The Tom Woods Show

Kevin Duffy, a principal of Bearing Asset Management, gives his assessment of the U.S. economy as a whole and of particular sectors: housing, precious metals, auto loans, and more. Show notes for Ep. 1093

Mark Perry joins me to discuss the recent Nuclear Posture Review, which some say represents a dramatic break with the past in terms of nuclear policy and the possibility of using nuclear weapons. How concerned should we be? Show notes for Ep. 1092

The great comedian and brilliant libertarian Dave Smith and I talk about pretty much everything: what libertarianism is really all about, why Ben Shapiro's attack on Ron Paul is dumb, how I changed my mind on war, and a lot more. Show notes for Ep. 1091

Antony Sammeroff, who co-hosts the Scottish Liberty Podcast, leads an amazingly productive life. He balances his work, his passion, his personal life, and his health. He does what we all wish we could do. How? Show notes for Ep. 1090

Gene Epstein, formerly of Barron's, joins me to discuss the work of Noam Chomsky, whose views in some areas are so well formed, and in others are simplistic and disappointing. Chomsky is one of the people who Gene says led him to libertarianism, so this is a gem of a discussion. Show notes for Ep. 1089

Per Bylund, a professor of entrepreneurship, suggests a new way of thinking about inequality, its causes (and its mitigation), and whether we should even care about it. Fun! Show notes for Ep. 1088

Is the Nunes memo, which speaks of the politicization of the FBI in the service of opposing the election of Donald Trump, really a "nothingburger," or is there something there? Ray McGovern, no Trump partisan, has been blacklisted by much of the progressive media (which once loved him) because he won't go alone with the Russiagate story, and he sharply dissents about the significance of the memo as well. Show notes for Ep. 1087

Chris Calton joins me to discuss one of the most fascinating figures in libertarian history, and how he evolved from defending the Constitution against the claim that it favored slavery all the way to rejecting the very idea that the U.S. Constitution, or any other constitution, could truly bind the people. Show notes for Ep. 1086

Robert Higgs, the distinguished economic historian and author of Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government, covers some of the alleged success stories of government intervention. Show notes for Ep. 1085

Mises Institute president Jeff Deist joins me to discuss last night's State of the Union address. We discuss policy, style, Democratic reaction, Trump's ideological confusion, and a lot more. Show notes for Ep. 1084

The great Gerard Casey, professor emeritus of philosophy at University College, Dublin, joins me to discuss the years surrounding the English Civil War, a critical period in the history of political thought, when many great (and some rotten) ideas  -- including libertarian ideas like natural rights and self-ownership -- were born or developed. Show notes for Ep. 1083

F.A. Hayek, illustrious member of the Austrian School of economics, won the Nobel Prize in 1974, and wrote prolifically on both economic and non-economic topics. He has been a source of controversy within libertarian circles because of some aspects of his work. Joe Salerno helps us sort everything out about this central figure. Show notes for Ep. 1082

Mance Rayder, author of Freedom Through Memedom, joins me for some big-picture arguments against the state and for freedom. Show notes for Ep. 1081

Strength trainer Mark Rippetoe returns to discuss state licensing, its true motivations, and why a free society doesn't need it. Show notes for Ep. 1080

This episode, featuring Justine Brown, begins with a discussion of Thomas More's classic work Utopia, trying to get to the bottom of what the author meant to convey with it, and then continues with a discussion of utopian communities and theories, and what may be wrong with them. Show notes for Ep. 1079

The media's opposition to Trump has confused and obscured the true nature of the relationship between itself and the American regime. Do we really have an adversarial press? Lew Rockwell joins me to get to the bottom of it. Show notes for Ep. 1078

Michael Douma, Assistant Research Professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown, and Director of the Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics, joins me to discuss what it means to be a classical liberal, or libertarian, historian -- do we have our own methods, are we telling a different story, or what precisely are we doing? Show notes for Ep. 1077

Thomas Hazlett, former chief economist at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and a professor of economics at Clemson University, talks about where regulators have gone wrong and the market has gone right, from the radio spectrum debate of the 1920s down to the present day. Show notes for Ep. 1076

Michael Boldin, founder and executive director of the Tenth Amendment Center, talks about a wide variety of resistance movements at the state level against the federal government. Nullification: it's happening! Show notes for Ep. 1075

With the idea of class so central to Marxian theory, libertarians might be tempted to ignore class as a category. But there is in fact such a thing as libertarian class theory, because in libertarian theory there are distinct groups of exploiters and exploited. Gary Chartier joins me to discuss the history and development of libertarian class theory. Show notes for Ep. 1074