I think for this interview I'd like to just kind of talk a little bit more about about Philip Boggess the man and your education and background.
Wonderful things, I think, can be expected of you in the future.
Already, you have now, this year, two books out, one on the tragedy of the euro, one on
the Iceland experience, the definitive work on Iceland.
The tragedy of the euro has become a bestseller in our world, and already at this conference
we've sold all the copies that we have.
So, you teach at Juan Carlos Rey in Madrid, is that right?
Yeah, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.
Okay, and you're a colleague of Jesus Cuartos de Soto.
Yeah, I owe him a lot.
Yes, but you're only 30 years old.
Yes.
Okay. You came to us when you were 20 years old, you said, at the Mises University.
I recall so well when you came, maybe it wasn't that summer, maybe it was the next summer, but I took notice of you amongst the sea of students because you're the only one that could sit down at our Imperial Bozendorf and play Bach, so you're also a concert pianist of sorts.
Well, not so good, yeah. But I remember that. I remember that also, yeah. It was the first and second year.
Actually, then I was still good. But then it's all downhill from there.
So you left your piano talents to language while you studied economics?
Yeah, I had no piano. For many years I did not have a piano. Only last September I bought one.
Okay.
And now I'm slowly coming back.
Now that you're coming into your own as an economist, maybe you'll pick it up again someday, yeah?
No, I'm practicing now.
Okay, good, that's good.
Where were you studying economics when you came to Mises University?
You were in Germany, right?
I was still in Germany, in Münster, Münster in Westphalia,
where this Rothbard describes, tells about Münster and his history of economic thought,
you know, what this communist experiment, right?
So, Münster is famous because of this.
The first great experimenting in communism.
And eventually, it's like Gaddafi today or something, they had to throw the guy out, right?
They had to invade the town and toss him out or something. I can't remember the details.
They tortured and killed them. Actually, they have still the cages
up on the tower on the church. There are still three cages.
Where the dictators are. Where the leaders were hanged.
This is the 15th century?
15th or 16th, I think.
16th century, yeah.
Yeah, that's one of the great chapters.
So your attachment to economics as a science is very intense.
And that's obvious to anybody who reads your work
or listens to your lectures.
When did it begin in your life?
Your love for economics?
When I read Rothbard, I think I was still in high school.
What did you read, in German or English?
In German. I read the Ethics of Liberty, where this is more libertarian.
I read Mises' Bureaucracy, there's a translation, liberalism, there's a translation.
Oh well, liberalism is the original edition.
Yes, it's original, yes. And from there, it started. Then I read Hazlitt, Man Economy and State, National Economy.
But you entered into a very conventional economics program, highly mathematized, highly Keynesian, no?
Yes, Keynesian, yes. Maybe not as mathematized as other programs, though.
Of course, you know, there's the auto-liberal school in Joni, which is still opposed to mathematization.
I think it has become worse over the years. I think now it would be worse.
Yeah. Or more social-democratic or...?
More mathematical.
More mathematical. And the liberal school's politics today are...?
No, they are still on the same line as ten years ago, but their influence has been falling
because the mathematical school is rising in influence.
I see, yeah. And then you finished your undergraduate and then you went on to
Straight to your Ph.D.?
Well, because here someone, I think Gabriel Calzada, recommended me to go to Madrid to study with Jesus Huerta de Soto.
I did the Erasmus year in Madrid, Erasmus program, exchange program for European universities.
So I did that in 2003, 2004.
And then I returned to finish my master in Germany, and afterwards I did the PhD in...
At Münster?
Yes, I did the master at Münster.
Is this where your family is?
Close, close to Münster, yeah.
So, this is in East Germany today, and...
No, it's West Germany.
It's West Germany. I thought you said it was in Münster.
Shows what I know about the German geography, right?
Yeah.
Typical American, right? Okay.
It can improve on that.
I'll work on that. So now you're 30 and you have a professorship. You teach how many classes?
Five or six, six or seven.
And you teach in Spanish?
Spanish and English. Everything you want.
Anything you want. German, Spanish, English. What else?
Nothing else.
French?
No.
no you can understand it no I could read it probably yeah yeah well you know
European academics are very different from Americans Americans know one
language and one language only and only a little bit of that one for most of them
And it's sufficient.
Yeah.
Okay.
Now, so you've done these two marvelous books, and they came as a surprise to us when they
arrived.
I mean, I didn't, I'm not sure I was expecting them.
The Tragedy of the Eurobook in particular changed the mind of your own professor, Roberto
de Soto, who had been up to then a supporter of the European Currency Union, right?
as he thought it was the most liberal solution.
Well, he still is kind of a supporter.
I changed it only a little bit.
He still thinks that...
He reached with me that, of course, for a German...
He said if he would be German, he would be against the euro.
But as he is a Spaniard...
As he is a Spaniard, because otherwise the Spanish...
And they said that would have devalued and would have been worse for Spain, which might
be the case.
But for the future of Euro as a whole, I think it's worse.
Yeah.
Do you expect the Euro to be in the news in the future, within the next year or two, more
so?
It will continue, because the problem is not solved.
We have, in March, we have a summit, and markets expect that they will extend the rescue fund,
the bailout fund.
They will probably do it, because otherwise it would explode, because no one would buy
any more of these Portuguese and Spanish bonds.
You know, I'm thinking about Austrians who have written about this topic, and the name
When Pascal Salin comes to mind, right, long before there was a European Currency Unit,
he had written on this topic.
I think so, yes.
But I don't remember.
Okay.
Are there other thinkers who influenced you?
Guido Holtzmann?
Yeah.
Guido has a good mentor, has been a good mentor to me when I was here.
And what other Austrians in the history of thought are you drawn to? Rothbard, Mises, Hayek?
Well, Hayek less. He's not such a clear thinker as Mises or Rothbard. He doesn't write as clear as they do.
Yes. Well, that's true. Even his English is less clear than probably Rothbard reads in German.
Now that you've finished these two books, and Iceland by the way is back in the news, there was some story yesterday about the banks. I just saw the headline, I didn't actually read it. And that book is doing well. And you co-wrote this with David Howden. How did you manage that co-writing thing? Did you just send it back and forth? We did three chapters. I think otherwise it would be impossible to do. Like some chapters I did, some chapters he did.
Well, I think it's the only book-length treatment of the topic, which is so important because
you established the relationship between the events there and Austrian business cycle theory
in a very, very nice way.
What is on your agenda now?
What are you planning on?
What's your next book going to be about?
What are your next papers? What are you researching now?
That's a secret I won't tell you.
It's going to be like your last two books. They just arrived.
Actually, I'm working now on the German translation of the Eurobook
because obviously, for Germany, it's a perfect market for it.
And there are also other translations coming out in Slovak
Have you gotten some attention from the press, from newspapers and things like this yet?
For your views yet?
No, the mainstream media is not so much interested.
Not so interested?
Have you seen other interest in the English version of the tragedy of the euro, I mean
among colleagues and friends in Germany and Spain?
Yes, in the Austrian circles of course, also in the investment circles, many people, some investment managers comment to friends of mine that they have read it even though I don't know them, so there are many people apparently reading it.
Well, it was reviewed at the Cobden Institute site, and it was very interesting for me to read, I think it's Andrew Duncan's review, because now he had fresh eyes, right?
I mean, I had been involved very deeply in the manuscript during the editing stage. I didn't edit it myself. I think Arlene Osinner edited the book, but I followed it throughout the process.
throughout the process.
And so when the review came out and it was so over the top, I mean he just loved the
book and the enthusiasm for your manuscript was palpable.
So it was nice for me because it confirmed something I had suspected that not only is
the book a wonderful book, but that the man who wrote the book is a brilliant young Austrian.
So, we're all very excited about your work so far and what you will do in the future.
What's it like for a German living in Spain?
It's marvelous.
It's sunny.
It's not raining.
You can sleep until nine o'clock in the morning.
This is good.
It's like being on vacation your whole life.
Have you, do you speak Spanish all the time in Spain, I mean to everybody?
Yes.
And do you think in Spanish yet? Or more and more?
Yeah, more and more. I think in Spanish.
Do your students say that your Spanish is good?
Well, they understand me. They don't complain anymore.
In the beginning they complained, but not anymore.
And do you dream in Spanish? I mean, is Spain your new home?
Well, I don't remember my dreams, so I'm not sure which language I drew, but I'm one of those persons that don't remember their dreams.
Were you at our Salamanca conference?
Yes.
You were, yeah. And was that before you were teaching at the university?
No, it was long after. It started in 2007.
So in Spain, here we have, in a way, the birthplace of economic science.
In some ways, the birthplace of modernity itself, right? Spain.
So it's a wonderful place for an economist to be.
The place where it all began.
How far is Cordoba from Madrid?
It's a way. I haven't been there.
And Salamanca is over there on the other side.
Salamanca is closer than Cordoba.
You have plenty of traveling to do, right?
Lots of vacation time and lots of places to go.
I hope you use all your vacation time to write more books, to do more research.
and maybe you will, at some point, be able to come back and spend more time with us here.
Yeah, I always love to be here. It's good. That is like coming home.
Yeah, well, I feel the same way. And it was a thrill for me to see you today
because you deal digitally with people for a year and then see them in real life.
It's like an apparition.
Yeah, the same here.
Thanks for taking the flight over here all the way and for writing these books,
Thank you for reading these books, for being such an intense researcher, a wonderful intellectual, creative mind, and for being a good friend to the Mises Institute, Philip Bagas.
I thank you very much. Thank you.
www.fieggen.com