 Lou and I thought we would chitchat a bit about You know what? For a while, so if Ed Stringer would like to step out of the room for a few minutes. He's welcome to do that There you go. You're a good sport Ed. We appreciate that. So we'll chitchat. We have not planned this out So it could be like the I always give this example the Beatles movie magical mystery tour They're big flop because the plan was they would ride around England and just record whatever happened And then it turned out nothing did happen. So it was a flop. So I so there but I sometimes I sometimes I feel like a Conversation with Lou Rockwell. That's not gonna happen. I just mean I didn't we didn't plan this out in advance We thought we'd talk a little bit about what's going on in terms of politics and then maybe entertain some questions And and go from there and then Lou will have Some time to be speaking from the podium as well. So Lou and I had a conversation Not too long ago just last week I guess on my podcast at Tom Woods calm and Lou and I have been doing post debate analysis Episodes after the various debates we did them after the GOP primary debates. And so we did one after this first national presidential debate between the two parties and For some reason I get a lot of people saying I'm not interested in politics and this and that but for some reason These people are not really telling me the truth because the most downloaded episodes of my whole show are the post-debate Analysis episodes done done with Lou. So we talked a little bit about Some of the issues that were raised in that debate and some of the missed opportunities because personally I just I just want that fake robotic smile taken off her face on live television. I'm sorry, you know, I just want One thing we one thing we missed when we were doing the analysis was her point about she wants profit sharing That was mentioned earlier today and David Gordon our universal genius with the Mises Institute Immediately made the point. Well, would that also include loss sharing? Because one of the reasons you want to be an employee rather than an owner is that you don't have to worry as Immediately about profits because one way or another you're gonna get your paycheck now Obviously in the long term if there are sustained losses Over and over again quarter after quarter you're gonna lose your job But in the short run you can weather that because you'll still get your paycheck if you had to share that constantly That would give you an uncertainty that a lot of people don't want to bear So if there are companies that can attract employees who are very prone to risk or who are Have an appetite for risk Maybe they would want to have their income pegged to the fortunes of the company But not everybody wants that they want to know I want to be able to make sure I can make my mortgage payment every month Come what may with the fortunes of the company? So that would be one particular point but Lou in the aftermath of that debate I think the You know the media consensus was that she showed she was much smarter and more prepared There's been a more popular level consensus though that he basically just He still wins to some degree because he stood there as a tough guy And he didn't he didn't completely fail and he had a very low threshold that he had to meet for success given how low the Expectations were how do you look at this now that we've had a week to look over all the commentary from all these different people? well Tom, I think it's true that that I Would say even even the more honest poll show that people think He won on points. Although I must say my my view was that he lost on points So I think You know, I think all the I think the fact that he discussed just a remondo had a good article about this That's the pro-peace points he made That he was not for a nuclear first strike, which of course is considered a horrible thing that a President would ever say they're not gonna do that why the president has to be prepared to destroy the earth on Any at any moment that he thinks it's necessary. I Was wondering we talk about dictatorship What about the fact that one guy can choose on his own say so to destroy the entire earth? I mean is that illegitimate power? So the fact that Trump said that I hope he means it But I think the whole foreign policy thing is very very important Murray Rothbard always argued that that As he put it in a private letter in the 50s. He comes to the conclusion the whole libertarian thing Was really about war versus peace So we have I think there's even indication that some of the deep state is pro-trump not For reasons except the war and peace question. I think more and more people think as they look at Hillary She's actually capable of starting a nuclear war with Russia But she actually whether that would be your intention or she just keep pushing pushing pushing pushing and then and then something Unexpected happens or whether she would actually launch a first strike, but I think many of us feel she's capable of that And there are even aspects of the deep state. They don't actually want the world destroyed. They like their lives they like running everything and The concerned about that so Trump overall made I think failed to make many many points. He should have made a Lot of the stuff. He said was wrong a lot of it was grandiose and Maybe even slightly crazy Although there's never been except Ron Paul and politics crazy But I think the more in peace question Think that buddy and what they had to say about that helped and again the fact that she looked I mean she For example, where'd all her wrinkles go just to just ask that I Have wrinkles too, so I'm not criticizing her but All her wrinkles jowls Pouches and so but just were gone. Was that all makeup was it Botox was it Some Hollywood magic. I don't know and you notice this is never addressed But I thought she looked she really looked like an older version of Cruella Deville I mean she was a very repellent repellent figure and it's it's one thing that The anti-clinton forces have going for them Nobody likes her Even the most ardent Democrats they don't like her. She's a very unlikable person. She's a I would argue a scary person but she definitely is eminently hateable and I think that Came through in that whole that whole debate people just got sick and tired We know from some of the focus groups afterwards They didn't like her looks and they thought that Trump despite the crazy hair and and all the rest Was a much more likeable figure? We hope that people are right to put their trust in him Who knows as butler Schaefer always says no matter who wins the election or whatever party wins the state always wins so Maybe things are or such that Trump who did criticize the Fed by the way talked about there being a bubble Talked about what they were doing to interest rates just to raise those questions only Ron Paul has ever raised those questions to my knowledge ever In American politics at that level anyway So I don't know. I also think it's good news today The natural Farage is coming over to to help prep him for the next debate And it was Nigel Farage is one of the great debaters and orators of our time I think this can't this can't but be a problem for Hillary, but we'll see I Do I do think just from on from a a Personal personal level I find this campaign very fun It's it's just usually I find became politics just very much unfun but I think the fact that It's just hilarious So at least we're getting a little entertainment for our tax dollars We don't get much for our tax though once in a while as in the Clarence Thomas hearings If once in a while you get something that is funny and you get a little something so We'll see what happens Because Trump is wrong on so much As I pointed out the time before I think Hillary is wrong on everything. I mean, she's like a hundred percent wrong and I feel dangerous from a war and peace question and She really is a neocon She's joined at the hip with the neocons who are the craziest people on war and peace questions you know sort of the Think of the American establishment Just use a one-word description sort of the Rockefeller types within the American establishment What they liked was the original Cold War. It was just ideal nobody They didn't have to worry about Washington or New York being nuked and Yet they could get everybody stirred up Everybody supporting the state everybody supporting the policies that would further enrich and empower them But there seem to be people I think back to Herman Kahn The famous neocon of the 1960s who wrote a book called thinking the unthinkable But why the US should be prepared and actually should engage in regular nuclear wars This would be just great for the whole world and for the American Empire. There are people who have these kinds of views They're all around Hillary Clinton Some very bad people are on Trump too, but by and large the people who Might endanger life on earth are around Hillary so We'll see what's gonna happen in these next two debates. I do I do tend to think the Trump is gonna win and because you It's always trouble when you get what you ask for right? I mean it's so well we'll see But it's just tremendous fun A quick thing about Hillary and her Personality because her the people around her saying if only the country could see the woman We see the the thoughtful me right have you read this the warm wonderful person We all know and of course these are not the stories you hear from her bodyguards and stuff, you know, but To me the most revealing anecdote I've heard on this goes back to the 1990s when her friend Lonnie Guinear was up for confirmation by the to the Supreme Court and Guinear was getting savaged by the right wing like they were just she was not going anywhere and she was flailing and It was it was a terrible situation for her and There was a now. So, you know, Hillary by that point had figured out. Well, this woman's a loser for me So Hillary has already mentally moved on so she's in a situation where the two of them literally cross paths Now here's Lonnie when you're absolutely wrecked and crushed by this whole scenario that the Clintons put her in by nominating her and Hillary just said hi and walked away Not hey. Oh my gosh. I am so sorry what you're going through. It's it was more of Look, you're done your toast and you're not gonna help me any so I'm already moving on I think that is a glimpse into who she but not just her That's a glimpse into who Bill is a glimpse into who all these people are that that's why I feel like a lot of times when I walk around Washington, DC and I walk past some of these people. I just get the chills On the other hand people who go in politics people who rise in politics tend all to be Exhibit narcissistic personality disorder many of them are psychopaths That's good argument against the state, right but Again, I find this all to be fun one of the thing I'll enjoy is the fact that everybody hateable hates Trump So that doesn't that's not an endorsement of him doesn't mean we know anything that's gonna happen, but it is fun I enjoy I enjoy seeing everybody on all the networks just vibrating with hatred and So that's it's happy to have it's a happy thing to see them unhappy So questions Not a question just a comment. I I run a dog business and part of our dog business is selling Trump and Hillary Chew Toys They've been a fabulous success Trump is ahead three to one There have been countries in the world by the way we're doing that would put you in jail So at least we still we can still have our dogs chew them up fun Hi My name is Geary. I'm from Brookline and I have a question about whether we need a pure candidate To be successful as a movement. We idolized Ron Paul. I think everyone here loves Ron Paul But he's just one man and he's getting very old There is a libertarian party Gary Johnson now When we hear about the philosophies of rock bar in anarcho capitalism The American people are never gonna go for something called anarchy So is there some permissible level of I don't want to say watering down But is there some other mechanism other than anarchy? Maybe it's we promote local government something that sounds less threatening as a means to The political and we're looking for Or does it have to be pure? I think there's no question. That's that's true I mean Mario's used to point out if somebody's running on a platform of cutting the sales tax by one cent Gotta be for him. I mean, that's that's not the answer, but at anything that's incremental step forward sometimes I'm afraid with Gary Johnson. Maybe it's not actually an incremental step Getting better William Weld But yeah, there was one we're on Ron Paul, thank God for Ron Paul and the example he said his whole life But they're gonna be you know, so if I mean it's enough for me If the world's not going to be destroyed as a result of the election if that's you know but this is all it's all it's all a role of the dice all these people and The state is a role of the dice and we know So as Tom points out, there's many happy things to look forward to And then we have the the killers the oppressors the the thieves You know, these are all these are all rotten people I will say and I've asked people who know far more than I do Whether they can think of any other any example of world history where a businessman became a dictator Everybody tells me no, so I think it's having been a businessman Something very good about that So we'll see but I think he probably is going to be the I think he probably is going to be The nominee and then Those of us who didn't like Hillary will be blamed for every bad thing he does and there'll be plenty of bad things he does But can it incrementally get better Even from a source who would have thought that this might happen with this guy So sure absolutely, we don't on the other hand I think there's every reason in the world for a Ron Paul who influenced millions of young people all over the world not just here He has up and did other kinds of work Wasn't so much the votes he got although in his congressional district He did very well. He won a lot of elections even against incumbents, which is almost unheard of in American politics so there's a you know 1,000 flowers bloom 100 schools of thought content, right? I mean let Although when Mao said that of course he wanted to see who had bad views and he killed them all so that's not that's not our view, but absolutely there's many ways to do things and none of us know even in an infinitesimal way to do it and You could never could have predicted or talking about things you couldn't have predicted who could have predicted a Ron Paul This guy would go from medicine to politics and change hearts and minds of millions of people towards liberty it's just As to those who will say they want to go into politics themselves to copy around Paul There's only been ever one Ron Paul Doesn't mean there couldn't be a second, but we so far there's just one But what a great what a great example and inspiration. He is Just tremendous I'll say just a quick thing if I were running as a libertarian You're right. If I were to say we should have competing defense agencies I don't think that's going anywhere, but I don't have to what I would do. I mean One smart thing Trump has done as compared to Hillary is you at least know what his issues are He's got three or four big issues that matter to him. I don't know what Hillary's issues are I mean think about it, right? I don't really know what her issues are She has an opinion on everything, but what is her focus? She doesn't seem to have one As a libertarian candidate, which by the way would not happen So please don't ask but as a libertarian candidate I would focus on four maybe I'd pick four things and I would hammer home on those four things That won't be discussed if I don't discuss them and one of them would be you know what here's what I pledge I'm gonna go four years without bombing anybody. There'll be no kids without limbs because of me You know so no No child, you know no child Yeah, right exactly right exact no child is gonna die unnecessarily because of me and Who else is gonna take that pledge? So I would do that and then yeah, and then I would hone in on the Fed because it turns out Contrary to what I thought would happen Ron Paul did very well by mentioning the Fed I actually thought he should shut up about the Fed up to see see why I shouldn't be anywhere near this I have no idea what I'm talking about But I would I would emphasize the heck out of that and I would make these simple points And you can make that point that I made here simple that they're trying to induce you to borrow and borrow and borrow to Stimulate the economy now that you can't borrow anymore. What other trick do they have the whole thing was a scam from the start What do we need these people for they have no idea what they're doing, you know You can you can pitch that in a populist way So I would find a few things and really hit them hard Things that the others won't be asking and then you get people to say why won't the others talk about this I might just mention one quite quick thing about Ron Paul when he was campaigning in 2008 He went to the University of Michigan Everybody's surprised they got more than 4,000 kids in the quad to listen to when he's giving his normal speech and he hears Here's these sounds from the audience and then he realizes they're all chanting end the Fed End the Fed which is where he got the title of his book And he said kids started lighting dollar bills on fire and holding them up Sort of a take that Bernanke a moment so People care about the Fed especially now especially as they come as tom points out as they're coming to realize what a horrific Institution this is how how damaging how many lives it shortened how many people it's put into poverty How how it's funded the wars never could have had world wars without central banking so There's opening on those kinds of issues too, but I like tom's anti-bombing pledge I'm voting for you tom. Thanks. Thanks. Lou Gentlemen, could you give me a thoughts on uh, elizabeth warren's rising popularity and her chastise on the wells faggo CEO a week or two ago I didn't i'm sorry to say i didn't follow it. I have so much traveling coming up I haven't followed any current events the past few weeks. I'm just running myself ragged Well, uh, you know elizabeth the phony indian um, and somehow that's never brought up right if If some right winger had Pretended to be part Cherokee and gotten into harvard because of it and gotten a job at harvard law school because of her phony Indian background. I think we'd hear about it all the time so, uh, but she You know any president of any CEO of wells faggo any big bank is bound to be a bad guy. I mean that's these are these are not Market institutions for the most part So I thought it was good. She went after him but Whatever is wrong with the president of wells fargo and i'm plenty wrong with him There's nothing like a u.s senator. I mean the u.s senator is an evil doer, right? I mean so at least the president of wells fargo was doing some good things in his life um, but this was you know It's very easy to grill people when you're a senator and you can people can't really answer your back And uh, you can't actually say, you know, I you're living off stolen funds, madam Right, you're not because they'll say his lawyers will say, ah, you know, you can't make those kinds of comments um, but I don't think she's as popular as she once was I think that, uh I think she's a very significant figure in massachusetts, unfortunately, but um I must say I don't think she has a political future. I think she's very unlikable to it Now she's not unlikable on the hillary level She's really an unpleasant Pleasant person like to run your life run your family run your home run your community run your business All into the ground and of course bring on war despite her alleged pro-peace You know, she's actually of course a warmonger exactly like bernie sanders by the way for some reason people thought was pro-peace always a warmonger always With the one of you he was he opposed the iraq war, but he voted for all the funding and of course tries to get military contracts for Vermont and all the normal criminal activities of these people But I don't I don't I hope I'm right. I don't think we I don't think we have anything to fear except people in massachusetts From elizabeth warren And I'm from massachusetts, so I care about that Lou, I've always wanted to know where in massachusetts. Are you from I'm from the town of belmont, which is a Oh belmont, okay suburb of boston right right next to cambridge extremely left-wing um Like everything else in eastern massachusetts So they heard you were coming today and are they having lou rockwell day later over in belmont planning it? Yeah Back in the day, I used to be the editor of the belmont citizen newspaper. Hey, and um one of the things I've been hearing today and everywhere is that There's a tremendous amount of despair Out there and in inside me And I heard recently of a website called vote anyway dot net And what it is is it's it's selling a voter assistance device Which is essentially a clothespin Especially adapted so that does not hurt when you put it on your nose and go into the polling place And one of them says voting for hillary and the other one says voting for trump So vote anyway dot net if you're feeling great despair and you are uncomfortable about making either of those choices I'll just um a slight dissent on that. I think it's much more fun not to vote First of all, you're not going into that government environment of the voting The voting booth area and having to park and go through a hassle But your vote doesn't matter And it's in a sacrament of the state and all those kinds of but just in a fundamental sense Unless the election is decided by one vote Let's say in the Our electoral votes in massacres, it's allocated by congressional district But whatever is the whatever is the uh The area that you're voting Is it going to be dissent, you know, nothing's decided by one vote But once in a great while some little mayoral election is decided by one vote Your vote doesn't count your vote doesn't matter. So, uh, I'm not thinking it's if you want to vote That's you know, that's fine, but I must say I get much more fun out of Putting a closed pin on the whole system and just having nothing to do with it in that practical sense Um, I just wanted to say um, but at least in my lifetime the past 20 years or so Uh, massachusetts had had a history of republican governors And I think that's because a lot of the towns outside the cities of Brookline, Cambridge, boston and some of the amherst towns out west A lot of the um towns are awfully conservative So despite what the national media thinks of massachusetts The reality Isn't quite that we just get outweighed by the academics and the cities But my question is trump supports a tariff and uh It's my understanding that the um original originally the the after the revolution The um main tax was a tariff um So at my opinion the best tax if any would be a flat tax So I was wondering if there could be some type of hybrid With a small tariff match with a flat tax to fund the government And what your thoughts on that might be Well, I mean if you're interested I mean presumably you could The I mean the difference would be that trumps proposed tariffs are not Not really intended to be revenue tariffs. They're meant to discourage certain kinds of activity So it would be It would be a pure bonus if it actually brought in money The point is that since nobody would ever pay that Tariff because it's it makes the foreign good so expensive you buy domestically So therefore you don't pay the tariff. So he is he's not saying let let me think of what what's the Preferred tax form that the founding fathers would have been happiest with they basically They didn't all agree but the early thing was to have a a tariff for revenue That was not so high that no one would ever pay it And then eventually that developed into a protective tariff But the two kinds of tariff are very different because they lead to different consequences one collects money for the government One discourages people from buying foreign goods Um So overwhelmingly that it basically brings in little to no money for the government So if you if you asked ron paul, what would you favor? As a tax i'm fairly certain that his his argument was a very low tariff I think that was about it That's better from a civil liberties standpoint, too If you don't have the irs breathing down your neck But this tongue points out A protective terrace doesn't bring in money. It's again Whereas a revenue tariff has to be low enough to generate income And that was the that in selling federal and selling federal land to people to homestead Was also a big source of government revenue in those days. There's no direct taxation so Trump You know tariffs tariffs are a problem. I don't want to shock anybody the u.s. Is not a free trade nation It's not actually free trade is where I can sell something to some guy in germany and the none of the government's business I can buy something from some guy in russia None of the government's business. That's nobody advocates that except ron paul So it's all control or non-tariff barriers many many and a dumping regulation the many us is is a protectionist Government and every politician is a protectionist of some sort the exception again of ron paul so And I once spent an entire day This is a terrible thing to confess and the government printing office in washington looking at the nafta treaty Which is you know a gigantic series of books In those days you can only see it in the government printing office and it was on a chain With a hole through it you could you could look through it And there was nothing in there about free trade. Every single thing was here's a special deal for caterpillar Here's a special deal for westinghouse, you know, etc um So unfortunately The bad guys have been very successful in labeling all this free trade Now we get blamed because some of the bad effects of these trade deals are the trans pacific trans pacific business Which would extend IP regulations all over the world in a new and horrible way and just these these agreements are not free trade They're anti free trade agreements So Trump would trump's taxes be worse I don't know you his tax plan is pretty good. Is it all a fraud? But his his at least a tax plan that he's issued Would be a huge improvement in terms of cutting corporate taxes and and income tax rates so I think people are not happy with the present system Could go always get worse Maybe we'll get better Maybe we're lost to be alive. That would be a nice bonus But the government's not bombing us in effect Uh, hello, my name is uh, Liam. I'm a high school senior, uh from boston My question is about the inheritance tax that helerie wants to enforce Which as you may know, she wants to raise it to a 45 55 65 tax bracket Set up I would just like to know your thoughts on how that's going to affect the economy in total and also how To what extent it is unjust to those who have been productive over their lives and saved up Thank you Well, I I always thought it was a bizarre kind of tax because the money has already been taxed these earnings You already paid all the taxes on them. So why would I pay again? Just because I died And in fact, you know, sometimes people call it the death tax So I was one time a few years ago I was writing down for one of my daughters a list of all the forms of taxation I could think of So I wrote out death tax and she stopped me and said what? What are you talking about? But yeah, I mean, there are all kinds of horror shows about Small businesses having to liquidate completely in order to pay these taxes. It's it's devastating to normal people basically Um, but but lou, what are your thoughts? Well, I was gonna say this is one of the items in the communist manifesto Uh, Carl Marx like his disciple hillary hate the idea People being able to pass anything on to their heirs or to charities like the mesis institute. We're very very blessed to have people Leave money in their wills to us So but the Marxist hate it even James Buchanan the sort of free market economist Wanted a hundred percent inheritance taxes pappy cannon has proposed a hundred percent inheritance taxes this is Not a good thing in the present oligarchs By the way, I like hide high taxes of this sort because it prevents other people from Developing their own family fortunes state loves it because they don't like powerful private families that they don't that are not part of the state So from a from a social benefits standpoint There should be zero inheritance taxes This is of course Lincoln had it was the founder of the inheritance tax in America like so many other evil things And this has always been a big deal of the left Um, I actually think hillary made a mistake In advocating that I think that's I think that was a stupid political mistake It's one thing to whisper it to our friends to make that an open I think uh, I think americans are not as envious As they sometimes would like us to be and people Don't think there's a bad thing about somebody saving up and passing Uh, something onto their children their grandchildren their church Um, we all we all like that. So, um, I think in hope that she made a very bad mistake in telling what she really wants She'd like a hundred percent. I'm sure But of course, they're greedy too. So they want money Uh, they want your money, but um, they don't want private wealth accumulation of any sort while you're living or after your death Lou, it's just about time for you to say a few words But before we do that I'd like to say a little something about the mesas institute If I could especially here Because I was at this institution when I discovered the mesas institute back in 1993. I was a junior And that's when I saw the magazine ad for the mesas university program I mailed away for the information and I got it and I can tell you something. I mean I I told you before I don't look back with regrets on my college years. I had a wonderful time and I did a lot of great fun things and I learned a lot but The mesas institute has it all over this place and I can tell you as somebody who was here for four years that I never felt so intellectually liberated as I did when I was at the mesas institute's program and that's what Basically made me into the guy I am now and started doing the things that I that I do now It gave me a whole new way of looking at the world that I was instantly convinced of And it gave me a desire to Carry on in this tradition It gave me the tools I needed so that when the financial crisis hit I could release basically the first book out on the financial crisis was written by an austrian That was my book meltdown and that was a new york times bestseller for 10 weeks Now how was I able to write that book in one month? Because I knew the stuff because I had been a student of the mesas institute for so many years That is an effective institution And believe me I do a lot of public speaking. I run into a lot of ineffective institutions I run into a lot of institutions that blow a lot of donor money on nothing You are paying for the chauffeur of the president of the think tank half the time That is not the case lou drives himself That is not the case and jeff dice. He drives himself to and from the mesas institute So I I want to urge people if you're if you like what you hear you like what you see at mesas.org Let's remember what we always say which is that in a free society We won't need to force people to build up Educational and charitable institutions. They will do it voluntarily because they see the value in it Well, let's put our money where our mouths are about that and I urge you today today before you leave To see christie at the table and join the mesas institute and help us out because it is and I I don't earn a salary from the institute Uh, I I just like to promote it because of all the great things that did for me and all the good things It's doing in the world. There are a lot of think tanks you can go to that'll give you a lot of mealymouth stuff You won't get anything mealymouth in the mesas institute And that's why the sharpest young minds are going through the mesas institute's programs help them continue that by becoming a member of the institute today Okay, that was my