Back in 2002, I debated my colleague Pete Boettke on Austrian economics before GMU’s undergraduate econ club.  When I was throwing out my obsolete possessions (it’s amazing what a decade of economic growth will do to your stuff), I came across one of the few – if not the only – videotape of our exchange.  With the help of Brian Blase, the whole debate is now on Youtube in 13 consecutive segments – including Q&A with the audience.  Start here.  If you look at the audience, you’ll see at least one grad student who’s become famous in the meanwhile.

While I’m an equal-opportunity critic of Austrians, this debate focuses on Boettke’s version of it.  My ultimate goal: Convince Austrians to reallocate their scarce free-market talent.  I’m not criticizing them just for the fun of it.  I’m criticizing them because they have talent and energy, but fritter them away on largely fruitless areas like philosophy, methodology, and history of thought.  Austrians should be applying free-market insights to policy-relevant topics, not analyzing the transcendental essence of radical ignorance.

P.S. If anyone knows how to replace 13 segments on Youtube with one continuous video, please let me know.

Update: A civic-minded reader has set up a playlist for the debate to approximate continuous video.  Thanks!