Summary: This Steve Forbes interview was the most challenging interview I have done, yet. His new book, co-authored with Elizabeth Ames, Freedom Manifesto: Why Free Markets Are Moral and Big Government Isn't is an excellent introductory text for those who think free markets are bad. The one qualm I had with the book was his quoting approvingly of John Maynard Keynes on "animal spirits" and his stating that the key to free markets was "animal spirits". I addressed this at the start of the interview and brought up the notion of entrepreneurship, particularly as seen by Israel Kirzner. ( I have posted a discussion of Kirzner's view on entrepreneurship here.) Following the discussion on Kirzner versus Keynes, we discuss many topics in the book, and as you will note they are very pro-free market and anti-government. But then we moved on to topics that are not in the book, such as the Federal Reserve, the gold standard, the Taliban and Iran. I was stunned by the about face move toward strong pro-government views on these topics. And, whereas, in the past I have stopped such guests as Gary Johnson and Neil Barofsky cold with simple questions that were difficult to answer without clear outright contradictions. Forbes seemed to have little problem blowing through these questions. When I asked him, for example, why he thought there haven't been any terrorist attacks in the U.S. since 9-11, I was hoping to put a contradiction in his pro-war to fight terrorist stance, but he simply plowed through the question by stating that we have caught many terrorists before they could attack. After that whopper, I simply tried to get his views on the record in the short reaming time left. In that time, you will then hear his remarkable views on Iran and Iran in relation to Israel
