So therefore, they don't want to hear what the Austrian economists have to say - that you shouldn't do anything; that you should start cutting spending; that you decrease rather than increase your power. Nobody wants to hear that. They want the flattering portrayals of a Paul Krugman who tells them that they are the wise overlords who can steer our ship of state safely through the crisis. That's what they want to hear and that's what they are going to follow.

Q: What's the main point in your book that you would want Barack Obama to both understand and embrace?

A: The simple point would be that not only did the free market not cause the problem, but the free market is in fact the only feasible solution to the problem - and that we would probably already be at the end of the crisis if the market had been allowed to work. I would say that - and the book gives him all the evidence he could ask for to support that point of view.

Q: Why did you get Congressman Ron Paul to write the book's foreword?

A: I think he's almost the only one in Washington who understands anything about what's happening. At a time when every blockhead in the world was saying that the fundamentals of the economy were sound, he was saying, "Wait a minute. There's something wrong with this apparent prosperity. It's not real. It's built on sand; it's not built on a sound foundation." And people laughed at him - "Oh, there's old Ron Paul again."

Q: And when he'd mention the economy during the presidential debates, people would roll their eyes and say, "Get this Martian off the stage."

A: "Hasn't he been watching CNBC? Things are great." Seriously. I thought, "Here's a guy who has serious credibility on this issue - who actually understands economics, which is truly rare for anyone in Washington." And so for him, with his great reservoir of credibility, to lend his name to a very nice foreword, was just about the most flattering thing I could have asked for.

Q: There are not too many people in power in Washington who would agree with your diagnosis of what went wrong or what should be done to avoid future economic meltdowns. Does that depress you or distress you in any way?

A: Well, sure. I know it means that the American people are in for more misery; that the ignorance of their rulers will bring them a lot more misery. At the same time, I am encouraged by the fact that the Austrian interpretation that blames the government central bank intervention for the problems rather than the free market itself is getting a wider audience than it ever has before. Young people are interested in Austrian economics like you wouldn't believe. Mainstream economics, which led us into this impasse, is totally passé and seen as kind of stupid stuff that old guys teach.

Q: You mean this is true in academia?

A: For instance, at our Von Mises Institute we are seeing more students than ever applying for our program and they want to become professional economists. They view the Austrian school as the wave of the future. It makes sense. We predicted the crisis. We're sort of the "cool" school of thought. We are the oldest continuous school of economic thought. Right now we are the smallest, but we're also the fastest growing.

The smart kids - not the drones who just want to get their degree -- are disproportionately being attracted to the Austrian school. I am confident - and pessimistic as I am about other things - that in the future the opinion molders in our society and the economists are going to be much more heavily swayed in our direction than is the case at present. And it will be far, far more difficult to ignore them, as the establishment is desperately trying to do today.

Q: Is there anything the Obama administration, or Congress or the media has said or done that has given you hope that they will do something right?

A: I'm afraid not. I'm slightly encouraged that Republicans - after years of being on a drunken spending binge -- are suddenly getting religion, so to speak. But it's too little too late. They have no credibility whatsoever on this issue. At the same time, there is one thing that's encouraging and that is that Ron Paul's bill to audit the Fed, H.R. 1207, now has 88 cosponsors. That's very important. Because here we have one man (the Fed chairman), who creates all this money he wants to out of thin air and not tell us where it is going. Who on Earth is going to defend that?

I would like to see a congressman say, "You know what? I don't think we need to audit the Fed. I think what we need is a totally secretive organization running the banks." Who in his right mind who is not bought and paid for would say something like that? So I think if there is an audit of the Fed, the irregularities one would find I suspect would be so great that we would suddenly begin to start debating economic issues that have been off the table for a long time.