him !! So by all means, if the austrian school beings people to pause for just even one second and appreciate life itself a bit more, I'm all in !

[@Jeronimus8090]

5:51 i love that,that a great economist and a great thinker quote often the works not only from a lot of economist but literature writers

[@rwoz]

You never want to miss a speech from Tom Woods!

[@alexp-ru]

Who are the 17 idiots who thumbed down the video? The guy is bang on

[@Sigridovski]

Oh that is easy to know! Now it is 27 out of 577 which is 2,7% which is close to the percentage which are the biggest idiots this planet has to offer. They suppress people in their environment. 2,5% of all peoples are the worst ones. You can see all about it here: www.scientology.tv/series/l-ron-hubbard-library-presents/the-anti-social-personality-the-social-personality.html With the right data; they are relatively easy to discover.

[@boringname3657]

@@Sigridovski Why did you link me Austrian economics institute?

[@Sigridovski]

@@boringname3657 I don't remember from where or why, but it is a good thing I like to show to others.

[@JNJ1014]

Tom Woods is an intellectual giant and inspiring when he talks about the courage and conviction of Rothbard and Mises.

[@MRando250]

Sitting around every evening this week having a cigar and catching up on the MisesU lectures from the day.....could not ask for more. Thank you LvMI!!

[@imonlyamanandiwilldiesomed4406]

[@rodneyabrett]

Beautiful lecture, Mr. Woods.

[@JadeSune]

Being a Catholic, I completely agree with the Austrian school of economics, and acknowledge it for the science that it is, it's theories are sound and its causalities are undisputed. I perceive the connection between my faith and this economic science as strong, having read numerous essays by the Austrians and numerous encyclicals by the Popes, I have yet to find a time when they seem to be at odds, and I am thankful for His gift of this great science.

[@BobWidlefish]

6:16 the connection between Austrian economics and radical libertarianism is probably in large part their shared correlation with high systematizers.

[@johnmoonitz2968]

Tom Woods Rocks!!!

[@annalyon8443]

I first met Ron Paul (& joyful Murray Rothbard, et al.) at my first Mises seminar on the Federal Reserve on Jekyll Island in the early 1990s. It changed how I saw economics and prepared me for taking Neoclassical economics at the Bryan School of Economics at UNC-G. Only a business major, a chemist and myself (minoring in economics) were aware of the contradictions and fallacies in the NeoC. system. I kept finding errors of fact throughout the text and its workbook...at 1 of the better schools!

[@trivas7]

One of Tom's greatest talks; his enthusiasm for the subject is contagious.

[@KowBoySpace]

Seems to me the guy with the bullhorn is exactly like the guys who introduce control to a food chain. Nature over millions of years developed this complex web which works perfectly. Too many Buffalo means the lion population increases and the buffalo are kept at the correct level. Allowing the grass the be maintained and so on and so forth. Yet our guys with bull horns think, "What Australia really needs is X animal to combat the Y animal we accidentally introduced". Then we find, after introducing more and more random plants and animals to combat each other, the long term effect is everything gets worse till eventually you literally have plagues or extinction. When in fact the system itself, despite all its complexity, didnt need a bull horn guy to interfere and just works.

[@LarsGAndersson]

Thnx! I wish your scholar in austrian economics at liberty classroom could talk like you, so I could follow the lectures instead of falling asleep!

[@helpendthefed]

Woods is just phenomenal.

[@emt9103]

Very good argument against Marx's labour theory of value. 28:29 "The labor theory of value has undergone some rough times over the years. So, there are some Marxists who claim that even though we don't believe the labor theory of value anymore, it doesn't destroy Marxism. But, if you don't have the labor theory of value, you don't have surplus value, don't have exploitation and therefore you don't have any proletarian revolution. So it's kind of hamlet without the Prince, if you ask me for Marxism without the labor theory."

[@delinx04]

Spot on.

[@connorism69]

This bloke is infectious; I could listen to him for a year straight :D.

[@ExcuseMeRuGrumpy]

Thank you mises institute.

[@edwardpf123]

Great speech! 'Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal and every mouth which hath not kissed him' (1Ki.19:18)

[@LynnMargaret-np1um]

Dr Ron Paul too was a fan of Austrian economics! Gold standard

[@AnarchistMetalhead]

jeffrey tucker is the personification of iPencil admiration

[@4clearsky]

That's just one time deal like I mentioned at the time of the IPO, that's it. Very few stocks are traded at any given time that originate from companies going public, the vast majority of stocks are resales where no money flows back to actual company. The way that most companies raise capital after going public is by issuing bonds to secure loans and that's not the stock but the bond market. So stock market going up really does not bring any additional funds to publicly traded companies.

[@4clearsky]

"Banks hold gold as a form of reveres" Reserves in case fiat goes to zero. A powerful endorsement of golds ability to store value.

[@sleepyfish]

the average person does not think there needs to be "someone in charge to get things done"... they think they need "someone in charge to keep a check on power when there is competition"

[@georgesaxman1461]

Maybe so. But not forever. Ideas like the Mises Inst. publishes may well be a huge catalyst for a great rebirth of freedom. I hope so.

[@stackinglittlesats]

Tom is amazing.

[@ymkamara420]

Usually when I talk to Austrians about inflation they always say "if we keep printing money we will end up like zimbabwe" That is kinda what you are doing here " Zimbabwe has both taxes and fiat and yet no value." Again this my statement applies to economies like America's. Not countries that use foreign reserves to import food after destroying their own food supply or not countries that only use 18.9% of their industrial capacity. Taxes are only as value as the people that pay them

[@baergy]

It works everyday, everywhere, in spite of whatever system is in place ! ! !

[@MRSketch09]

The opening statement of the video.. or near opening "What makes this so exciting" Fewthings.. One its the truth, and its like a breath of fresh air. Two it gives us hope. Three, Mr. Thomas woods makes it entertaining.. Also theirs that other guy with the glasses, who's about the same age that makes it exciting as well. My memory is not the best though so I can't recall his name. Ugh..

[@4clearsky]

1. The goal of production is to lower consumer prices. If productivity increase-prices naturally decrease-benefiting consumers trough higher purchasing power-but inflation prevents this natural fall in prices robbing consumers from higher living standard. Production is a virtue-inflation is a swindle. 2. Don't add or subtract from the money supply-leave it alone! It's a unit of measure and needs to be stable. One foot is 12" we don't add 1" to a foot every year to improve on the tape measure.

[@4clearsky]

"You act as if deflation is a good thing" Every inflationary boom is followed by a deflationary bust. Its painful but necessary for purging the system of misallocated resources. Governments panic and fight with more inflation. Then a short term recession becomes prolonged depression or worse-currency destruction. In 1929 if you had a job, lower prices were helping you, now you don't get that benefit. But If deflation is simply due to higher productivity it improves the living standard for all.

[@4clearsky]

What we are talking about is what gives fiat value. It's the confidence that we can exchanged it for something of value. Currency debasement has been a favorite method of financing government spending (particularly wars) for centuries and a common if not the only reason for fiat distraction. How much can Fed inflate before we are in trouble? Could the money supply be expanded indefinitely with no adverse effect on the confidence? Do you really find this question unreasonable?

[@4clearsky]

"we just looked at two charts both M1 and MB. Both went up... we have a low inflation rate." That's right, the prices would have gone down not up if the money supply was not inflated. This is the whole idea of Ben, to prevent deflation-and its the easiest thing to do-just print like crazy. But we had no increase in production so no wealth has been created only an illusion of wealth through price increase. Meanwhile the real wages have gone down.

[@repkechr]

Keep searching. Those of us with open minds, and the capacity for reasoned thought will keep finding each other. Dr. Paul is a good start, then find rothbard, mises, schiff, berwick, woods, hayek, GATA, etc etc. Your mind will be blown, and your finances and maybe your life will be saved. Best of luck in the coming years, we all will need it.

[@ScarletWitchJakarta]

I feel inspired by this. I think I'm going to go write a cutting edge tweet for the ages.

[@4clearsky]

Chickens have come home to roost. If inflation, fiat, budget deficits, wars, government spending, consumption, diminished savings... were beneficial for the economy as prescribed by Keynesians-why are we not booming instead of contraction today?

[@gregbalteff1529]

Thomas great video

[@4clearsky]

Taxing simply transfers the money from private to public sector whereas Gov. spending returns it back from public to private and so on. No change in mo. supply takes place whereas when FED prints, it expends the monetary base. The Fed-not the IRS-controls the monetary base. FRN are FEDs liabilities. To contract the FED has to sell the assets it purchased (Bonds, mortgages...) in order to take back the FRNs out of circulation. That's the way it is. Does it make sense now?

[@nickb3968]

Great speech.

[@Sigridovski]

These differences are incredibly interesting. He is SO good here. Naturally; mainstream economics is a hoax in bed with politics and law. What we have now, I thought, is basically mercantilism slanted - the same method used as in the middle ages to line the pockets of the super rich. So Austrian economics he sais here is based on natural laws such as axioms and mainstream economics is based on arbitraries and rules and hidden influences, not by that which every man can see, measure and evaluate so he becomes its victim as he can do nothing about it. In a free environment, a man can do something to change conditions, can be allowed to think and not walk around like a robot.

[@4clearsky]

It does not matter who you tax. Taxation has no effect on inflation. When government spends tax revenues as you say: "on schools, roads, hospitals, healthcare, advanced rail systems,college education, you know things that create wealth for any nation" the money remains in circulation. There is no net decrease in the money supply regardless of whether the public or the private sector spent the money and regardless of the source of tax revenue.

[@jekaterinaliachovic7262]

How can i become austriana academic, researcher or any sort of career related to economics without the state bachelor?

[@ExoticCapital]

Amazing.

[@4clearsky]

2/2 "The dollars the Fed pays for the bonds increase the number of dollars in the economy. Some of these new dollars are held as currency, and some are deposited in banks. Each new dollar held as currency increases the money supply by exactly $1. Each new dollar deposited in a bank increases the money supply by more than a dollar because it increases reserves and, thereby, the amount of money that the banking system can create" -Principles of Economics, N. Gregory Mankiw

[@bluedog562]

Inspiring!

[@ACiotti3]

How to choose where to put a plant, there are lots of ways to decide that. Like he said, right next door might be a great option. Or closer to the mine might be a better choice, look at the logistics of the situation and how it plays into the big picture. Money is not needed to do that. Doctors and physicists do not decide how to build or treat things based off of currency, they look at the logistics of the situation and respond accordingly.

[@utahcountyrealestate5097]

Yes, I am a doctor, and we do consider financial costs in treatment, mainly because patients do. "look at the logistics of the situation" obviously is hugely financial. Run a business and tell me finances don't play into decisions.

[@ACiotti3]

I've been a medical tech for over 20 years, and thank you for confirming that finances get in the way of you practicing good medicine. When coming up with your treatment plan, what you know would be best for the patient, you do not consider finances. Then, depending on what the patient can afford, you have to start cutting out recommended procedures. So when looking at the logistics of the injury or disease, you really don't look to the finances first, you look at was the logistics say are medical necessity.

[@CJFRANKS7]

This was awesome!

[@4clearsky]

"Only in the Austrian world. If you look any where else it is "The rate at which...blahblahblah..." we were not even talking about the inflation RATE. We were talking about the definition of INFLATION. Two different things.

[@PoliticalWeekly]

what did michio kaku do wrong?

[@4clearsky]

"money has largely gone to stocks which has helped inflate the stock" and this is the danger in trying to cure the economy of recession with the QE's-you can put the money into the system by you can not control where it is going to surface. In trying to stimulate consumer demand FED ends up inflating asset prices, and that does not create jobs or help the poor and the middle class but the rich and politically connected.

[@4clearsky]

"But Gold itself is good for a lot of things like jewelry or speculation" And wich one of the two reasons you suggest central banks accumulate gold for?

[@Vogner938]

I became a Libitarian only after learning about & studying the Austrian School. All Taxes are Theft!

[@ymkamara420]

"Could the money supply be expanded indefinitely with no adverse effect on the confidence?" Yes. Because we can use the tax system to control for inflation. If the fed prints to much money and we start to see a general raise in prices, we simply raise taxes to get money out of the money supply. And we don't have to spend this money on wars. It can go to schools, roads, hospitals, healthcare, advanced rail systems,college education, you know things that create wealth for any nation.

[@4clearsky]

"And fiat currency does have value. If it didn't the people that sell you gold would not accept them." When gold sellers no longer accept fiat it will mean that fiat no longer has value.

[@4clearsky]

Yes, I was talking about Debt to GDP, I stand corrected. Are you capable of debating without juvenile incendiary innuendos?

[@DH1986]

@ 123yocheckit I pointed that out the other day and got yelled at. We started school with the pledge of allegiance. We walked single file to lunch at exactly 12:00 and were back in our chairs at 12:20. You speak when spoken to. In middle school they took away our backpacks in fear of repeating Columbine.

[@4clearsky]

It's like asking: "Name one place where gravity has ever worked" Why don't you name one place where Austrian Economics does not work other than in the Keynesian fantasy world.

[@TheHerrUlf]

Another weak point: he concedes to the socialists that the worker is the primary producer (but tries to save this with Bohm-Bawerk's time-preference). This is fundamentally wrong: the businessmen and capitalists are the primary producers. The workers help. Nothing more. Nothing less. Once again: read George Reisman and Northrop Buechner.

[@ymkamara420]

Banks hold gold as a form of reveres. "inflation ≠ rise in prices" Only in the Austrian world. If you look any where else it is "The rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising, and, subsequently, purchasing power is falling." The gold sellers are using that definition. That why they are always saying "the dollar is going to collapse or go to zero"

[@4clearsky]

Good examples of how Keynesianism leads to diminution of wealth. US- form the biggest creditor to the biggest debtor, 98% loss of $ p.power, 6 years still in recession... Japan-2 decades later still in recession, massive debt with no end is sight and now inflation. Germany, Sweden, Norway-much less Keynesian hence in better shape. Sweden-benefeted from 100 year no war (Lord Keynes like wars) All in all the effect of Keynesian policies on these economies are in line with Austrian economic theory.

[@ymkamara420]

" It's interesting that you have..... gold dealers" I did that because some gold dealers claiming hyperinflation is going to happen any day now but they are still saying their gold for dollars. Dude if you knew the dollar was going to drop to zero would you sell any assets for it? When I said "gold" is primitive I meant the act of linking your currency is primitive. (I.E the gold standard) But Gold itself is good for a lot of things like jewelry or speculation

[@ymkamara420]

'but inflation prevents this natural fall in prices robbing consumers from higher living standard" But dude we just looked at two charts both M1 and MB. Both went up (MB a lot more than M1) and we have a low inflation rate. So no adding money to the money supply does not rob consumers. In times of depression and recession it is needed for government to spend more than they take into to increase AG. Also this would require no taxes and no one would hold paper if it was not for taxes.

[@4clearsky]

Imagine the situation where government tells angry families unable to afford food and medicine: your tax bill is doubling but it's all for a noble cause-in a year or so the money stock will contract, prices will go down and you will be able to feed your family again! I think it's a great prescription for another tax revolution. Let's get real, the government would impose price controls and cause shortages like they always do, historically, and not dare increase taxes.

[@4clearsky]

"If you bought stocks in 2009 you should be very grateful to Ben.B" The thing to keep in mind here is that inflation caused market rise is not the same as one caused by increased productivity. We can raise stock market to any hight using inflation but we don't create wealth. We hurt middle class and poor as inflation is a regressive tax that transfers purchasing power from poor to wealthy who get the freshly printed money first, buying at discounts while poor get it later when prices have risen.

[@AnacreonSchoolbagsJr]

Austrian economics has the same voodooic appeal of socialism. The notion that rhetorical statements can be made a-priori or from simplistic "principles" is very, very appealing to uncomplex people. You can't derive a statement of moral standing or moral prudence from an analysis of peoples' desires.

[@suckmysilencer747]

Austrian Economics. Economics for political hacks that don't like maths.

[@4clearsky]

Paying debts does not remove money from the economy, why should it? It does remove it form government liabilities. Destruction does not happen by design so it's only hypothetical.

[@educosta21]

A good video still lives longer than a tweet! I'm new to this, but as a tax lawyer I fell that AE has a lot to contribute to tax policy making. Here in Brazil, for instance, there's a move to transfer central government responsabilities to the municipalities, which would be able to set its VAT rate. There's a positive quasi secessionist quality to that. Another subject are the Lafer curves of tax burden, which deserve some AE criticism. Well lots of things to do while we can't throw away all this state nonsense.

[@georgesaxman1461]

No oppressor can last a century anymore. Not with internet. Not with people in the middle-east FINALLY starting to wake up. Not with asia embracing free markets. Even africans are starting to seek a better way. We may be on the verge of global freedom! Work for it. Be part of it. What else is there to do?

[@4clearsky]

You forgot a little period called the Industrial Revolution.

[@4clearsky]

"Because most of the money made by QE is sitting in the bank and has not entered M1." Really? I don't know if it's in M1, M2 or M3 but its in the MB. How do you know it has not entered economy? What about FEDs mortgages and treasuries purchase @ $85 billion a month, that's in the economy, no?

[@4clearsky]

Go ahead.

[@Bosniake]

Do u know the Phrase "keynsian endpoint"? Look at greece. Keysnian economics at it best. By the way: The German economic after ww2 was built on austrian economics. Google "Wilhelm Röpke". And germany is the economic powerhouse thank to austrian economics. More humility to Austrian Economics and u will also become a jedi

[@ymkamara420]

"you can put the money into the system by you can not control where it is going to surface" Actually you can. If congress would pass a stimulus bill that invested in.roads, hospitals, infrastructure, schools, education, (you know the things that help give the middle class well paying jobs) and cut taxes on the middle class, most of the would end up in M1 seeing as the lower classes spend most of their income.

[@ACiotti3]

Also, his example of people being told what to do, as opposed to saying where resources need to go is sheer idiocy. In an RBE, people would gravitate towards the jobs that interested them or they had the skills for. It is only the inanimate objects that would be directed. People might be asked to do jobs they had the skill set for even if they didn't have an interest, because that area needed help / it was short handed, etc.

[@4clearsky]

Can you tell me when did I ever compare us to Zimbabwe?? Number 2, are you saying that Mugabe did not inflate money supply which lead to raising prices, instead prices rose due to what? the decrease in production? 3. Inflation=taxation I am using traditional not "new$improved" definition. So if you will finance gov. spending by inflation and not taxation, sorry it's the same thing just worse because the populous has no say whereas they can oppose taxing.

[@richardmcdaniel737]

yeah for austrian economics

[@4clearsky]

If you maintain that wars are good for economy than you should be able to refute Frederic Bastiat's Broken Window Fallacy.

[@4clearsky]

The cheques are deposited and M1 increases, right? Checks are I believe part of M1. But regardless, this money goes into economy and is inflationary. Government borrows from FED who prints, checks go to pay for government spending and bingo inflation enters. Thats the mechanism, a trail of freshly printed money from FED to government to consumer bank account where it acts to increase the demand.

[@ymkamara420]

"a trail of freshly printed money from FED to government to consumer bank account where it acts to increase the demand." That is only if the consumer banks put the money back in M1 which we both know they have not. :( . Inflation would not be a people for poor people if the that was printed actually reached their hands.

[@ymkamara420]

Name one place Austrian economics has ever worked in the real world

[@ymkamara420]

"why don't banks hold reserves in fiat instead" Banks do hold fiat smart guy. The central bank can literally create as much fiat as it wants. The fact that we still hold gold as reverse is simply a relic from the gold standard as both Keynes and Ben Bernanke said. Hell the fact that we still tax to spend is a relic from the gold standard.

[@4clearsky]

There is a difference between the government infrastructure spending and QE's. QE's is a FED program, nothing to do with government spending. When FED use QE's to remedy recession unintended consequence is asset price inflation. When gov. spends money on infrastructure we have other problems not related to QE's. For one thing the US treasury is broke so it would have to widen the budget deficit adding to already huge public debt (currently at $150,000 per taxpayer!!!)

[@4clearsky]

inflation ≠ rise in prices It's a common mistake to use the word "inflation" and "rising prices" interchangeably as if they mean the same thing. They don't. Inflation is expansion of the money supply. Inflation can cause the rise in general prices-but does not have to, therefore inflation can not be the same as the rase in general prices. One is the cause the other one is the effect. Unfortunately in recent years this sloppy usage has been included in dictionaries adding to confusion.

[@ymkamara420]

"I understand is that government taxation does not "remove" money from the economy. It goes to pay for federal budgets, i.e. someone else's income" But for it to become someone's income the government would have to spend it again (i.e put it back into the economy). "through taxation are literal destruction and also paying down debts." Bingo. This way the money can not reenter the economy.

[@4clearsky]

Come on now, you forgot our biggest export item - inflation!

[@4clearsky]

If you turn to the American College Dictionary 1964, for example, you will find the first definition of inflation given as follows: "Undue expansion or increase of the currency of a country, especially by the issuing of paper money not redeemable in specie." or read Irvin Fisher, THE THEORY OF INTEREST page 9&142 "Inflation during and since the war caused prices to soar.." "the process of inflation boosts both prices and interest" but if you'd rather be confused be my guest.

[@4clearsky]

You mean money is still there just not in M1? So it would be in currency, bank reserves, M2, M3, M4... Well that would be interesting . I guess the velocity would be reduced since M1 is the most liquid and used for payments. But since money is still there it can be transferred to M1 when needed you could still buy things but it might take you a few days longer so banking would be less efficient. Anyway that's not the case as M1 has expended considerably since 2008.

[@fiveredpears]

Economists produce political ideologies not scientific theories. If economics was a science then disagreements between economists would be settled scientifically. This applies equally to Austrians and Marxists.

[@ymkamara420]

Yes Northern Virginia got rich dude to the stimulus that came from the war spending correct. But they did not tax most of it from other states to pay for it. They simply printed it. (why do you think the debt which is dominated in dollars went up dramatically) The debt is simply an account of how many dollars our federal government has printed and we both know you can not tax something if it doesn't exist.

[@kazmynjohannes5163]

10 years later and the dictionaries have indeed begun to dictate new definitions.

[@4clearsky]

"Correct but the money has largely gone to stocks which has helped inflate the stock market and has helped companies hire more low wage workers." Well the money that goes into stock market does not go to individual companies it goes to traders who, like you said bought stocks in 2009 and sold it now (one exception is at the time of the IPO). Otherwise its a zero sum gain and as far as the economy is concern no growth took place. So rising stock market does not finance new employment.

[@ymkamara420]

"and it goes straight into the bank, thats M1." By definition you are wrong. M1 is Notes and coins in circulation (outside Federal Reserve Banks and the vaults of depository institutions) Bank reserves are not included in M1. "From banks of course" Most of that 10 to 20 percent of that QE went to stocks. If you bought stocks in 2009 you should be very grateful to Ben.B

[@sentilopis]

If you're inquiring about Austrian theory as a forecasting tool, the depression and housing bubble would be good examples. If you're talking about policy prescriptions, Austrian economics is descriptive, not prescriptive, so it does not give policy prescriptions, hence it cannot "work". Or are you actually asking about libertarianism? That would not be Austrian economics, but a normative policy position. Dr. Block has an answer here if you're interested: /watch?v=9P4S_nTC_GQ jump to 53:23