... we are social libertarians, economic libertarian. maximum freedom. little government interference as possible. we're not an a,ists.

we vitamin blank blng it's been growing. most are like herds of cats. they are doing the blogging and the websites and this. they seldom get together conspire. [laughter] my idea is to create freedom fest to get together. we don't do any live streaming. you can buy the tapes gast wards. we want people to come here. we have 2200 people here this year in planet hollywood. we're growing. it's very exciting. >> organized libertarianism. >> yes. it's a bit of a contradiction. >> host: what is your background? >> guest: i'm an economist. i grew up in portland, oregon. i think was an intellectual town, it has the world's largest bookstore. i've always been an intellectual type, i also like music and

dance and entertainment and sports. i'm a libel of a renaissance man. >> host: you worked nor the cia awhile? >> guest: i worked for the cia. i can't talk about that. [laughter] i got financial world. i've been in there ever since. i have an ph.d. in economic. my family lived in death star, washington, d.c., where c salesman -- c-span is. we got tired of the rat race. we moved to bat bahamas. we bought a flat in london, we move there had. then we moved book orlando and where our kids crew up. now i live in new york, the financial center of the world. meanwhile, i've been writing an investment news letter since 1980. i have written about twenty five books. i taught at colombia university. now i'm teaching at the

penitentiary which is an incredible experience. i've had a varied life. married, five children, my wife, jo ann, runs anthem film festival here. we live a really fun life. it's constantly changing. >> host: we are booktv. belle talking about your newest book. first of all, teaching at sing sing. what is that? >> guest: it's part of mercy college. it's a non-- privately funded education. four-year college degree program for the hard-core inmates who are in there for murder or worse, and they can get a college degree so when they do get out, they will have some kind of skill, you know, the biggest problem is recriticism.

they don't have a skill so they go back to what they know which is drug dealing, 60% end up in prison. with this program, it's so successful that i think the resit vifm is stereo. there's hardly anyone going back after graduating they all get decent jobs. i teach economic and finance. my wife teaches english literature. my son has a film out that hbo made is coming out with next year called sing sing university. you'll be able to see on hbo the whole story. >> host: well, mark, your most recent book. what is austrian economics? >> it's a free market school of economic that is a little bit different than the monitor chicago school, a little bit different from the school or the

marx school. they are all school in economic. the vietnamese one come from the university of vienna, the original founder was carol who was a journalist who covered the stock market. this is why i have this connection with the economic. basically the economics is in the adam smith kind of school of economics. way to improve the model the system of natural lib i liberty. a firm belief in limited government, the balance budget. it's prosavings. very much in favor of sound money. the gold standard or something where inflation is controlled pretty critical of the federal reserve and easy money policy, deficit spending, all of the things that we're doing today would largely be opposed by the school. >> you talk about the gold standard here.

what happened in 1971? >> in 1971, the so many dollars were printed up. you could no longer maintain $35 an ounce government guarantee program for gold. you couldn't mix the price of gold anymore. what was happening was the french and everyone else was going the u.s. government and saying, we'll give you $35. we want the gold. we know that gold is worth more than $35. so nixon closed the glold window in 1971. >> did you oppose it? >> absolutely. i think the solution was control inflation. stop printing up so many dollars. nixon decided to say we'll eliminate the gold window, we don't want to lose anymore gold to the french. and so then the price of gold took off. today it's over $12 00 an ounce.

that's a reflection of the inflationary nature of the federal reserve. the us a school would argue. here we're talking about economists -- in today's u.s.a. begans would argue that the federal reserve is an engine of inflation. and not a -- it does not control inflation. it actually encourages inflation. that's a different view from today -- one of the goal is to keep inflation down. if you look another -- it's been 100 years since the federal reserve has been established. in the 100 years, or prior to that period, in the united states, inflation was virtually nonexistent. except for brief period of time during wars, civil war, what have you. but the inflation was virtually nonexistent for the first 150

years of our existence. since 1913, inflation has gone up 3,000%. it's not my study. it's a harvard economist who reported at the aea meeting and showed the -- i may have it in the wall street where there's no inflation at all then sudden think takes off. significanting that the -- suggesting that the federal reserve is an engine of the agent not a dependent of the dollar. >> who are some contemporary economists? >> we have a couple of them here. pete is a premiere economist at george mason university. roger garrison of auburn university, there are a number of other economists mainly going to george maison university or hillsdale college. there's a number schools. nyu has a few economists.

i would consider myself one of the premiere supporters of the school. i have applied to here, in this case, to the investment world. so i call it a -- waltz down wall street. the reason i call it not to connect it to the school, but also because the traditional view is that stock prices are a random walk down wall street. i took my title from i reject that notion completely. i would argue that wreath is more like a dance. human. they they make deliberate decisions why they are buying and selling. why are you here today?

it's purposeful human action. you have a purpose in. coming here. we can be fooled by randomness they are not random. they are purposeful. the problem is there's a lot of uncertainty. we don't know always what motivated a person to buy and sell. >> does the government do anything, in your view, that assists markets, that makes markets sphwhrt. >> absolutely. i'm a limited government-type of person who believes the rule of law is established. most of the time i believe in common law or natural law. common law in particular where it kind of develops on the own. it's a hayek began concept that is at the discover i are process that involves new york stock exchange, the nasdaq developing their own rule. then those rules are set in

place. thing the government often interrupts and interference and artificially creates administrative rules that are court and i use the [inaudible] dodd-frank is another one. it poses the regulation on wall street and bank. we would be very much opposed to this. we would rather see maximum freedom in the financial market you go after the fraud pet leer. we believe in those but the problem with the f they often fail to catch the theive after that aare exposed. we are knee madoff is an camp of that.

who exposed the fcc. and it they wouldn't listen. i mean, this is typical. what did congress do? they triple or double the budget for the fcc saying you missed it here. it's because we didn't have enough money. i think it's fundamentally flawed system. it creates an artificial sense of security. that investors say this guy bernie madeoff must be legitimate. it must be a deal i'm going put money with them. if we didn't have the fcc, then everyone would be much more skeptical, they would really check and investigate. it's kind of like banks when you have $100,000 insurance on cd, do you really check to the soundnd of the bank? what are you caring you are insured to $100,000. that's bad economic and

finance. you want to have the incentive so you're investigating and making our that caveat -- let the buyer beware. there's too little in today's world. >> who is the book written for it? >> the average investor when would like to have a systemic approach to investing. who believes one of the focus on the book is entrepreneurship. that people love stories. yes, you can buy the index -- that's burt's approach in a wan come walk down wreath. -- wall street. that's jack's approach with the vanguard. you invest in the index fund. you know what? most people like the dance. most people like the action. i'm not suggesting it's a gamble.

i think there's an investment in gamble and speculation. i would also say that people love stories. this is what burton you don't get. you want to hear a great story about the individual stock that is increasing the dividends or cutting dividend or earning more money or introduced a new product. or maybe a rumor about a buyout or something like that. i've been writing my own news letter forecasting strategy since ronald reagan was elect the. i consider myself a survivor. i started off by recommending index funds. and it didn't excite people. i started story about individual stocks, dell computer,

microsoft, or apple. people get excited. these are real people. it's not a random story like a drunken sailor walking down broadway. it's a dance. bulls and bears. buyers and sellers. it's speculators and investment. it's hedgers and speculators. there's an excitement on wall street my book is written for the intelligent investor who is interested in applying a new school of economic. not that familiar the u.s.a. began school and seeing if they can make them a little bit better investors. >> it's blurped on the back by lauren hayek. >> yes. >> who is that? >> an md was the son of i just found that quote, he put it on