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Free the Economy podcast: Consumer protection and free speech with Casey Mattox
In this week’s episode we cover the debt load of state and local governments, advances in nuclear waste storage, and hope…
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Principled business in Austin
The view from my hotel room in Austin was majestic – a giant hole in the ground. When I arrived for the 3rd…
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Free the Economy podcast: Affording the American Dream with Akash Chougule
In this week’s episode we cover what’s making housing so expensive, the common good of the Constitution, and more jawboning…
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Free the Economy podcast: The Grim Old Days with Chelsea Follett
In this week’s episode we cover global energy security, a new lawsuit against Section 338 tariffs, and fresh talent in…
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Free the Economy podcast: The future of Fusionism with Stephanie Slade
In this week’s episode we cover federal vs. state rules for prediction markets, the difference between Detroit and Pittsburgh, and a…
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Free the Economy podcast: Competition and innovation with Jack Nicastro
In this week’s episode we cover the case of Suncor v. Boulder County at the Supreme Court, the problems with the Los…
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Free the Economy podcast: Real-world economics with Paul Mueller
In this week’s episode we cover spiraling health care costs, reforming state-level regulations, and how to keep asset managers accountable…
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Free the Economy podcast: Gen Z capitalism with Sam Raus
In this week’s episode we cover how data centers power our lives, how modern technology is fueling family togetherness, and the…
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Free the Economy podcast: The Overton Window with James Hohman
In this week’s episode we cover Treasury yields, oil prices, US-China-Taiwan security policy, and Trump’s $5,000 dividend checks. Our…
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Free the Economy podcast: The search for critical minerals with Seaver Wang
In this week’s episode we cover the latest employment data, a new award for academic courage, free speech versus native…
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Free the Economy podcast: Maximum New York with Daniel Golliher
In this week’s episode we cover climate collusion between California and Quebec, how luxurious college campuses are breeding socialists, and government…
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Free the Economy podcast: The future of financial regulation with Thomas Hoenig
In this week’s episode we cover the status of occupational licensing in the 50 states, the coming crack-up over entitlement spending,…
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Free the Economy podcast: Housing abundance and affordability with Luca Gattoni-Celli
In this week’s episode we cover J.D. Vance and the strength of the US dollar, how to track extreme weather events,…
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Free the Economy podcast: The Independence Index with Marc Wheat
In this week’s episode we cover the effect of tariffs on car prices, trends in electricity supply and demand, and the…
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Free the Economy podcast: Founder’s Fire with Arthur Herman
In this week’s episode we cover Social Security reform, what’s fueling state migration, and whether using prediction markets could impact…
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Free the Economy podcast: Questioning the AI jobs doomsday with Sean Higgins
In this week’s episode we cover making home appliances great again, fighting price controls on health care, research on AI-fueled…
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Free the Economy podcast: Ethical consumers and sustainable capitalism with Kimberlee Josephson
In this week’s episode we cover the latest inflations numbers, reforming $1 trillion worth of federal grantmaking, and a new…
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Free the Economy podcast: Educating for liberty with Richard Lorenc
Our guest for this week’s episode is Richard Lorenc, formerly of the Foundation for Economic Education and Iron Light and now President…
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Free the Economy podcast: George Washington, entrepreneur with John Berlau
In this week’s episode we cover terrible advice on poverty from the United Nations, reforming the way we regulate banks, and…
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Free the Economy podcast: Free speech and financial regulation with Peggy Little
In this week’s episode we cover reforming the federal government’s stock trading database, banning AI exports, a climate lawsuit from…
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Time to end the SEC’s surveillance of everybody’s finances
Today is the deadline for filing regulatory comments on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) program. The CAT is a…
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Free the Economy podcast: The Great Realignment with Stephen Davies
In this week’s episode we cover US companies getting hammered by tariffs, jobs that are surprisingly not getting replaced by AI,…
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Free the Economy podcast: Taxing the rich with Jared Walczak
In this week’s episode we cover America’s low-income churn, reforms to civil asset forfeiture, changes to vehicle emissions testing, a…
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Free the Economy podcast: State budgets and bailouts with Thomas Savidge
In this week’s episode we cover promising new classroom technology, increasing productivity (and avoiding layoffs) with AI, and the repeal of…
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Free the Economy podcast: Fighting for freedom with Kent Lassman
In this week’s episode we cover bank privacy, SNAP benefits, a new study on tariffs, and a great new…
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Free the Economy podcast: Fighting Medicaid fraud with Parker Thayer
In this week’s episode we cover higher inflation numbers, a strike on the Long Island Rail Road, and new disability…
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Free the Economy podcast: Pension politics with Jarrett Skorup
In this week’s episode we cover more legal headaches for the Trump tariffs, keeping kids safe in an AI world, and…
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Free the Economy podcast: Highway robbery with David Ditch
In this week’s episode we cover how to make the moral case for capitalism, affordable housing via regulatory reform, and tracking…
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Free the Economy podcast: The business of Federalism with Derek Kreifels
In this week’s episode we cover childcare in the 50 states, how to fix rising healthcare costs, the new Institute…
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Free the Economy podcast: Revisiting Earth Day with Todd Myers
In this week’s episode we cover the dwindling number of US public companies (via Todd Zywicki of George Mason University), a…
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Free the Economy podcast: How to Get What You Want with Josh Bandoch
In this week’s episode we cover AI development in China, how large investors recycle homes, and why permitting reform needs…
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Free the Economy podcast: Consumer-regulated energy with Travis Fisher
In this week’s episode we cover economic growth in China, the political legacy of Viktor Orban in Hungary, and the…
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Free the Economy podcast: Kids, social media, and the First Amendment with Jessica Melugin
In this week’s episode we cover budget reconciliation and deficit spending, the burdens of Total Boomer Luxury Communism, and how to…
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Review of Michael Sheridan’s The Red Emperor: Xi Jinping and His New China
In my continuing quest to learn more about the US’s number one strategic rival, I recently finished reading (i.e., listening to it on Audible)…
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Free the Economy podcast: Population and abundance with Gale Pooley
In this week’s episode we cover income inequality, myths about homelessness, First Amendment protections for AI, and reforming unfunded…
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Free the Economy podcast: Enduring policy principles with Richard Stern
In this week’s episode we cover housing affordability, labor unions and train safety, the late Paul Ehrlich (1932-2026), and the…
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Remembering Brian Doherty (1968–2026)
Journalist and author Brian Doherty died last week at the age of 57. A longtime Reason magazine contributor and chronicler of the world…
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Free the Economy podcast: Regulating finance with James Copland
In this week’s episode we cover the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, fighting fraud in broadband deployment, and…
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Free the Economy podcast: Mississippi renaissance with Douglas Carswell
In this week’s episode we cover housing abundance, capitalism’s approval rating, audits of state finances, and the consumer nostalgia…
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Free the Economy podcast: Big Tech, Europe, and free speech with Spence Purnell
In this week’s episode we cover the Supreme Court’s recent decision on tariff powers, myths of the Great Recession, and fiduciary…
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Free the Economy podcast: The impact of Trump’s trade war with Alex Durante
In this week’s episode we cover the sneaky federal cause of high housing prices, record outflows from ESG investment funds, and…
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Free the Economy podcast: What’s wrong with Congress with Kevin Kosar
In this week’s episode we talk about we talk about Consumer-Regulated Electricity, the amazing falling US poverty rate, and how…
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Free the Economy podcast: Social mobility in the 50 states with Justin Callais
In this week’s episode we talk about satellite shot clocks at the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Reserve nominee Kevin Warsh’s digital-dollar…
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Free the Economy podcast: The meaning of GDP with Brian Albrecht
In this week’s episode we talk about the last 50 years of regulatory reform, a new study on climate adaptation, and…
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Free the Economy podcast: Permitting for speed with Grant Dever
In this week’s episode we talk about making a living in podcasting, confronting our mounting national debt, and assessing President Trump’s…
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Free the Economy podcast: Total boomer luxury communism with Russ Greene
In this week’s episode we talk about Trump’s 10 percent credit card interest proposal (and the dangers of populist economics in…
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Free the Economy podcast: FDR’s political legacy with David Beito
In this week’s episode we talk about communist housing policy in New York City, the best economics and history books to…
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Free the Economy podcast: China’s economy and the US with Derek Scissors
In this week’s episode we talk about corporate real estate investing, woke pension funds, changing fuel economy rules, and questions…
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Free the Economy podcast: Climate policy endangerment with Marlo Lewis
In this week’s episode we talk about tariff refunds, Affordable Care Act subsidies, Ryan Young’s Books of the Year for…
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Free the Economy podcast: Consumer finance and privacy with James Erwin
In this week’s episode we talk about the decline of electric vehicles, liberation for home appliances, the failure of tariffs…
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Free the Economy podcast: The business of America with Neil Bradley
In this week’s episode we cover the economic effects of net-zero policies in blue states and Europe, top targets for…
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Debanking flows downhill from progressive policymakers
The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a leading federal financial regulator, has released preliminary findings from its review of…
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Free the Economy podcast: Balancing the budget with Kurt Couchman
In this week’s episode we talk about our 150th episode anniversary party, the documentary Dear Mr. President: The Letters of…
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Free the Economy podcast: Sesquicentennial celebration
In this week’s episode we celebrate the show’s sesquicentennial anniversary – that is, our 150th episode. We look back at the dozens of…
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Free the Economy podcast: Charting tariff madness with Joey Politano
In this week’s episode we talk about changes in consumer credit, disappearing fast-food jobs in California, and six things the climate…
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Free the Economy podcast: Truth, lies, and economics with Jeremy Horpedahl
In this week’s episode we talk about Social Security’s cost of living, conserving rare earth minerals, and why California keeps…
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Free the Economy podcast: Our nuclear tomorrow with Craig Piercy
In this week’s episode we talk about administrative law judges, AI innovation saving lives, environmental regulation creating more wildfires, and…
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Free the Economy podcast: Obamacare problems with Jeremy Nighohossian
In this week’s episode we talk about the unintended consequences of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, decarbonization of economic growth, and…
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Free the Economy podcast: Celebrating human achievement with Ed Hudgins
In this week’s episode we talk about the need to build more infrastructure in the UK, an award for public finance…
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Free the Economy podcast: Reforming Social Security with Romina Boccia
In this week’s episode we cover a new study on pharmaceutical tariffs, whether to expect a new Great Depression (via…
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Free the Economy podcast: Emergent abundance with Alex Trembath
In this week’s episode we cover the future of financial regulation, the end of the left vs. right distinction in politics,…
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Free the Economy podcast: Empowering patients with Vance Ginn
In this week’s episode we cover potential changes to quarterly reporting for public companies, state-level AI regulations, spiking gas prices…
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Free the Economy podcast: Tariffs and economic freedom with Matt Mitchell
In this week’s episode we cover the latest jobs numbers, the emergent community of abundance fans, the limits to taxing…
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Free the Economy podcast: Clear-but-false ideas with Kevin Williamson
In this week’s episode we cover the Trump tariffs being struck down, Biden’s competition order being vacated, and new research on…
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Free the Economy podcast: Ideological diversity on the right with Peter Lipsett
In this week’s episode we cover Ray Dalio’s Big Debt Cycle, scandal in climate finance, jobs destroyed by tariffs, why…
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Free the Economy podcast: Subsidies for billionaires with David McGarry
In this week’s episode we cover White House intervention in corporate ownership, the nation’s falling economic freedom ranking, and welcome…
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Free the Economy podcast: Welfare and work with Kevin Corinth
In this week’s episode we cover new inflation data, public attitudes about Social Security, and California’s self-inflicted energy crisis. Our…
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Free the Economy podcast: Girlbossing the discourse with Emma Camp
In this week’s episode we cover the controversy at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, myths of the auto industry, and a…
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Free the Economy podcast: Crushing capitalism with Norbert Michel
In this week’s episode we cover the Trump administration’s AI action plan, Detroit’s unlikely rebirth, pushing back on EU tech…
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Free the Economy podcast: Costs and benefits of urban transit with John Charles
In this week’s episode we cover Dodd-Frank’s 15th anniversary, a victory for homeowners in Oregon, and an alternative to socialist…
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Free the Economy podcast: Corporate responsibility and taxpayer protections with John Mozena
In this week’s episode we cover new Trump tariff rates, Obama’s endorsement of housing abundance, and why the green energy industry…
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ESG refugees: Ally with taxpayers
Yesterday the Competitive Enterprise Institute published my new study with John Mozena, “Corporate Social Irresponsibility: After ESG, activist investors should side…
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Free the Economy podcast: AI frontiers with Corbin Barthold
This week’s episode features Corbin Barthold, Internet Policy Counsel at TechFreedom and host of the Tech Policy Podcast. This is…
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Free the Economy podcast: Alcohol labels and warnings with David Clement
In this week’s episode we cover housing abundance in California, the meaning of a market economy, union privileges for government…
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Free the Economy podcast: Shareholders vs. stakeholders with Jerry Bowyer
In this week’s episode we cover the failure of postal banking, Trump pausing the TikTok ban (again), and the political…
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Free the Economy podcast: The Reagan legacy in the 21st century with Dan Rothschild
In this week’s episode we cover FreedomFest 2025, the FDA’s war on effective sunblock, good news about critical minerals, and…
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Free the Economy podcast: Drug costs and benefits with Sally Pipes
In this week’s episode we cover reforms to the Endangered Species Act, attacks on US tech firms, nuclear power…
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Chapter and verse: The case against mandatory ESG standards
This week De Gruyter Brill published the book ESG Investing: Current Theory and Practice, edited by John Hill of Fairfield University’s Dolan…
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Free the Economy podcast: Tariffs and corruption with Justin Callais
In this week’s episode we cover Autumn Billings on donor privacy, Wayne Crews on the DOGE legacy, and Joey Politano on…
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Free the Economy podcast: Protecting consumer credit with Caroline Melear
In this week’s episode we cover new research on trade and tariffs, how to understand market forces, and good news for…
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Free the Economy podcast: Next steps for nuclear with Deric Tilson
In this week’s episode we cover Jamie Dimon on tariff jitters, the Tax Foundation on the One Big Beautiful Bill, Jesse…
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Free the Economy podcast: Reforming Medicaid with Brian Blase
In a recent episode we cover biofuels and farm tariffs, the decline in green investing, and the effort to stop state…
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Free the Economy podcast: Dear Mr. President with Destry Edwards
In this week’s episode we cover the economic slowdown from tariffs, more accountability for independent agencies in the federal government, and…
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Free the Economy podcast: Waste, fraud, and tax hikes with Emily Ekins
In this week’s episode we cover workplace injuries, MAGA antitrust in theory and practice, portable benefits for gig workers, and…
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Free the Economy podcast: Reforming Washington’s 10,000 Commandments with Wayne Crews
In this week’s episode we cover the political roots of totalitarianism, why we should put Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out…
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Free the Economy podcast: Economic ideas for American workers with Ryan Young
In this week’s episode we cover teaching with AI, clearing the way for new nuclear development, and eliminating soda and…
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Free the Economy podcast: Trade myths (and facts) with Prof. Michael Coon
In this week’s episode we cover smartphones for kids, insomnia and anxiety in pre-industrial times, and a blueprint for modernizing…
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Free the Economy podcast: An affordable and reliable future with Gabriella Hoffman
In this week’s episode we cover Republicans for the Green New Deal, diminishing returns from industrial policy in China, and the…
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Free the Economy podcast: Working for a better tomorrow with Vinnie Vernuccio
In this week’s episode we cover America’s founding principles, the Cato Institute’s recommendations for reforming financial regulation, why Republicans shouldn’t be…
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Free the Economy podcast: Tariffs, tax cuts, and trustees with Dominic Pino
In this week’s episode we cover retirement investing, pivoting to India for global trade, new housing on federal land, and…
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Will BlackRock revive Social Security reform?
Earlier this week mega asset manager BlackRock hosted a high-profile public event in Washington, D.C. focused on retirement savings, with several A-list panelists…
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Free the Economy podcast: Broadcasting liberty with Jeff Westling
In this week’s episode we discuss Trump tariffs (via AEI’s Jim Pethokoukis and Apricitas Economics’s Joey Politano), the…
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Free the Economy podcast: Striving for shareholder value with Matt Cole
In this week’s episode we discuss executive branch powers at the Supreme Court, BP’s pivot back to being an oil and…
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Free the Economy podcast: Alabama does DOGE with Stephanie Smith
In this week’s episode we discuss poverty in Illinois, J.D. Vance on AI in Paris, the future of the Jones Act…
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Free the Economy podcast: Defend yourself from debanking with Nick Anthony
In this week’s episode we discuss public confidence in the economy, California’s electric vehicle mandate, the prospect of a sovereign wealth…
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Free the Economy podcast: Pivot or Die with Gary Shapiro
In this week’s episode we discuss corporate DEI mandates, financial surveillance at the Securities and Exchange Commission, medical fraud among…
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Free the Economy podcast: Improving state finances with OJ Oleka
In this week’s episode we interview OJ Oleka, CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation. We talk about how the new…
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Free the Economy podcast: Trump vs. the Regulatory State with Susan Dudley
In this week’s episode we cover how the feds are forcing your bank to spy on you, a new strategy for…
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Free the Economy podcast: Able Americans with Rachel Barkley
In this week’s episode we cover Trump’s executive orders, the demographics of the 119th Congress, our nation’s narrowing fiscal space,…
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Free the Economy podcast: Draining the swamp with Jim Bovard
In this week’s episode we cover fake endangered species, Pennsylvania’s climate policy showdown, a robust defense of property rights in…