The Tom Woods Show

Both times I've surveyed my listeners, Michael Malice has been chosen as their favorite guest on the Tom Woods Show. Here I try to uncover what makes him tick. That takes us back to his birth in the Soviet Union, his move to the United States, his experiences in school, his exposure to Ayn Rand, the development of his ideas, and a lot more. Plus, I ask him the question he most likes to ask others. Show notes for Ep. 1345 Sponsor: Curiosity Stream

When you read old -- and I mean old, like nineteenth century old -- American writers on money and banking, something jumps out at you: they understood things with a surprising clarity, and had a proto-Austrian conception of why the economy experienced boom-bust cycles. Suddenly it feels less lonely to believe that artificial credit creation leads to a boom that has to end in a bust. In this episode, therefore, I share some unknown American intellectual history. Show notes for Ep. 1344

Stephen Presser and I go from William Blackstone, whose Commentaries on the Laws of England played such a central role in influencing early American ideas about the law, all the way to the Marxist-inspired Critical Legal Studies movement, the feminist legal critique, and back again to the originalism movement. Sponsor: Policy Genius Show notes for Ep. 1343

How many times has this crisis been chalked up to "greed"? As if people hadn't been greedy three weeks earlier. It's time our amateur moralizers learned a little something, and that's the purpose of this episode. My thanks to the Acton Institute, where I delivered these remarks. Show notes for Ep. 1342

Cliff Maloney, president of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) -- an organization I have enthusiastically supported for over ten years -- joins me to discuss their strategy for the campuses and society at large. YAL developed out of Students for Ron Paul, and are on the front lines of getting our message to young people who might otherwise never hear a dissenting voice. Sponsor: Skillshare Show notes for Ep. 1341

Ben Lewis and I go back into conservative/libertarian history to discuss the work of Frank Meyer, who thought the conservative and libertarian positions were not so difficult to reconcile. Conservative stalwart Russell Kirk wasn't buying it, and the two feuded vigorously. Murray Rothbard, too, weighed in on the controversy. Show notes for Ep. 1340

Friends and foes of the market alike refer to capitalism as a system of "competition." Is that really its characteristic feature, and is that what distinguishes it from other systems? This is actually a misunderstanding, and one that probably turns plenty of people off to the market. What's the right way to think about and explain it? That's what Antony Sammeroff and I discuss in this episode. Show notes for Ep. 1339

In this episode I explore the history of the idea that society can more or less run itself, that there are certain observable regularities in our relationships with one another, particularly in commerce, that cannot be interfered with without negative consequences, and do not actually need to be interfered with in the first place. Show notes for Ep. 1338

Walter Block, who holds the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Chair at Loyola University in New Orleans, joins me to discuss some particularly tricky questions for libertarians. Show notes for Ep. 1337

Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law, discusses the grounds on which U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor found Obamacare unconstitutional. We discuss John Roberts' decision for the Supreme Court as well. Show notes for Ep. 1336 Sponsor: Skillshare

That's a provocative title, to be sure. Author William Cavanaugh, a professor at DePaul University, is not saying that what we recognize to be religious beliefs can never inspire violence. What he is saying -- and I won't spoil the episode by spelling out his thesis here -- forces us to rethink what we thought we knew about religion, secularism, and war. Sponsor: Away Show notes for Ep. 1335

We hear lots of calls for "affordable housing," and much less discussion about what might be making housing not so affordable. Ryan McMaken of the Mises Institute shows that -- surprise -- the government's fingerprints are all over this problem. Sponsor: Harry's Show notes for Ep. 1334

Looking over many Tom Woods Show episodes, I discovered a common theme: finding freedom in an unfree world. It's not true that we libertarians only complain. We build. So I talk secession from: the screwed-up American health care system, the monetary system, the education system, the traditional 9-to-5 job, and a lot more. Sponsor: Blinkist Show notes for Ep. 1333

Historian Brion McClanahan joins me to discuss an article on secession, particularly on the nineteenth-century southern secession, that makes the rounds every once in a while in fashionable libertarian circles. Libertarians can't support secession across the board, the author says, because some seceding states intend great evil once seceded. He further says there's no right of secession of an American state anyway. Are these statements sound? That's what we discuss today. Sponsor: Skillshare Show notes for Ep. 1332

In one of my Twitter exchanges, I came across a fellow who thought the vulnerable would be worse off under libertarianism, since they'd be less likely to have access to education, etc. Since a lot of people think this way, I thought I'd address issues like this in this episode. Sponsor: Curiosity Stream Show notes for Ep. 1331

Richard Cobden, the nineteenth-century pro-trade, noninterventionist member of Parliament, once said, "The progress of freedom depends more upon the maintenance of peace and the spread of commerce and the diffusion of education than upon the labor of Cabinets or Foreign Offices." I take this one sentence and riff on it, covering themes in modern European history, development economics, noninterventionist foreign policy, and more. Sponsor: Skillshare Show notes for Ep. 1330

Today I talk to Ethan Blevins with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which does pro bono work for people wronged by the state. Crazy laws and regulations in left-wing Seattle keep these folks pretty busy, but they take on cases all over that part of the country. Nice to have an encouraging episode once in a while! Show notes for Ep. 1329

Some libertarians shrink from this kind of language, but I don't see how it can be doubted, especially now. In this episode I discuss not just the Covington high school students, but also the media's general pro-regime bias. Show notes for Ep. 1328

Alex Epstein of the Center for Industrial Progress joins me to discuss the Green New Deal proposal, which seeks a radical transformation of the American economy in the service of "green" energy targets. Sponsor: Skillshare Show notes for Ep. 1327

Frequent guest Bob Murphy returns, this time talking about his new (co-authored) book, The Case for IBC. This is an acronym for "Infinite Banking Concept," a strategy that uses properly designed whole life insurance policies as a way to "become your own banker." The concept was developed by Nelson Nash, who besides working in insurance was personally tutored in Austrian theory by Leonard Read himself. Bob explains how the average person can benefit from IBC, and he answers common objections like "Isn't it better to buy term and invest the difference?" and "Why would I put my money in life insurance when the dollar is going to crash?" Show notes for Ep. 1326