Walter Williams: Well, I think that free-market thinking is just an extension of having a respect for basic principals of individual liberty. Individual liberty means that I can negotiate, I can engage in peaceful voluntary exchange with anybody I wish to whether they are Americans or whether they are from Europe, Mexico, Africa or anywhere in the world. So, my free market ideas come from individual liberty...
Daily Bell: How have you seen economics change during your career?
Walter Williams: You know economics, as a theory, does not change anymore than the law of gravity changes. The law of gravity is the same as when Newton wrote about it. So, economic theory is one thing but economic systems are another thing. I think for Americans and for the world in general, the most tragic economic change that the world has come to accept is that one person has the right to live at the expense of another person, which I think is despicable. That is, people all around the world – in Europe, the US or other countries – believe that it's OK for the government to take the property of one citizen and give it to another citizen of whom it does not belong. If a person did that identical thing privately, we would call it theft and we would condemn them. But people ask the government to do these kinds of things. It is way out of tune, at least in the United States, with the values of the founders of our country; they did not share the values that people share today.
Daily Bell: Would you characterize yourself as conservative, libertarian or neither?
Walter Williams: If you had to push me, I would say more libertarian. I would call myself a Jeffersonian liberal. As a matter of fact, the people that call themselves liberal today are for the most part fascists. I think libertarians need to take back the meaning of the word "liberal" because liberal means free. For people that call themselves liberal today, personal freedom is the last thing in their mind...
Daily Bell: What is the difference between a conservative and neo conservative if any?
Walter Williams: (Laughing) I don't know. But conservatives and liberals – and I include neo-cons with them – are all people who believe it's all right for government to take the property of one person and give it to another. That is liberals and conservatives prove H.L. Mencken's definition of an election. H.L. Mencken was a political satirist for the Baltimore Sun and when somebody asked him the definition of an election, he said: "An election is an advance auction on the sale of stolen property." Liberals believe in taking yours and my money and giving it to poor people and poor cities. Conservatives believe in taking yours and my money and giving it to farmers, banks and airline companies. They both agree on taking our money but they disagree on what to use it for...
Daily Bell: What is your opinion of America? Is it like Rome in the empire days?
Walter Williams: Yes. People say, "Well what can we do, what can be done?" And I say, "Well, how are Americans any different from other great empires of the past?" Rome? England? Spain? Portugal? France? They all went down the tubes for precisely the same thing. Bread and circuses! In 1892, if someone had suggested during Queen Victoria's Jubilee that England would become a 3rd-world nation and be challenged on the high seas by a 6th-rate nation such as Argentina, you would have been put into an insane asylum. But it went down the tubes for precisely what we are doing in our country now – what we have been doing for the past 30 or 40 or 50 years. Bread and circuses and big government spending...
Daily Bell: Do you think the bailouts in the West help at all?
Walter Williams: No. It didn't help at all. Read what happened during the Great Depression and the New Deal in 1938. Roosevelt's Secretary Treasurer said, "Mr. President we have spent more money than we have ever spent in the past and it's not doing any good. Unemployment is just as bad as it was and all we've accomplished is we've gotten into more debt and spent more money." That is the same thing Treasurer Secretary Geithner can say today to President Obama, "We have spent more money, but unemployment is the same; in fact it's higher than when he took over the office."...
Daily Bell: Do you oppose central banking? Would you like to see a return in America and the world to a form of free-banking as enunciated by George Selgin, George White, Antal Fekete, et. al.?
Walter Williams: Yes, I would. I believe that the monopoly over money maintained by the Federal Reserve and the legal tender laws have not been very good for our country; that is, a central bank allows the government to steal from its citizens with impunity. I have often suggested to people that if they ever find themselves in court facing a charge of counterfeiting, they should tell the judge they were engaging in monetary policy.
Daily Bell: Would you like to see the Fed abolished? Would you like to return to a gold or gold and silver standard?
Walter Williams: Well I am not sure we can go back. The very fact that we went for a long time in our history without a central bank, from the time of Andrew Jackson and the Second National Bank until the Federal Reserve Bank, and had prosperity in our country during that period shows that the Fed is not absolutely necessary. The justification for its creation was to end bank failures and have stability in price levels. However, if you do a before and after study, there were a greater number of bank failures after the Federal Reserve bank was established than before it came into being. And price stability was greater before its enactment as well. In terms of its stated mission, it's a total failure.
Daily Bell: What is the most important problem facing America right now?
Walter Williams: I think the growth of government. The amount of money we spend on Medicare, Social Security, Prescription Drugs, etc., eats up the entire federal revenues and the rest of government is dependent on borrowing. This is a serious problem. We are spending too much. From 1787 until 1920, the federal government spent just 3% of the GDP except during wartime. Today it's close to 30% of the GDP. We are in serious trouble because of it.
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