The Charlie Kirk Show - April 05, 2022


No Free Lunch—Economic Truth in an Era of Financial Insanity with Dave Bahnsen


Episode Stats


Length

34 minutes

Words per minute

177.87378

Word count

6,107

Sentence count

467

Harmful content

Misogyny

9

sentences flagged

Toxicity

32

sentences flagged

Hate speech

12

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode of the Charlie Kirk Show, host Charlie Kirk is joined by author Dave Bonson with us, author of There is No Free Lunch, to discuss the possibility of the first Black Supreme Court Justice being confirmed this week.

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Charlie Kirk Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hey, everybody, there is no free lunch.
00:00:01.000 Dave Bonson with us, author of There Is No Free Lunch, 250 Economic Truths.
00:00:06.000 Email me your thoughts.
00:00:07.000 As always, freedom at CharlieKirk.com.
00:00:09.000 And subscribe to the Charlie Kirk Show podcast by taking out your podcast app, typing in Charlie Kirk Show, hitting subscribe in the upper right-hand corner.
00:00:16.000 We're very appreciative of that.
00:00:18.000 And get involved with Turning PointUSA today at tpusa.com, where we play offense with a sense of urgency to win the American Culture War, tpusa.com.
00:00:27.000 Buckle up, everybody, here.
00:00:29.000 We go.
00:00:29.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
00:00:31.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
00:00:33.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
00:00:37.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
00:00:40.000 I want to thank Charlie.
00:00:41.000 He's an incredible guy.
00:00:42.000 His spirit, his love of this country.
00:00:44.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
00:00:50.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:00:59.000 That's why we are here.
00:01:02.000 Brought to you by Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage.
00:01:05.000 For personalized loan services, you can count on.
00:01:07.000 Go to andrewandodd.com, the wonderfulandrewandtodd.com.
00:01:14.000 So I don't expect the media to know much about our history.
00:01:18.000 In fact, they are almost experts of not knowing anything about our history.
00:01:23.000 But when it's so blatant and honestly racist, the way they cover our country, it's worthy of a little bit of focus.
00:01:32.000 And so the not the non-biologist woman, at least I think she's a woman.
00:01:38.000 She won't tell us if she's a woman or not. 1.00
00:01:40.000 Katangi Brown Jackson, who's up to become the next Supreme Court justice, was selected simply because of her skin color and because of her chromosomes. 1.00
00:01:50.000 She's a very dumb person. 1.00
00:01:51.000 We realized that in the hearings. 1.00
00:01:54.000 Not exactly, very unimpressive.
00:01:56.000 I wish she was smart.
00:01:57.000 I want smart people on the Supreme Court.
00:01:59.000 She wasn't able to answer very basic questions about equal protection.
00:02:03.000 She can't tell you what a woman is. 1.00
00:02:05.000 She also was very lenient for baby torturers. 0.99
00:02:09.000 True story. 0.99
00:02:10.000 Very lenient for child pedophiles and very lenient for child predators. 0.77
00:02:15.000 She has a soft spot for predators. 0.98
00:02:17.000 Katangi Brown Jackson does.
00:02:19.000 Again, I don't find delight in saying any of these things, but it's who they decided to put up.
00:02:24.000 Senator Mark Kelly from Arizona, soon to be former senator, I hope.
00:02:28.000 We're going to do everything we possibly can at Turning Point Action, Turning Point Pact to get rid of him, has said that he's going to vote for Katangi Brown Jackson.
00:02:37.000 Raphael Warnock will probably follow suit, and Joe Manchin is as well.
00:02:40.000 I think Susan Collins has voiced support as well.
00:02:43.000 Now, they don't know history at all.
00:02:46.000 Now, the first black ever on the Supreme Court was Thurgood Marshall.
00:02:50.000 And then, I believe, Clarence Thomas was the second.
00:02:54.000 Is that correct?
00:02:54.000 That's it.
00:02:55.000 So, there's been two black people on the Supreme Court in our history: Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas.
00:03:02.000 There's also one currently serving, Clarence Thomas.
00:03:05.000 But Politico, which again was the one that helped get Joe Biden get elected because they covered up the entire story with Russian disinformation smokescreen, tweeted out the following: quote, Katanji Brown Jackson will likely be confirmed as the first black Supreme Court justice by the end of this week.
00:03:22.000 Here's how we'll expect it to go.
00:03:24.000 How these people went to college, which is exactly why they don't know anything.
00:03:31.000 Katanji Brown Jackson will likely be confirmed as the first black Supreme Court justice by the end of this week.
00:03:37.000 Politico tweeted that out.
00:03:38.000 They deleted the tweet and then tweeted this correction quote for the record.
00:03:42.000 This replaces an earlier tweet that stated Katanji Brown Jackson could be the first black Supreme Court justice.
00:03:46.000 It should have said first black female Supreme Court justice. 1.00
00:03:49.000 We apologize for the error.
00:03:50.000 I could have wrote that for them.
00:03:51.000 We knew it was happening.
00:03:52.000 Senator Michael Lee ripped them.
00:03:54.000 Play Cut 22.
00:03:56.000 Earlier today, There was a Politico tweet.
00:04:00.000 Politico sent out a tweet reading as follows, saying, Katanja Brown Jackson will likely be confirmed as the first black Supreme Court justice by the end of this week.
00:04:10.000 Here's how we expect it to go.
00:04:12.000 Now, if that were true, that would come as news to the family of Thurcut Marshall.
00:04:22.000 It would come as great news to Justice Clarence Thomas and his family.
00:04:30.000 No kidding.
00:04:31.000 Now, of course, Joe Biden blocked the first black woman to go in the Supreme Court. 0.53
00:04:35.000 No one knows this story.
00:04:37.000 It was written up by Mark Tiesson at AEI.org.
00:04:40.000 Remembering the black woman Biden blocked from the Supreme Court.
00:04:43.000 Biden wants credit nominating the first black woman, but here's the shameful irony.
00:04:46.000 As a senator, Biden warned George W. Bush that if he nominated the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, he would filibuster and kill her nomination. 0.97
00:04:53.000 Joe Biden doesn't think much of black people. 0.89
00:04:55.000 He never has. 0.99
00:04:57.000 He's been incredibly racist throughout his entire career. 0.95
00:04:59.000 I believe he still is racist.
00:05:00.000 He never was held accountable for that. 0.96
00:05:03.000 You ain't black. 0.98
00:05:04.000 What are you, a drug dealer? 0.99
00:05:06.000 This kind of weird, kind of almost authoritarian pandering to the black community. 0.88
00:05:10.000 Biden also fiercely opposed Clarence Thomas, this kind of meandering story he tells about corn pop. 0.98
00:05:16.000 Biden is a bigot. 0.54
00:05:17.000 He always has been. 0.74
00:05:17.000 I don't say that lightly. 0.74
00:05:19.000 All he cares about is power, and that's been the story there.
00:05:22.000 But it's so interesting where Politico gets away with this, where they say, first black person to go on the Supreme Court.
00:05:29.000 Clarence Thomas, Thurgood Marshall.
00:05:33.000 Nowhere in there history.
00:05:34.000 Okay, I'm going to get to some other stories here that we have.
00:05:39.000 Let's talk about energy.
00:05:41.000 Let's play cut eight, Pete Budajej, the pothole mayor from South Bend, Indiana.
00:05:48.000 Play cut eight.
00:05:49.000 So less dependent on foreign oil, and that protects us from shortages at fuel stations.
00:05:55.000 But here's the thing to remember: even if all of the oil we use in the USA were made in the USA, the price of it is still subject to powers and dynamics outside of the USA, which means that until we achieve a form of energy independence that is based on clean energy created here at home, American citizens will still be vulnerable to wild price hikes like we're seeing right now.
00:06:17.000 Alfred E. Newman, with the commentary there on energy, I got to tell you that Pete Buttigieg really bothers me.
00:06:27.000 He bothers me on a couple different ways.
00:06:29.000 His arrogance, his smugness, his kind of like, he almost, he has this almost kind of entitlement.
00:06:37.000 He's like, I'm entitled to just good coverage at all times.
00:06:42.000 But he's such a creation of the corporate class.
00:06:46.000 Like, I was built for this.
00:06:51.000 I'm going to say exactly what I need to say when I need to say it, no matter what.
00:06:54.000 And what is he really saying there?
00:06:55.000 Well, he's saying that we have to get used to the price hikes until we achieve a form of energy independence that is based on clean energy.
00:07:03.000 No talking about oil and natural gas development here.
00:07:06.000 No talking about Keystone XL pipeline.
00:07:08.000 They would much rather buy the oil from Iran or from other Middle Eastern theocratic dictatorships than explore it here at home.
00:07:20.000 Play cut 31.
00:07:22.000 Right now I hear from everybody.
00:07:23.000 We are producing at record numbers.
00:07:26.000 We could be producing more.
00:07:28.000 Can we be independent right here in America?
00:07:30.000 We were energy independent under the Trump administration and we can be again.
00:07:33.000 Under Trump, we were producing 13 million barrels a day.
00:07:37.000 Last month we produced 11.6.
00:07:41.000 The American oil field is definitely capable of more and it frustrates me giantly when I hear Biden say calling OPEC wanting more oil calling Venezuela wanting more.
00:07:49.000 What about Texas?
00:07:50.000 What about North Dakota?
00:07:51.000 We can do it here.
00:07:52.000 We could do it here.
00:07:53.000 We could also explore the Marcella Shale.
00:07:55.000 We could explore in New York.
00:07:57.000 But there is a deliberate campaign to try and transition us out of this current state of energy consumption into some sort of undefined future.
00:08:09.000 They want to break it so that they could reset it.
00:08:13.000 Now, I have this amazing, we don't have the time in this hour.
00:08:17.000 So, either tomorrow or Wednesday, you guys got to keep your eyes peeled on the Charlie Kirk Show podcast page.
00:08:24.000 There are some phenomenal, actually phenomenal is not the right word.
00:08:27.000 Fascinating is the right word.
00:08:29.000 There's some fascinating new developments out of the World Economic Forum, all about new world order and all that.
00:08:34.000 I don't even want to get into that right now.
00:08:38.000 We have to build that out because there was a recent World Economic Forum summit, and I want to get into that into the weeds.
00:08:45.000 And I also got to do a future episode on Iran.
00:08:48.000 There's a lot happening with Iran, and it's so disingenuous, right? 1.00
00:08:51.000 So the media say, we hate Russia, we hate Russia, Biden, we hate Russia. 0.99
00:08:54.000 Putin's a war criminal.
00:08:55.000 So Biden comes out today and he says Putin's a war criminal, right?
00:08:58.000 So he says Putin's a war criminal.
00:08:58.000 Okay.
00:09:00.000 Which one's this right here?
00:09:02.000 Play cut 12.
00:09:03.000 He says Putin's a war criminal because of BUCA.
00:09:06.000 What's happening in Buka is outrageous.
00:09:08.000 Play cut 12.
00:09:10.000 You may remember I got criticized for calling Putin a war criminal.
00:09:15.000 Well, the truth of the matter, we saw what happened to Ruka.
00:09:18.000 This warrants him, he is a war criminal.
00:09:21.000 But we have to gather the information.
00:09:24.000 We have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue to fight. 0.65
00:09:29.000 And we have to gather all the detail so this can be an actual have a war crime trial.
00:09:35.000 This guy is brutal.
00:09:37.000 And what's happening in Bukha is outrageous.
00:09:40.000 And everyone's seen it.
00:09:41.000 Abdula.
00:09:43.000 No, I think it is a war crime. 0.94
00:09:46.000 What do you mean, sir?
00:09:46.000 Are you going to do more sanctions on Russia?
00:09:48.000 I'm seeking more sanctions.
00:09:50.000 Yes, I'll have time to announce that to you.
00:09:52.000 So if Putin's a war criminal, answer this question, Joe Biden.
00:09:57.000 Why are you having Russia be the interlocutor?
00:10:00.000 Why are you having them be the go-between, the neutral party, in your negotiation with Iran?
00:10:06.000 If Russia was so terrible, Joe Biden, why are you relying on Russia to negotiate the Iranian nuclear deal?
00:10:14.000 We're going to keep our eyes on the Iranian nuclear deal, which could totally change the geopolitical winds of what's happened in the Middle East and across the world.
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00:11:43.000 Okay, so let's get to some more sound here.
00:11:46.000 Let's get to this one with Donald Trump was in Michigan this last weekend.
00:11:54.000 He had a rally, talked about the woke.
00:11:56.000 This is a winning message for him.
00:11:58.000 Play Cut 28. 0.98
00:11:59.000 The American people will not sit idly by and allow our children to be indoctrinated, segregated, and mutilated by the lunatic left. 0.51
00:12:13.000 That right there, that sentence can get him reelected as president. 0.97
00:12:18.000 Indoctrinated, segregated, and mutilated.
00:12:20.000 And that's exactly what's happening.
00:12:22.000 Now, of course, the other side, the Democrats, how are they reacting?
00:12:26.000 Well, Eric Adams is now announcing that he is going to put up gay billboards, pro-gay billboards all across Florida in an effort to try to draw people out of Florida and back into New York.
00:12:44.000 Eric Adams, who is supposed to be a common sense mayor, who's turning out to be a total disaster, says, quote, we are going to purchase digital billboards for the next eight weeks in five major Florida markets, including Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Tampa and West Palm Beach, to attract gay people back to New York. 0.88
00:13:03.000 Why?
00:13:04.000 He can't really answer why.
00:13:06.000 Quote, New York City, where the Stonewall Inn riots ignited what many consider to be the birth of the modern LGBTQ plus movement, never heard of it, has long voiced its support for that community.
00:13:17.000 Now it wants its message to be heard in one place, especially Florida.
00:13:21.000 Of course, the homosexual community in Florida, for whatever reason, that Eric Adams is trying to pander to, do you think that I actually think many of the gays in Florida are in support of the fact that kids should not be taught about things that are this explicit when they're five, six, or seven years old?
00:13:40.000 The GOP legislation, which has drawn intense national scrutiny, no, it hasn't.
00:13:44.000 It's actually popular amongst Democrats.
00:13:47.000 Bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, which the mayor called a target attack on the LGBTQ population.
00:13:55.000 They even say what it is in this news article.
00:13:59.000 The GOP legislation that has drawn intense national scrutiny barred instruction and sexual orientation.
00:14:04.000 Look, if you're against, let me say this differently.
00:14:09.000 If you're for teaching kindergarten, first, second, and third grade about sexual orientation and gender identity, you got some serious problems.
00:14:19.000 In fact, we should probably like surveil you, like some real problems.
00:14:23.000 But Eric Adams is totally on board for it.
00:14:25.000 He thinks that second graders need to be talked about lesbian and transgender stuff.
00:14:30.000 It's not a joke.
00:14:31.000 He says, quote, this is the city of Stonewall, whatever that is.
00:14:33.000 This is a city that we're proud to talk about, how we can live in a comfortably set it, comfortable setting and not be harassed.
00:14:39.000 What are you talking about?
00:14:40.000 Harassment.
00:14:42.000 This is important, that Florida has a significant gay population, especially in Clearwater and in St. Petersburg and in all of that.
00:14:52.000 So Eric Adams, the way he's going to try to make New York great again is recruit the gay population out of Florida to go to New York around this bill. 0.83
00:15:00.000 He says, quote, the billboards, Adams said, are from City Hall, which will be up for eight weeks in five major Florida markets, whatever.
00:15:07.000 And they'll deliver an estimated 5 million impressions.
00:15:11.000 And if you see it, so the, boy, I got to see if I can get this on the live stream.
00:15:15.000 It's so unbelievable. 0.94
00:15:16.000 So the poster he's putting up has gay all over it. 0.99
00:15:21.000 Gay, gay, It says, come to the city where you can say whatever you want. 0.99
00:15:27.000 No, you can't say whatever you want, actually, in New York City. 1.00
00:15:30.000 If I were to say Donald Trump was a great president, I would get harassed and probably beaten. 0.97
00:15:37.000 People say lots of ridiculous things in New York. 1.00
00:15:39.000 Don't say gay isn't one of them. 1.00
00:15:41.000 My goodness, these people are so dishonest. 0.99
00:15:43.000 When other states show their true colors, we show ours in all gay rainbow. 0.99
00:15:48.000 Eric Adams, loud, proud, and still allowed.
00:15:52.000 New York City is alive and so is free speech.
00:15:54.000 The gas, the gaslighting these people engage in.
00:15:59.000 We're talking about kindergarten first, second, and third graders.
00:16:02.000 And how does Eric Adams respond?
00:16:06.000 Responds with a complete and total design like that. 0.99
00:16:12.000 Gay, Come to the city where you say whatever you want. 1.00
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00:17:29.000 There is no free lunch.
00:17:32.000 It's a pretty simple statement, but boy is it true. 0.99
00:17:36.000 With us right now is someone who is author of a book called There Is No Free Lunch, 250 Economic Truths.
00:17:42.000 Dave Banson is with us right now.
00:17:44.000 Dave, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:17:46.000 Hey, good to be with you, Charlie.
00:17:48.000 So let's just kind of start with your book, kind of set the table here.
00:17:51.000 What do you mean there's no free lunch?
00:17:53.000 I got free stuff all the time, free stimulus checks.
00:17:55.000 Like, I mean, come on, no free lunch?
00:17:58.000 Yeah, the kind of twofold truth here is: A, it's never free for everyone.
00:18:04.000 There's someone paying the price.
00:18:06.000 And then I think the bigger economic takeaway, Milton Friedman famously, you know, used this language was that there's such thing as trade-offs.
00:18:15.000 So it's not just that there's no free things like when you get a stimulus check or whatnot, that someone's paying for it.
00:18:22.000 That's all true enough when it comes to public policy, the way we want to view things as conservatives.
00:18:27.000 But I think even economically, it's important to understand that to get something we want, we give up something we want.
00:18:35.000 When we go to buy something in the store, we give them our money.
00:18:39.000 It would be great if we could keep our money and get the thing we want.
00:18:42.000 But economics is about allocation of scarcity.
00:18:46.000 So there's a really important economic point here.
00:18:49.000 Yeah.
00:18:49.000 And so how do we try to solve the problem of scarcity through redistribution or is there another way?
00:18:57.000 Well, the way that has brought most people out of poverty for hundreds of years is this thing called free enterprise.
00:19:05.000 A free society that allows people operating in their self-interest with regard for community, with a regard for their fellow man, but to operate with freedom.
00:19:16.000 And I believe that we see empirical proof throughout history of the beauty of free enterprise.
00:19:23.000 But it's more than just what the state does to impede that with redistribution and how people like you and I may not think it's fair or may not think it's right.
00:19:32.000 It really hurts economic growth because the state can't know the things that are necessary and they can't have the incentives that are necessary to optimize scarcity, to optimize the allocation of resources.
00:19:48.000 So, people freely end up making better decisions, which leads to more macro economic growth.
00:19:54.000 That's the whole beauty of the free enterprise system, Charlie.
00:19:56.000 So, we're living through a period of inflation right now.
00:19:59.000 I remember I had a lunch in Palm Beach about, let me think about this, about a year ago, year and a half ago, and I said that inflation is coming.
00:20:07.000 I was laughed at by a bunch of Wall Street guys.
00:20:10.000 They said, Oh, we look at all the fundamentals.
00:20:11.000 There's no way it's not going to happen.
00:20:13.000 How did the experts get this so wrong?
00:20:15.000 I mean, I remember it was so clear and vivid.
00:20:17.000 People that are in the money management business told me, No inflation, never going to happen.
00:20:21.000 We don't have enough money, but now we're living through catastrophic inflation.
00:20:25.000 Yeah, I think that the inflation we're dealing with now is primarily on the supply side of the economy, and people weren't focused on that.
00:20:33.000 They didn't believe that the reopening of the economy after the absurd lockdowns was going to lead to this kind of surge in demand.
00:20:42.000 So, we're so used to thinking of inflation in the 1970s sense, where there's just too much money chasing too few goods and services, that it never occurred to people that ports not being open and people being incentivized to not go back to work after the extension of Biden employment benefits last year, the truck drivers not being there, the supply chain disruptions.
00:21:06.000 Those are the things that really caused a huge escalation in prices.
00:21:10.000 And so, I think, Charlie, we have to be afraid of two inflation levels we're dealing with because of what is going on right now in the supply-demand imbalance.
00:21:19.000 But then, longer term, I'm very afraid of stagnant economic growth because the excessive indebtedness that we have created in the economy, we go into a Japan-like mold where we can't even, they won't even be able to get inflation in the future because there's too much downward pressure on economic growth, the production of goods and services. 0.93
00:21:40.000 We need to be a vibrant, healthy economy.
00:21:42.000 So, what can the government do at this point from a public policy standpoint to try to check inflation?
00:21:49.000 I mean, do rates have to go up or taxes be cut?
00:21:53.000 What has to be done?
00:21:55.000 Yeah, I mean, usually when the question starts with what does the government have to do, I want to jump in and say nothing.
00:22:00.000 Well, that's right.
00:22:00.000 But, I mean, that's an answer, right?
00:22:02.000 That's actually doing something, right?
00:22:04.000 Yeah, but sometimes they need to remove impediments.
00:22:06.000 And in this case, I think a lot of the policy side of things regarding the supply chain could be much, much better.
00:22:14.000 I was shocked late last year when they said, Oh, the Biden administration is announcing that the port workers are now going to be allowed to work more than eight hours a day.
00:22:23.000 And I said, The port workers aren't working over eight hours a day.
00:22:26.000 Like, I couldn't even believe it.
00:22:28.000 Um, no, you have got to get policies that encourage people to get back to work.
00:22:32.000 The labor marticipation force is still down 1%.
00:22:36.000 That's 160 million people in the labor force, meaning 1.6 million people that have decided to just simply not go back to work.
00:22:44.000 That right there would soak up a ton of inflation with greater economic output.
00:22:49.000 Yeah, so let me play cut 17, just about inflation and printing all this money.
00:22:55.000 Let's play cut 17.
00:22:56.000 I'd love your reaction to it.
00:22:58.000 How after printing trillions of dollars, taxpayers might want to know: is there not enough money to continue fighting the pandemic?
00:23:04.000 Trillions of dollars.
00:23:06.000 You're out of it?
00:23:07.000 Is all the accounting done every single dollar?
00:23:09.000 So, we have the resources that we need in this current moment.
00:23:12.000 What we need is this funding to be able to plan for the future, to prepare for, as I say, the possibility of a new variant, the possibility of a new wave.
00:23:21.000 We don't want to be caught flat-footed.
00:23:23.000 They don't want to be caught flat-footed.
00:23:25.000 They need trillions and more dollars potentially to try to solve for the trillions they already spent.
00:23:29.000 And so, why is this the pattern of this regime, though?
00:23:32.000 Walk us through it.
00:23:34.000 Is it as if they want more spending to beget more spending?
00:23:37.000 What is their calculus here?
00:23:39.000 Yeah, I wish this was unique to only the Biden administration.
00:23:43.000 This is an embedded problem in big governmentalism.
00:23:46.000 Milton Freeman famously said that there's nothing so permanent as a temporary government program.
00:23:52.000 The same thing can be said of spending.
00:23:54.000 It's an addiction.
00:23:55.000 And then what you get with those successive deficits is downward pressure on growth.
00:24:01.000 So then they want to spend more money to offset the growth.
00:24:04.000 And this becomes a vicious cycle, Charlie.
00:24:06.000 This is what Japan's been facing for 30 years.
00:24:09.000 So we have to get to a point where we right-size government to give incentives to people in the private sector that don't have to worry constantly about interest rates, about taxes, about government spending.
00:24:19.000 We need normalcy so people can go act as humans, which is actually very vibrant and productive.
00:24:26.000 So we're kind of being gaslit where people are saying that, well, it's not because of recent spending that there's inflation.
00:24:32.000 It's all this pent-up demand from the lockdowns.
00:24:35.000 Can you talk specifically and concretely about how all these massive stimulus bills we passed, we passed four of them, totaling well over $7 trillion, how that played into what we are now experiencing as some of the worst inflation of our life?
00:24:50.000 And then, secondly, what do you think the actual inflation number is?
00:24:54.000 So I am one who believes that the worst part of the government spending bill of Biden's last plan, the $1.9 trillion that was passed in March of last year, the worst part was that it incentivized people to not go back to work.
00:25:08.000 And that added to inflation, that added to inflation pressures with the labor shortage hurting the supply side of the economy when demand was coming up.
00:25:16.000 Ultimately, big government spending, look, we've had mass, I mean, we were at 10 trillion of debt and we went to 30 trillion, and really inflation stayed very low.
00:25:26.000 Japan is the largest debt to GDP on the planet.
00:25:30.000 So this is why I want to hit home the inflation point where it needs to be improved, where they've been wrong.
00:25:35.000 But I don't want us to lose sight of the fact that an even bigger economic problem is out there, which is their debt leading to compression of growth.
00:25:44.000 That's the part that's going to hurt kids and grandkids, the next generation.
00:25:48.000 They deserve better growth opportunities into the future.
00:25:51.000 Yeah, I mean, debt is the slavery of the free in more ways than one.
00:25:55.000 So let's go into some of your other economic truths.
00:25:58.000 Name one out and let's explore it together.
00:26:01.000 Well, this concept of the knowledge problem, I quote from the great 20th century economist Friedrich Hayek, who really taught me as a very, a very young man that the government lacks the knowledge, specific time and place circumstances to do central planning well.
00:26:19.000 So there's all these good intentions out there.
00:26:21.000 And you hear, of course, in your work all the time, college kids think it sounds great to have central planning.
00:26:27.000 They talk about softening the edges of capitalism, whatever that means.
00:26:31.000 I think it can be well-intentioned, but I think what Hyatt taught us is the intentions aren't good enough because the government can't ever have the knowledge necessary to make those decisions.
00:26:42.000 So this is an economic truth, but I think so many in the right now are used to going and saying, oh, no, the government shouldn't do it.
00:26:48.000 Central planning's bad.
00:26:50.000 Socialism is bad because we can't afford it.
00:26:52.000 Well, we can afford it.
00:26:54.000 I agree.
00:26:54.000 But I would argue, even if we could afford it, it doesn't work because they don't have the knowledge or the incentives.
00:27:01.000 So I'm really trying, Charlie, to get people to, even when our criticisms are right, to get them right for the right reasons.
00:27:08.000 And that's kind of the principles we're talking about.
00:27:11.000 So, why is it the state can't have the knowledge?
00:27:13.000 Is it a limitation on their own ability, or is it just when you have 330 million people, there's no way they could have the combined intelligence of what the market could possibly demonstrate?
00:27:23.000 Yeah, that's exactly right.
00:27:24.000 And so I think that there's an incentive issue first and foremost, the skin in the game problem.
00:27:30.000 And skin in the game does not just mean that we get rewarded when things go well.
00:27:33.000 That is half of it.
00:27:34.000 But people have to hurt when things don't go well.
00:27:37.000 Moral half.
00:27:39.000 Yeah, that's right.
00:27:39.000 That's right.
00:27:40.000 And so I think that the other aspect is what Hyatt called time and place circumstances.
00:27:46.000 you with your business all of a sudden something comes up there's a crisis there's people in whatever city it's in that kind of know a specific context they know what's going on right in that immediate moment our government's trying to set policy that is universal and broad without time and place circumstance without context that is philosophically absurd but economically dangerous tease us with another one of your 250 economic truths Well, I think that one of the most important areas, I started the book.
00:28:15.000 I happen to be a man of faith.
00:28:17.000 I want people to understand that economics ultimately comes from God making man with dignity.
00:28:24.000 He made mankind in his image, which means what is God's image?
00:28:29.000 God is creative.
00:28:30.000 God is productive, innovative.
00:28:32.000 He tasked mankind.
00:28:34.000 This is the beginning of economics to go allocate resources that are scarce to deal with scarcity as productive and creative and innovative agents of him.
00:28:44.000 And I think that we lose track of the whole point of economics when we talk about it like it's a spreadsheet or a government bill in Washington, D.C. Economics is about human activity.
00:28:55.000 David is a very accomplished businessman, over $3.5 billion in assets, one of the best respected money managers out there.
00:29:04.000 And you guys should all check out his book here, No Free Lunch.
00:29:07.000 Now, I typed that in to Google and a Milton Friedman deal came up.
00:29:12.000 So I want to make sure that we get your book.
00:29:13.000 How do we make sure we get your book, David, not Milton Friedman's?
00:29:16.000 Yeah, so There's No Free Lunch, 250 Economic Truths.
00:29:20.000 It's been a bestseller at Amazon since it came out.
00:29:23.000 There's a website for the book called nofree luncheconomics.com, but it's all over Amazon.
00:29:30.000 Milton actually never wrote a book called There's No Free Lunch.
00:29:33.000 He just put it in a paper and he said it a lot.
00:29:36.000 And so, yeah, if people will use their search engine, there's no free lunch.
00:29:40.000 It's out there.
00:29:41.000 Every student in the country should have an understanding of economics.
00:29:44.000 Every politician should too.
00:29:46.000 Remember, Milton Friedman said there should be two requirements.
00:29:48.000 They should have to take an economics course and pass the economics course.
00:29:52.000 That's what Milton Friedman said for every politician in America.
00:29:54.000 You got 250 economic truths.
00:29:56.000 So you got to at least give us a couple more, Dave.
00:29:58.000 All right.
00:29:59.000 So we talked about human action as the essence of economics.
00:30:02.000 Praxeology.
00:30:03.000 Yes.
00:30:04.000 And we talked about trade-offs, which is the old title about There's No Free Lunch.
00:30:08.000 But I want to talk about incentives a little bit.
00:30:11.000 We're used to thinking of incentives as, okay, well, when I get a bonus, it means I'll work harder to get extra money.
00:30:18.000 But I don't think we understand sometimes incentives in the society.
00:30:21.000 That incentives can become structural.
00:30:24.000 We get used to them.
00:30:24.000 They're what we call norms.
00:30:27.000 Economics has really been altered by what they've done to incentives with bad policy.
00:30:34.000 People now have incentives, I mentioned before, to not work out of all the COVID stimulus.
00:30:40.000 But it even goes deeper than that.
00:30:42.000 It even goes deeper than the welfare state.
00:30:45.000 What have people been most incentivized to do, Charlie, for years with monetary policy?
00:30:49.000 Borrow money.
00:30:51.000 Interest rate being so low.
00:30:52.000 That tells you if I save money, I'm not going to get good interest.
00:30:56.000 If I borrow, it'll have a low cost.
00:30:58.000 But how do we get investment if we don't get savings?
00:31:02.000 Every dollar ever invested had to first be saved.
00:31:06.000 So savings has to lead to investment.
00:31:08.000 And of course, investment leads to productivity and more growth.
00:31:12.000 So they've undermined economic growth, right?
00:31:14.000 By taking away incentive to save.
00:31:17.000 This is a fundamental economic principle that we talk about quite a bit in the book.
00:31:22.000 Yeah, and that's we're doing the opposite right now.
00:31:25.000 There's very little to saving at all happening.
00:31:27.000 In fact, that's because of interest rates.
00:31:29.000 Do you get into that in your book, money, the price of money, and kind of what money actually is, exchange of value?
00:31:37.000 I do.
00:31:37.000 And we talk about credit.
00:31:39.000 We talk about sound money.
00:31:40.000 And I think this is an area you mentioned earlier, people not taking the inflation story seriously.
00:31:46.000 And I'll be candid, I think the right got this wrong for a long time.
00:31:49.000 There was too much kind of, you know, chicken little about inflation after the 70s.
00:31:56.000 And unfortunately, we can't label every single problem the same thing as what we had before.
00:32:02.000 Now I think people understanding better that there's no free lunch with free money either.
00:32:07.000 And there needs to be a better, more cogent policy approach to dealing with the Fed.
00:32:12.000 Yeah, I mean, money's supposed to represent value.
00:32:15.000 And right now we don't.
00:32:17.000 We print and create money out of thin air.
00:32:19.000 It doesn't really represent that at all.
00:32:22.000 So in closing, you know, what are your big messages to students and young people when it comes to economics?
00:32:28.000 They're so brainwashed and they're just so opposite of kind of what is reality there.
00:32:32.000 What's your message?
00:32:34.000 Well, you know, as kind of an old guy who works on Wall Street now, people accuse me a lot of not having empathy for where young people are, but I got to tell you, I feel bad for people that were getting out of college around the time of the financial crisis, folks that are in between 20 and 35.
00:32:51.000 I honestly believe that what they've seen is first house prices that were collapsing.
00:32:56.000 Their parents were in all this economic distress.
00:32:58.000 And now they can't afford to buy a house themselves, even if they have a good job and have done well in their young adult life.
00:33:05.000 Student loan debt's out of control.
00:33:07.000 So I get the frustration, but I think it's misguided if they believe that more central planning will help.
00:33:14.000 Central planning is what has caused these problems with housing, with student debt.
00:33:19.000 We need a more efficient market that works for everyone, and the economy will thrive best when we focus on people that have the ability to pursue their own dreams without intervention.
00:33:31.000 Now, I understand sometimes, Charlie, people need help.
00:33:34.000 I want a robust belief for compassion, for charity.
00:33:38.000 I just don't think the government's very good at administering it.
00:33:41.000 I think the welfare state takes away their dignity.
00:33:44.000 And what I really want is us to honor this idea of all people being created in the image of God so all people can be productive in society.
00:33:53.000 That to me is the recipe for a much better environment economically and for young people to be happier and more fulfilled.
00:34:00.000 Well said.
00:34:01.000 There's no free lunch, 250 Economic Truths.
00:34:03.000 Thank you so much, Dave, for joining us.
00:34:05.000 Really enjoyed it.
00:34:06.000 Thanks for having me, Charlie.
00:34:07.000 Thank you.
00:34:08.000 Thank you so much for listening.
00:34:09.000 Email me your thoughts as alwaysfreedom at charliekirk.com.
00:34:12.000 Thanks so much.
00:34:12.000 God bless.
00:34:16.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.