Episode Details

The brilliant economist Dr. Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics and founder and co-director of the Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, joins America's Roundtable co-hosts Natasha Srdoc and Joel Anand Samy in a timely conversation on the U.S. Labor Department's report on the rising inflation rate - now at 6.8%, the highest in nearly four decades, the talks about increasing interest rate and how it will impact hard working and decent Americans, families and small and medium private enterprises.

The conversation will also focus on Dr. Hanke's recent piece in The National Review on the passing away of one of America's greatest heroes and public servants, former Senator Bob Dole: Remembrances of Senator Robert Dole — and a Russia Story.

We also delve into the serious implications of the Covid-19 lockdowns impacting America and countries around the world, with the exception of places like Sweden which upheld its constitution, respected individual liberty, and chose a laissez-faire approach.

Dr. Steve H. Hanke is a leading world expert on currency boards, measuring and stopping hyperinflation, privatization, currency and commodity trading, water resource economics, and other topics.

As a senior fellow and director of the Troubled Currencies Project at the internationally recognized Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., Hanke studies countries unable to maintain a stable domestic currency. Often, it is difficult to obtain timely, reliable exchange-rate and inflation data for these “troubled currencies.”

Full bio: https://engineering.jhu.edu/ehe/faculty/steve-h-hanke/

Relevant reading materials:

The Wall Street Journal | The Monetary Bathtub Is Overflowing

Many economists say inflation is transitory. It will be persistent.

By John Greenwood and Steve H. Hanke

“Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon,” Milton Friedman said. Inflation isn’t caused by temporary supply-chain disruptions. Take Japan during the 1979-80 oil crisis: Oil prices surged, but consumer prices remained stable. In China today, raw-material prices are soaring, but consumer prices have hardly budged. To explain what is happening in the U.S. economy, we present the bathtub theory of money and inflation. Money flows into the tub through the faucet. The bathtub has three drains."

Full text: https://www.wsj.com/articles/monetary-bathtub-overflowing-inflation-drain-transitory-11634847429

The Wall Street Journal | Freedom and Sweden’s Constitution

The country’s laissez-faire response to the coronavirus pandemic has deep roots in both culture and law.

By Lars Jonung and Steve H. Hanke

"In most countries, the tool of choice to “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus pandemic is the lockdown. Not in Sweden, which has chosen a rather laissez-faire approach. The borders have been kept open, and Swedes are free to travel within the country, visit bars and restaurants (with some restrictions), parks, hairdressers, gyms and most other places.

The cornerstone of the Swedish response is its constitution’s most important part, the Regeringsform. Chapter 2, Article 8 s