#831 Senator Phil Gramm Debunks the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism

What role should the government play in small business owners economic life? It seems that with the Trump tariffs are at tax that the government is putting on all our lives, but should it just stay out of it?

My next guests argue that that the evidence points to that  government interference and failed policies pose the most significant threat to economic freedom.

Senator Phil Gramm served six years in the U.S. House of Representatives and eighteen years in the U.S. Senate where he was Chairman of the Banking Committee. Senator Gramm is a Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

I also talk with Donald J. Boudreaux who is an American economist, author, professor, and co-director of the Program on the American  Economy and Globalization at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

They have a new book called “The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism”.

Here is what we discussed:

The genesis myth: the industrial revolution impoverished workers
The progressive era regulation: the myth and the history 
The myth that the great depression was a failure of capitalism 
The myth of trade hollowing out American manufacturing 
The financial crisis myth: deregulation caused the financial crisis 
The myth and reality of income inequality in America 
The myth that poverty is a failure of American capitalism

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