This is the Cato Dilly podcast for Friday, November 20, 2015. I'm Caleb Brown.

In his long career as an economist Robert Higgs has slaughtered more than his share of sacred cows.

The book Taking a Stand, Reflections on Life, Liberty, and Economics, is a decidedly different kind

of book for Higgs.

He spoke at the Cato Institute last week.

I feel I learned a lot from my forays outside of academia particularly. That's where I learned the most about how

how government actually operates, about how regulation actually operates, how the legal system actually operates, is by being a

participant in those kinds of activities.

And what I learned exemplifies a kind of theme that runs through this new book, which is that things are often not what they seem to be.

Indeed, they're not what they purport to be.

And maybe even worse, a lot of what we see in the world of politics and government

especially is a kind of ritual dance in which all the dancers know it's a ritual dance, but they don't

want to come out and say that. It's bad form to speak the truth when you're involved in politics and government activities.

People want to pretend that certain things are being done.

For example, for public spirited reasons.

When everybody in his dog knows that what's driving the process is powerful special interests, wealthy people involved in politics,

their friends in the Congress of the regulatory agencies.

Very often what we're seeing is an elaborate system of theft and

misrepresentation all covered up with ceremony and ritual that makes it seem

as if it's all on the up and up.

And that's the kind of overarching attitude

that you find infusing the essays in this new work.

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