Market Failures and Public Goods

 This is a lecture by an Austrian economist Peter G Klein at the Mises Institute. If the two economist in the podcast we went over in class are pro-market bordering on the extreme, then this is the extreme. The lecturer gives a radically pro-market take on market failures and public goods, arguing heavily against any sort of government involvement in the market and attempts to make the case that well-defined property rights are the best way to solve problems like negative externalities, and also makes a case that private firms do have reasons to provide public goods absent the market. He goes over examples like the Pigouvian tax and Coase Theorem and argues against them on theoretical grounds, trying to show how externalities aren't as easily quantifiable as they may appear, and again that most seriously negative externalities could better be solved through well-defined property rights rather than any government interference in the market. He goes over public goods like the famous lighthouse example and firework shows and argues that private firms can and have managed to provide them in the past. He uses radio as an example of a good that was at one point considered impossible to profit off of, until entrepreneurs learned to advertise on the radio to make profit. Overall, its an extremely pro-market take, as is to be expected from an Austrian economist, but I found the lecturers arguments on externalities in particular were interesting to consider, and as a whole the lecture is a nice comparison to the podcast we listened to, with this economist somehow going one step further. 

Externalities, Public Goods, and the Role of Government | Peter G. Klein:

https://youtu.be/y95f3n_-nMY?si=FkIQHxeHa-qRldfJ