Ep. 5209 – Ryan McMaken on the Coronavirus and our Fragile Economy – 3/13/2020

Scott interviews Ryan McMaken about the current coronavirus-induced financial slowdown and what it might mean in terms of the next big crash. McMaken explains that with America’s incredibly over-financialized economy, practically the only tool that the government knows how to use is huge injections of liquidity directly into the financial sector. This of course only eases the pain temporarily, delaying (and worsening) the eventual popping of the bubble. One danger Scott and McMaken foresee is that there can now be no principled opposition to those who clamor for government-sponsored, “free” programs like universal health care, free college, and other expensive social packages, since our government continues to demonstrate that it is perfectly willing to create a trillion dollars out of thin air and hand it out to certain people. The only question, at that point, is who gets the money.

Ryan McMaken is a senior editor at the Mises Institute. He has degrees in economics and political science from the University of Colorado, and was the economist for the Colorado Division of Housing from 2009 to 2014. He is the author of Commie Cowboys: The Bourgeoisie and the Nation-State in the Western Genre.

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