Point of View April 9, 2025 – Hour 2 : Conservatives are Making Gains in Europe

[00:00:04] Across America, Live, this is Point of View. Now, Dr. Merrill Matthews. And welcome back to Point of View. I'm Merrill Matthews sitting in for Kirby Anderson today and we've got a program for this next hour I've been looking forward to for weeks.

[00:00:28] We've got in studio with us Dr. Barbara Combs. She is the founder of the Free Market Roadshow, director of the Austrian Economics Center, president of the Hayek Institute, and professor of Austrian economics at the University of Doña Gritza. I think I got that right, in Montenegro. She was at one point vice president of the Austrian Central Bank and has worked in a number of areas and is a professional economist, PhD in economics.

[00:00:54] Barbara, thank you for joining us. Thank you very much, Merrill, for having me. It's a pleasure to be here in Dallas again. So let's talk about some of these things you're with. So president of the Hayek Center, those of us we occasionally mention Friedrich Hayek here on the program because that's Austrian economics. You're from Austria and you're an expert in Austrian economics. So tell us about the Hayek Center. Well, thank you. I'm the Austrian Austrian. We export Austrian economics to other countries. And we gladly import them here. And there's no tariffs on them.

[00:01:24] Well, that's the good thing about it. Well, it's intellectual property. We'll see what is happening on that. But coming back to the Hayek Institute, I mean, we were founded actually by Hayek himself one year before he passed away. And then the operations were started. It didn't not much happened. It was a typical, very academic organization. And one book was published per year.

[00:01:49] They once hosted the Montpelerin Society meeting in Vienna, and that was about it. And in 2000, I was asked to join and kind of get it kickstarted and as the secretary general back then and get things organized. And first thing we did was we got rid of subsidies because, you know, if you believe in markets and especially in free markets, there is no such thing as subsidies that you get taxpayers money that is being turned around.

[00:02:15] And so we did our homework and we are now the Hayek Institute is kind of the by now the little sister of the Austrian economics center. But the Hayek Institute is operating mostly in German speaking countries. But we also run the free market road to parallel in those countries and do a lot of other conferences and publications. So give us a thumbnail sketch of what Austrian economics is and what as opposed to say Keynesian economics or whatever.

[00:02:44] Well, to put it simple, we believe not only in free markets, but we believe in the achievement principle. We believe in competition and we believe in self-responsibility. And of course, the best thing is individual and economic freedom. So no state intervention, a strong state insofar as you want the rule of law in place. But that's it.

[00:03:09] We believe in the United States provide a framework for us to operate and work within that and that we are as free as possible in our own solutions and choices. So we know better. We individuals know better than the state or anonymous government. So you're founder of the free market road show. You've been doing this some time. You come over to the States to do this. I think you're in Washington, D.C. yesterday. I think Grover Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform sponsored that.

[00:03:38] You're here today with it. You're going to be in some of the others. What is the free market road show? Well, the free market road show started out 19 years ago. And we thought, well, back then we had a conservative center-right government when we thought, well, let's export the good structural reforms that this government did and tell everybody else that solutions can be done.

[00:04:03] Because until then it was only Reagan and Thatcher who really did those supply side economic solutions and nobody else did it in Europe. And so we said, well, let's do that one thing and then combine it with the theory of the Austrian school. And by that, we had the practical experience and the theory. And the first year we were traveling to four capitals in Europe only. It was Vienna, it was Prague, it was Bratislava, and it was Berlin.

[00:04:34] And it took us two weeks with like a set of a handful of speakers. And now we're 19 years later, we operate in almost 40 countries in Europe, run the road show there with more than 120 partners and universities. And we now started to grow in the U.S. This year we are doing 12 stops.

[00:04:57] And we have done so far, we're on the second stop in Dallas and tomorrow we will be in Houston, followed by Ottawa. But we cover mostly the East Coast this year. And what we do is the elevator pitch would be providing pro-market libertarian solutions to today's problems.

[00:05:20] Now we don't normally get elected officials from Europe here and point of view, but you were elected to the National Council in Austria. So you're no longer an economist, you're a politician, no longer part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Well, thank you. So what is it like being a member of the, is it a parliament? Do you call it a parliament or council? Parliament. Well, it is. Because you're with the Freedom Party, right? I mean, you're a center right and you're trying to change the way Austria works.

[00:05:50] Exactly. I mean, we won. We won the elections almost by 30 percent. However, Social Democrats and the Conservative Party and the Liberals didn't want us to take the chancellor and run the country and do all those reforms that are more than needed these days. But they formed a coalition against us.

[00:06:13] So we are now the largest and strongest opposition in parliament and will kind of push reforms from this side. But of course, it's always better if you're in the driving seat. I will say we don't give that long to this government, maybe two, three years, three years, because there is no common sense between the Conservatives and the Social Democrats. I mean, we didn't finish the question about Keynes.

[00:06:42] So what is the difference between Keynes and Hayek? I mean, Keynes was... John Maynard Keynes? Yes. Was for spending, spending, spending. And Hayek said, no, careful. And this is what we see these days, especially. You must not overspend. And it's not the task of the government to fulfill all duties. There is a private sector that can do much better. Is the Austrian economy doing fairly well? Well, we are very close.

[00:07:12] We are very close to the Germans. So we're tight to the Germans because our enterprises rely on or actually are exporting or producing for German producers, whether it's mainly the car industry, but many other sectors as well. So we depend heavily on how Germany is doing. And as you all know, the economic engine of Europe, Germany, is not only stuttering, but it has almost come to a halt. So we are in...

[00:07:42] It's a very difficult situation. And in addition to that, and this is the challenge right now in parliament and in politics, as a lawmaker, our budget is very stretched. We have tons of debt. And before the elections, the conservative minister of finance did not announce that. And sadly, three days after the elections, he admitted that we would not even meet the mastery criteria anymore.

[00:08:11] Well, we have tons and tons of debt over here in the United States. And, of course, there's been a lot of tension growing between the United States and Europe. So when we come back from the break, I'd like to get into that. Some of the issues that we're facing, tariffs are there on the front burner for all the European countries. I'd like to get your take on that and what's happening and how Austria is responding and how the EU might respond from that. So my guest for this hour, Dr. Barbara Combs. She's an economist, director of the Austrian Center for Economics. And we'll be back with her in just a minute.

[00:08:58] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. Last week, the president launched tariffs and a trade war. Nearly everyone has an opinion about tariffs, but it's worth looking back at an article written in 1985. Well, why should we consult an essay that is 40 years old? We should pay attention to it because it is talking about something that happened nearly a century ago. Ed Yardini provides a reprint of his article, The Protectionist Road to Depression.

[00:09:23] He believes the single most catastrophic cause of the Great Depression was the Smoot-Hawley tariff of June 1930. Yes, the stock market crash of October 1929 was significant, and so were other economic events at the time. But if you look at his graphs about what happened after the passage of the Smoot-Hawley tariff, you can see his point. A little history might be in order. Representative Willis Hawley from Oregon introduced a tariff bill in 1929.

[00:09:48] Senator Reid Smoot of Utah introduced his version of the tariff bill that was finally passed in 1930. A conference bill was later passed, and as critics predicted, international trade retaliation came from numerous countries. Soon, world trade collapsed, as he shows in one of his exhibits. He wrote his essay because he was seeing protectionist sentiments spreading at an alarming rate. One bill at the time would impose a 25% tax on all imports from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Brazil.

[00:10:18] Sound familiar? The countries targeted might have changed, but the percentages proposed are the same. Will the current tariffs bring jobs back to this country? On my radio program, I read the long list of companies who say they will invest in America. Yes, there is some good news with the tariff announcement, but there is also concern. That's why learning a bit of economic history might be helpful. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my Point of View.

[00:10:46] For a free booklet on a biblical view on chemical abortion, go to viewpoints.info slash chemical abortion. Viewpoints.info slash chemical abortion. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. And welcome back to Point of View. My guest in studio, Dr. Barbara Combs. She's an economist, director of the Austrian Center for Economics, and an economics professor, especially in Austrian economics.

[00:11:14] And that's an export we like here. We have, I think, a Frederick Hayek Center here. We've got the von Mises Institute and other places that sort of highlight the Austrian economics. So the big issue here lately is tariffs. Now, if people haven't heard, President Trump just today, earlier today, announced a 60-day pause on the tariffs. Europe was already responding to that. So tell us your take on tariffs and especially how it affects the European Union.

[00:11:41] Well, tariffs are taxes and serve as literally protectionist measures. From an Austrian economics perspective, tariffs are really not good because in the end they harm everybody. They harm the producers. They harm the consumers. They will drive inflation. And it's nothing positive out of it.

[00:12:05] Let me ask you that question because President Trump has been saying other countries have been taking advantage of the United States because of tariffs. And I don't agree with that. But what's your take on that? Well, I don't agree on that either on this specific point. If you have a trade deficit with another country, this doesn't mean that you have a disadvantage towards these countries. When we have trade deficits, just to give a simple example, with my local book trader, for example.

[00:12:34] You buy books from him? He never buys anything from you? Exactly. That's, for example, one thing. But you can give tons of examples at that front. So from a sheer Austrian economics perspective, we need to oppose taxes and tariffs. And this is not good because tariffs are taxes. We'll stop.

[00:12:56] Let's just take a little aside on this because tariffs, when the president said they wanted to do reciprocal tariffs, I thought that's going to be almost impossible because some countries may have, they have certain constituencies they're trying to, they want to support because it's important to that group. I think in Japan, rice farmers for years were very strong and they had a strong tariff on rice because they didn't want to import rice. They wanted to protect the farmers there.

[00:13:21] But it's, I mean, if you have, the U.S. doesn't grow bananas. We don't grow coffee. We don't grow cocoa beans. There's no tariff we can put on. We can't do any reciprocal tariff on that. It's just, it just, it's, reciprocal tariff seems like it's really hard to do. Well, you're totally right. And it makes things more complicated.

[00:13:41] And if we look how long trade agreements take until they are finally signed, all this force and back steps, those pro and cons and this, all those interventions that we see are so complicated. And if we do this on a reciprocal issue as well, then you will never end. I mean, my personal stand is zero tariffs, unilateral free trade. That would be the optimal thing.

[00:14:08] There was a piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday by Steve Moore, who we've had on the show a few times, and he is proposing we ought to go to zero tariffs. And Trump did mention that one time in his first administration. I've never thought that he really believed that, but it would be if you went to zero tariffs. I still remember Milton Friedman going to Hong Kong, if I remember right, about 1979 on his free to choose thing. And he's in a boat going into Hong Kong.

[00:14:35] He said, welcome to the freest economy in the world because there is zero tariffs there. Correct. And there are plenty of zero tariff regions or zones in Asia. And they are doing pretty well. And it's working out. I mean, we create added value. And that's what we want after all. We want all to become wealthier and richer. And that's what you do with trading. And if you trade freely without any tariffs imposed, it's much better.

[00:15:04] And besides, if, for example, high tariffs would have been imposed on European goods right now, our economic growth would have gone down. The European Central Bank predicts economic growth of 0.9% for this year and a little bit more for next for 2026. So zero point is nothing.

[00:15:28] And if you are now in the issue with tariffs, economic growth will be reduced by 0.3% to 0.5%. So there is nothing left to grow and to be productive. And this would harm our industries, but it will also harm those companies. There are also those goods that will be exported, say, to the U.S., for example,

[00:15:54] because we cannot produce at those costs anymore that would be needed to keep the margin and the price. So lesser quality probably will be involved in those products. And the consumer is the one who suffers from that. So the news media here has been covering Europe and saying that Europe really has – is really in a quandary right now about how do you deal with Trump and the tariffs and just Trump in general,

[00:16:23] because there's other issues, defense issues and things of that nature. What's your take on how the European Union is responding? The European Union is a centrally planned organization right now in economy. I mean, everything is being done out of Brussels, and the nation states themselves do have a veto in theory. But then when all the governing – in the governing council, when all the prime ministers and presidents are sitting there,

[00:16:51] there is much group pressure in order to make sure that everybody passes the bill that the EU president and the European Commission wants to be passed. So having said that, it's centrally organized and it's centrally planned, more or less. We both know as economists that central planning doesn't work.

[00:17:14] We know it's better when we use the dispersed knowledge of the regions, of the individuals, and that is what is totally left out. So in other words, we also have rules and regulations in place that are very disturbing, also for our trade partners in the world, and that also destroy our own opportunities to exchange, to trade, and to grow.

[00:17:40] And having this framework, it's complicated to get a deal done with the U.S., for example. Does Europe feel that there is a growing separation between the United States and Europe? Well, I would say people who understand what individual and economic freedom means claim and say,

[00:18:05] no, there is none, because after all, there is more freedom in the U.S. than in Europe. Europe was going to respond, and they may have, with a reciprocal tariff. I think of – did I hear it on 20% or 25% on cars or steel or something like that? Exactly. That was the first approach. And then we also see that plenty of the European companies, car companies especially, but also steel.

[00:18:34] I give the Austrian example of Austrian steel, which is very technologically advanced, and they produce so-called green steel, which, you know, is something that you might like or not. But at least the companies have already put their plants in the United – started the production in the United States, which is a loss for us in Europe because we lose jobs. On the other hand, here in the U.S., they prosper.

[00:19:03] And then it doesn't matter where – there are no tariff issues anymore. Well, you know, to me, if you've got a country that's doing a lot of business with a certain company, that company has a certain reason for putting a plant there because you hire people there. It creates goodwill. And plus, you save on some of the carrying costs and other things because you're doing it there. So I've never been opposed to sort of the multinationals moving and producing products in other places

[00:19:32] because it seems like it was a good thing. And even here in the United States, a number of car companies are building in Mexico. And one of the problems we had had for a long time – still had a lot of immigrants moving here – but I think the percentage of Mexican immigrants had slowed down because they now have good jobs there based upon companies producing cars there. Exactly. If we exchange goods and if we trade with each other, we create economic value and wealth for each other. And that's rising the tide.

[00:20:03] So Austria's got a debt problem right now? Oh, we have a huge debt problem, unfortunately. Our debt can beat your debt, I bet. Well, luckily it's not. But if you look at per capita, yes, we are – right now the individual is indebted with almost $50,000 if you calculate it depending on the value right now. But it's about $50,000. And one and a half years ago, it was below $40,000.

[00:20:33] And we're almost at $50,000 right now. And, well, we had a huge party during COVID. Subsidies were loaded over everyone. And not only individuals but also companies, whether they wanted it or not. And this is, you know, spending as can be. And this was very bad. And right now we feel the consequences. When we come back, I want to hear what Austria is going to try to do that, where they're going to try to find some funds for that.

[00:21:02] We're struggling to try to find that ourselves here. We're looking at cutting spending and so forth. And we want to talk a little bit more about what the Austrian Center is doing and how – later on, how people can reach out to you and find out more about the Austrian Center. My guest for this hour, Dr. Barbara Combs. She is the director of the Austrian Center for Economics. She is Austrian. She's also a member of the parliament there in Austria. Stay with us. We'll be back on Point of View.

[00:21:30] It almost seems like we live in a different world from many people in positions of authority. They say men can be women and women men. People are prosecuted differently or not at all depending on their politics. Criminals are more valued and rewarded than law-abiding citizens. It's so overwhelming, so demoralizing. You feel like giving up. But we can't. We shouldn't. We must not.

[00:21:58] As Winston Churchill said to Britain in the darkest days of World War II, never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. And that's what we say to you today. This is not a time to give in, but to step up and join Point of View in providing clarity in the chaos. We can't do it alone, but together, with God's help,

[00:22:27] we will overcome the darkness. Invest in biblical clarity today at pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151. Pointofview.net and 800-347-5151. Point of View will continue after this.

[00:22:56] You are listening to Point of View. The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station. And now, here again, Dr. Merrill Matthews. And welcome back to Point of View. I'm Merrill Matthews, sitting in for Kirby Anderson today. And joining me in studio, Dr. Barbara Kong. She is the director of the Austrian Economic Center in Austria

[00:23:23] and a member of the parliament there in Austria. And, Barbara, we are struggling with finding money to be able to pay for the things we want to do. We're looking at cutting spending. Austria, President Trump is putting pressure on the EU nations and NATO nations. He wants you spending more on your own defense. I think that's a reasonable thing to do, especially with Russia over there. How are you all going to try to make it?

[00:23:50] Can you increase spending on defense, cut spending in other areas, and get things balanced out okay? Well, first of all, in general, Austria is a neutral country. After World War II, we were forced and luckily to be neutral. We are not a member of NATO. So our army is set up in a different way, more like a militia system and not in the way that, for example, the Germans, the French, the Italians, etc., or the Brits are.

[00:24:17] Having said that, well, spending for defense is important. However, we have also many other issues across Europe. And whether this is Germany, whether it is France or whether it is Italy, Italy not to that extent that much, but for example, also my home country, Austria, we have not undergone any structural reforms. We have not tackled the so-called pension issue.

[00:24:44] And the pension issue, is that for individuals or is that for government employees? Well, the government employees have a great, wonderful pension scheme. Why am I not surprised? No worries about those, but for the individuals. We are still running on the pay-as-you-go system. The third pillar, namely the capital-based system, is not developed as it should be, at least not in those Western countries. And we face a huge problem.

[00:25:10] People are getting older, but they are also staying longer in their private lives, in their not productive lives or working lives. And we have to pay for that. And the contributions are getting smaller and smaller because less people work, less people contribute. We have a huge generation problem.

[00:25:34] Too few young people to contribute and to pay into the system. And we have not done any changes. We are still with the old, the pension system has not been changed. So this is true for many countries. There were minor changes across Europe, but only minor not to tackle that. So structural reforms, no homework. Second point, spending. We overspent.

[00:26:03] And our spending in Austria is $120 billion last year. The Minister of Finance received, as income, $100 billion via taxes from the individuals and enterprises. So there is a big gap between. And this is not new. And it has happened for the past years.

[00:26:31] Because our governments eventually like spending. Politicians obviously only are one-trick ponies. They only know the trick how to spend. So is there – here in the United States, we had the Doge Group come in, Department of Government Efficiency, looking at spending and finding a lot of things that should not have been – we shouldn't have been spending on. There's been a broad sense.

[00:26:55] I've written about our Medicaid and Medicare programs and the fraud and so forth in those four years. Do you feel like there's fraud within the systems? Is there wasteful spending? And how do you – do you have anything like a Doge there in Europe or in Austria? Well, it is wasteful spending. I mean, we have a spending problem, not an income and contributions – it's not an income problem. So we literally have a spending problem.

[00:27:25] We need to cut our spending. And we should have done or should have had a Doge long ago. Structural reforms, as I mentioned, homework has not been done. So right now, the new government in Austria and we put that into the government negotiations will start a so-called Doge program. But the first question was, can we create a ministry? No. I mean, this is totally ridiculous. You don't create ministries to – To cut ministries.

[00:27:55] Exactly. No bureaucracy to do that. Don't create more. You need to set it up in a different way. We've learned a lot from what is happening in Latin America and with Malay in Argentina on the one hand, but also when you observe what is happening here in the U.S., I mean, it's disruptive. And it's a wonderful and good idea. I mean, Hayek and the Austrian school have always asked, what is this task of government? What does the state have to do for its citizens?

[00:28:22] And it's very limited tasks that the government has to provide, as we discussed earlier. So this is something that we are looking at. And on the European level, the so-called omnibus system was put into place, and the commissioners have announced it in February. However, this is addressing like – if you look at what they target,

[00:28:51] 80% of the enterprises in Europe have less than 1,000 employees, and their turnover is less than 50 billion. So those companies should be excluded for the next two years. It will be simply postponed. All this social – this sustainability reporting issues are one thing. So in order to avoid the significant harm.

[00:29:19] And then the supply side reporting – supply chain, sorry, supply chain reporting will also be pushed back. The CBAM reporting will be pushed back for only for two years. And that's really not helping. The European Union produced 13 acts of law – 13,000 acts of law in the last five years. It produced this amount of bureaucracy.

[00:29:46] And there is no way to – Keep track of that. So immigration has roiled U.S. politics. Has it – and I believe that it's been true in Europe as well. Austria and Europe, how about immigration there? Well, we have a huge immigration problem, twofold, because, well, too many came into our countries. We did not close our borders.

[00:30:11] It was in 2015 when Mrs. Malcolm, the German chancellor back then, invited literally everybody to come. And, of course, if you're a welfare state and you give handouts to literally everybody who is coming, whether – and they are not even asked and invited to be productive and to contribute, then you have an issue. And we've seen that over the past 10 years now.

[00:30:41] Since 2015, more and more people from sub-Saharan Africa, Syria, Afghanistan mostly coming into our countries, but not integrating and not searching for work and having all their families come back. And they don't learn our languages. It's a social problem. It's an ethical problem.

[00:31:08] But it's also a very – a big economic problem. The immigration issue sort of spurred the rise of the right in many European countries, didn't it? Yes, it did. And tell us a little bit about that. Well, because the center-right parties have always warned for a very long time that, well, people who need – who are refugees are most welcome. Many of us Europeans have been refugees because of our wars. Right. So this is a given.

[00:31:37] This is what you do. But if you're a refugee, you adapt to your local culture. You learn the language and you contribute. You start working. And you're not living on handouts. And that is what our social welfare states have done. They have just given out the money. And, you know, an average – there was just recently a huge scandal in Vienna.

[00:32:01] Migrant family from Afghanistan – I think it was – say from the east. Okay. Very far from the east. Has a higher income than any family, two kids, both working, and they don't do anything. They receive the handouts for the housing, food, and – Health care. Everything.

[00:32:31] Everything. Our hospitals are full of those migrants blocking off all the doctors for our local societies. So it's created a real problem there. It is. It's their attentions. And German, for example, is not spoken in Viennese schools anymore. Yeah. That is a problem. When we come back, I want to – J.D. Vance, the vice president, went to Europe here recently. He gave a speech in Munich.

[00:33:01] A lot of pushback from some people on that. I want to get your take on it when we come back, and we'll find out a little bit more about the Austrian Economic Center, the Hayek Center, and what people can do to find out more about that. So my guest for this hour has been Dr. Barbara Combs. She is a professor of economics, Austrian economics, in Montenegro, and also just one of the country's leading experts on Austrian economics.

[00:33:25] And Austrian economics has been sort of driving a lot of the right-leaning conservative thinking for decades now. So stay with us. We'll be back on Point of View.

[00:33:37] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. And we're back with our final segment with Dr. Barbara Combs. She is a member of the Austrian Parliament and an expert in Austrian economics.

[00:34:07] And so, Barbara, we have J.D. Vance went to Europe, I think, last month, wasn't it? Gave a speech in Munich, and there was a lot of reaction. What was your take on J.D.'s speech? Well, this was the Munich Security Conference, and they obviously wanted to talk about other things. But I think what, from a very personal perspective, I could underwrite every single sentence that he said,

[00:34:34] especially those when he was reminding us, Europeans, that we should look at our own values and that we should look at our own and should do our homework when it comes to reforms and make sure that we have our act together, put it this way. He stressed freedom of speech. Has that been declining in Europe? Well, yes. I mean, we have state-owned TV, state-owned media that are subsidized as well. So what do you get?

[00:35:03] I mean, your government pays what they want to hear. So people have trouble being able to get their views out? Does the government press against them if they're demonstrating or something of that nature? Well, they're going into a certain direction. So there is one kind of truth and another kind of truth. And it's always what the government wants them to be true. Look at the corona things, the corona issues. What happened during that time?

[00:35:31] I mean, people who had different opinion and said, you know, maybe lockdowns are not the best idea because it will destroy eventually our economy and we will create inflation, etc. And many other problems as well. We're silenced because we are put into one direction, especially also in Austria. You must lock down. You have to sit at home. You cannot be productive. Otherwise, you don't follow the rules.

[00:35:58] You have to have your injections and that's it. Vaccinations, sorry. So one of the things that he was supposed to be talking about was the issue of Russia. Russia is not that far from Austria. Russia has been on the move for a little while, especially with these issues with Ukraine. What is your take on Russia? My take on Russia is the following, that the Europeans have made many mistakes by ignoring

[00:36:27] for more than two decades, actually, the situation and that they should have either made a clear, drawn and a clear line when it comes to energy or whether it... Because Europe took a lot of energy from Russia. Exactly. I mean, Europe actually got successful and competitive because of the cheap energy, not because of our cheap labor.

[00:36:56] Our labor is the most expensive that we see. We are not competitive at all on that front. So our companies, our enterprises, our industry could only survive because of this cheap oil and gas. And after all, we depend on that or we have depended on that. And now, I mean, it goes as far as the German industry has to buy nuclear power to a very high price

[00:37:22] from the French because they shut down their own nuclear power plants because of the Green Deal. So we've had all those ridiculous issues over the years and we have simply not done our homework. And now, Vance literally said, hey guys, look at what you are doing and clean up your house and then we can talk. Some of the countries there are concerned that Russia may not want to just stop with Ukraine. Is that a fair concern?

[00:37:50] Well, as Austrians, we have this experience and we have been fearing the Russians for many, many, many years. And, you know, the Iron Curtain was literally behind Vienna. And so we – I grew up with this threat. And it changed a little bit after the Berlin Wall fell more than 30 years ago. And now that we have all those new EU member states, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, but they are all closed.

[00:38:20] They're literally border states. And I fully understand that those countries have big issues and have big fears. So this is why they're all a member of NATO and why we need to make sure our defense is in place. And we need to do something about it. Our allies are definitely in the West. The Trump administration wants to try to force Russia into a peace negotiation with Ukraine. I'm not optimistic.

[00:38:50] I'm not – it's not clear to me that Putin really wants peace. I think he's in one of those moving out methods where he just simply wants to try to begin recapturing some of the old Soviet Union. What is your thought on that? Do you think is peace doable there or are we just going to have to get militarized up and be ready to stop him from doing anything? I think especially from an Austrian perspective.

[00:39:18] Remember, we have held the Viennese Congress in 1814 right after the Napoleonic Wars. And we have had – also in our recent history, we've had many peace conferences and many conferences where deals were made, were hosted in Vienna. And I think from a diplomatic perspective, yes, it can be done. It's just also a question what Zelensky wants and how he's playing out the rest of Europe.

[00:39:44] And if the Europeans, they have not really tried hard enough to get negotiations going, peace deals going. And probably we need the help and the support of a very strong president to get it done. Do you think peace is possible then? Yes. Do you think – but is peace possible because we are adamant that peace happens or that we give too much?

[00:40:12] I mean, because you can get peace if you say you can take Ukraine if you'll give us peace. What do we do there? Well, I don't think that this will happen in this way. I mean, there will have to be negotiations and they will hurt, unfortunately, both countries, even though Russia was the aggressor. But they will also hurt the Ukrainians. They will not get out of this. Unscathed. Exactly. But, you know, we mustn't forget hundreds and thousands of people die in this war.

[00:40:42] And this is why we need to end it. And values are destroyed for nothing. Yeah. Tell us a bit about the Austrian Economic Center. What do you produce? How can people get in touch with you? What can they find if they go to the website and so forth? Well, we are a classic pro-market libertarian think tank. But we are also a do tank. So we produce academic papers and white papers. On the one hand, we advise politicians also in some cases.

[00:41:10] And this is the practical thing on one side. But we also run conferences and like the Free Market Roadshow, which is now the largest libertarian, actually pro-market tour and event in the world. If you put all those single events together. And we collaborate internationally.

[00:41:30] Additionally, we have more than 150 partners with universities and other think tanks, all from the center center right movement across Europe and the United States, but also in Asia. So a lot of economists are interested. But if I'm just an average person out there, can I find out about you and be interested in and get involved? Of course. We run various websites. The one, the most prominent is AustrianEconomicCenter.com. It's Hayek-Institute, AT, because of Austria.

[00:41:59] Or it's freemarket-RS.com. Or just put my name in there and you will find it. Or just put Hayek Vienna in there and you will find it. Or Austrian Center Vienna and you will find us. And to all our listeners, it would be great. If you wanted to stop by when you're in Vienna, visit us. We have a nice library. We always have good coffee. Viennese coffee houses, you know, the culture. Oh, yes, yes. So feel free to come by. We're great to see you.

[00:42:28] Thank you, Dr. Barbara Combe, for joining us and presenting a view on Austria and what's happening there in Europe. It's been great and I appreciate you joining us. Thank you very much, Meryl. And if you want to find out more, you can also go to pointofview.net. We have a link up there for Dr. Barbara Combe, plus a short bio of her. And you can find out more about it there. Or you can go directly to her website there in Austria. And I've done that myself. So you can find out the information that you need to go there. I want to thank you for joining us.

[00:42:57] Thank Megan for engineering, Steve for producing. And I believe Kirby will be back tomorrow. Thank you for joining us on Point of View. In 19th century London, two towering historical figures did battle, not with guns and bombs, but words and ideas.

[00:43:20] London was home to Karl Marx, the father of communism, and legendary Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon. London was in many ways the center of the world economically, militarily, and intellectually. Mark sought to destroy religion, the family, and everything the Bible supports. Spurgeon stood against him, warning of socialism's dangers. Spurgeon understood Christianity is not just religious truth.

[00:43:48] It is truth for all of life. Where do you find men with that kind of wisdom to stand against darkness today? Get the light you need on today's most pressing issues delivered to your inbox when you sign up for the Viewpoints commentary at pointofview.net slash signup. Every weekday in less than two minutes, you'll learn how to be a person of light to stand against darkness in our time.

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