Robert Higgs, senior fellow at the Independent Institute and author of Depression, War and Cold War, discusses his thesis of ‘regime uncertainty’ as a major factor of the Great Depression, the crash and recovery of 1921-22, the bubble created by the Fed in the later ‘roaring’ twenties in order to prop up British interests, how World War II provided the certainty big business needed to start investing again – in arms, why the Cold War buildup was still cheap enough for the economy to continue under its weight, who really benefits from empire, who pays, the irrelevance of trade deficits, the roots of the financial crisis in Wall St.’s bogus financial models, congressional and Federal Reserve polices and the cartelized ratings business, the all-important intertwined policy of inflation and war, his view of the extent of the collapse and whether the empire will be dismantled, the danger of high price inflation, danger of nationalization, and why government regulation of the market is responsible for – not the solution to – its failures.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download