 I think for this interview, I'd like to just kind of talk a little bit more about Philip Bogg as the man and your education and background. Wonderful things, I think, can be expected of you in the future. Already you have now this year two books out, one on the tragedy of the Euro, one on the Iceland experience, the definitive work on Iceland. The tragedy of the Euro has become a bestseller in our world and already at this conference we've sold all the copies that we have. You teach at Buon Carlos Rey in Madrid, is that right? Yes, Universidad de Rijo en Carlos. And you're a colleague of Jesus Square to the Soto. Yeah, I owe him a lot. Yes, but you're only 30 years old. Yes. You came to us when you were 20 years old, you said, at the Music University. So I recall so well when you came. Maybe it wasn't that summer, maybe it was the next summer, but I took notice of you amongst the sea of students because you're the only one that could sit down at our Imperial Bozendo from play Bach. So you're also a concert pianist of sorts as well. Well, not so good, yeah, but I remember that also, yeah, it was the first and second year. Actually, then I was still good, but then it's all downhill from there. So you left your piano talents to languish while you studied economics? Yeah, I had no piano. For many years I did not have a piano. Only last September I bought one. Okay. And now I'm slowly coming back. Well, now that you're coming into your own as an economist, maybe you'll pick it up again someday. Yeah. No, I'm practicing now. Okay, good. That's good. Where were you studying economics when you came to Music University? You were in Germany, right? I was still in Germany. Münster. Münster. Münster in Westphalia, where this Rothbard describes, tells about Münster and his history of economic thought and all about this communist experiment, right? So Münster's famous because of this. The first great experiment in communist, and eventually it's like Gaddafi today or something. They had to throw the guy out, right? They had to invade the town and toss him out or something. I can't remember the details. They tortured and killed them. Actually they have still the cages up on the tower on the church. There are still three cages. Oh, where are the dictators? Yeah, where the leaders were hanged. Yeah, two assistants. This was the 15th century? 15th or 16th, I think. 16th century, yeah. Yeah, that's one of the great chapters. So your attachment to economics is the science. It's very intense. And that's obvious to anybody who reads your work or listens to your lectures. When did it begin in your life? Your love for economics? When I read Russpatt, I think I was still in high school. What did you read in German or English? In German. I read The Ethics of Liberty with this small libertarian. I read Mrs. Björk Rosy. There's a translation, liberalism, there's a translation. Oh, well, liberalism is the original edition, right? Yeah, it's original, yeah. And from there, I started and I read Haslitt, Mannequin, Wayne State, National Economy. But you entered into a very conventional economics program, highly-mathematized, highly Keynesian, you know? Yeah, Keynesian, yes. Maybe not as mathematically as other programs, though. Of course, you know, there's the order liberal school in Germany, which is still opposed to mathematics. I think it has become worse over the years. I think now it would be worse. Or more social democratic or? More mathematically. More mathematically. And the order liberal school's politics today are? No, they are still on the same line as 10 years ago, but the influence has been falling because the mathematical school is rising as influence. I see. Yeah. And then you finished your undergraduate and then you went on to straight to your PhD? Well, because here someone, I think Gabriel Cazara, recommended me to go to Madrid to study with Jesus Huerta de Soto. I did the Erasmus year in Madrid, Erasmus program, an exchange program for European universities. So I did this in 2003, 2004. And then I returned to finish my master in Germany. And afterwards I did the PhD in... Munster? Yes. I did the master at Munster. Is this where your family is? Close to Munster. So this is in East Germany today. No, it's West Germany. It's West Germany. I thought you said it was Munster. So it shows what I know about the German geography, right? Yeah. Typical American. Right? Okay. It can improve on that. Yeah. I'll work on that. And so now you're 30 and you have a professorship and you teach how many classes? Well, five or six, six or seven. And you teach in Spanish? Spanish and English. Everything you want. Everything you want. German, Spanish, English, what else? Nothing else. French? No, no. A little bit? No. You can understand it? No. Oh, come on. I could read it probably. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, European academics are very different from Americans. Americans know one language and one language only. And only a little bit of that one. Only a little bit. Wait, but for most of them it's sufficient. Yeah. Okay. Now, so you've done these two marvelous books and they came as a surprise to us when they arrived. I mean, I'm not sure I was expecting them. The tragedy of the Eurobook in particular changed the mind of your own professor, who had been up to then a supporter of the European currency union, right? Because he thought it was the most liberal solution. Well, he still is kind of a supporter. I changed it only a little bit. He still thinks that he risked with me that, of course, for German, he said if he would be German, he would be against the Euro. But as he is a Spaniard, as he is a Spaniard, because he does it otherwise, Spanish peseta would have devalued and it would have been worse for Spain, which might be the case. But for the future of Euro as a whole, I think it's worse. Yeah. Do you expect the Euro to be in the news in the future within the next year or two, more or so? Yeah. It will continue because the problem is not solved. We have, in March, we have a summit and markets expect that they will extend the rescue funds, the bailout fund. They will probably do it because otherwise it would explode because no one would buy any more of these Portuguese and Spanish, Spanish bonds. You know, I'm thinking about Austrians who have written about this topic and the name Pascal Salin comes to mind, right? Long before there was a European currency unit, he had written on this topic. I think so, yes. But I don't remember. Okay. Are there other thinkers who influenced you? Guido Holtzman. Right. Guido has a good mentor, has been a good mentor to me when I was here. And what other Austrians in the history of thought are you drawn to, Rothbard, Mises Haig? Well, Haig less. Haig less. He's not such a clear thinker as Mises or Rothbard. Right. He doesn't write as clear as they do. Yes. Well, that's true. And his English is less clear than probably Rothbard reads in German, right? Now that you've finished these two books, and Iceland, by the way, is back in the news. There was some story yesterday about the banks. I just saw the headline. I didn't actually read it. And that book is doing well. And you co-wrote this with David Hauden. Yes. Yeah. How did you manage that co-writing thing? Did you just send it back and forth there? Oh, we did. But chapters. I think otherwise it would be impossible to do. Like some chapters I did, some chapters he did. And then, of course, we send it to each other. Well, I think it's the only book length treatment of the topic, which is so important because you establish the relationship between the events there and Austrian business cycle theory in a very, very nice way. What is on your agenda now? What are you planning on? What's your next book going to be about? What are your next papers? What are you researching now? That's a secret I won't tell you. It's going to be like your last two books. They just arrived. Yeah. Actually, I'm booking now on the drum translation of the Eurobook because obviously for Germany it would be ... It's a perfect market, no, for it. And there are also other translations coming out in Slovak and in Polish. Already? Italian and Spanish where it's being prepared. Well, I mean, should I be outraged that nobody wrote me for permission? No, I'm just kidding. They wrote me for permission. Oh, it was you for permission? Okay. Well, the idea is that, of course, we publish into the comments so it's also available online and anybody can translate it into any language and this is all to the good. It should be an update. So I'm actually updating some parts of it. Okay. Have you gotten some attention from the press, from newspapers and things like this yet? For your views yet? No, the mainstream media is not so much interested. Not so interested. Have you seen other interest in the English version of your tragedy, the Euro? I mean among colleagues and friends in Germany and Spain? Yes, from the Austrian circles, of course, also in the investment circles. Many people, some investment managers comment to other, to friends of mine that they have read that even though I don't know them, so there are many people apparently reading it. Yes. Well, it was reviewed at the Kaplan Institute site and it was very interesting for me to read I think it's Andrew Duncan's review because now he had fresh eyes, right? I mean I had been involved very deeply in the manuscript during the editing stage. I didn't edit it myself. I think Arlene Ossiner edited the book but I followed it throughout the process and so when the review came out and it was so over the top, I mean he just loved the book and the enthusiasm for your manuscript was palpable. So it was nice for me because it confirmed something I had suspected that not only is the book a wonderful book but that the man who wrote the book is a brilliant young Austrian so we're all very excited about your work so far and what you will do in the future. What's it like for a German living in Spain? It's marvelous. It's sunny. It's not raining. You can sleep until nine o'clock in the morning. This is good. It's like being on vacation your whole life. Have you, do you speak Spanish all the time in Spain? I mean to everybody? Yes. And do you think in Spanish yet? Or more and more? Yeah, more and more. Do your students say that your Spanish is good? Well, they understand me. They don't complain anymore. In the beginning they complain but not anymore. And do you dream in Spanish, I mean Spain, your new home? Well, I don't remember my dreams so I'm not sure. So you're not sure? I'm actually in which language I dream. But I'm one of those persons that don't remember their dreams. Have you gone to, were you at our Salamanca conference? Yes. You were? Yeah. And was that before you were teaching at the university? No. It was after. Long after. Yeah. I started in 2007. So in Spain here we have in a way the birthplace of economic science. In some ways the birthplace of modernity itself, right, Spain. So it's a wonderful place for an economist to be. The place where it all began. How far is Cordoba from Madrid? It's a way. How long? I haven't been there. Yeah. And Salamanca is over there on the other side. Salamanca is closer than Cordoba. Yeah. You have plenty of traveling to do, right, lots of vacation time and lots of places to go. I hope you use all your vacation time to write more books, to do more research. And maybe you will at some point be able to come back and spend more time with us here. Yeah. I always love to be here. It's good. That is like coming home. Yeah. Well, I feel the same way. And there was a thrill for me to see you today because you deal digitally with people for a year and then see them in real life. It's like an apparition. Yeah, the same here. Thanks for taking the flight over here all the way and for writing these books, for being such an intense researcher, a wonderful intellectual, a creative mind, and for being a good friend to the Mises Institute for the Bogus. I thank you very much. Thank you.