I got done with my first webinar about 30 minutes ago. On this night of The Biggest Snow Storm of the Century I was happy to stay inside and talk about economics…a great way to spend a blustery and frigid evening. 🙂
The first webinar was really great! I think everyone (including me) enjoyed it, and that’s the important part. What use is economics if you aren’t having fun?
Webinars are quite challenging, and it will take me a little time to get used to this different format. It is hard not seeing my audience or hearing them ask questions. Reading questions off a screen isn’t like listening to people ask them. And if I say something funny I don’t know if anyone else was laughing. In a way, it feels like I’m just talking to myself. And so at some moments I feel rather ridiculous and then remember, “oh, I’ve got people actually listening to me. That’s nice!”
Next week’s webinars will be on the history of economic thought leading up to the Austrians. I’m going to show why the Austrians were significant and what gap they were filling. I’ll talk about Aristotle and the importance of the Scholastics in early economics before I start bashing Adam Smith and all the terrible things he did. To be fair, he did say some right and good things, although as Rothbard noted, everything correct Adam Smith said was not original (he was a notorious plagiarist) and whatever was original was wrong. I’ll also talk about some of the less known early economists like Cantillon. It should be really fun. I’m already excited.
This week’s webinar was on the Austrian business cycle theory and the application to historical depressions in America. I’ll be giving it again on Saturday if you’d like to join it then. Please register here though, because there isn’t much room left.
