 Thank you everyone for attending I'm really honored to be giving this talk when I saw the Mises you schedule and I realized that I was Get a lecture on why Murray Rothbard is a great economist. I said to myself. Well, I Know why Murray Rothbard's a great economist because I said so you know is there anything else neat neat I say more but I I figured I guess you know I have to speak for 45 minutes. I should probably go into more in-depth Murray Rothbard is one of the most influential figures in my life I've learned a tremendous amount from him regarding economics history political philosophy Current events etc. I've edited several of his books. I think he's one of the most neglected figures in Economics the history of economic thought. I think it's a it's an absolute travesty that he's not as well known as other prominent figures such as John Maynard Keynes or Milton Friedman and and so on and Murray Rothbard can be seen as a Very polarizing figure if you ask some Austrians and libertarians They say well his his influence on the movement was was very negative, right? And I I do not Subscribe to that view. I think he had a very positive Marginal value product to use one of his terms on the Austrian libertarian movement So I want to spend some time talking about why I think he's a very significant economist and why everyone should know of Murray Rothbard All right, so what I'm going to do in this presentation is I'm first going to provide a brief biography of Rothbard his important works For some of you you might not know much about the man who he was And so on what he wrote about I want to talk about that and I think for those of you who do know a lot about Murray Rothbard and his works. You'll still find this information in lightning Then I want to survey some of his contributions to economics what he wrote about in some of his major economics books and papers Right and why it's significant why he advanced the discipline All right, and then I want to briefly explain why I think Rothbard is one of the greatest economists of all time All right, so I think for for those of you who are Rothbardians I think you'll you'll greatly enjoy this lecture for those of you aren't Rothbardians Well, I hope to make you Rothbardians so and then that means you'll enjoy the lecture So my goal is to have everyone enjoy the lecture Okay, so who was Murray Rothbard? All right, Murray Rothbard was born in 1926. So he was born about a hundred years ago He graduated from Columbia University in 1945 Then he got his PhD there about a decade later There's a whole story as to why that's the case, but he got his PhD in economics For those of you who don't know much about Columbia University It's located in New York City and at the time Columbia University was one of the top economics Departments in the nation. It was really Harvard Chicago, Columbia There were many prominent economists who had learned economics at Columbia who had gotten their PhDs from Columbia So when Rothbard was there at studying at Columbia around World War two He was at one of the leading economics Research centers in not only the United States, but the world and that meant he was learning from some of the leading Neoclassical economists at this time. All right, this is very important He wasn't just someone who who learned all of this stuff on his own. He was very immersed in the prevailing Neoclassical Discipline at the time. All right. He had also written a very prominent Work that became his dissertation called the Panic of 1819. What was it about? It was on the Panic of 1819 This is something that's still cited that that that was a bad joke. Everyone was supposed to laugh at that So yeah, but it's still well cited you you read a standard American History book on this time period and if they talk about the Panic of 1819 inevitably Rothbard's dissertation is going to come up and this really shows that he was a Historian in his own right. He could write mainstream Work that the profession Found a great value in right. So if you're interested in this time period, I encourage you to read the Panic of 1819 During this time period aside from working on his dissertation He also worked for the William F. Volcker fund an affiliate research organizations from about 1950 to 1966 so this is in his early as early years his 30s and 40s the William F. Volcker fund was a very prominent Organization after World War two that was really responsible for keeping Austrian economics alive It was the William Volcker fund that was paying for Mises's position at NYU It was also providing money for F. A. Hayek at the University of Chicago and Rothbard when he was working for the William F. Volcker fund. He was Writing for them as I'll talk about he was reviewing books in papers He was attending conferences for them He was basically their top scholar that they that they took great pride in right so during this time Period he was writing man economy in state He also wrote America's Great Depression and in the early to mid 60s He had written conceived in Liberty, which was published in the 1970s All right, so this is when he was writing a tremendous amount is a norm as burst of productivity And this and he had the William Volcker fund to thank for that right so Sometimes people think that well after this time period in the 70s in the 80s This is when Rothbard became mr. Libertarian. He became just a popular economist Just writing on current events and Libertarian political philosophy. That's not true All right, he was just as productive in the second period as he was in the first or the second phase of his life Oh and during this time period. I apologize. He also In case you didn't know published in the American economic review in the quarterly journal of economics Which are some of the top journals at this time period, so he also did that right? So he was certainly quite productive All right, so the second phase of his career He was an economics professor at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute for about 20 years mainly teaching non economics majors teaching engineering students. This wasn't the Most prestigious job or the job that best fit Rothbard's capabilities and his qualifications but for a variety of reasons he was teaching there One major reason is he wanted to stay in New York City. He was someone who loved New York City for a long time He had a phobia of leaving New York City, right? So he he also had a phobia of elevators, but that's a whole whole nother thing So he he loved New York City wanted to stay in New York City He was a man. He was a man of the city So he taught it the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute During this time period he spearheaded the Austrian revival out at South Royalton. So if you're interested in Austrian economics Hopefully know something about South Royalton. This is this conference in 1974 where many leading Austrians Which many leading Austrians attended Murray Rothbard Israel Kursner Ludwig Lachman and Several students some of whom are here today And this is really began the beginning of the modern Austrian movement Later in the year F.A. Hayek won the Nobel Prize in economics. So this is when it really became You know Austrian economics became well known. It was an emerging discipline Rothbard Was publishing many essays about Austrian economics during this time period Working with students trying to get various institutes and journals to publish Austrian related material He was also writing a lot on Subjects related to economic theory not you know directly on economic theory such as for new liberty the ethics of liberty The progressive era in the mystery of banking. Okay, so he was Very very productive We're going to be talking about one of these books later on the mystery of banking and This was this was Rothbard and you can say in the in the second phase of His very productive career Alright, so then the final phase of Rothbard's career is he was the SJ Hall distinguished professor of economics at the University of Nevada Las Vegas he'd taken this position about the mid-80s Until his untimely death in 1995 right so he now had an endowed chair something that was more fitting of his stature and his accomplishments in the profession So he was recognized in this respect during this time period he was also teaching at UNLV with Hans Hermann Hoppe and Obviously very important because we wouldn't be here If it wasn't for Lou Rockwell in the Mises Institute, which was at the time called the Ludwig von Mises Institute He was the academic vice president of this organization And he was also the editor of the review of Austrian economics, which was the first explicitly Austrian journal right there's a lot of Austrian journals now there's the review of Austrian economics the quarterly journal of Austrian economics Austrian related journals the independent review Journal of private enterprise education, etc. A lot of outlets for young scholars to publish in the review of Austrian Review of Austrian economics was really the first one right and this is something to Rothbard's credit He was the he was the editor of this journal many of the Mises fellows or senior fellows whose lectures We've benefited from this week Joe Salerno Jeff Herbner David Gordon, etc They all cut their teeth in the review of Austrian economics in the 80s and 90s publishing some of their research in that outlet All right Once again, he was still writing his main project during this time period was an Austrian perspective on the history of economic thought Massive to volume work. Unfortunately. It was not finished He never got to the third volume because he died But it's very important work on the history of economics and many of the proto-Austrians I highly encourage you to read it if you have not read it and he also wrote some shorter books and Monographs one of the most notable being the case against the Fed, which is a very timely book It's one of the first books. I read about Austrian economics I highly encourage you to read it if you have not done so. All right, so that concludes our Biography of Rothbard, but I thought what would be a presentation of Rothbard if we did not have any photos of Rothbard And many of us have seen the photos Common photos of Rothbard, you know one he's looking this way and then there's another you know He's looking this way and then we've seen little animations of them and I said well if I put those in we've all seen those That's that's all good. So I'd like to get some some nice photos of Rothbard and Might have some photos of some other people we know in this room. Okay, so this is my Rothbard I don't know if anyone's seen this photo. This is Rothbard. I believe that's Leonard Ligio on the right You can see Rothbard there. He's of course surrounded by books as he is in many many of his photos He's Smiling he's happy. He's got his signature glasses on again. This is this is classic Rothbard This is a great photo of Rothbard. I believe this is at South Royalton or one of the many conferences in the 1970s There's Rothbard with sunglasses just sort of staring off in the back is I believe that's Israel Kersner and Ludwig Lachman So two prominent Austrians There were also at the conferences. I just I just love it. He's got his hands on his back And he's just kind of staring off. It's a good photo This is Rothbard at the 1983 libertarian national convention So Rothbard was also very active in party politics and this is you've ever at the libertarian forum He's got this huge article on this on this very climactic Convention and he's pushing for one presidential nominees of another. He was a delegate So he was yeah, he was on the ground so to speak This is just a nice side photo of him if you if you none of us many of us haven't met very Rothbard But he was he was the short stout Man he had this cackling voice and so on and I don't know you can just you can just see it You can just see him come come alive and in this photo. I think This is a this is a maybe not This is a great photo. He's on the side. It's a good side shot of him I'd say you really get a view of the man. I think the the the Disco guy in the middle in the middle. I'm not sure exactly who that is But I still think it's it's a good photo. This is one of my favorite photos. It's my Rothbard golfing. He's working on his golf game He's he's got a putter. This is a very prominent Austrian economist back in the day Suda Shanoi. She's in the back looking on probably as Rothbard Gets a hole in one or something like that. I'm not sure anyway This is a great photo too. Here's Rothbard Talking with a very eager Interested student who's who's clearly mesmerized by what Rothbard is talking about. Does anyone know who that is on the right? That's dr. Solarno. Yes, that's that's our institute's very own Dr. Solarno Solarno eagerly Listening to what Rothbard is is talking about as he's sipping on probably some sort of alcoholic beverage I'm not sure But you can clearly tell he's interested in what he's talking about as is Joe Solarno Here's a young Hans-Hurman Hoppe. This is Rothbard looking on Hoppe. I guess he has a question And he's he's raising his hand or willing to make a comment or something and there's Rothbard looking on again Two scholars who become very prominent at the Institute. So that's all the photos I have But some rare photos. I'm very they thought I thought you could hopefully you haven't seen those before and you get a He's get a Better picture of him. I think I mean literally no pun intended. You're getting good pictures of him. I'd say so anyway All right. So now on to what are his contributions? What are his economics? Contributions, why do I think he's a great one of the greatest economists? Why do you think it's a great economist that doesn't have to deal with him? You know putting or You know looking happy around various people. It's this is this is it's really his writings, right? That's that's what allows him to stand the test of time, okay? So the the most important economics work that he ever wrote and this is a work that is I think one of the greatest economics books of all time Joe Solarno and I are working on a history of man economy and state which I'll talk about a little bit later in the presentation Man economy and state I'm gonna put volumes one through three which includes power and market is an extremely important book in the Austrian tradition This is not only one of the most important Books in Austria economics. I would say it's Murray Rothbard's best book. All right. This is him at his finest his is him as a scholarly economic theorist and he is literally deducing the whole corpus of economics in a tradition very similar To me this is human action. Okay, so it's a towering treatise on Austrian economics There's Murray Rothbard would say this is a very Rothbardian phrase architectonic edifice, right? So it's you see this is his mighty structure and you see you see the whole Basically edifice of economics being built up from Rothbard, right? So what he does in this book is he clarifies he refines and he advances the Misesian paradigm He advances the theories that Mises expounded in human action, right starting from the action axiom and other self-evident economic self-evident assumptions Rothbard deduces the Apodictic laws of economics that apply to isolated individuals that apply to individuals in exchange That apply to individuals producing goods and that apply to governments intervening in exchanges, right? So if you haven't read man economy in state I highly encourage you to do so and I hope to encourage you to do so with some important remarks on man economy Say what exactly is he doing? All right. So one of Rothbard's Notable accomplishments in man economy in state is he shows how the law of diminishing marginal utility Leads to a downward sloping demand curve. This is something Mises assumed that the reader knew But he didn't really explain In his book, right? He doesn't construct demand curves of anything He he dismisses them for for good reasons, but he doesn't show how the law of diminishing marginal utility, right? You increase the supply of a good. It's gonna satisfy lower ranked ends how that leads to a demand curve, right? Rothbard Excuse me Mises to the extent he talks about this. He basically says look at Bomberwerk He said he cites a a German version of Bomberwerk or you can von Bomberwerk's writing So if you're an English speaker like myself and you look at that footnote and you go, oh, okay It's a little bit of a dead end, but there is Rothbard to swoop in in to explain the deduction All right, so this is again. I mentioned implicit in Mises But it's to Rothbard's credit that he he shows how this is true through the the value scale approach, right? So he says well if you have an increase in the supply of a good it satisfies lower ranked ends They'll have a lower ranked lower of RG utility ranking. Well, then that means in order to For you to demand additional Quantities of a good you'd be willing to pay a lower price for those goods, right? Because each additional unit of the good is satisfying lower ranked ends while as you give up more and more money You're going to give up money that satisfies higher ranked So this leads to a downward sloping demand curve This is something it's very different from how neoclassical economists derive demand curves. They use the indifference curve approach Rothbard really defines the Really sets the standard for an Austrian approach, right? Something else that's also very important that Rothbard does in the early chapters of man economy mean state is he explains How equilibrium prices are reached in a world of uncertainty inspected of adjustment? So we think of the standard Supply and demand curve right at spine demand curves equilibrium or quantity demanded equals quantity supplied You take a basic economics class and they're going to say well if the price is set above equilibrium There's going to be a surplus and then the price will fall to equilibrium till the market clears and vice versa If the price is set below equilibrium Rothbard is trying to show. Okay, how do entrepreneurs in the real world actually set prices and How do we actually get to that equilibrium price or how are we trying to get to that equilibrium price? What it really is is it's a theory of step-by-step Equilibration right where entrepreneurs are estimating What consumers will want to buy they don't know the consumers demand curve. They don't know at what prices Consumers will buy various quantities of the good. They have to estimate it And so Rothbard is showing how well we can arrive at equilibrium Even in a world of uncertainty right and when the data is changing the equilibrium points the equilibrium prices are constantly changing But the markets always moving in a direction that satisfies consumer preferences This is something very important that Rothbard explains that you don't really get in a standard Economics course right so to Rothbard's credit goes both of these goes both of these advancements Okay Something else that Rothbard does in man economy and state and this is really I would say his most important contribution is his unique production theory Right, I could spend a whole Lecture we could almost spend a whole week as we do at Rothbard graduate seminar on production theory on Rothbard's production theory Mises didn't really talk about production theory so much So it was left to Rothbard to deduce a Production theory along Austrian lines, and this is really his inspiration for writing a treatise. Okay, one of his important Advancements that he does is he synthesizes the Mises fetter pure time preference theory of interest With the Vic cell high extracur of production analysis. Okay, if we remember earlier in the week Dr. Herbner was talking about the pure time preference theory of interest Then we had dr. Rittenauer as well as dr. Newman the other dr. Newman talking about the structure of production and You know why that's important. So both of these strands of analysis were in Oigen von Bomberwijk Ludwig von Mises's teacher But Bomberwijk then settled for an eclectic theory of interest, right? so something that wasn't based entirely on time preference and so for a while these These strands of analysis me Ludwig von Mises and Frank Fetter a notable American economist with Austrian influences was developing the theory of interest while of Vick sell in Hayek F. A. Hayek were developing the structure of production analysis and To Rothbard's credit that he combines both of these and shows how changes in time preferences Changed the structure of production. Okay, and Rothbard spends many chapters in man economy and state doing this and this is this is a truly Important an incredible achievement. All right so Now I thought to myself. Well, I could explain what Rothbard is doing using diagrams from man economy and state I said, well, that's not really fun. That would be very technical and so on Again, this is this is a lecture on why Murray Rothbard's a great economist So I said, well, I want to do it. I want to explain it how Rothbard explained it. Okay So something that we found in the archives that someone sent to us that I think is really great is from the 80s of Rothbard writing down capital theory on a napkin. So this is from a Rothbardian Anthony Flood and he had meet what he would meet with Rothbard in New York City They would frequently go to this deli eat very presumably very greasy food and so on and and they would they would just talk shop About Austrian economics libertarianism, etc. In one day, he had a question on the structure of production and You know Rothbard drew it on napkin, right? Hey on one side of the napkin. He drew He drew a structure of production if you haven't seen my Rothbard's handwriting It's very very messy. All right, I had to translate. I know a language Rothbard and ease. It's entirely new language I'm you know, one of the one of the few people who can read his handwriting and him scribbling stuff down Well, we'll go through the other side of the napkin where there's more writing This is him showing the structure of production now. I'm not gonna be so cruel as to actually Make you, you know, try and explain it with with with the napkin I mean, this is the actual nice diagram from man economy and state So maybe you you've seen this and this is him showing that production always consists of a series of stages where the original factors land and labor are Producing a capital good that then is sold to a later Capitalist who combines the capital good with more land and labor to produce another capital good Then that's sold in the future so on and so forth until a consumer good is finally produced and we can show the income How the income that the hundred ounces that's spent on consumption how that is Filtered throughout the structure of production or at the end of the day that income completely needs to go to the Capitalists in the form of interest income as well as income to land and labor We see at the top income to land labor 83 ounces and then interest income 17 ounces that's got equal 100 Right. This is a very notable advancement from by Rothbard and in explaining why this structure production matters Why it's important not only for general equilibrium, but also the real world, right and as Rothbard shows At the bottom of the napkin that if there's a decrease in time preferences There's gonna be an increase in investment and more stages are created right the Structure production becomes more roundabout right so At this point in time Mr. Anthony flood asked Rothbard saying well, how do we know that? Each new investment is always going to be in more longer production processes. So I imagine at this point in time Murray Rothbard then Flipped over the napkin and he drew this this this diagram this this this checkered box. He never drew this in any of his Books, but he would always he would always talk about this explaining why each new Investment each new and barge embarking upon a production process is always going to lengthen the structure of production Now I'm sure you can't read any of the scribbles on the side. I also want to point out There's probably again some food. I don't know if that's coffee stain or just some some greasy food from the deli But let's let's let's decipher what Rothbard's doing here. All right, so that says shorter processes and that says longer processes I can I can show this more, you know the actual translation This is what they mean then Rothbard's got more productive and then last productive so it's really a spectrum but as Rothbard was saying but you can you can just use this simple box and So you've got the shorter processes that are more productive as Rothbard would always say he says well those are like mana We've already taken those up. Those are the those are the gimmies We've already we've already gobbled up those production processes. We're not going to be able to use them anymore, right? Then you've got the longer processes that are less productive. So that's the bottom right Why are you going to embark upon something that takes a long time and it's not going to be that productive? All right, well, you're not going to do those right those those those aren't going to make any sense So now you're stuck with you can either embark upon processes that are longer and more productive or processes that are shorter and less productive All right, so the what we'll choose All right, assuming we have the savings and our premium on present satisfaction is in Bit very high is we're going to choose the longer process processes that are more productive Okay, this is why as we increase our investment the economy becomes more round about it takes more time to produce various goods, okay, so At this point in time, I imagine they finish their sandwiches and you know, and fortunately this napkin was kept This is from the summer of 1986 and anyway, I think this is I think this is really cool So I hope I hope you you guys think that's that's cool, too Um Okay, so let's move beyond man economy and state. Let's go to some of his other writings Okay, Rothbard didn't just write a massive treatise on Austrian economics He also wrote many many essays on economics economic theory and so on these were originally published in Two volume book called the logic of action Volume one and volume two the Mises Institute about a decade ago Republished these as economic controversies This is a collection of essays published on method history of thought private property taxation and history I highly encourage you to read this book if you have and it's very large It's about 900 pages, but it's composed of a lot of short essays and in many ways It's a good introduction to man economy and state the Introduction to this book was written by Gene Epstein who is here earlier in the week at the Soho Debate and he he said economic controversies is probably the better way in Man economy and state could come a bit later. This is him talking about which one should you read, right? And we could have this debate if you read man economy and state first or economic controversies But for those of you who haven't read man economy and state might be intimidated This is a this could be a good way in because there are many Essays of varying length that you can benefit from all right So I wanted to talk about I Could talk about many essays in this book, but again, we only have so much time So I wanted to talk about something that related it to my earlier Talk in the week, which is on the money supply, right? I mentioned that banks are in the process. They're in the business Excuse me of issuing money substitutes, right in that these money substitutes Constitute the money supply right so a demand deposit at Bank of America That's part of the money supply because people expect they can always redeem it for the money proper, right? But what about other types of financial securities? What about time deposits? What about savings and loan shares? What about deposits at mutual savings banks, right? Rothbard wants to figure out. Okay. Are these are Institutions also in the business of issuing money substitutes So this essay is which Rothbard wrote in the 1970s is part of the Austrian revival Rothbard is trying to answer the question of what counts as a money substitute and that determines the proper definition of the money supply and I think Rothbard makes a very important contribution in this essay building on a lot of the analysis that he did for America's Great Depression and It's very different than the Chicago school, right? We live in the world of 2022 where no one even talks about the money supply, right? Yeah, that's not even tracked by the Federal Reserve anymore There used to be a day many moons ago when everyone is obsessing over the money supply statistic when it came out now It did you know no one cares, right? I'm sure no one even knew it came out this week, right? But it actually did a monthly statistic on the money supply came out So the Chicago school right now well known for Milton Friedman and his monitor is him base It basically argued that whatever, you know, how we determine what the appropriate money supply m1 m2 m3 m4 etc. Is just whatever best correlates with nominal GDP so with nominal income, right? So if adding something to the money supply aggregate Now correlates with nominal GDP or is a better project predictor of nominal GDP Well, then that means it's a more accurate money supply definition. It's a more accurate definition of the money supply and Rothbard of very Correctly, I think basically says that definition is is wrong Rothbard doesn't care so much about prediction or correlations Rothbard cares about explanations Are we actually getting at the essence of what money is right if we throw in peanut butter, right? Into our monetary aggregate and it correlates with nominal GDP better Does this mean we is peanut butter or a money substitute is peanut butter part of the money supply? I mean that would be nuts, right? Yeah, there we goes another bad joke. It's must be late in the day But alright, that was really bad. I might have to open the windows for that one, but So Rothbard argues in particular Rothbard argues that savings deposits are economically identical or Indistinguishable from demand deposits back in the day savings deposits paid slightly higher interest banks could Refuse or but invoke an ability where they don't have to Redeem the deposit you couldn't directly spend the deposit sometimes you had to convert it first into a demand deposit Rothbard says those are immaterial, right? It's the equivalent of let's say you have a thousand dollar bill That you can't spend at stores. You have to convert that thousand dollar bill into 10 100s or smaller change Would we say that the thousand dollar bill is not part of the money supply? No, we wouldn't okay and Quite interestingly at the beginning of COVID the the Fed more or less adopted Rothbard's approach in M1 Finally including savings deposits as part of the money supply So, you know, it's great at the same time by just one month just adding all of the savings deposits in the money supply and not Correcting that if for the past just makes the money supply statistic useless M1 So sort of a Pyrrhic victory, but you know, I'll take that But this is this is a very important contribution of Rothbard people sometimes argue. Oh Rothbard's analysis of the 1920s is is incorrect because he's throwing things like Certain life insurance policies in the money supply and that's just ridiculous Even though Rothbard when he was doing this was building on prominent economists such as Arthur Burns and other thinkers who said well Maybe these are actually Part of the money supply. Alright, so it was Rothbard the pioneer and it's Rothbard He should go the good to goes the credit for coming up with an accurate definition of the money supply, right? And this is very important the Mises Institute's Ryan McMakin Frequently comes out with releases on the Austrian money supply Which is basically the definition of Murray Rothbard's as well as Joe Salerno's what counts as the sort of the the the most accurate Money supply statistic. Okay Okay All right So we can go to the mystery of banking. All right This is Rothbard's soul textbook came out in the early 80s. If you haven't read it I highly encourage you to read it. It's a great introduction to monetary theory The basics of banking in the history of money and banking one of the first books I read by Rothbard and even though he's not coming up with many unique theories He's building on what he already wrote It shows that he's a great economist because most economists can't write and most money and banking textbooks are absolutely Terribly organized if you've seen stuff. They've got current events then they go to financial questions Then they go to maybe some eclectic history of why the Federal Reserve did the right thing at the right time, you know, etc And then at the very end there's monetary theory. It's not even the good monetary theory The price of money is the nominal interest rate. It's just it's just this headache In contrast Murray Rothbard's book is very Well-structured I think it's a great outline for teaching a money in banking course I've used it even when I haven't used it in teaching. It's still Excellent you start with monetary theory then you go to banking theory and then you go to the history of money in banking and It's it's just something very and very important. All right So something that Rothbard does that I think also shows we shows why he is a great economist Is he was a master historian in the Misesian tradition right showing why humans acted? What were the particular motivations behind various laws? right providing sort of an Special interest analysis of laws and and one thing that Rothbard does that many economists Didn't do and they criticize Rothbard for doing and now that they do this They still don't give Rothbard credit is he applied this to money. He applied this to money in banking, right? He applied this to central banks, right? Who are the actors actually pushing for the Federal Reserve? Okay Well Rothbard showed that it was various bankers associated with J.P. Morgan and company National City Bank Kuhn-Loban Company and so on right well. Why did they want to benefit while Rothbard goes through? What were the motivations that they were trying to? Enact you know what were their goals and so on right Rothbard is trying to show Not only who benefits but in specifically which people benefited right? He doesn't just want to show you that yes private bankers lobbied for central bank. He wants to show that Private bankers X Y and Z lobbied for a central bank. Okay, so he's bringing his theories to life basically. He's he's actually Providing much needed context and again, you don't you don't find this in a in a banking book They might mention Well, there's a bunch of panics. We had the Federal Reserve or they're gonna say in one sentence Oh, yeah, there's this Jekyll Isle thing and then they just kind of move on and you're just sort of wondering Well, what happened to Jekyll Isle? Who is at Jekyll Island? You know what was what what can't we talk more about that and you know that that's what Rothbard does in the mystery of banking and in many other Works on central banking It's a power elite analysis where he names names. All right. This is this is something Not directly related to economic theory, but it's an application of Rothbard's economic theory and this is Something that makes him very unique. Many economists don't want to do it They don't want to name names because they don't want to criticize the powers that be Why don't they want to criticize the powers that be because then that could hurt their job prospects, right? You don't want to criticize the biggest employer of Monetary economists, right? If you're a monetary economist, you don't want to criticize The institution that's providing nice research grants to monetary economists conferences Journal outlets, etc. But Rothbard did that. Okay As he would say he said I did it because no one else was doing it, right? Okay, so I've just spent 40 minutes of everyone's life talking talking about Murray Rothbard. Why he's a great economist Don't take my word. Take Mises's word, right? Sometimes people say well Mises and Rothbard are really different, right? Rothbard was doing his own thing and in Mises He never really You know, he didn't directly follow in Mises's footsteps. I think that's completely false I think that's a gross distortion of the history. So why don't we look at what Mises Wrote about Rothbard in the in the late 50s and early 60s. Okay, so Mises wrote When when Rothbard was writing America's Great Depression, he applied He had a research grant for that and Mises wrote the letter of recommendation. All right And here's what he said in the letter of recommendation. Mises is not one to provide a lot of praise for economists But he he made an exception for Rothbard. He said Rothbard is an extraordinarily talented young man a King thinker and an indefatigable worker, right? I am fully convinced that he will one day be counted among the foremost economists. I fully endorse what he says about these matters And I want Murley to add that in my opinion nobody is better qualified to perform this job than Rothbard Okay, I would like a letter of recommendation like this, right? I think we all would but this is a this is a Very strong letter of recommendation that shows Mises clearly thought Rothbard was a great economist Okay, for Mises to write this for someone really shows how much he valued Rothbard's thinking Then Mises reviewed man economy in state Maybe a lot of people have seen this review because this one is not on a private letter It's in a publication that's been printed before This is came out in the fall of 1962 Rothbard says excuse me not Rothbard Mises says quote Rothbard's work is an apocal contribution to the general science of human action Praxeology, and it's practically most important and up to now best elaborated part economics Henceforth all essential studies in these branches of knowledge will have to take the full account of the theories and criticisms Expounded by dr. Rothbard. He's basically saying if you want to be an economist you got to read Rothbard's book Okay, once again, this is a nice statement right to say. Oh, yeah, well now every if you want to be an economist You got to read this book I mean that that really shows that Mises valued Rothbard As a as an economic thinker and thought he was a great economist, okay And then we can finish up with a letter Mises wrote in the in December of 1962 to a noted philosopher Louis Rougier He was this person had written to Roth written to Mises excuse me about his questions about praxeology and then Said where could I look for where's the proof of the praxeological theorems and Mises said the proof of the cake is in the eating I can only refer to the systematic Exposition of the whole doctrine of praxeology in my book Human action and nowadays in the brilliant book of a younger man Murray and Rothbard man economy in state right basically saying that if you're looking for the Systematic exposition of the whole doctrine of praxeology. You should look at human action and Man economy in state. Those are not my words. Those are Mises's words, right? and Then when Mises's third edition of human action came out in 1966 We we found you know, did there he inscribed a little Little nice thing for Rothbard's personal copy when he asked Mises to sign it He said to Murray and Rothbard pioneer of praxeological analysis with all good wishes March 2nd 1967 Ludwig Mises, right? It's a little interesting when Mises would sign things he sometimes wouldn't use the Vaughn, right? So just Ludwig Mises so people thought that oh, this isn't actually a real Mises This is a forgery right? No, this is this is the real deal, right? So if you're in the market for buying Mises memorabilia, just make sure you know, you know where you're getting Oh, but again, this this shows that Mises really valued Rothbard, right? He really valued him. He thought he was a great economist, right? So in conclusion Rothbard's a great economist not because I said so But because Mises said so right now in reality Rothbard's a great economist because he made many important contributions to economics and I would say the two most important Austrian economists and make the argument the two most important economists of the 20th century and potentially throughout history you got Mises and you got Rothbard, right? So I think you know, this is only a small analysis of Rothbard's many contributions to economics But hopefully I've I've inspired many of you to read Rothbard To read many of his writings his papers and so on there in many collections Mises Institute has And for more on Rothbard, I recommend that you read you've got David Gordon the essential Rothbard Right covers not only economics, but his also his forays and other fields Joseph Salerno and Matt McCaffrey the Rothbard reader which has a lot of short writings of Rothbard and Book by Joe Salerno and myself the making of a Misesian economist, which is forthcoming Which is showing Rothbard's development as an economist in his writing of man economy and state in the 1950s in the 1960s So I think with that I will conclude so thank you so much for your attention