American Elephants

I am an enormous fan of  the Hoover Institution’s Uncommon Knowledge programs.  This last week, Peter Robinson interviewed Richard A. Epstein and John Taylor.   Peter Robinson’s question:  Are we all Keynesians Now? After introducing the opposing approaches to economics of John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman, economists Richard Epstein and John Taylor discuss U.S. monetary policy from the 1970s onward.

Richard A. Epstein, on the left above,  is a founder of the field of law and economics.  He is director of the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics at the University of Chicago and a fellow at the Hoover Institution.  John Taylor is a former undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs.  He is a fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor of economics at Stanford University.

The controversy in the world of economics and finance today is between the Keynesian economics that the Obama administration follows and the free market ideas of Milton Friedman that the Republicans believe are proven to be more effective.

This interview is like sitting in on a conversation with three brilliant friends. Each segment in about 6 minutes long, so you can watch at your pleasure.  What’s neat is that you can go back and review any part that you didn’t understand.  Unlike those college seminars, if you didn’t take good notes, all you have to do is play them over again.

The previous interviews are all available at the same link above.  They range from Thomas Sowell, to Dambisa Moyo, Charles Kesler, Antonin Scalia and John Bolton to mention only a few of the many guests.  I recommend them highly.