That's the first time I've ever used this rod, but that fish feels good. Yeah, maybe not. You get wicked head shakes around right here, like that. Usually it's a pretty good one. This is that top and bottom rig. I think he went for the bottom. Yeah, he did. Pretty good one there. 13, 12 and three quarters. This one feels better. Nice. Want me to grab him? Just trying to reel him up close. No, you don't have to do that. Look how thick that thing is. Yeah, but he's thick. Right, but I mean, I don't know. Should I put him on the fish, darling? Yeah, I don't have a problem with it. Stay right there. Nice one there. Sick. That's how thick these fish are. Shorty thick. 14. You know how to do it, right? I've walked you guys. 14, 14, respectable in some states. One up, one down. Oh, this guy just got a little better. Just check it. Hit the check mark, and then you've got to use the point if there's a point, and then see where it's the size units. Yeah, you don't have a point, do you? Got one. I guess I could get a little closer. This is my first fish. What's up, guys? CJ Harmon here with my good buddy, Joe Holland Guide Service. He's put me on the fish today. It's a fun little change. Little change of pace. Yeah, I don't get to have somebody take me fishing very often. He showed up 45 minutes early to the boat launch and said, where the heck are you? Pumped right out. Yeah, I love it. It's just like I was when I was a kid. Oh, man. We are out here fishing in Maine, and we're in a basin, like a deep water basin, where it's got a lot of L-wives for bait or small baby perch or baby something. They're basically fry but in huge bowls. So these fish are always up and down. We're not too worried about barotrauma. We'll have some that have barotrauma. We'll take them home and eat them. Crappy is a great eating fish that we all enjoy. But for the most part, their school is just coming and going, and the schools stay in about six. They kind of run the same range. Every once in a while, you'll pop one big one next to a small one. But for the most part, you're catching them all in that same class range. So CJ just entered the fish donkey stone cold crappie tournament, and it's your best three crappy bar to length, and you can keep adding on and on and on as you get bigger size. So he just waited in his first one ever on that. Very good 14-incher, honorable. We should be able to get rid of that today. I have, I think my smallest is 15 and a half, but I've put in a day and a half so far efficient. But I think I've weighed in like 10, 15s in this, just this week alone. So we probably can't catch the leader. There's a kid out of Iowa that's got three 16, he's got 16 and a half and two 16, seven fives. He's on like a little man made body of water that's just holding some giants. So he's going to be tough to beat, but we're out here. We're going to, we want to beat a lot of the guys from Minnesota, because there's this Minnesota main rivalry building up all of a sudden. I don't know how it started, but so we want to get CJ up there. Yeah, I've helped a lot of people enter. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. I just finally entered my first one. It's kind of exciting, isn't it? Yeah. Right? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, I guess you'll get to me. Yeah, sorry about that. No, it wasn't finished. I wasn't even moving that gig. Oh yeah, big guy. Oh, drink that. I can't look for it. That's the most perch I've seen yet here. Every fish wants, hopefully you got a good one. Yes. Good one. You look tiny down there. Yeah. You know, it would be awesome. Is it, is it if I had my reel on this reel, the handle? It would be pretty cool if I had my handle. I hope I don't get a bite right now. I don't know where it is. It must be in my, let me see where it fell out. If I get a bite right now, it's going to be, oh man, watch that tip that I had in the auger holder. Yeah. All right, that's going to be a lot better. It'll be a lot easier to reel them in. I was like, what is going on here? There, oh, what are you getting to there? Big whitey? No, just my drags too. All right, I was going to say, he's taking you for a ride. Might be a decent one, huh?  Yeah, I like those. 13 and change. I'm not measuring anything unless it's 14. Yeah, yeah, don't weigh anything unless it's 14. He bit that big over.  That happens. I don't know. Okay, you might be using this, this apparatus in a little while. Nice. That looks decent. That looks decent, folks. You got one coming out. It's all fired up. This one just feels like heavy weight. That's good. Usually they feel heavy until they get, right about there, big head shakes. Any head shakes? Yeah, a little bit. That looks bad. Yeah. That's a 15er. Hold that up for the camera. That's good. That's 15 and a half. 15. He's 15. Oh, 15. 15? Oh, I got a big one coming in. Shoot. I want you to push this one. 14 three-quarters.  Look how heavy that fish is. I'd say he was really... Going back. That one coming to you from the left is a good one, just so you know. That one's the smallest one. He is the smallest one, too, where he looked at it. But he might surprise you. Any good... It doesn't feel like that. Yeah. So hard to tell when you're that deep. Guys, you might think that CJ's whacking my butt here, but I'm actually biting the bullet for a friend. Oh, that's a pig.  That was a small one out of those three. I'm biting the bullet for a friend, and I got a great big rattle bait down there, and I'm trying to bring these fish in, and we're hitting them with a one-two combo, and he's got something edible bite size.  What's funny is that was a small one out of the three. That's a big fish. You could pinch the tail. He's going back. Oh, he's still on. It was a bad...  He is. He's still on. I dropped it before you knew friggin' ate it before it came out. That one looks small. Yeah, it doesn't feel very big. How bad does this person who offered to say how easy this is? That, she would have won. You catch the first one. I'll catch the second. Yes. That's what I'm worried about. He's got a 15, 1475, and a 14. This one's not big enough. This one's not big, he said. Wow, yellow. He's going to bite. Two, one. Got one. Got one. You know you. I was doing the fish donkey thing. Yeah. Got one. Got one. I'm going to get this thing rattling down there. I'm bringing the bait in. Holy cow. Feeling better. Head shakes? Yeah, it was feeling better. Solid. What if that was one fish right there on the screen? That would be a whale. Something's about to happen, I think. I would think. It feels tiny, but it might get bigger when I tighten my drag. Yeah, it gets a little bigger when I tighten my drag. That spooked yours. We might be into some perch.  It fights harder than anything in this lake. Is he caught on the ice? Oh wow, he's flying. Oh no, that was the one I just released. It's still cold enough in here to make some ice in that hole. Yeah. Nice fish most places. Do you see that bite or are you watching the fish? I was watching the fish. I felt it just as you went. Oh, that was awesome. Is it a good one? It sounds like Wayne. Yeah, he usually gets here. Yes, I hope this works. No, ain't nobody home. What's that?  We're hiding. How can you move? You're in that thing, huh? You don't need to move here. Wayne, come around this side. We saved those for you. How you doing? You caught a fish.  Well, I didn't want to lose the spot with the background for video. Yeah, okay. You didn't get into the big one yet, huh? He's got a 15. Nice find to meet you, Wayne. Oh, you guys ain't that good? No, no, no. That's a pretty good fish right there, I think CJ. I'll let you go see Jason before I get some holes through. Yeah, I saw that. That's a little bite. Do what I know. That's usually the bigger ones. I don't feel very big. It's a little bit of air. Looks decent. Why? Really? The biologist? Yeah, that's a good one. The guy in there. Yeah, that's a good one. That might be a big old wife. He's rotten like crazy. Do I have to reel in? No. I might reel in just to get out of your way. That's a whitey. I hope it's one of them big 14 inch white perch. You'll know when you get them near the hole. He's just going to go circles. Kind of giving up. Is he? Might be a crappy. Is he a crappy? Looking like a crappy. Is he big whitey? Nice. We'll take him with us. Yeah, that's what they do. They spin the hole like crazy. Oh, yeah. Nice white perch there. No. Oh, I got it. I lost him right at the hole. Yeah, those things fight so good. Oh my God, they're not the best fighter out here. Hold that baby up for the camera. They don't even know white perch in some states. That's a big one. Yeah, he's pushing 14 probably. Yeah, he is thick. Big old humpback. Yeah, good eating. Yeah, that's as good of eating as they get. Yeah, if he gets 315 and a half. Yeah, if he gets 315 and a half, 4-1, we'll probably swing over there, but it's probably take a half hour to get over there. Yeah. He'd get him a little closer to home though. Don't be afraid to catch that one. School coming in, Wayne. We're going to love this guy. Whoa. That's a better one. That's a better one. Take it right at the furniture store to use it up to 135 or 60s market. I'll see if I can get it, buddy. Yeah, there's a few over here now. Good fish. He's got a good... Oh, yeah, that's a stapler. Yeah, good one. Just one. No, I'm letting them. Yeah, I want them. He's returning them. Yeah. That's the way. Maybe. You've got a 14s, your smallest. So it does call. Helped me a little bit, right?  Wicked school coming in. What'd that one go? 14 and a half. Nice. They're getting the phone very big. Yeah, they're feeling bigger. Yeah, these are all pretty good ones. I'm going to enter that fish. Yeah, there's a pump board right in here. Clearly. Oh, yeah. Got one. Oh, no, he's heading over to Wayne. Maybe a white perch. He's not even on my screen. That's a big nice crappie right there, big old slab. You got one all right. Yeah, I was going to say, double viewing Wayne. Yeah. CJ's got one. Yeah. Well, he's a nice guy. He put me on some serious fish. Oh, he's got the drag stripper. Big head shakes. This is a good one. Good one here. I think he's got a 15 plus. Yeah, I tried to double out, but I missed mine. Oh, pig. That's going to be, hold that baby up for the camera. That's a big fish. Good one there. Yeah. Stop there. What was that last time? 15. You're ready to go. 15 in the quarter.  Steal this fish from me if you can. Stupid.  Steal this fish from me if you can. So that one's 15 and a half? 15 and a quarter. Okay. That gets you in that good range. Yeah, I'm doing it. I'm bringing up another big one right there when they start giving those big wall, wall, wall. Wayne's got one. Let's see if we can get a triple. Triple? Triple. Mine's not big. Mine's pretty high. Oh, that's a donkey. I told you to steal this fish from me. We got to get you a heavier bait. Bad dog. Bad dog. Bad dog. I might actually use this one. Geez, I wasn't planning on entering any fish today, but I got a 16 incher right there. Yeah, 16. What's this one? Just real quick. Oh my gosh, look at you. You can't use that one. You better weigh that one. Are you sure? Yeah. Oh, he's over that. All right, we got a 16-incher going back. 16-incher for you guys. Nice fish, Joe. Thanks for the vlog going on. I wasn't able to celebrate with you. No, no worries. I want you to just whack away one. So we got to keep him here. Looks all right. Good one for my buddy Wayne. You got a good one? I did tell him. When CJ gets quiet, it usually means pretty good. Pretty good, but not good enough. What do you do, Swallow? Just a 13 and a half. That's all. Choking it. What do you do with that little 13 and a half? I don't know. I go get them out of the way. Some people give their left arm for a fish like that. All right, so I got three crappie on the board. I got a 16, a 15-75, and a 15-5. I just got rid of a 15-5. That's a pretty tough one to cull out, but you know you're on to pretty good ones when you're culling 15 and a half. That looks... You're digging. It's right now if you need the big head shakes. Did he give you some big ones? No, he is right now. That could be decent. We could have a good one on, folks. I'm gonna try to double out. Oh, good one, but I can't use it. Nice one. It's not gonna help me. Yeah, it might. That's a... I don't know. That's a big fish though. It's a big fish no matter what. I can't use it. A 14-incher. You got a good one, Lane? Is that a good one? Yeah. CJ's got a good one on. You've got to get rid of a 14-75. Okay, so I need 15s. Yeah, it's a 14-75. It's my smallest right now. Yeah, we got a tripple. That's a big fish though. Look at how wide that fish is. It's tall. They're just built different here, guys. I don't know if you got me on that one or did I get you? CJ likes it. This is a school of good ones right here. Lane's got a 15 plus. I could have had a triple. Oh, that's a big one, Lane. Yeah. Oh, that's all right. This one is pulling super hard. Now he's pulling easy. That one doesn't measure? No, it's not. If I need 15, I don't know. That one doesn't know. Another 15. Aided on the fall. Yeah, that's me. Gowan loving these rods. That looks decent. We're going to keep it just in case. It's too bad. I'm going to use a little two buckets each. Yeah. I'm going to just have one bucket of the guy, that last guy here. He's always got two. CJ's not yet a good one. CJ, I almost lost my rod because of that fish. Yeah. Almost lost my rod because of that fish. I had him on for about 30 seconds. Didn't realize it.  Some 800 number. So you've got to leave him a message if you don't. He might not recognize your name. He gets so many frigging robo calls. You want me to close the mouth or not?  He goes three quarters. He'll go. He's just being stunned. I'm going to show you the trick, Wayne. I got pockets if you want to use them. CJ gets quiet reeling one in. I start to wonder how big it is. No, I won't. He's not bragging on him. Do you want a set of gloves? This friggin' dunk. He's going wild. We're just grabbing phones and entering fish. We don't even know if we got the right phone. Hopefully you put that 16 on that. He just got 16 on his. With me holding that. They're going to be like, CJ looks good all of a sudden. Yeah. He's got a matcha drape. His beard drove. I got a little dink of a 15 and a half I got to get rid of. It's too bad I'm putting together such a friggin' awesome week. And this guy from Iowa is killing me. All right, so you got, this is you now. You got a 15 quarter, 15 and a 14, 7, 5 for exactly 45. You just flew by the crappy chronicles. You got ahead of crappy chronicles?  This could be decent on CJ. He got doughnutted. Who's this friggin' guy coming up on my tail at 100 miles an hour in the tournament? CJ Harman.  He won't tell you. He had nothing. Now he's got 45 inches. Three fish. You're freaking it. Man, I like this job. No back bone. Tighten that drag maybe. I don't like it. School's coming back. Don't. That's a donkey. That should upgrade you. Oh, that may be a 15 and a half.  The school just turned, what backwards? 15 and a quarter again. Just a little one. You're going to get 15 and a quarter on that. That could be a 16er right there, bud. You're going to get him. You're going to get him if you hurry. I'm trying. You hurry. I'll try to keep him there. It's a 16. You need it. All right, you've entered the chat. Is he still hungry? Wayne, there's a good one down there for you. Wayne, we've got to get you entered this tournament. We'll take the top four spots. You'll have the whole nation mad at you. All these guys from Mississippi and Alabama that catch all these fish. Mr. Toys. Minnesota and Iowa. Iowa is kind of a strange one, isn't it? Well, yeah, but it was in this like... Yeah, there were no slews, I think, there in Iowa. It looked like a dam, like a made up body of water. This is fighting pretty good. Got one. Yeah, he's getting smaller. You've got good head shakes. He's probably chunky. Chunky monkey. Budonk. CJ got the big one. Hopefully. Oh, that looks like a good one. I don't know. I don't know. No. He was just lit up. That means nice fish anywhere in the world. What are you catching little dinks for? Isn't that funny? All of a sudden 14s are dinks. Fish donkeys getting... We're going to blow up their server. We're entering so many 15 pluses. Oh, there's going to be a good one in this school. I can feel it. Oh, get him CJ. That's the one. Yes, baby. Oh, he's got a good one, Wayne. I think that's the one. I think this is the one we've been waiting for, guys. Head shakes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He acted like he was King Turd. Boy, he cranks them right in. King Crap on Turd Mountain. He tries to. It takes me 10 times as long to bring one in, because I just do it real quick. Oh, no. It's big. No. No, I mean, that's 15 inches and two pounds. What do I need? You need over 15 now. I think your smallest is 15. You've got your creature bait on just like I do. Yeah, I told you I bought a pair then.  I know it's over 15. Of course, Joe, he won't try one. No, he won't. You're at 15 is your little.  Would that one go? 14 3 quarters. It's happening now, Wayne. Oh, no. I get a little uncharging. I caught the tiniest one in the school. Now he's getting bigger. Now he's getting smaller. Now he's getting bigger. I think I foul hooked him. Nope. That's the fastest. You know there's not going to be when they can pop it out of the hole. You scared the school, old Joe. Those look like decent. Are they? No. He's bringing up a lot. CJ, he's got a... He's got another. He's got a head shaker. He said no, but I think it's growing on him. Yeah, it's growing. He's getting bigger. Oh, kank. Well over 15. Now it's...  I mean, these fish are huge. Make that tournament pound big instead of inches, Joe. Oh, yeah. Yeah, because I'm one of the guys that caught an isle. We're not big. This way. They were long. So hard. What's he got? 14 3 quarters. Wow. 14 3... Oh, you got... You missed one way. Yeah, I know. It's slow, but there's a chance... There's a better chance of 18s over there. Orsa bad us, to be honest with you. You had a parking spot? Yeah. We got a double. I think CJ's about to spank my bottom.  That's a huge weighty. Look at all the puke in the hole. I hope you got one, too, bud. Yeah, you're... Oh, donkey. Oh, you guys are donkeying again. Well, look at... I'm going to puke it up some serious pellards. I got an eater. He's got another big one. Look at that white perch. Big ol' humpback. A white perch? Oh, yeah, a big ol' humpback wing. Look at the... What's my smallest? 15 even. So, that one wins. That one's a 15 and a quarter. Yeah. All right, got a 14 inch white perch. He just caught a 15 and a quarter inch crappy as a double. That's not a bad double, right there. I'm about to... I just missed another white perch. There's whites down there. There's whites down there, Wayne. There's whites down there. 15 and a half, sorry. What do you need? I got a... Yeah, you're good to push that. Joe, is this the day that the guy leaves the ship? Yeah. I'm the guy today. I like the way this one hit. I don't know. Coming up like another whitey. Nope. Just a big ol' slab of a crappy. Does his 15 and a half make my 15 look small? 15 and a half, I'm going back. I have had a couple big ones eat like this. You got it. Yeah, dropped right into them. I haven't had the big ones eat on a drop, though. Now, I'm just seeing if he's a perch. I think he's just a run of the mill. Ho-hum, 13 inch here. Or 14. Yeah. 4 or 14. That's a good one. Nice. One of them? I love running and gunning the big fish like we do.  But how fun is this? Absolutely. Well, how relaxing. I know, isn't this... You're about to get another one. Oh, this is awesome. I've been working. You can't have this much fun doing anything else. Can't have this much clothes. M-I-L-F. Man, I love to fish. Time to have this much fun with your clothes on. Right? Can't tell. Yeah. I think it's a good one. Oh, pig. I knew it. I don't know if you could use it. I don't know if I can use it. You got to be 15 and a quarter now. Oh, I think 15 and a half. Oh, yeah, I can use it. 15 and a quarter is your smallest. You got two 15 and a quarter and one 15 and a half. Yeah, one's 15 and a half. 15 and a half? Yeah. Oh, yeah, got it. I can get him to breathe. So you got one 15 and a quarter and two 15 and a half. 15 and a half, 15 and a half, 15 and a quarter. So I got this guy breathing down my throat. So he's got 15 and a half, 15 and a half, 15 and a quarter. He's throwing back 15 and a quarters now. I got a 16, a 15, 7, 5 and a 15, 5. So there ain't a whole hell of a lot of room for me to move. But I'll keep trying. You gained a call this morning. More. You got to see this guy. Good one? He has a good balance. He's got to help me.  You're scaring all our fish away. That freaking thing is loud. The old phone catch. He doesn't like the hook set. He is tiny. He is small. He does not like this hook set. We're looking at a yellow perch, guys. Yellow perch. Three, two, one and zero. There he is. But look what it brought in. It did call him back in, didn't it? Yep. Wow, did he eat? This has got to be all I need. It's good, whatever it is. Ah, now it's not so good. Now it's good. Now it's real good. Now it's not so good. Now it's good. Now it's not so good. Should I reel out? No, you're good. It's a crappy. Nice one. We're back on him, buddy. That one might have. Yeah, maybe not. Can't move it. You can't. I don't know if I could or not. I got to get rid of it 15 and a quarter. No, that's a four. That's a 15, probably, right on the number. Got him. Yeah, might be decent. Looks decent. Yeah, didn't really thunk it too good, so I don't know about this hook set. But I like the head shakes.  Oh, it's a big. Sorry, bud. I might have just stole one from you. Now I'll play a defense. I don't think I could use it because I need a 15 and three quarter, but I think you could use it. Oh, that's a 15. Yeah, defense. DEF defense. Defense. At least when I guide, I let the other people use the big ones. Right? Sometimes. No? Nope. Short in my thought. Yeah. So tall. If you guys are just doing it in or don't know it, we're both in the same tournament. We're both in a fish and donkey tournament. One guy from Iowa props to him, man. He popped him in this little reservoir. He's got a 1675, a 1675 and a 165. Hats off to him. Anybody in this continent is going to have a hard time beating him or anybody in the world with trappy. But, but, but I'm gaining on him. I think I'm only, I'm less than three inches now behind him. Yeah. All right. So to give you guys the update right now, Nathan Randall's props to you and my friend. He's at 50 inches for three fish. I am had a measly 47 and a quarter in second place. And then this, I don't know who this Joker is, but an inch behind me at 46 and a quarter. He's only fished for two hours. Is this guy CJ Harman? Yeah. Then after that, Rowan Schwalach, Tony Boyd, Abby Rabine, and then the crappy Chronicles, Ron Dershner, Kyle Tyree, Tina Helton, and then 330 maniacs only got two weighed in so far, but he'll be up in the leaderboard. He's going to be in the top four pretty soon, but CJ's doing his best to keep him down. I'm an inch behind you. How do I make that out? You just got to catch a bigger fish. Oh, Phil. That's all. Thanks, Captain August. Yeah. You just got to catch one bigger, or three, a little bit bigger fish, like I've been doing. Got him. Got him. Got him. Wait and defend the plate. Here comes the fish right there. See it? I don't think he's that big, but that's probably why he was tough to catch. He's not big, but he's not big, but it's fun. Well, you didn't beat me. I beat him.  Oh, don't. Freaking dog. Keep that loud so he'll be away from us. Every time this bull comes in, get out of here. Get out of here, that two stroke.  Turn that thing on quiet mode. Put in the other two strokes. Yeah. Are you feeling okay? Yeah. Yeah. You just caught enough? Yeah. Do you want any of these? Are you good? Ah, I got a few in there that I'm gonna... You got enough. You know where to get them. Yeah. Well, this might be a school of wicked white perch with... Hey, too bad you couldn't get into a school. We're on a school of wicked white perch right now. They just, they did not stop for us. Look at that. You catching them? No, they just, they just flew right by. Hoping there's a crappy in them.  You gotta get their attention. So, I'm absolutely the oldest guy doing that. Yeah, and doing a hide. Yeah. My dad enjoyed it. Yeah. Yeah, he liked that slip bobber you showed him. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You're more than welcome to leave me a little black book of all your places. Man, I lost that black book when I was up to when I lost my sled. Did you hear he lost all his gear this year? Oh, yeah. I heard that. No one gave it back. Yeah. That happened. Yeah. This could be coming, bro, it'll all make waypoints on it and all my traces. This could be Beeson. He's Beeson. Just a baby. Just a baby 13, ain't you? Catch him one of the rookie lures. Rookie lures. I know. He didn't like that. All right, stuff's getting real. Be ready. You want that second one. That's the one you want right there. Yeah. Do you get him? Good one? It's got a lot lower gear ratio. You just got a reel. Is he spooling it? It's the drag was giving out. Oh, it wasn't gaining on it. It's definitely not. He's up under the ice. He's about a mile away. Oh, it's a big one. That's a fish. Yeah.  It can't help you. It's not going to go 15 and a half. It's close to 15. So that reel was messed up? Yeah, the drag is too loose. That was the weirdest bite I've ever had. For crappy. We struggle. That's a doggy. What's happening to him? Fishing break on the full launch. Yeah. Oh, okay. No worries. Yeah, okay. 15 and a quarter. I just caught a good one. Another one. Another giant. You get the other one. Okay. I'll get the bigger one. It's bigger one's the second one. I hope you get them.  Wicked light bite. Oh man, this has got to be a whitey. I hope he stays on. This could be big. It looks big. Yeah. He acted big when he came in. I hope that's a crab. Oh no, I knew it. You don't even want to see it. They love this sweater. I had a lady at the gas station accost me today over it. She asked me if the beard matches the drapes or something. I was like, yeah. You get compliments all the time. Yeah. I do. They're all from guys for me, though. Really? Nice beard, dude. Yeah. Pretty nice beard. No, I get both, but like, you see somebody else with a good beard, they just give you the headband. Yeah, they're like, what's up?  Yeah, exactly. So funny. Nice. It's not going to help me. Nope. Don't catch them or another one. Trying not to. 14 and what? A half? Another half, yeah. Is he still hooked up? Yeah, yeah. That's funny. That's hilarious. Well, the funny part is that there was one, like, looking at it. Yeah. And I never saw the one come in from the other side. And I see the rod tip bounce in it. Maybe a perch. And then. Nice crappy. The one he goes, you're hooked up. And I watched the one that I thought was going to attack it. Swim off. I'm like, no, not.  I saw it. Every other side. Alrighty. Yeah, it's nice to meet you. Yeah, you too. I think we got everything. CJ, I'm just going to leave this recording. Yeah. If you get anything good, just bring it out, okay? All right, buddy. I might be back. I might not. All right, well. Yeah, maybe tomorrow.  I got to guide your trip tomorrow, so you'll have to give me back some point.  We left it though. Just call your trapping. Another one, that 15 range. Not going to help me in my tournament. I'm running a really nice fish. Just touching the tail of this thing. There's like another good one. Love this rod. There's a beast right there. That one will help me. Just barely hooked. 16 inches, guys. 16 and a quarter. Oh man, that's a good one. That one's going to help. Man, I wish she was here for this one, Joe. 16 and a quarter going back. See you later, big guy. I am so bummed. What? I just got 16 and a quarter and you're not here then. Celebrate with me. Oh, I can't wait to see the picture. Yeah, I had a hard time getting a good picture. Really? I got it, but good. I'm talking to the camera like, oh man, buddy, I wish she was here. For real? That's the way to go. Really? Yeah. That's awesome. I hope the camera's on. I'm so bummed, it's on. Did you get it on my friggin' rod? No, I don't know. On the Elliott rod, yep. Nice. And we're tied. Nice. Dang it. I'm pissed, I missed it. Yeah, I'm so bummed. Did you just let him go? That's a slob. Dude. So I got a 16, 15, 7, 5, 15, 5. So your smallest is bigger than my smallest today? The 5, 50.  I got two 15 and a halfs. Yep. I got to get rid of a 15, 5. We both have to get rid of 15, 5s. Dude, I'm quite fired up. Oh, I wish she was here. That's a friggin' big fish. I said, I think that one helped me. I couldn't believe that thing went. It touched 16, I was like, no way. This looks big on the screen, but it's been a couple of hours since I've been fishing. Looks big on the rod. You hold it, did you hold it up for the GoPro? Yeah. He's not feeling that big. The mud is pretty big. Nice fish. Nice crappy right there. Dude, you got 47 and a quarter inches today. In one day. Your next three probably go 46 and three quarters. Your next three probably go 46. Your next three probably go 45. Tell me this isn't the best friggin' crappy fishing around. Yes, that's, that's nice. Corporal looks at. Good fish. Feels it. Yeah, looks good. It's hard when you're not used to a rod. That looks pretty friggin' big. Unless it's over 15 inches, they ain't gonna do me any good. No, you need over 15 and a half. But we both do. Who's my phone off my lap? Pretty big. I think, I think, I think he's gonna go over 15 and three quarter. You need 15 and three quarters. Just 15. That's it. Just a little dinker 15. Heck of a fish right there, guys. That is a beauty. Nice fish. So thick down through them. Anything at all, meat. Crazy. And my good buddy, Joe, says nothing but shoulders and guts. There's nothing in here. Yeah, he was swimming with it. We got a nice double right here. Yeah, we do. I think you've got the bigger, but let's keep them from tangling out. That could be a mess. I'm not, my mind's coming a little faster. Two biggings. Nice double. Mine's about 15. Slab. CJ might have got, he might have got me on this one. I don't know. I think you got me. Did I? I'd say that cookie kind of twins. Yeah. Is your poker around?  Nice fish. About the same. Couple giants for you. I get so excited about this stuff. I love the mission. Like, what's crazy impressive is not what you've caught today, it's what you've thrown back. Yeah. Like what you're not counting in. Like, I've thrown back third place, fourth place, fifth place, sixth place, seventh place, eighth place, ninth place, tenth place. Yeah. And you have to. Oh, if it was game of inches of how many, there's no way. Maybe that guy. But like, my second best three are all 15 and a half. Right. My third best three are all 15 and a quarters. My third, my next best three are 15 and, you know what I mean? Like, they're like special, nice, really big perch. Well, getting bigger. Yeah. Nice head shakes near the. I lost another big one before. I did. Yeah. 16, but that's the smallest of the day. What are they freaking getting hung up on over there? Yeah. I saw that one. Well, I waited for the second. Yeah. That looked like a good bite. Coming up pretty good. Yeah. Decent. I think he's super huge. Lying in over 15 and a half. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's good fish. Nice fish. Beautiful fish. He's a nice thing as you brought the other ones in. They're coming slow, but sure. Yeah, you did good being patient on that bite. It was hard. What do you got? Oh, it's a pretty good one. Yeah. I don't know yet because I just switched rods. When you switch rods. Yeah, but that's a big fish. Oh, that's a big fish. It's a big fish, but not. Look at that one. Oh, there's a camera. I've moved it. And Mike, you need... I think I need 16. I don't think I could use a... I don't think I could use them. No, neither one of us could. He's only 15. He's only 15? Friggin' ding. Oh, Mike. He's only 15. Friggin' ding.  Little tap. I think this feels decent. I tell you, rods feel so good. You fired mine up, too. I'm hoping he comes in just too... That looks big. Yours looks big. He might have a good one here, guys. Might have a real good one. We get a look. Not a big. I don't think it's going to help me. Got it. Over 15 and we can't even help you. What a pretty fish. Another big one, guys. Another big one, man. Yep. Same. Well, maybe getting bigger. Those are some good head shakes. Bigger than I can. Nope. What do I need? 16 or nothing, right? 16 or nothing. I need 15 or 3 quarter or nothing. He choked it. No, nice one. No, he's not as big as... Oh, my God. It's a good fish. Yeah, I reel him up faster that time. What is the perch? Not much. I'm starting to get a little bigger. I need to get bigger. Diesel? Well, guys, that is going to do it for today. Wait. You do the outro. You did the intro. Now you put me on the spot. Yeah. I would Joe say it. Well, that's going to do it for today. You just got to fill in the durs. Hell of a day, fishing with my buddy Joe. Joe Haaland Guide Service. Yeah. Put me on the fish today. No, don't say that. I'll just start getting messages. People want me to guide them. Yeah. He takes a special person to get accepted by Joe's Guide Service. Multiple years of background chatting. Hard friggin' work. No, we had an awesome day today, guys. Really appreciate you guys tuning in. This has got to be one of the greatest Smash Mests ever on YouTube for crappy. I mean, I don't know how many we caught over 15 inches today. A ton. CJ came in the last place in the continent-wide fish donkey tournament. And he's tied with one of the greatest anglers in the shack. So that makes the two greatest anglers in the shack. Yep. So we've beaten everybody else in the world except for one person. There's a kid out in Iowa who's just on this reservoir and he smashed hogs. You know, so he's kind of on the run. So, you know, Scott at 330 Maniac, we're coming after you. Sean, we're coming after you. Sean, Rise Grief in Minnesota. And Pincala, just like that, we're coming after you. So yeah, we're coming after you guys. We're smashing. We're catching good fish.  That'll make me 15 inches. Sure. Yeah. Yep. There you have it, folks. Another donkey. Thanks for tuning in, guys. Don't forget to hit that thumbs up button and subscribe to my good buddy Joe's channel. Hey, thanks, bud. It's worth a subscribe, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yep. We got a special going on for subscriptions. You can catch fish like that, but all week for the rest of this week, it's free to subscribe to my channel. And I'm going to sweeten it. I'm going to make it free for the next year. Really? Yeah. Sweet. Thanks to CJ's Unificence. It's free subscriptions for the rest of the year. All you have to do is just hit the button. Oh, we're leaving fish biting. Would you guys leave if you were on 14, 15 inches and they're biting? It's hard to do, bud. Need help? Oh, I don't think so. Yeah, freaking right, bud. All right, once again, guys. Awesome frigging day on the hard water. Can't tell you how much fun we have. You guys could see it in our face, but CJ was giddy today. I never see him like that. He caught absolute staver, 16 and a quarter. That's like, that's a PB for so many people. And he just crushed it on the day. His best, what are you at, 46.75? Yeah. All right, we're both at 46.75. And he did that one day, 46.75 best three. That's an average over 15 and a half. Over 15 and a half. So we're on him, folks. His bottom three that he weighed in today would be in fourth place. That's how awesome it is. That's still in them after the fourth fish hour. Yeah, the fourth fish calmed out. Yeah. So we're so thankful to have these fish. We throw back all the big ones. If they get bear trauma, we're going to eat them. But if they make it down, you know, you can tell right away. We're getting pretty good at it. Really appreciate all the support, guys. Thanks again. See you on the next one.


Today, we are celebrating the 500th anniversary of Diego de Covarubias, who is Bishop of Zegovia, Minister in the Government of King Philip II, and one of the most important representatives of the School of Salamanca. Our scholastics of the Spanish Golden Century establish the foundations of modern economics, and specifically of the Austrian School of Economics, which is based on real human beings endowed by entrepreneurial creativity, and who are the true and only protagonists of all dynamic market processes. The contributions of the Spanish scholastics are centered around the subjective theory of value, and the moral principles related to private property rights that are indispensable for a market economy. All these contributions were later developed in detail by the Austrian School. Should these contributions not have been forgotten, most of the economic crises and recessions as well as many of the wars and genocides that have affected mankind in the last century could have been avoided. But we have many reasons to be optimistic. Today we are in a position to rebuild the economic science based on the great contributions of our scholastics like Diego de Covarubias, Martín Azpilcueta, Saravia de la Calle and many others. In this way, we will be able to offer a truly fruitful economic science at the service of humankind and civilization. Thank you very much again Bishop, members of the cathedral chapter and all those present today. What I will attempt to do in my closing presentation is highlight the influence that the contributions of our scholars from the golden age in general and specifically our great Diego de Covarubias have in our current situation. That is, what is the relevance of the thinking of our golden age scholars in our lives today, here and now, in the circumstances in which we find ourselves today? These influences are truly profound. If economics professors can attest to one thing, it is that today, and I think this will be felt at the popular level as well, the science of economics is in a profound crisis. We are in a great economic recession, there are millions of unemployed, and it seems that the science of economics has been unable to respond to the demands and challenges that we as citizens have the right to expect from it. And that is the reality. This is a mea culpa. I am making a public acknowledgement here, and what I wanted to emphasize and clarify first and foremost is that to a great extent this inadequacy of our discipline has its origin in having abandoned the bulk of the contributions that were already discovered and studied by a theorist of the Spanish golden age. The twentieth century was the century of genocides, it was the century of the great wars, it was the century of communism. It seemed that the fall of the Berlin Wall had ushered in a new era, but we find ourselves in a disappointing situation, having once again fallen into the excesses of social engineering and into a profound crisis that most citizens are still unable to understand. What explains this? Traditionally it was thought that economic science had its origin in the contributions of Adam Smith. However, Adam Smith is a Scottish thinker with Calvinist Protestant origins who writes the Wealth of Nations in 1776, essentially wiping out the contributions of our golden age scholars. The great error of Adam Smith is his introduction of the virus of the objective theory of value, according to which it is supposed that the value of things is intrinsic to them. His successors in the classical English school went one step further and asserted that value depended on the labor incorporated when things are made. While it is said that the theorists of the classical English school are liberals, defenders of the market economy, in fact what they did was to serve up on a platter to Karl Marx and the Marxist theorists the basis of the theory of exploitation, which later served as the ideological underpinning of all of the genocides and all of the great conflicts and wars that have played humanity during the last century. If Adam Smith had read the contributions of our scholars and had paid them heed, he wouldn't have made that mistake. Because the great Diego de Covarrubias in 1555, and I have here volume two of his complete works, page 131, sets forth for the first time and already explains better than anyone and articulates the subjective theory of value, in which he indicates that the value of a thing does not depend on its objective nature, but rather on the subjective estimation of men, and he adds, even if such estimation is crazy, in addition he gives the following example. He says, wheat has exactly the same nature here as in the Indies. However, in the Indies its value is much higher because it is much more scarce there and men value it more. This is a subjective theory of value that is completely contrary to the erroneous objective theory of value that will be developed later by Adam Smith. Along these same lines we have another scholar, Luis Saravia de la Calle, who writes his work in Spanish and titles it Instruction to Merchants, and therein for the first time explains the correct relationship between prices and costs. In the sense that it is not the costs that determine the prices, as Adam Smith and his successors will later theorize, but rather it is exactly the opposite. It is the prices of things that determine the costs. Saravia de la Calle says precisely, those who measure the just price of things according to the labor, costs and risks involved, in or of which the merchandise is made up, miss the mark, because a fair price is tied to the abundance or scarcity of merchandise, or of merchants and monies, and not of costs, labor and risks. Note, it is not the cost that determines the value, nor much less the costs of labor, but rather subjective estimation, scarcity, abundance, and also the entrepreneurial spirit. In addition, Saravia calls the entrepreneur a merchant. This is the figure of the entrepreneur invested with an innate creative capacity, which is what all of the contributions of the scholars revolve around. It is the human being endowed with free will of those as the predestined human being of the Protestants and Calvinists. And it is important because Adam Smith also injects another lethal virus into our discipline, which continues to affect my colleagues even today. And that is the obsession with studying a fantasmagorical world of equilibrium, where all of the information is given, where those in charge of social engineering can mold our lives at their whim. In fact, Adam Smith focuses his research program on the study of equilibrium in the long term, and not on the study of the prices occurring in the market on a daily basis. However, our scholars have shed a clear light on this issue. In 1615, the great Juan de Lugo asks, is it within the capacity of human beings to determine the equilibrium price of things? And he answers that the fair price or equilibrium price of things depends on such an enormous number of circumstances that only God can determine what it is. Pretyum justum matematicum liset solideo notum. This is a lesson in humility that my colleagues who are today obsessed with building sophisticated mathematical models should heed. They give them highly elaborate names, such as dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models. They have thousands of formulas, enormous programs, highly powerful computers, with which they seek to predict all possible scenarios so that far the stake can take charge of our lives. All objectives are met and all problems solved. However, Alan Greenspan, the great hypocrite and engineer of the crisis we are all suffering today, very recently published a book titled The Map and the Territory. I just read it, and there is at least one good thing in the book. The advantage is that none of those presumptuous models in which millions of millions of dollars and millions of euros have been invested have been successful. All of them have failed. He says that even the most sophisticated mathematical model, the one in which the most has been invested and to which thousands of scientists dedicated themselves, which was the model of the Federal Reserve, failed regrettably in this crisis. And the same thing happened with the International Monetary Fund model and with the mathematical models of Goldman Sachs, et cetera, et cetera. And he concludes, I don't understand what caused the crisis, or Alan Greenspan. If he had read Juan de Salas, who already in 1647 asked, is it possible for us to collect all of the information that human beings on the ground continually generate in the market? And he answers, this information is so enormous, so huge, that quaz exacte, comprehendere, et ponderare, de est non hominum. That is that only God and not men can come to comprehend, manage and understand precisely the enormous mass of information, that great knowledge. To put it succinctly, we are indebted to our scholars for a lesson in humility, the spontaneous order of the market driven by human beings on the ground, billions of human beings like us, continually creating and presenting new information, new knowledge about means and ends, in a creative way. In fact, if there is a point of connection between God and man, if man is created in God's image and semblance, we could say that precisely that point of connection is rooted in the innate creative capacity of human beings. God as creator, out of love for all things would have wanted to transmit to man that trait of his. That despite all of our miseries, we are continually capable of creating, of discovering new information, new knowledge about ends and means. And that is essential because it leads to the marvellous process of social cooperation that our scholars also study. And concretely, we are also indebted to them for a third contribution of enormous value, the dynamic concept of competition, which they called Concurrentia in Latin. We have the book, for example, of Heronimo Castillo de Bobadia, Politics for Administrators, in which he explains that competition is a process of rivalries. And when entrepreneurs try to emulate each other, Emulatio is the term he uses, they better serve consumers and drive the market price down. And this obvious conception of competition collides head on with the concept of competition, as described in the mathematical models of my equilibrium colleagues, as a phantasmagorical model of static equilibrium that they call competition, and what is even more laughable, that they even call perfect in quotes, which is characterised by all entrepreneurs doing the same thing, no one does anything different, no one tries to surpass or emulate others, and in addition, everyone sells the same product at the same price. That is to say what they call competition, and further characterise as perfect, is a simple situation that, if it can be characterised by one thing, is characterised by the fact that no one competes. And all of this, again, due to forgetting the contributions of gold and age. And we could spend a lot of time going over other aspects of the science of economics, perhaps it is relevant to touch our monetary theory in this context, because our scholars were direct witnesses to economic circumstances that are being repeated today. The massive arrival of precious metals, which represents a tremendous increase in the monetary supply, as a result of the discovery of America. I say tremendous increase, but in reality it was what we are experiencing today, because to give you an idea, the monetary supply doubled in one century. However, with the growth rates we have seen since the beginning of this century, up to the recession, some years there has been 7, 8, 9, 10, even 14% growth in the money supply, both in the US, particularly where the monetary binge has been spectacular, and though to a lesser extent in Europe as well, the money supply has doubled in every 7 years. Not in a century, but rather every 7 years. And the fact is that our scholars had already developed theories about the disruptive effects of monetary growth, which today we call inflation. We have the crystal clear contribution of the great doctor from Navarre, Martin de Aspilcueta, who explains with great clarity that money is worth less in Spain than in France because it is more abundant here, or to say it another way, that the nominal prices are much higher than in France. In fact, the idea is what is known today as the quantitative theory of money, and it had already been described by Nicolaius Copernicus some years prior. But not in such detail, nor applied to the concrete economic fact of the 16th century, as Martin de Aspilcueta does, to whom we are also indebted for another very valuable contribution, which is the revival of the old Thomistic doctrine of temporary preference. According to which things are worth more today than things in the future from the point of view of justice. And this is important because the theory of temporary preference is at the heart of the foundation and legitimation of interest as a key price in the market for present goods as a function of future goods. And at that time, there was still a very heated debate over usury and interest, and it was our scholars who started already at this time trying to find a way to accept the idea of interest under certain circumstances or conditions. That is to say to open a door to let in the oxygen the market needs in the form of interest bearing loans, the necessary remuneration of savings to finance productive investment. But the contribution of Aspilcueta in the monetary area must be combined with the contributions of another important scholar born in Talavera de la Reina, a place that I believe is very dear to the heart of our bishop, D'Angelo Rubio, in 1537. The great father Juan de Mariana Juan de Mariana, as you know, was charged by Felipe II with the task of drafting a short manual to educate the future king, Felipe III, which was given the title de reggae et regis instituzione about the monarchy and the royal institution in which Juan de Mariana develops the theory of tyrannicide. First, he defines the tyrant. He says a tyrant is a king who disregards the rights of his subjects, levies taxes without their consent, organizes secret police forces, prohibits meetings and assemblies, etc. And he reaches the conclusion that it is legal to murder a tyrant under certain circumstances. I believe it was a warning call, so the future Felipe III would be respectful of human rights as king, which I believe he in fact was. Even the much-reveiled Duke of Lerma can be said to have been a dictator but a dictablando or soft dictatorship, so to speak, at least compared to the Duke of Oliveira who succeeded him. This doctrine of tyrannicide is important because the book was publicly burned in Paris because it was said to have been used to justify the assassination of the French kings Henry III and Henry IV. It was not burned in Spain, possibly because all the things that bothered the French we Spaniards liked, aside from the fact that it was written in Latin and the authorities thought that its popular impact would not be very great. But the theory of tyrannicide is important because Mariana develops it in some way years later in his most important book on economics titled, In Spanish, a brief treatise and discourse on the beyond currency presently minted in Castilla and other disorders and abuses. In this book Mariana condemns the Duke of Lerma for having debased the precious metal in the currency. What he was doing was taking out what little silver was left in the coin and leaving only the pure copper coin. Of course, with this stunt it seemed very easy to meet payments but it amounted to multiplying the money supply. The effect it caused was a tremendous increase in prices and a revolution, the destruction of the exchange system which is what Juan de Mariana describes perfectly in his book. What happened was not just what quantitative theory would predict that prices in general would go up but rather it caused the complete disorganization of commerce which to a great extent affected and laid the foundation for what would be the situation of profound and chronic economic recession that has ravaged our country since that time. But Mariana insists on another very important idea. He says that natural law is vastly superior to the power of each king or ruler. This is an essential idea that is still perfectly applicable today. I believe that we must be aware of and very proud of the fact that when Thomas Jefferson, the founding father of the United States was considering whether or not to rise up against the King of England in order to give encouragement to Madison and the rest of the founding fathers of the great American homeland he says to them you only have to read one book The History of Spain by Father Juan de Mariana and in fact Madison even sends him a copy of the book because it is a history of Spain written from the perspective of freedom on masking the tyrants Mariana characterizes as tyrants Alejandro Manio, Julius Caesar etc. It is a history written from the perspective of man's tireless fight to defend his freedom against tyrants and others who would trample it. And I believe it should be a source of pride and honor for all Spaniards who are aware of this and there are certainly very few people who are aware of it and it is a disgrace for Spain that this great history of Spain and the rest of the works of Father Juan de Mariana in general have not been published in revised editions with commentaries in our time. This is a challenge for all of us. Now I would also like to mention the great contribution of our scholars especially Luis Saravia de la Calle regarding banking theory because they show that the deposit contract is incompatible with the loan contract. That if I make a deposit the depository must maintain 100% of the equivalent of that thing available to the depositor at all times. If a person who receives something on demand deposit whether wheat, oil or money uses it to make a loan in the first place he violates natural law he violates property law and in addition he brings about in the monetary realm an anomalous and pernicious phenomenon of creation, of duplication of monetary units. One person, the person who deposited the money continues to be the owner in all rights of the funds deposited and considers it part of his cash balance and the other person simultaneously thinks that what he has received as a loan is also fully a part of his cash balance. The same cash balance simultaneously belongs to and is available to two people. Luis Saravia de la Calle explains that when the general principle of 100% is thus violated in the area of the deposit this causes a distortion of monetary expansion, price growth, speculative bubble and ultimately sooner or later all of this will inevitably come crashing down bringing ruin to the bankers who go under and causing a deep recession. Here we see in embryonic form the Austrian business cycle theory that is the only theory capable of explaining what has happened to us and what is happening to us today. Luis de Molina also recognizes that the banks by way of this maneuver are capable of creating money out of thin air through a simple entry in their books which he calls querographis pecuniarum or scriptural money. How different human history would have been if these important contributions relating to the monetary field and the economic cycle had not been forgotten. We have lost more than three centuries as a result of ignoring our scholars. And I will conclude with two observations one about the previous influences on our scholars who of course did not work in a vacuum but who stood on a whole previous tradition that can be traced back even to the contributions contained in the sermons of Pedro Juan de Oliva of San Antonio de Florencia and of San Bernardino de Siena which perfectly justify the role of the entrepreneur. That is that there is a right to entrepreneurial profit based on the fact that entrepreneurs assume as they said in Latin su industria and pericula that is the assumption of risks or dangers by entrepreneurs and they also emphasise their industrious nature their sound administration but at the same time they support their views on the whole Aristotelian tradition which can be traced back to St Thomas Aquinas who in turn is heir to the whole tradition of the jurists of the classical century of Roman law represented by jurists such as Gaio, Ulpiano and Papiniano. Without knowing it they were the first to realise that there are spontaneous orders in the market resulting from the interaction of many people but which have not been deliberately created by anyone as is logical they applied this intuition to the field of law and we know thanks to Cicero because he includes in the Republic that for Cato the reason our political system the Roman system was superior to those of all other peoples was this that the political systems of other countries have been created by introducing laws and institutions in accordance with the personal whims of specific individuals such as Minos in Crete and Lysergos in Sparta. By contrast our Roman Republic did not come about as the result of the personal creation of a single man but of many it was not founded during the lifetime of a particular individual but rather through a series of centuries and generations because never in the history of the world has there been a man intelligent to see everything and even if we could combine all brains in the head of a single man it would be impossible for him to take everything into account at once without having accumulated the knowledge that comes from practical experience over a long period of time in history if today we replace the head of a single man with the supercomputer of the Federal Reserve which contains all of the most advanced mathematical models we can understand perfectly why they were bound to fail these models use a caricature of human beings and they use an ideal type a penguin type that only reacts mechanically to events but that are not capable of modeling human beings as created by God endowed with that innate creative capacity I referred to earlier and now we will see what influence these scholars have had in later times well the truth is that these great professors taught many students who in turn ended up teaching in the recently created universities of the Americas looking which he approximates to some extent what we are doing here today but with the Spanish scholars who taught at San Marcos de Lima and at the University of Mexico such as Juan de Metenzio and Bartolomé Frias de Albornos that's a whole treasure trove of great value that is still to be studied and I must mention that there is a school which with great affection has since its inception attempted to develop in our discipline and to study society with the standards and perspective initiated by our scholars I am referring to the school called the Austrian School of Economics it is called the Austrian School because it is considered to have been founded by the hand of Carl Menger in Vienna in 1871 if we read the works of Menger we will see that he cites these scholars concretely for example the book of Covarrubias Vetterum Colatio Numismatum compilation on vintage currency the way the buying power of the Maravedi currency evolves as a result of the impact of inflation during the previous century it's a school founded in Vienna Catholic in origin which I am bent on renaming so that it is no longer known as the Austrian School but rather it is known by the name the Spanish School because that is the name that truly suits it given who it's founders were and it is curious that Juan de Mariana trying also to come up with practical solutions asks how can we help the government so it is not forced to create inflation to pay its debts what can we do a Mariana proposes a very simple solution Dear Duke de Lerma the situation is to balance the budget and above all and I quote for the royal family, that is the state to spend less because a moderate amount spent in an orderly manner looks better and reflects greater majesty than the superfluous spending and he adds in addition for our Lord King to cut his favors his gifts, his subsidies this is very clearly what is happening today with the welfare state which seeks to subsidize everything education, health care, pensions textbooks, family planning agencies and extravagances he says do not reward so generously for the real or ostensible services of your subjects granting them pensions for life there is no kingdom in the world with so many public rewards, land grants pensions, benefits and services as ours by distributing them well and in an orderly manner a savings could be achieved that would spare the royal treasury and other public funds as we can see the lack of control of public spending and the buying of political favors in exchange for subsidies whether financed by taxes or not have a very long history in our country and Marianna proposes that the king avoid exempt companies and unnecessary wars in some he advocates for austerity policies and what is more relevant today than austerity policies to some extent in the current circumstances Marianna would legitimize the policies of Angela Merkel that favor austerity he would also support the policies of the Tea Party which opposes Obama on the basis that he is betraying the founding principles of the United States because he is increasing the power of Washington to such a great extent to the detriment of the principles of the US Constitution which he is in fact betraying this is ultimately the message of the Tea Party which is based on Jefferson whose ideas in turn as we have already seen by his own admission are also based on Father Juan de Marianna and I will conclude my presentation with a quote from the great Jaime Balmes another Spanish Thomas who died very young in 1844 this whole tradition despite the dark legend the influence of doctrinearian and theoretical imperialism of the classical English school which results in the justification of Keynesianism or the general equilibrium model in the representation of Walras or in the theories of the Chicago monetarists they are all first cousins and they all suffer from the same scientific errors but the flame stayed alive thanks to other thinkers such as Jaime Balmes or others outside of our borders such as Turgod, Cantillon and Bastiat and later the baton was taken up by Menga and his successes at the Austrian School of Economics of the second generation Mises, Hayek and the third Rothbard, Kirchner of the fourth or fifth of which I am honoured to be a leader in some sense at least in our country but ultimately as we have seen we are all indebted to the thinking of these great scholars our great mission is to build on what they left us and bring about a complete revolution in economic sciences that stands it on its head and makes it into a truly useful tool for humanity and that is the great challenge I think we can say we have begun to assume today with this tribute to Diego de Covarrubias and I am going to conclude by reading the profile that Jaime Balmes wrote in this case of Juan de Mariana but I think it is equally applicable to all of the scholars and specifically to the great Diego de Covarrubias Balmes says of Mariana Consummate theologian perfect latinist expert in greek and oriental languages brilliant man of letters estimable economist visionary politician this is his head add to that an irreproachable life a severe morality a heart that does not know duplicity incapable of flattery that beats with vitality at the mere mention of freedom like the hearts of the fierce nobleman of Greece and Rome a firm voice intrepid that speaks out against any manner of abuse without preference for the elite trembling when addressing kings and consider that all of these qualities were contained in one man who lived in a small cell of the Jesuits of Toledo and you will certainly have a combination of qualities and circumstances that very rarely occur in a single person thank you very much