This week on TWS: Forecasts, Strategies & FreedomFest 2023 with Dr. Mark Skousen.

All things serendipitous, I got this email from Mark last night. “We’re now back home in Florida. Any update on when our interview will air?”

I said: “Good timing, Mark, we’re releasing tomorrow. I’ll update you…”

And he responded with an anecdote:

Jo Ann and I got back last night from our short 3-day trip to New York, the first visit in over 2 years after selling our house.We saw two musicals, “The Music Man” and “Neil Diamond, A Beautiful Noise.” Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster were great. Seeing it reminded us of our own performance of the Music Man in the Bahamas nearly 40 years ago; and the Neil Diamond performance was electric, with a great story line– and without all the profanity found in “Jersey Boys.” Highly recommended.

In between….

The highlight on Friday was a short conversation with the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, at the Baron Investment Conference in New York City. Before asking Elon a question, I quoted Seneca, “There is no genius without a touch of madness,” to which Elon responded “I like the madness part!” Then I asked about Tesla.

I show up twice: around 7 seconds into the clip, a picture of me in the audience, wearing my signature hat; then my question to Mr. Musk starts at around 52-53 minutes into the interview. My question and his response last about 3 minutes. I was only one of two people out of nearly 5,000 people in the audience who got to ask Elon a question. It was like winning the lottery, although I did not win either one of the two free Tesla cars given away after Elon spoke. So it must have been my hat trick! 🙂

I’m hoping to get Musk to speak at FreedomFest, but obviously it’s a long shot. He must be getting invitations right and left.

On Saturday, we went to SIX restaurants in mid-Manhattan to find a diner for breakfast. I kid you not. In one diner, we were there for 45 minutes and the one waitress never did come to our table. I felt sorry for her. We finally found a deli to have breakfast. So not everything is back to normal in New York – except the noise, graffiti, litter, traffic, potholes, high-priced hotels, and crime.

We did enjoy the new Delta lounge at the refurbished LaGuardia Airport– it was like a full restaurant service!

Best wishes, AEIOU,

Mark Skousen

Mark and I have been colleagues for a long time; he is among the closest people to a living Milton Friedman as you can get.

In this Session we talk about:

• A Fed pivot– or lack thereof– and the struggle to find sound fiscal policy…
• Sing Sing… or teaching economics to prisoners (there is a lot to learn from the imprisoned; the extended metaphor does not escape me).
• The Mt. Pelerin Society – 36 scholars invited by Professor Friedrich Hayek to meet at Mont Pelerin near Montreux, Switzerland, to discuss the state and the possible fate of liberalism (in its classical economic sense) in thinking and practice in 1947.

You can watch this week’s Session in full, here.

P.S. A little fun for the week to start: A photo of a Bitcoin ATM sent to me by my son Henry in Orange County, California. They have ‘em here and there in Maryland. One I saw recently was in a Royal Farms… right next to the Powerball ticket dispenser. Hmn.