Lecture series · recorded 2008
Rothbard Graduate Seminar
Rothbard Graduate Seminar is a free lecture series (21 recordings, 15 hours) you can stream or download at freecapitalists.org, with 8 speakers.
This program is an intense study of Rothbardian economic analytics, using Man, Economy, and State, as well as supplemental materials. Sponsored by Alice J. Lillie, and hosted at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, 8-13 June 2008.
Money and BanksTaxes and SpendingBiographies
Cover painting: Sam Brannan runs through San Francisco waving his hat and shouting news of gold, May 1848. See every painting in the art gallery.
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01
18:36 Download MP3
Introduction to "Man, Economy, and State" 2008
The publication in 1962 of Rothbard's magnum opus rescued economic science from self-destruction. Menger's causal-realist approach had been nearly buried by the Keynesian Revolution. Keynesian macroeconomics denied the efficacy of the price system altogether in coordinating the various sectors of an economy confronted with the failure of aggregate demand.
Austrian Economics OverviewPhilosophy and Methodology
Read the transcript 2,758 words
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02
33:57 Download MP3
Rothbard as Historian 2008
Rothbard could have been acclaimed for just his works in history, without all his contributions to economics. The Panic of 1819, America's Great Depression, Conceived In Liberty, History of Economic Thought, and A History of Money and Banking are each structured upon Rothbard's theory of power and liberty.
Read the transcript 5,312 words
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03
31:34 Download MP3
Fundamentals of Human Action 2008
Human action is defined simply as purposeful behavior. Men act by virtue of their being human. Action can be undertaken only by individual actors. Leisure is a good. Mises derives economic law from this axiom that the study of man is the concept of action.
Austrian Economics OverviewPraxeology
Read the transcript 4,243 words
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04
44:51 Download MP3
Direct Exchange 2008
Exchange is the foundation of the division of labor. Each party to an exchange must expect greater psychic benefit than what he is giving up. Thus, trades are not equal, they are win-win activities. Property and ownership are value-free and a pre-condition of a free market.
Austrian Economics OverviewValue and Exchange
Read the transcript 6,355 words
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05
33:21 Download MP3
The Pattern of Indirect Exchange 2008
Direct exchange was limited. The pattern of indirect exchange led to the common medium of exchange: money. Maximization of psychic income always leads the seller of a good to seek the highest money price for it, and the buyer of a good to seek the lowest money price.
Austrian Economics OverviewValue and Exchange
Read the transcript 6,295 words
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06
39:42 Download MP3
Prices and Consumption 2008
Rothbard's approach to money prices is not as a barter exchange system. Instead, he made money prices the common denominator for all exchange ratios. You can now engage in economic calculation.
Austrian Economics OverviewPricesProduction Theory
Read the transcript 5,992 words
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07
40:38 Download MP3
Production: The Structure 2008
The mental constructs of the evenly rotating economy and of specific factors of production are discussed. Distinguishing between interest and profits and a construct of slow change are revealed through the ERE as Rothbard considers the final state of rest.The ERE construct is simply a useful, unrealizable, mental tool.
Austrian Economics OverviewProduction Theory
Read the transcript 5,993 words
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08
32:11 Download MP3
Production: The Rate of Interest and Its Determination 2008
Here Rothbard deals with the pure rate of interest, as determined by time preference. It's a ratio of prices between present and future goods. The interest rate is equal to the rate of price spread in the various stages of production. It pervades all time markets.
Austrian Economics OverviewCapital and Interest Theory
Read the transcript 4,711 words
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09
1:05:47 Download MP3
Production: General Pricing of the Factors 2008
This middle chapter on production theory goes into detail on factor pricing and discounted marginal value product. The way Rothbard developed every aspect of production theory is unique. As the economy becomes more specialized and complex, the importance of this market process becomes greater.
Austrian Economics OverviewPricesProduction Theory
Read the transcript 9,439 words
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10
39:57 Download MP3
Production: Entrepreneurship and Change 2008
Entrepreneurs see the future better than others and go and make money off it. Profits are an index that maladjustments are being met and combatted by the profit-making entrepreneurs. Capital does not beget profits. Only wise entrepreneurial decisions do that.
Austrian Economics OverviewEntrepreneurshipProduction Theory
Read the transcript 7,256 words
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11
59:44 Download MP3
Production: Particular Factor Prices and Productive Incomes 2008
The pricing, supplies, and incomes of particular factor prices - labor and land - and the effects of a changing economy upon them are discussed as Rothbard viewed them. The theory of rent is a highlight of this chapter. The Mengarian causal-realist tradition is integrated here.
Austrian Economics OverviewPrices
Read the transcript 8,960 words
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12
49:15 Download MP3
Monopoly and Competition 2008
Walter Block met Rothbard in 1966. Here, Block tells a joke making the point that antitrust law is dead from the neck up. There is nothing wrong with a monopoly price. Whatever price the free market establishes will be the best price.
Austrian Economics OverviewMonopoly and Competition
Read the transcript 7,642 words
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13
55:04 Download MP3
Money and Its Purchasing Power 2008
This completes the study of money and of the effects of changes in monetary relations on the economic system. Like all commodities, money has its own supply and demand and price: purchasing power. Everyone deals in money.
Austrian Economics OverviewValue and ExchangeMoney and Banks
Read the transcript 8,478 words
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14
50:35 Download MP3
The Supply of Money 2008
How are money prices determined? The stock of the money commodity responds to demand and supply of the consumers and their preferences just as with any other good.
Austrian Economics OverviewMoney and BankingMoney and Banks
Read the transcript 8,364 words
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15
50:49 Download MP3
Fundamentals of Intervention 2008
Power & Market - this second section of Rothbard's book - shows the state was to be protector of the people and property, but the government is contradictory to that task. Government both taxes and demands a monopoly of defensive services within a geographical area.
Austrian Economics OverviewInterventionism
Read the transcript 8,434 words
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16
50:08 Download MP3
Triangular Intervention 2008
Price controls, product controls, compulsory cartels, licenses, standards, tariffs, child labor laws, conscription, minimum wage laws, subsidies, penalties, anti-trust, conservation laws, patents, public utilities, eminent domain, and bribery are among the many triangular interventions by government that distort markets and reduce benefits to con
Austrian Economics OverviewInterventionism
Read the transcript 6,153 words
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17
1:06:22 Download MP3
Binary Intervention: Taxation I 2008
The uniqueness of the Austrian approach to taxation is to first cover Public Policy, then Antimarket Ethics and finally Taxation. It is a praxeological development approach. Robbery and counterfeiting are the revenues to the state. You can't look at taxation alone, you must look at expenditures, too.
Austrian Economics OverviewInterventionismTaxes and Spending
Read the transcript 9,573 words
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18
39:00 Download MP3
Binary Intervention: Taxation II 2008
Progressive, proportional and regressive taxes. Rothbard is relentlessly not in favor of taxes. The state robs both rich and poor.
Austrian Economics OverviewInterventionismTaxes and Spending
Read the transcript 6,638 words
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19
32:51 Download MP3
Binary Intervention: Government Expenditures and the Business Cycle 2008
Main objection to the Austrian Business Cycle Theory is rational expectations - they can't prevent entrepreneurs from making use of loose credit because they would be left behind if they didn't.
Austrian Economics OverviewBusiness CyclesInterventionismTaxes and Spending
Read the transcript 6,682 words
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20
38:44 Download MP3
Antimarket Ethics: A Praxeological Critique 2008
Praxeology - economics - provides no ultimate ethical judgments: it simply furnishes the indispensable data necessary to make such judgments. Common criticisms of the free market are refuted praxeologically in this chapter. Absolute equality is an impossible goal.
Austrian Economics OverviewCapital and Interest TheoryPraxeology
Read the transcript 4,690 words
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21
28:02 Download MP3
Economics and Public Policy 2008
In this 28-minute talk, Peter Klein explains why governments employ so many economists, and what economists should really be doing.
Austrian Economics OverviewFiscal TheoryPolitical Theory
Read the transcript 4,153 words
People in this series
Speakers
David Gordon, Jeffrey M. Herbener, Joseph T. Salerno, Mark Thornton, Peter G. Klein, Robert P. Murphy, Thomas E. Woods, Jr., Walter Block.
Recording dates, summaries and topics for 21 of these 21 lectures come from the Mises Institute's page for Rothbard Graduate Seminar, checked 2026-07-23.
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About this series
- Is Rothbard Graduate Seminar free to listen to?
- Yes. All 21 mirrored recordings stream in the browser or download as audio, at no cost and with no signup.
- How long is Rothbard Graduate Seminar?
- 21 recordings, 15 hours in total.
- Who lectures in Rothbard Graduate Seminar?
- David Gordon, Jeffrey M. Herbener, Joseph T. Salerno, Mark Thornton, and 4 others.
- When was Rothbard Graduate Seminar recorded?
- 2008, per the recording dates recovered for this series.
- Is there a transcript of Rothbard Graduate Seminar?
- Yes. Every lecture in the series has one, 138,121 words in total, free to read on each lecture's page and searchable in the browser.
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