Two Cheers for Libertarianism and Econ 101 (with Noah Smith)
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Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Go to econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this episode, and find links and other information related to today's conversation. You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done going back to 2006. Our email address is mail at econtalk.org.
We'd love to hear from you. Today is May 20th, 2025, and my guest is economist Noah Smith. Noah's Substack is No Opinion, N-O-A-H-P-I-N-I-O-N, No Opinion. I I recommend it. It's fascinating.
This is Noah's fifth appearance on Econ Talk. He was last year in August of 2024, talking about the challenge of escaping poverty. Our topic for today is a recent essay that he wrote, quote, I owe the libertarians an apology, which among other things is about political forces having unexpected consequences. It's also a lesson in humility. which I deeply respect.
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