Foundation for Economic Education » First Principles

Episode 20: The Libertarian Vote

admin — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:01:06 +0000

Mike Van Winkle and David Kirby discuss Libertarian voting. David Kirby is Senior Director of Academic Programs at IHS and a research associate at the Cato Institute. He also blogs at www.sometimesright.com.

Episode 19: State of the Union Address

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:33:28 +0000

Mike Van Winkle and Sheldon Richman discuss the State of the Union Address. Was it all just political theatre? What were the most important messages? Find out.

Episode 18: On Government and Natural Disaster

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:05:11 +0000

Mike Van Winkle interviews Sheldon Richman, editor of The Freeman, about the crisis in Haiti and the government’s role in natural disasters.

Episode 17: What Caused the Financial Crisis?

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:42:16 +0000

Mike Van Winkle interviews Professors Peter Boettke and Steven Horwitz, co-authors of the recent FEE monograph “The House That Uncle Sam Built,” about what led to the financial meltdown and the Great Recession of 2008.

Download PDF of “The House That Uncle Sam Built” by Peter Boettke and Steven Horwitz.
Visit the authors’ blog: www.coordinationproblem.org
Subscribe to First Principles podcast

Episode 16: What’s Going On With Airport Security

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:14:11 +0000

Mike Van Winkle interviews Freeman contributor Becky Akers about airport security. How much liberty should we give up in the name of security? Are full-body constitutional? Where did it all go wrong?

Download File

Episode 15: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

admin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:03:23 +0000

Mike Van Winkle interviews Freeman contributor Becky Akers about the Obama Administration’s decision to try the accused terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City.

File Location:
http://fee.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/15-Episode-15_-Kalid-Sheikh-Mohammed.mp3

Episode 14: Bryan Caplan on Economics and Voting

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:21:52 +0000

In this episode Mike Van Winkle discusses voting behavior with Bryan Caplan who is an associate professor of economics at George Mason University and a scholar at the Mercatus Center. He is author of Myth of the Rational Voter.

Show links:

Myth of the Rational Voter available at Amazon.com
Sheldon Richman’s Review of Myth of the Rational Voter
“Shall We Vote on Values, But Bet on Beliefs?” by Robin Hanson

Episode 13: Pelosi Health Care Bill

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:57:36 +0000

Mike Van Winkle and Sheldon Richman discuss the Pelosi healthcare bill. How will it affect private health care? Will the provision guaranteeing coverage for preexisting conditions jeopardize individual heath insurance?

Episode 12: The Weak Dollar, Does it Matter?

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:54:47 +0000

Mike Van Winkle asks Prof. Bill Anderson of Frostburg State University What is a weak dollar? And why does it matter?

Episode 11: On Business Ethics

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:14:53 +0000

Mike Van Winkle interviews Alexei Marcoux of Loyola University-Chicago about how business ethics is taught in American business schools.

Episode 10: Is the Stimulus Working?

admin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:14:09 +0000

Mike Van Winkle and Sheldon Richman discuss whether the stimulus is working. They examine claims by the government that the economy would be worse had they not acted.

Special: Reaction to President Obama’s Health Care Speech

admin — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:19:44 +0000

Mike Van Winkle gets Sheldon Richman’s reaction to President Obama’s “major” health care speech before a joint session of Congress on September 9, 2009.

Episode 9: Insurance and Risk

admin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:11:13 +0000

In this episode Prof. Paul Cwik explains the logic behind insurance as a tool for mitigating risk and why the concept of a “public option” completely undercuts it.

Episode 8: Making Health Care Better

admin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:29:05 +0000

Ben Powell and Mike Van Winkle discuss what could be done to address the perverse incentives wreaking havoc on the current health care system.

Episode 7: What is the problem with government-run insurance?

admin — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:27:16 +0000

[PRODUCTION NOTE: Due to technical difficulties, there is a slight buzz in the background in some parts of this recording. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience. We do not expect this to be a problem on future recordings.]

Mike Van Winkle interviews Michael F. Cannon of the Cato Institute about the problems with the proposed government-run insurance plan (generally called the “public option”). Can government really “compete” with the private sector? Can a public insurance plan ever be self-sustaining as many in Congress would have us believe? These questions and more.

Michael F. Cannon is director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute and coauthor of Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It.

Show Notes

Read Michael Cannon’s latest report “Fannie Med? Why a ‘Public Option’ is Hazardous to Your Health“

Episode 6: Health Care Rationing

admin — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:58:17 +0000

Mike Van Winkle interviews Sheldon Richman, editor of The Freeman, about claims by the Obama administration that they will provide more healthcare at a lower cost while not interfering with individual health decisions. Will national healthcare lead to rationing? Does the free market ration healthcare? Listen and find out.

Episode 5: Austrian Macroeconomics

admin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:22:07 +0000

Mike Van Winkle and Prof. Paul Cwik discuss whether Austrian Economics and Macroeconomics are contradictory concepts. Cwik explains the significance of the Austrians’ recognition of the non-neutrality of money and the heterogeneity of capital. He also explains how subjectivism informs the Austrian approach to large scale economic phenomena.

Episode 4: The Implications of Bernie Madoff

admin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:40:16 +0000

Mike Van Winkle and Sheldon Richman discuss the Bernie Madoff scandal. Does the existence of Bernie Madoff prove the government is needed to regulate the market? Without government would there be more or less fraud?

Episode 3: The Great Recession

admin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:09:23 +0000

Mike Van Winkle interviews Prof. Steven Horwitz about topic of his upcoming presentation at Evenings at FEE on July 18, 2009. For more information about that event visit the event page.

Episode 2: Energy Policy

admin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:46:22 +0000

A discussion with Sheldon Richman about “cap and trade” and U.S. Energy policy.

Episode 1: Health Care

admin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:29:28 +0000

This interview is part of a new FEE series called “First Principles. In it, Mike Van Winkle interviews Sheldon Richman (editor of The Freeman) about health care reform.