The Tom Woods Show

Steve Patterson explains what Bitcoin is and why it matters, and replies to common objections.

About the Guest

Steve Patterson is a freelance writer and video producer.

Book Discussed

What’s the Big Deal About Bitcoin? by Steve Patterson

Guest’s Website

Steve-Patterson.com

Guest’s Twitter

@StevePatt_

Related Episodes

Ep. 253: Chicago vs. Austria, Bitcoin and More (Robert Murphy)
Ep. 101: Bad News for Bitcoin? (Erik Voorhees)
Ep. 57: Bitcoin: Objections and Replies (Erik Voorhees)
Ep. 15: The Future of Bitcoin (Erik Voorhees)

Special Offers

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Direct download: woods_02_13_2015_2.mp3
Category:Talk Radio -- posted at: 6:26pm EDT

Topics Discussed

  • What rights do individuals have?
  • How do we know they have these rights and no others?
  • Do animals have rights?
  • What’s wrong with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
  • Why isn’t there a “right to a pension” or a “right to a paid vacation”?
  • Is there such a thing as natural law?
  • If so, what can it teach us?
  • Isn’t utilitarianism just as good a grounding for libertarianism?

About the Guest

Frank van Dun is a Belgian law philosopher and natural law theorist. He is a senior lecturer in the philosophy of law at the University of Ghent.

Guest’s Website

Frank van Dun

Articles Discussed

Human Dignity: Reason or Desire: Natural Rights versus Human Rights
Natural Law: A Logical Analysis
Argumentation Ethics and the Philosophy of Freedom

Special Offers

Need inexpensive web hosting? Bluehost is running a quick special in honor of Valentine’s Day. Starting today (and lasting only a few days), Tom Woods Show listeners can get a discount: just $3.49 per monthClick here to grab it!

Like the new TomWoods.com? It was designed by my friends at Studio 1 Design. They’ve agreed to give my listeners 10% off any design projectthrough this special link.

Disclosure: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links, which means I earn a commission if you click through and buy something. So if you do, do so in the happy knowledge that at no extra cost to yourself, you are helping the Tom Woods Show!

Direct download: woods_02_12_2015_2.mp3
Category:Talk Radio -- posted at: 6:05pm EDT

About the Guest

Johan Norberg is the author of 15 books, and a senior fellow both at the Cato Institute and the European Centre for International Political Economy.

Sampling of Books by the Guest

Financial Fiasco
In Defense of Global Capitalism

Article by the Guest

How Laissez-Faire Made Sweden Rich

Guest’s Facebook

Johan Norberg Official

Guest’s Twitter

@JohanKNorberg

Related Episode

Ep. 17: Is Sweden a Good Model? (Per Bylund)

Direct download: woods_02_11_2015_2.mp3
Category:Talk Radio -- posted at: 4:12pm EDT

Book Discussed

The End of Socialism, by James R. Otteson

About the Guest

James R. Otteson is executive director of the BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism, and Teaching Professor of Political Economy, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is also a Senior Scholar at the Fund for American Studies in Washington, DC, a Research Professor in the Freedom Center and Department of Philosophy at the University of Arizona, and a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute in California.

Guest’s Websites

JamesOtteson.com
BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism, at Wake Forest University

Guest’s Twitter

@jroii

Special Offers

If you enjoy the Tom Woods Show, my new book — Real Dissent: A Libertarian Sets Fire to the Index Card of Allowable Opinion — is for you. Check it out! And get a free copy of the audiobook version, with me reading it, atTomWoodsAudio.com.

Like the new TomWoods.com? It was designed by my cool Australian friends at Studio 1 Design. They’ve agreed to give my listeners 10% off any design project through this special link.

Direct download: woods_02_10_2015_2.mp3
Category:Talk Radio -- posted at: 6:09pm EDT

Professor Gerard Casey takes us on a whirlwind tour of political thought, including both the bad guys and the good guys, from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries.

Topics Discussed

  • Jean Bodin, Thomas Hobbes, and the notion of sovereignty
  • Johannes Althusius: the crucial thinker no one has heard of
  • The Levellers and natural rights
  • John Locke, self-ownership, and private property
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the “general will”
  • and more

Course Discussed

The History of Political Thought, Part II

About the Guest

Gerard Casey is a professor of philosophy at University College, Dublin, and a faculty member at Tom’s Liberty Classroom.

Guest’s Recent Book

Libertarian Anarchy: Against the State

Book Mentioned

Anarchy, State, and Utopia, by Robert Nozick

Special Offers

Take downloadable, on-the-go courses with Gerard Casey, Tom Woods, and other distinguished faculty at my Liberty Classroom! Twelve courses in history, economics, and philosophy, with more to come, plus live Q&A sessions and more. Join us, using coupon code SHOW (all caps) for a special discount.

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Direct download: woods_02_09_2015_2.mp3
Category:Talk Radio -- posted at: 6:48pm EDT

I wasn’t always a libertarian. I began as a moderate Republican. I eventually became vice president of the Harvard College Republicans. But something pulled me away from conventional opinion and toward the persuasive and compelling heterodoxy of Austro-libertarianism. Here’s my story. Hope you enjoy it!

Host of This Event

Mises Institute

Video of This Event

An Evening with Tom Woods

Woods Books Mentioned

We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now, eds. Thomas E. Woods Jr. and Murray Polner
Rollback, by Thomas E. Woods Jr.

Videos Mentioned

Tom Woods Speech at Nullify Now, Los Angeles
Thomas Thwaites: How I Built a Toaster — From Scratch

Special Offers

If you enjoy the Tom Woods Show, my new book — Real Dissent: A Libertarian Sets Fire to the Index Card of Allowable Opinion — is for you. Check it out! And get a free copy of the audiobook version, with me reading it, at TomWoodsAudio.com.

And get my FREE eBook, 14 Hard Questions for Libertarians — Answered!

Direct download: woods_02_06_2015_2.mp3
Category:Talk Radio -- posted at: 3:15pm EDT

So many of the alleged merits of democracy are simply asserted or assumed. But there are very serious problems with democracy, and the always interesting Frank Karsten joins me today to hash some of them out. This one is a must-listen.

About the Guest

Frank Karsten is chairman of Mises Instituut Nederland and of the Stichting Meer Vrijheid (More Freedom Foundation), a Dutch libertarian organization which acts to reduce taxes and government intervention.

Book Discussed

Beyond Democracy: Why Democracy Does Not Lead to Solidarity, Prosperity and Liberty But to Social Conflict, Runaway Spending and a Tyrannical Government, by Frank Karsten and Karel Beckman

Book Site

BeyondDemocracy.net

Guest’s Twitter

@FrankKarsten

Book Mentioned

Democracy: The God that Failed, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Episode Mentioned

Ep. 326: What I Told the Washington Post About Secession

Survey

Here’s the survey I’ve mentioned in recent episodes. It will take less than a minute, and it will help me get a sense of the composition of the audience. I see none of the individual responses, just the aggregated results. Thank you!

Special Offers

Like the new TomWoods.com? It was designed by my cool Australian friends at Studio 1 Design. They’ve agreed to give my listeners 10% off any design project through this special link.

If you enjoy the Tom Woods Show, my new book — Real Dissent: A Libertarian Sets Fire to the Index Card of Allowable Opinion — is for you. Check it out! And get a free copy of the audiobook version, with me reading it, at TomWoodsAudio.com.

Direct download: woods_02_05_2015_2.mp3
Category:Talk Radio -- posted at: 5:05pm EDT

Guest’s Website

Bennett.com

Paper Mentioned

Designed for Change: End-to-End Arguments, Internet Innovation, and the Net Neutrality Debate” (PDF)

Direct download: woods_02_04_2015_2.mp3
Category:Talk Radio -- posted at: 4:31pm EDT

About the Guest

Toby Baxendale is an entrepreneur who built up, among other things, the UK’slargest fresh fish supplier to the Food Service sector, a business he recently sold. He established and funded the first Distinguished Hayek Visiting Teaching Fellowship Program at the London School of Economics in honor of the Nobel Laureate F.A. Hayek. He is co-founder and chairman the Cobden Centre.

Guest’s Website

TobyBaxendale.com
CobdenCentre.org

Guest’s Twitter

@TobyBaxendale

Guest’s Facebook

The Cobden Centre

Special Offers

If you enjoy the Tom Woods Show, my new book — Real Dissent: A Libertarian Sets Fire to the Index Card of Allowable Opinion — is for you. Check it out! And get a free copy of the audiobook version, with me reading it, atTomWoodsAudio.com.

Also, I’ve just released a brand new, free eBook: 14 Hard Questions for Libertarians — AnsweredClick here to get your copy!

Direct download: woods_02_03_2015_2.mp3
Category:Talk Radio -- posted at: 5:21pm EDT

Thom Hartmann’s fans have been sending around a graphic claiming that the economy tanks when taxes are lowered on the rich. It’s so wrong it’s embarrassing. Bob Murphy and I dismantle the thing completely.

Article Discussed

Thom Hartmann’s Bogus Tax History,” by Bob Murphy

About the Guest

Robert P. Murphy holds a Ph.D. in economics from New York University. He is the author of numerous books (see below), including study guides to Ludwig von Mises’ Human Action (study guide here) and The Theory of Money and Credit (study guide here), and Murray Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State (study guide here).

Guest’s Blog

Free Advice

Books by the Guest

Lessons for the Young Economist (free textbook; click here for a free teacher’s manual)

Chaos Theory (available free)

Understanding Bitcoin (with Silas Barta; available free)

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism (also available as an audiobook)

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal (also available as an audiobook)

Woods Book Mentioned

Rollback

Guest’s Twitter

@BobMurphyEcon

Guest’s Facebook

Robert Murphy

Related Episode

Ep. 118: Boom and Bust: The Cause (David Howden)
(See also this short video, taken from this heavily viewed longer video, in which I explain the Austrian theory of the business cycle and the role of the Fed in the boom and bust.)

Special Offers

If you enjoy the Tom Woods Show, my new book — Real Dissent: A Libertarian Sets Fire to the Index Card of Allowable Opinion — is for you. Check it out! And get a free copy of the audiobook version, with me reading it, atTomWoodsAudio.com.

Bob Murphy is joining the faculty at Liberty Classroom this year! Learn from Bob in courses you can listen to on the go, plus live Q&A sessions and more. Twelve courses teaching the history and economics we didn’t learn in school await you already. Join us, using coupon code SHOW (all caps) for a special discount.

Direct download: woods_02_02_2015_2.mp3
Category:Talk Radio -- posted at: 1:06pm EDT