Government And Business

The Debt Dialogues [Episode 54]: William Watson on the Inequality Trap

The Debt Dialogues is a weekly podcast that aims to educate young people about the welfare state and how it will affect their future. In this episode, I interview McGill University economist William Watson on his book The Inequality Trap. Topics covered include: How the focus on income inequality distracts us from dealing with genuine economic challenges, the deserving and undeserving rich and putting CEO pay in context.
Government And Business

The Debt Dialogues [Episode 53]: Jared Meyer on Uber

The Debt Dialogues is a weekly podcast that aims to educate young people about the welfare state and how it will affect their future. In this episode, I interview Manhattan Institute fellow Jared Meyer on the ride-sharing company Uber. Topics covered include: How Uber is creating opportunity for drivers and passengers, whether there is any merit to the criticisms of Uber and what Uber can teach us about how to fight for limited government.
Government And Business

The Debt Dialogues [Episode 52]: Margaret Malewski on Value Creation

The Debt Dialogues is a weekly podcast that aims to educate young people about the welfare state and how it will affect their future. In this episode, I interview Margaret Malewski, the executive director of STRIVE Clubs, a nationwide student organization inspired by Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. Topics covered include STRIVE’s mission and its upcoming conference on the morality of value creation and trade.
Government And Business

The Debt Dialogues [Episode 50]: Yaron Brook on Finance (Part 3)

The Debt Dialogues is a weekly podcast that aims to educate young people about the welfare state and how it will affect their future. In this episode, the third of a three-part interview, I talk to ARI’s executive director, Yaron Brook, about the financial industry — one of the chief targets of the attacks on economic inequality. Topics include: the myth of financial deregulation, why the Federal Reserve should be abolished and the vital need for a moral defense of finance.
Government And Business

The Debt Dialogues [Episode 49]: Yaron Brook on Finance (Part 2)

The Debt Dialogues is a weekly podcast that aims to educate young people about the welfare state and how it will affect their future. In this episode, the second of a three-part interview, I talk to ARI’s executive director, Yaron Brook, about the financial industry — one of the chief targets of the attacks on economic inequality. Topics include: the productive contribution of hedge funds, why finance is a top target of the inequality alarmists and the causes of the 2008 Financial Crisis.
Government And Business

The Debt Dialogues [Episode 48]: Yaron Brook on Finance (Part 1)

The Debt Dialogues is a weekly podcast that aims to educate young people about the welfare state and how it will affect their future. In this episode, the first of a three-part interview, I talk to ARI’s executive director Yaron Brook about the financial industry — one of the chief targets of the attacks on economic inequality. Topics include: the productive role of finance, the meaning of “capital” and why finance is so reviled.
Government And Business

The Debt Dialogues [Episode 47]: R.J. Renza, Jr., on Social Security

The Debt Dialogues is a weekly podcast that aims to educate young people about the welfare state and how it will affect their future. In this episode, I interview R.J. Renza, Jr., author of How Are You Not Angry Yet? How Social Security is Destroying the Futures, Finances and Hopes of Generations X, Y and Z and How We Can Put an End To It, on the vital need to end Social Security. Topics covered include: the true cost of Social Security, what young people really think about the program and how to convince people that Social Security should be abolished.
Government And Business

The Debt Dialogues [Episode 46]: Lawrence W. Reed on Myths of Progressivism

The Debt Dialogues is a weekly podcast that aims to educate young people about the welfare state and how it will affect their future. In this episode, I interview Lawrence W. Reed, president of the Foundation for Economic Education, on his new book Excuse Me, Professor: Challenging the Myths of Progressivism. Topics covered include: the inherent conflict between economic equality and political equality, how the minimum wage actually hurts the people it is supposed to help, why government spending doesn’t lead to prosperity and how to effectively defend capitalism.
Government And Business

The Debt Dialogues [Episode 45]: Walter Williams on Race and Education

The Debt Dialogues is a weekly podcast that aims to educate young people about the welfare state and how it will affect their future. In this episode, I interview Walter Williams, George Mason University economist and nationally syndicated columnist, on his new book American Contempt for Liberty. Topics covered include: the state of American education, free speech on college campuses, whether the welfare state has helped or hurt black Americans, the notion of “white privilege” and the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

Further Reading

Ayn Rand | 1957
For the New Intellectual

The Moral Meaning of Capitalism

An industrialist who works for nothing but his own profit guiltlessly proclaims his refusal to be sacrificed for the “public good.”
View Article
Ayn Rand | 1961
The Virtue of Selfishness

The Objectivist Ethics

What is morality? Why does man need it? — and how the answers to these questions give rise to an ethics of rational self-interest.
View Article