 I'm thrilled and I'm honored to be here to honor the Institute that really molded my thought and gave me an outlet For my academic work without the Mises Institute. I certainly wouldn't be the same Scholar that that I am today such such as I am which Is pales and comparison to the person that I'm going to speak about now Murray Rothbard? So my topic that I chose to address you on was Murray Rothbard Mises true heir I Chose this topic because in the past 10 years or so There's been a concerted effort in some quarters of the Austrian movement to deny Rothbard His just do as Mises is closest disciple and as the initiator of the revival of Austrian economics The story according to the Rothbard deniers Goes as follows Yes, yes, they say Rothbard wrote some foundational works in the 1960s man economy and state America's Great Depression the Panic of 1819 and power in market But then the 1970s he became disengaged from economics and from the economics profession now what that means they love that word disengaged That that is he was not engaging in a conversation Converse they like conversation to in a conversation with mathematical and positivist economists in other words He thought it was crap and he was Pushing forward economics in the correct direction But by the 1980s the fable grows By the 1980s a Rothbard abandoned academic pursuits all together and Became a political activist and propagandist for libertarian ideas. This is what they tell us Well, let's put this tall tale to rest by listing Murray's publication since 1980 He wrote a number of foundational articles and and a number of books So let me just list a few of them the myth of neutral taxation 1981 law property rights and air pollution 1982 the Federal Reserve is Cardinalization device 1984 the case for a genuine gold standard 1985 The end of socialism and the calculation debate revisited a great article 1991 His books included the ethics of liberty 1982. This is all what he was only really a political activist And you know who was playing politics in the Libertarian Party the mystery of banking 1983 look Vann Mises scholar creator hero 1988 and Finally his great classic Which rivals anything that that has been written in in the history of economic thought the Austrian perspective on the history of economic thought Which unfortunately came out posthumously And During this time he had the time to found the first Austrian Economics journal in North America the review of Austrian economics in 1987 And of course Rothbard scholarly works have continued to pour forth 22 years after his untimely death Culminating in this grand maybe it's not the culmination but culminating for now in this great work that Patrick Newman has edited The progressive era that in itself is something that his critics could only dream of Putting on their resume as the sole work and when we think of Rothbard's works. I mean, it's just They pale and comparison So contrary to the Rothbard deniers Murray Rothbard was a creative genius and the greatest economist of the past 50 years It was also Mises true heir as both Mises himself and Frederick Hayek who was a great Historian of thought when it came to Austrian economics both a test Let me just read a Few things by both Mises and Hayek and what they said about Rothbard when Rothbard published man economy and state Mises reviewed it and enthusiastically we endorsed it Now by the way so the Rothbard deniers claim that that Austrian economics are culminated in Mises and then went to Hayek and Then other people picked up the Hayekian thread Hayek built on Mises supposedly and then Rothbard sort of Shunted the train onto the wrong track that is on the track down to Auburn, Alabama And this was only libertarian activism So this is what Mises says he called that Rothbard's work an apocal contribution to the general science of human action Unquote he then went on to declare Quote henceforth all essential studies in the brain these branches of knowledge will have to take full account of the theories and Criticisms expounded by dr. Rothbard Unquote It doesn't sound like he thinks that Rothbard wasn't one of his closest followers Now does it? Mises gave high praise to Rothbard's treatise despite the fact that parts of the book Rintended to correct improve upon and fill in gaps in the system of economics that Mises himself had created In fact in one particular case Rothbard explicitly degree disagreed with Mises and that was the theory of monopoly Mises had conceded that the formation of a monopoly price above the competitive price was theoretically conceivable in an unhampered market though Very unlikely to occur in practice. He generally Attributed the source of a monopoly to government Rothbard argued to the contrary that the distinction between monopoly and a competitive price was Conceptually meaningless in a market economy now Mises was once asked his opinion of Rothbard's disagreement with this theory of monopoly price by Joaquin reg The Spanish translator of human action This occurred at the Mont Pelerin Society in 1965 and we have two accounts of it Mrs. Von Mises said that her husband had replied quote whatever Rothbard has written in his work is of the greatest importance Unquote however the Spanish economist Jesus were to the Soto has reported that when reg Himself used to recount the incident. He would quote Mises's response as I agree with every word professor Rothbard has written on the subject and Let me just say a few words about about Hayek and how he viewed Rothbard He wrote although I owe this is Hayek writing although I owe I do owe Mises a decisive Stimulus at a crucial point of my intellectual development and continuous inspiration through a decade I perhaps most profited from his teaching because I was not initially his student at the University I was not an innocent young man who took his word for gospel, but I already came to him as a trained economist Trained in a parallel branch of Austrian economics So he was not trained in the same branch as Mises which Bonbavere the great Austrian economist Bon Bonbavere had started Continuing Hayek wrote on Rothbard 1977 or wrote on Mises followers He said in today's world Mises and his students are regarded as the representatives of of the Austrian school and Justifiably so although he represents only one of the branches into which Menger's theories had been divided by his students The close personal friends Bonbavere and and visa I only admit this with some hesitation because I had had expected much of the visa tradition And he was in the visa tradition and he says these expectations were not fulfilled But he goes on and says today's active Austrian school almost exclusively in the United States And that's Murray Rothbard and this is 1977 is really the followers of Mises Based on the tradition of Bonbavere Mises his teacher while the man in whom visa had such great hope Never fulfilled his promise So it was Mises and Rothbard Mises branch as as as carried on by Rothbard that was the the living and thriving branch of Austrian economics Finally Hayek Recently found that Hayek wrote an introduction to a work by Rothbard short work two essays on methodology And he wrote among the thinkers who have made outstanding contributions to the peculiar problems raised by the science of human action Ludwig van Mises has probably been the most acute and most original thinker of modern times Professor Murray and Rothbard has been profoundly influenced by his work in this field Both of us meaning Rothbard and Hayek himself Has been trying to develop it further and if this has sometimes led us to modify Mises's conclusions Perhaps even in different directions I am sure this is what Mises would have expected and even desired He then goes on to say that the present state of this tradition established by the large treatises written by Mises Should be made possible accessible to readers of the ninth of the ninth decade He's running in 1980s in a condensed form by one of his best authorized disciples Is certainly to be much welcomed his best authorized disciple being Murray and Rothbard? Okay Now we've got that out of the way um Rothbard for all the scientific brilliance and genius and scholarly achievements was also my friend and and a real Person as he used to like to use the term real person had a real job um Who was had was rooted in in his or her community? um Who loved american culture or the culture that they were born into? So permit me to recount some anecdotes which reveal his great personal charm and genuine humility And I can go on for quite a while because guido has gracefully seated me his 20 minutes. No, no Let me first say a few words about my own conversion to Austrian economics I was I was converted in my junior year of of of college. I was already a libertarian to some extent But I'd never heard of of of Austrian economics Um, despite the fact that I had already taken two macroeconomics courses Uh, and I was well into my junior year And then a student was a conservative Um said I was talking about free market economics and he says well, you know, it sounds to me like you need to um Read a little booklet And he handed me this booklet It's 30 pages long. It's called a mini book. This is the original one used to be a series of these and it was straight forwardly Called economic depressions cause and cure It was written by marie rothbart Really the first time I heard the name actually second. I heard it in a magazine article or read it in a magazine article And I learned more in 45 minutes reading that pamphlet Then From listening to lectures in my macroeconomics courses And from reading very ponderous and boring textbooks One of the textbooks I was assigned I have a prop here See gido you can match this was paul samuelson's seventh edition Okay, this is 821 pages long and weighs five pounds. I waited before I came here okay, and It's as dumb as it is dense So, so I I I certainly owe to marie rothbart my conversion to austrian economics I mean, that's really cool I just sat there and I read it in my car before I went to my macro course For 45 minutes and I said I didn't go to the course. I didn't go back to that particular class Let me uh, tell you about my meeting with marie rothbart my first meeting. Um, I met him while I was attending graduate school the following year Well actually two years later in There was a A libertarian conference in new york city who's featured speakers included rothbart robert lefave carl hess It was the first time I had met any of these giants of of the early libertarian movement In person and I was especially excited at the prospect of hearing rothbart speak Rothbard followed lefave on the program and if you know anything about robert lefave He was an anarchist, but he called his philosophy otarchism which meant self-government and He was an extreme pacifist. He didn't believe that you could use violence even in self-defense So When marie spoke I was really impressed with his joyfulness Affability and and sense of humor, but his wit and his humor especially on display in a question and answer period When someone asked him his view of the extreme pacifism of the fave Which prohibited any form of violence as I said rothbart replied Well, if someone was threatening me with an axe and I had a gun I'd plug them I subsequently invited rothbart to give the keynote address at the new jersey libertarian convention I was one of the founding members of of the libertarian party. Unfortunately Prior to my talk introduced myself to him we made some small talk and then I told him that I was a graduate student in economics and that um I was currently following up some of the citations in his Work man economy and state And I was reading articles by frank fetter and these others he had mentioned his eyes immediately lit up And he seemed like he could barely contain himself. He just kept looking for a pen and a pad. I handed him He took down my phone number and and my um My address and he said that there were well, there are people in new jersey that Professors and students who currently have a reading an Austrian reading group. I'll give you I'll give them your information The following month I didn't think he would remember But the following monday someone showed up at my door and didn't even call show up at my door and said Murray said that You know, you would like to join the reading group. So, you know, I I did do that um And and the reading group was was run by one of my other libertarian heroes walter block So I was soon invited to the inner sanctum of Murray's apartment in Manhattan And if you saw the apartment building if you were on the tour yesterday Um on the way over I was extremely nervous. I I I thought that he would Grill me and and and expose my staggering ignorance of of libertarianism libertarianism and Austrian economics But my apprehension instantly dissipated when Murray excitedly greeted me at the door and said Joe my boy It's great to see you again So I was only second time I met him He made me feel like I was one of the few people in the world that you know was was his friend It was a memorable evening my fellow student and I the guy who drove me over we sat on a living rug Well, well Murray regaled us from his couch with jokes anecdotes opinions on on on very politically incorrect opinion on current affairs Um, but his lighter conversation was interspersed by questions to me Um on economic and political matters At one point the question of what methods were justified in recovering one's property from looters came up Um, this was right shortly after the riots that we had in our in our cities Murray was of the opinion that a store owner was justified in using defensive violence Including deadly forts if absolutely necessary in defending his property from looters But he believed that if the looter had already seized the property and was running away The owner the owner could not plug him Um, he could not employ the deadly force retrievers Property so I timidly suggested that store owner would be justified in using deadly force um, if necessary To recover as well as as to defend his property. I didn't see the difference. So Murray thought for a minute. He says Ah, now that's a conversation. I'm willing to have um, and also during that evening Another topic came up about how he would return Government property stay property back to the private sector after the libertarian revolution. Murray was always Very very forward-looking So he was very lukewarm on my suggestion that it should be auctioned off and the proceeds divided up among taxpayers He was also not keen on giving ownership of the property to the employers public schools to the teachers Railroads to the engineers and conductors. I mean really um These options were too time consuming would require a state to sort of carry it out continuing the state to To you know return the tax money And or would give the property to the wrong people So the overall writing goal was to return the state property productive use in the private sector as soon as possible So he said the best solution and he said this with a twinkle in his eye Is to give ownership of these assets to the heroes of the libertarian revolution So Any of the followed I enjoy I might have time for one more anecdote Uh in the years of followed I enjoyed increasing personal contact with Murray I saw many times at conferences and seminars and we regularly met for lunch at wolf's deli in in Manhattan Was talking most about him was not just a creative genius as an economist social theorist political philosopher But the fact that he himself called himself a real That he himself was a real person now He used that term endearingly of other other libertarians that he liked that he thought were grounded real people Who really loved not just liberty as sort of an arid empty construct But the real system of of political and economic liberty Um that gives rise to the institutions and the culture that allow human beings to thrive and to live And this explains why Murray cherished and celebrated american culture and society and was proud to call it his own Um, he was very much a cultural american cultural new yorker Uh, Murray was an unapologetic admirer of american culture because he viewed it as the specific historical product Of the relatively libertarian and individualist pre-new deal American society Thus, he loved godfather movies not the third one. He hated the third one Um as we all should and and and james bond movies He loved visiting visits to late night visits to denny's restaurants when he was out of out of new york And um, he loved drinking martinis with his friends at the algonquin club One last very quick, um anecdote, uh, I once was at a conference with Murray Um, and it was the usual long conversation until um well into the early hours of the morning He was hungry and so were the graduate students. We were all graduate students. So we piled into my car And uh, we drove around Looking for some place to eat of course, you know, every place was was was closed Um And and Murray was getting more and more agitated and he said what's wrong with these people Don't they understand that the industrial revolution took place 200 years ago? We have electric light He says why aren't they serving their their hungry customers? So just as we were turning around I spied up a pizza place And um, and so we pulled in and and and Murray Murray said heroic You're you're a hero of the of the revolution because I found an open place to eat Okay, there are many other things about Murray. I loved Murray Lou Rockwell when fortune cannot be here loved Murray Just last week we were speaking about something and we both almost at the same time said I wonder what Murray would think about that Thank you