 Well now sort of the second part of honoring Joe and honoring the great Bill Peterson and the great Bob Luddy we're going to celebrate the establishment of the Peterson-Luddy chair in Austrian economics and Bill Peterson and Bob Luddy and of course Joe Salerno three great men I'm privileged to read today the remarks that Laura Bennett Peterson, Bill's daughter, an Economist, a writer, an attorney in Washington, DC has sent to honor this occasion She says all of us ask from time to time Who and what we will leave behind? What is to us this quintessence of dust as Shakespeare put it in Hamlet? Dad was deeply honored when this Institute conferred upon him the Gary G. Slarbaum Prize for lifetime defense of Liberty a decade ago He would be in cloud nine to learn of the Peterson-Luddy chair in Austrian economics that Bob Luddy and the Mises Institute have created in his honor Dad like his great teacher colleague friend and role model living on Mises believed in and espoused the power of principles Chief among these principles for both Mises and dad were the ability and the freedom of individuals To reason and to choose and the efficiency efficacy and democracy of free markets and a limited non-interventionist government His dad wrote in the op-ed in the Wall Street Journal when Mises died While man could destroy himself and civilization He could also ascend in a free society and a free economy to undreamed of cultural intellectual and technological heights in any event thought would be decisive These principles did not come to that from mainstream economics, but from the rethinking of mainstream economics that Mises inspired Just as his first meeting with Mises in 1950 marked an intellectual turning point another meeting 40 years later marked a personal turning point Dad met Bob Luddy about in around in 1990 at Campbell University where dad held a chair Dad developed the highest regard for Bob as an inventor entrepreneur and great and good human beings Bob became not just the best friend dad ever had but in effect another son I Could think of only one thing that might have threatened If only temporarily their friendship if either had praised an op-ed by Paul Krugman in the New York Times Dad would be thrilled to learn that Joe Salerno a prolific and thoughtful scholar and dedicated teacher Will be the first to hold the Peterson bloody chair What Chaucer said of the clerk of Oxford and the general prologue to the Canterbury tales Cudically said of Joe and dad and gladly would he learn and gladly teach In the entrepreneur reel and imagined an article that I admire and that dad doubtless admired too Joe identifies and assesses the different approaches to entrepreneurship of Mises Rothbard Kersner and pre-mises Ian's including Menger and Bomba Veric An entrepreneur like Bob Luddy would not in Mises's view be just a manager But an individual with the ability vision and Venturism venturism this to risk the capital he owns to create new and improved products services or processes I'm grateful to Bob and to the Mises Institute for this living memorial to dad and to the principles for what you thought As Percy Biss Shelley said in Adonis an essay on the death of John Keats Ages empires and religions lie buried in the ravage. They have wrought For such as he can lend they borrow not glory from those who made the world their prey And he has gathered to the kings of thought who wage contention with their times delay And of the past or all that cannot pass away so Dr. Bill Peterson Great champion of capitalism great teacher of freedom great teacher of Austrian economics colleague of Mises and NYU I mean you could Joe is going to talk more about him Mr. Bob Luddy or I'm not going to call upon a great benefactor of the Mises Institute as indeed Bill Peterson a great benefactor of the Mises Institute great entrepreneur Great man as Laura Peterson pointed out a member of our board. We're very honored to have him as a member of our board and Bob come on up and talk about this cheer Thank you very much Lou. It's a great honor to be with you here today Thomas Cahill wrote a book how the Irish saved civilization from the Huns and the barbarians from the time after the fall of the Roman Empire until the Middle Ages Well judge John Denson in his book Century Wars reminds us that the Barbarians were back in full scale in the 20th century Killing literally tens of millions of people over these ideas of socialism communism and fascism Thankfully The 20th century was also the time of Mises and Throughout his entire lifetime Mises had these magnificent theories and ideas of how the world should operate economically But they were never accepted and Mises was never accepted in the world He was never given the recognition or praise that he should be and eventually he dies in the mid 70s but thankfully Lou Rockwell and His associates formed the Mises Institute So if the Irish were the precursor to the Mises Institute There are the the Mises Institute essentially the modern-day monastery Which contains the vast knowledge of the Austrian economists But not only contains it but expands it and thankfully to the web is able to publish it Throughout the entire world So the Mises Institute is a very important to our civilization to our way of life And to the opportunity for millions of people who will come after us Dr. Peterson thought his greatest luck in the world was to meet Mises Serentipiously going to night school at NYU He later became a colleague of Mises. He was devoted to Austrian economics and I would say equally that Peterson was the best friend that I ever had and It was it was a natural good professional relationship the economist in the entrepreneur the theorist and the actor and So we were able to work together over 20 years. He was very engaged with business Peterson was the consummate teacher and He knew it and he knew it so well because he was a student of Mises He was there at the beginning and through the seminars of Mises He loved business. He loved people he loved free choice civilization and So it's it's a great honor to be part of the Mises Institute the lady the Peterson Lutty chair and Dr. Peterson will have been more than delighted to have Joe Salerno as the first Holder of the chair and as am I Congratulations I So it's it's my honor to present you with this plaque from the Mises Institute Professor Joseph Salerno the inaugural holder of the Peterson Lutty chair in Austrian economics I'm greatly honored to be the first first economist Pointed to the Peterson Lutty chair in Austrian economics First I want to express my deepest gratitude to Bob Lutty for his generosity in endowing the chair In addition to being an outstanding entrepreneur Bob is a dedicated advocate of liberty and free economy Was this superb understanding of Austrian economics? I spoke to one number of occasions most recently last night someone who has a deep Feeling for the for the free society and who himself acts to bring that about and that's Entrepreneurs if there's a shortage of anything or scarcity of anything that entrepreneurs have it's time and Bob devotes his time To people who causes outside his business causes that advanced the the free society I would also like to say a few words about William Peterson It was easy to tell that bill was a PhD student of Ludwig von Mises Because Mises passion courage and what some people called in transigence in defense of free society was always reflected in Bill's works I first encounters bill the first encountered bills work as a junior in college when I first subscribed to the old fee publication the Freeman I Was struck by how clearly bill wrote about economics and how expertly He applied it to the issues of the day. I probably read every article he wrote in the Freeman And I lay I later reread many of those articles after I became a professor For guidance in in preparing lectures and and getting lessons across to students Little did I know at the time because I had not yet met him that bill was a prominent applied Economist to help prestigious positions as Economist and assistant to the chairman of the finance committee of the United States Steel Corporation I mean he was moving in really high circles He also was it was a consultant to firms such as generally electric general motors union carbide and Manufacturers handover trust. So, you know, who says that Austrian? Economists are only armchair economists. This was a man who was in the real world with his hands in the muck so to speak Using principles of Austrian economics So I first met him unfortunately Detrimental to me. I didn't meet him earlier, but in the 1990s at an event At at the Mises Institute After I gave the lecture I came down from the podium and I noticed a man who was distinctly patrician looking Just gliding toward me through the crowd and I didn't really know who it was But he confronted me look me right in the eye and he says, you know, I'm bill Peterson and I followed your work I followed your work. I like what you write Your true follower of Mises and I'll always cherish that moment meeting him for the first time So, um, I'm really I'm really proud to be the holder of a chair that bears a name of William Peterson and Robert Luddy Thank you very much