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NOTE Currency and Economic Collapse

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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.

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Wonderful things, I think, can be expected of you in the future.

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Already, you have now, this year, two books out, one on the tragedy of the euro, one on

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the Iceland experience, the definitive work on Iceland.

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The tragedy of the euro has become a bestseller in our world, and already at this conference

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we've sold all the copies that we have.

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So, you teach at Juan Carlos Rey in Madrid, is that right?

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Yeah, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.

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Okay, and you're a colleague of Jesus Cuartos de Soto.

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Yeah, I owe him a lot.

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Yes, but you're only 30 years old.

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Yes.

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Okay. You came to us when you were 20 years old, you said, at the Mises University.

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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.

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Well, not so good, yeah. But I remember that. I remember that also, yeah. It was the first and second year.

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Actually, then I was still good. But then it's all downhill from there.

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So you left your piano talents to language while you studied economics?

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Yeah, I had no piano. For many years I did not have a piano. Only last September I bought one.

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Okay.

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And now I'm slowly coming back.

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Now that you're coming into your own as an economist, maybe you'll pick it up again someday, yeah?

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No, I'm practicing now.

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Okay, good, that's good.

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Where were you studying economics when you came to Mises University?

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You were in Germany, right?

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I was still in Germany, in Münster, Münster in Westphalia,

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where this Rothbard describes, tells about Münster and his history of economic thought,

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you know, what this communist experiment, right?

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So, Münster is famous because of this.

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The first great experimenting in communism.

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And eventually, it's like Gaddafi today or something, they had to throw the guy out, right?

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They had to invade the town and toss him out or something. I can't remember the details.

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They tortured and killed them. Actually, they have still the cages

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up on the tower on the church. There are still three cages.

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Where the dictators are. Where the leaders were hanged.

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This is the 15th century?

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15th or 16th, I think.

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16th century, yeah.

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Yeah, that's one of the great chapters.

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So your attachment to economics as a science is very intense.

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And that's obvious to anybody who reads your work

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or listens to your lectures.

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When did it begin in your life?

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Your love for economics?

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When I read Rothbard, I think I was still in high school.

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What did you read, in German or English?

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In German. I read the Ethics of Liberty, where this is more libertarian.

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I read Mises' Bureaucracy, there's a translation, liberalism, there's a translation.

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Oh well, liberalism is the original edition.

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Yes, it's original, yes. And from there, it started. Then I read Hazlitt, Man Economy and State, National Economy.

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But you entered into a very conventional economics program, highly mathematized, highly Keynesian, no?

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Yes, Keynesian, yes. Maybe not as mathematized as other programs, though.

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Of course, you know, there's the auto-liberal school in Joni, which is still opposed to mathematization.

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I think it has become worse over the years. I think now it would be worse.

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Yeah. Or more social-democratic or...?

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More mathematical.

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More mathematical. And the liberal school's politics today are...?

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No, they are still on the same line as ten years ago, but their influence has been falling

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because the mathematical school is rising in influence.

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I see, yeah. And then you finished your undergraduate and then you went on to

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Straight to your Ph.D.?

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Well, because here someone, I think Gabriel Calzada, recommended me to go to Madrid to study with Jesus Huerta de Soto.

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I did the Erasmus year in Madrid, Erasmus program, exchange program for European universities.

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So I did that in 2003, 2004.

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And then I returned to finish my master in Germany, and afterwards I did the PhD in...

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At Münster?

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Yes, I did the master at Münster.

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Is this where your family is?

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Close, close to Münster, yeah.

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So, this is in East Germany today, and...

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No, it's West Germany.

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It's West Germany. I thought you said it was in Münster.

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Shows what I know about the German geography, right?

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Yeah.

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Typical American, right? Okay.

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It can improve on that.

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I'll work on that. So now you're 30 and you have a professorship. You teach how many classes?

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Five or six, six or seven.

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And you teach in Spanish?

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Spanish and English. Everything you want.

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Anything you want. German, Spanish, English. What else?

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Nothing else.

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French?

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No.

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no you can understand it no I could read it probably yeah yeah well you know

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European academics are very different from Americans Americans know one

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language and one language only and only a little bit of that one for most of them

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And it's sufficient.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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Now, so you've done these two marvelous books, and they came as a surprise to us when they

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arrived.

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I mean, I didn't, I'm not sure I was expecting them.

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The Tragedy of the Eurobook in particular changed the mind of your own professor, Roberto

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de Soto, who had been up to then a supporter of the European Currency Union, right?

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as he thought it was the most liberal solution.

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Well, he still is kind of a supporter.

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I changed it only a little bit.

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He still thinks that...

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He reached with me that, of course, for a German...

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He said if he would be German, he would be against the euro.

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But as he is a Spaniard...

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As he is a Spaniard, because otherwise the Spanish...

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And they said that would have devalued and would have been worse for Spain, which might

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be the case.

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But for the future of Euro as a whole, I think it's worse.

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Yeah.

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Do you expect the Euro to be in the news in the future, within the next year or two, more

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so?

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It will continue, because the problem is not solved.

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We have, in March, we have a summit, and markets expect that they will extend the rescue fund,

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the bailout fund.

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They will probably do it, because otherwise it would explode, because no one would buy

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any more of these Portuguese and Spanish bonds.

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You know, I'm thinking about Austrians who have written about this topic, and the name

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When Pascal Salin comes to mind, right, long before there was a European Currency Unit,

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he had written on this topic.

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I think so, yes.

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But I don't remember.

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Okay.

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Are there other thinkers who influenced you?

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Guido Holtzmann?

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Yeah.

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Guido has a good mentor, has been a good mentor to me when I was here.

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And what other Austrians in the history of thought are you drawn to? Rothbard, Mises, Hayek?

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Well, Hayek less. He's not such a clear thinker as Mises or Rothbard. He doesn't write as clear as they do.

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Yes. Well, that's true. Even his English is less clear than probably Rothbard reads in German.

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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.

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Well, I think it's the only book-length treatment of the topic, which is so important because

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you established the relationship between the events there and Austrian business cycle theory

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in a very, very nice way.

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What is on your agenda now?

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What are you planning on?

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What's your next book going to be about?

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What are your next papers? What are you researching now?

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That's a secret I won't tell you.

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It's going to be like your last two books. They just arrived.

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Actually, I'm working now on the German translation of the Eurobook

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because obviously, for Germany, it's a perfect market for it.

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And there are also other translations coming out in Slovak

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Have you gotten some attention from the press, from newspapers and things like this yet?

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For your views yet?

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No, the mainstream media is not so much interested.

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Not so interested?

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Have you seen other interest in the English version of the tragedy of the euro, I mean

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among colleagues and friends in Germany and Spain?

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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.

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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?

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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.

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throughout the process.

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And so when the review came out and it was so over the top, I mean he just loved the

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book and the enthusiasm for your manuscript was palpable.

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So it was nice for me because it confirmed something I had suspected that not only is

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the book a wonderful book, but that the man who wrote the book is a brilliant young Austrian.

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So, we're all very excited about your work so far and what you will do in the future.

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What's it like for a German living in Spain?

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It's marvelous.

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It's sunny.

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It's not raining.

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You can sleep until nine o'clock in the morning.

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This is good.

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It's like being on vacation your whole life.

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Have you, do you speak Spanish all the time in Spain, I mean to everybody?

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Yes.

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And do you think in Spanish yet? Or more and more?

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Yeah, more and more. I think in Spanish.

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Do your students say that your Spanish is good?

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Well, they understand me. They don't complain anymore.

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In the beginning they complained, but not anymore.

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And do you dream in Spanish? I mean, is Spain your new home?

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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.

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Were you at our Salamanca conference?

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Yes.

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You were, yeah. And was that before you were teaching at the university?

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No, it was long after. It started in 2007.

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So in Spain, here we have, in a way, the birthplace of economic science.

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In some ways, the birthplace of modernity itself, right? Spain.

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So it's a wonderful place for an economist to be.

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The place where it all began.

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How far is Cordoba from Madrid?

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It's a way. I haven't been there.

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And Salamanca is over there on the other side.

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Salamanca is closer than Cordoba.

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You have plenty of traveling to do, right?

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Lots of vacation time and lots of places to go.

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I hope you use all your vacation time to write more books, to do more research.

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and maybe you will, at some point, be able to come back and spend more time with us here.

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Yeah, I always love to be here. It's good. That is like coming home.

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Yeah, well, I feel the same way. And it was a thrill for me to see you today

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because you deal digitally with people for a year and then see them in real life.

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It's like an apparition.

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Yeah, the same here.

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Thanks for taking the flight over here all the way and for writing these books,

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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.

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I thank you very much. Thank you.

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