Richard Epstein, George Soros, and Bruce Caldwell Discuss Hayek's Constitution of Liberty

The Constitution of Liberty
The Definitive Edition

by F. A. Hayek
edited by Ronald Hamowy
(University of Chicago Press, 2011)

FEATURING

Bruce Caldwell
Editor, The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek

Richard Epstein
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, New York University Law School

George Soros
Founder and Chairman, Open Society Foundations

MODERATED BY

Ronald Hamowy
Fellow in Social Thought, Cato Institute

April 28, 2011

• Category

  News & Politics

[Harold Rehling]

CATO commonly brings in both progressives and conservatives to speak. Libertarians, unlike statist conservatives, illiberal liberals, and regressive progressives are typically very willing to compete in a free-marketplace of ideas

[cato cato]

Richard Epstein is one of the most interesting and brilliant speakers i have ever heard. I have long been a fan of his and I am constantly in awe of his amazing oratory style and substance. I could listen to him debate every day. I sure wish he was given more exposure by the major media.

[BeantownJim]

soros is the enemy of freedom!

[Mike Renders]

I have as of yet not heard him stutter, get stuck on a word, or even stuck on a thought. I imagine his class would be quite tough as every word he would say would not be filler.

[Casey Thormahlen]

I haven't written the book yet. Soros is basically attacking a straw man version of the Efficient Market Hypothesis & rational expectations. EMH assumes expectations are homogenous, which is fine in a model but ludicrous in reality. Look at the Keynesians/Monetarists/Austria­ns, are their expectations the same? Overtime evidence wins over, expectations adjust, and prices converge. In the short run there is room for volatility, which is what Soros focuses on.

[SexDrugsFinance]

I have no idea what you are talking about yet I am compelled to ask you for a book recommendation that might spell out a portion of what you are saying.

[Casey Thormahlen]

31:00 it's hilarious watching Epstein in the background listening to Soros go on about Reflexivity and his disregard for rational expectations and the EMH. Does it even occur to Soros that the EMH and rational expectations are open-ended theories, which never suggest that they apply verbatum in a world with heterogenous expectations?

[bltn77]

I was a bit puzzled by Soros characterization and criticism of Hayek, regarding notions of perfect information, efficient market hypotheses and predictability, given that much of Hayek's insight is that you can't predict, that knowledge is dispersed, basically that reason is limited in what it can understand and know. He needs to read him again.

[runelord37]

But Soros is very very wrong. Epstein however comes as close to anyone ive seen to understanding Hayek's theories as a whole.