The Austrian Economics Wiki - User contributions [en]

Bitcoin

2011-12-21T16:00:00Z

Poptech: EFF stops accepting donations in Bitcoins

[[File:Bitcoinlogo.png|thumb|300px|right|Bitcoin logo.]]
{{Infobox
| Box title = Software
| Row 1 title= name
| Row 1 info= Bitcoin
| Row 2 title=developer
| Row 2 info= Satoshi Nakamoto
| Row 3 title=latest release version
| Row 3 info = 0.3.12
| Row 4 title=latest release date
| Row 4 info= "2010/09/07"
| Row 5 title=programming language
| Row 5 info = [[Wikipedia:C++]]
| Row 6 title=operating system
| Row 6 info = Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
| Row 7 title=status
| Row 7 info = Beta
| Row 8 title=genre
| Row 8 info= [[Wikipedia:Electronic money|Electronic money]]
| Row 9 title=license
| Row 9 info = [[Wikipedia:MIT License|MIT License]]
| Row 10 title=website
| Row 10 info = [http://www.bitcoin.org/ "www.bitcoin.org"]
}}
{{Infobox
|Box title=Currency
| Row 1 title = currency name
| Row 1 info = Bitcoin
| Row 2 title = using countries
|Row 2 info = ''Internet-based (global)''
| Row 3 title=symbol
| Row 3 info = BTC
| Row 4 title=issuing authority
| Row 4 info= Bitcoin network
| Row 5 title =issuing authority website
| Row 5 info www.bitcoin.org
}}
'''Bitcoin''' is an [[open source]] [[Wikipedia:peer-to-peer|peer-to-peer]] system developed by [[Wikipedia:Satoshi Nakamoto|Satoshi Nakamoto]] that aims to provide [[Wikipedia:electronic cash|electronic cash]]. The system is decentralized with no central server or trusted parties.<ref name="hartford">
{{cite news
|title=Is It Time For Digital-Only Dollars?
|first=Phil
|last=Maymin
|date=2010-07-08
|newspaper=Hartford Advocate
|url=http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/commentary/is-it-time-for-digital-only-dollars-2
|accessdate=2010-07-23
}}</ref> Bitcoin relies on [[Wikipedia:cryptographic|cryptographic]] principles to create unique, unreproducible, and divisible tokens. Users hold the [[Wikipedia:Key (cryptography)|cryptographic keys]] to their own tokens and transact directly with each other, with the help of the network to check for [[Wikipedia:double-spending|double-spending]].<ref name="infoworld_2010">
{{cite news
|date=2010-05-24
|title=Open source innovation on the cutting edge
|first=Neil
|last=McAllister
|newspaper=InfoWorld
|url=http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source/open-source-innovation-the-cutting-edge-582?page=0,2
|accessdate=2010-07-23
}}</ref>

==Technical basis==
[[File:Hash_tree.png|thumb|300px|right|Bitcoin uses an ever-growing [[Wikipedia:Hash tree|hash tree]] to store, linearize, and verify transactions.]]

Bitcoin is an implementation of Wei Dai's b-money proposal on [[Wikipedia:Cypherpunks|Cypherpunks]] in 1998 and Nick Szabo's Bitgold proposal.<ref>[http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=342.msg4508#msg4508 Bitcoin author on external references]</ref> The principles of the system are described in the Bitcoin White Paper.<ref name=Whitepaper>[http://www.bitcoin.org/sites/default/files/bitcoin.pdf Bitcoin White Paper]</ref>

A user on the network has one or several cryptographic identifiers ([[Wikipedia:ECDSA|ECDSA]] keypairs), which represent their [[Wikipedia:wallet|wallet]]. The public key counterpart of this wallet is called an ''address''. The private key, stored only on the user's computer, is used to authorize payments from the user. The wallet or address contain no information about their owner, so they are effectively anonymous.<ref>{{cite news |author=Nathan Willis |date=2010-11-10 |title=Bitcoin: Virtual money created by CPU cycles |publisher=[[Wikipedia:LWN.net]] |url=http://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/414452/ef58a58a62148050/ }}</ref>

Each coin of the Bitcoin system has its owner's [[Wikipedia:public key|public key]] on it. The owner can transfer it further by adding the recipient's public key on it, signing it with his private key and broadcasting the transaction to the network. This way, each coin contains its cryptographic ownership history from the creator of the coin to its current owner.

To prevent users from double-spending their coins (signing the same coin for many recipients), transactions are [[Wikipedia:timestamp|timestamped]] by the network with a [[Wikipedia:proof-of-work system|proof-of-work system]]. The network collects and records new transactions into a chain of blocks. Nodes of the network are constantly racing to complete these blocks by finding a value, that summed up with the block and the hash of the previous block, produces an [[Wikipedia:SHA-256|SHA-256]] hash containing a certain amount of leading zero bits. The average work required by this operation can be calculated and used to timestamp the block's transactions, so that they cannot be invalidated by later double-spending.

The incentive to use CPU time for running the system is that new coins are created and assigned to the node that manages to complete the new block first. This method of coin creation "was designed to be a digital analogue to gold and silver mining"<ref>[http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/luongo7.1.1.html LewRockwell.com article: The FED’s Real Monetary Problem]</ref>. Once a node successfully creates a block, it broadcasts the block to the network. Other nodes receive the block, perform a proof-of-work check, and add it to their chain if it is valid. As more transactions occur, blocks are created and added ad infinitum. The longest proof-of-work block chain is acknowledged to be the oldest and most reliable account of the transaction history.

This mechanism is claimed<ref name=Whitepaper /> to be virtually tamper-proof. For an attacker to manipulate the record, he must outpace all of the other nodes on the network to produce the longest proof-of-work. This becomes exponentially more difficult as time passes, because such "tampered" chains would continuously be rejected by nodes attempting to build a valid chain.

Bitcoin is a completely peer-to-peer network, and every node is able to enter or leave the network at will. When a node joins the network, the longest proof-of-work is automatically accepted as the most reliable one.

==Economic aspects==
Bitcoin is '''not''' [[Medium_of_exchange#Medium_of_exchange_and_money|money]] in the [[Austrian School|Austrian]] sense: money itself must first have originated as a directly serviceable good before it could become an indirectly serviceable good<ref name="Mahoney_money">Dan Mahoney. [http://mises.org/story/672 "Austrian Business Cycle Theory: A Brief Explanation"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-06-17.</ref>.

The average rate of Bitcoin production is tapered such that over time the total number of Bitcoins will approach 21,000,000. After this point, no further Bitcoin production is possible. In this environment of limited supply and in situations where large numbers of Bitcoins are either lost or destroyed, the electronic divisibility of Bitcoins is argued to be conducive to downward price adjustments with no practical limitations in the actual storage or transport of Bitcoin value.<ref name=Divisiblity>[http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=44.0 Divisibility of Bitcoins]</ref> Rather than relying on the incentive of newly created Bitcoins to package transactions, nodes in this period will likely depend more heavily on their ability to competitively collect transaction fees to process Bitcoin transactions into blocks.<ref>[http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=165.0 Incentive to Collect Transactions]</ref>

==Monetary and financial benefits==

Given the decentralized nature of Bitcoin and the hard coding of rules within the software, potential users claim various monetary and financial benefits<ref name=FAQ>[http://www.bitcoin.org/faq Bitcoin FAQ]</ref>:

* Direct transfer via the internet without a trusted middleman or financial processor.
* Third parties cannot prevent or control transactions.
* Transactions are practically free.
* Bitcoin value is unconnected to possible instability caused by fractional reserve banking and poor central bank policy (see [[Austrian business cycle theory]]).
* Corrupted transactions created by hacked or modified clients are rejected by honest clients.
* The limited inflation of the Bitcoin system’s money supply is distributed evenly by CPU power throughout the network and programmatically created at a rate known to all parties in advance. Inflation cannot therefore be centrally manipulated to effect redistribution of Bitcoin value from general users.
* Given the predetermined rate of Bitcoin creation, the system is further protected against wild swings in supply due to externalities sometimes seen with traditional commodity currencies (see [[Wikipedia:History_of_the_rupee#The_fall_of_the_Rupee|Fall of the Rupee]] due to large discoveries of silver reserves in the New World).
* Bitcoins are potentially divisible to eight decimal points.<ref name=Divisiblity /> There are therefore no practical limitations to downward price adjustments in a deflationary environment.

According to the author, the design also supports a variety of possible transaction types that have yet to be implemented within the currently available client. These include [[Wikipedia:escrow|escrow]] transactions, [[Wikipedia:surety bond|surety bond]] contracts, third party [[Wikipedia:arbitration|arbitration]], and multi-party signatures.<ref>[http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=195.msg1611#msg1611 Predicate Transactions]</ref>

==Acceptance==

As of august 2010 there are roughly 30 sites accepting payment via Bitcoin<ref name=AcceptingSites>[http://www.bitcoin.org/trade List of sites accepting Bitcoin]</ref>, spanning areas such as [[Wikipedia:VOIP|digital telephony]] services<ref>[http://forum.link2voip.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1088 Link2VoIP (www.link2voip.com) accepts Bitcoin as payment.]</ref>, [[Wikipedia:currency trading]] systems<ref>[http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=20.msg747#msg747 Bitcoin Trading System.]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bitcointo.com/|title=Bitcointo, a Bitcoin to physical goods conversion service}}</ref>, online games<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.atitd.com/|title=A Tale in the Desert IV accepts Bitcoin as payment}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sirarthur.net/bitcasino|title=BitCoin Casino}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefarwilds.com/|title=The Far Wilds, online game accepting Bitcoin as payment}}</ref>, physical goods<ref>{{cite web|url=http://qextracts.ecrater.com/|title=Quiggle extracts, online apothecary accepting bitcoins as payment}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theoddshot.com.au/|title=The Odd Shot, a print photography business accepting bitcoins as payment}}</ref>, advertising services<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bitads.tk/|title=Bitads, advertising system accepting Bitcoins as payment}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bitlist.tk/|title=Bitlist, advertising system accepting Bitcoins as payment}}</ref>, auction systems<ref>{{cite web|title=BiddingPond.com, a Bitcoin-powered auction system|url=http://www.biddingpond.com/}}</ref>, web hosting<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.privacyshark.com/|title=Privacy Shark, anonymous Bitcoin-based domain name and DNS hosting services}}</ref>, computer security auditing<ref>{{cite web|url=http://binarysecurity.webs.com/|title=Binary Security, Bitcoin only web application security auditing services}}</ref> and other online services. The Electronic Frontier Foundation [EFF] has stopped accepting donations in Bitcoins.<ref>{{cite web|title=EFF and Bitcoin|first=Cindy|last=Cohen|date=2011-06-20|newspaper=Deeplinks Blog|url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/06/eff-and-bitcoin|accessdate=2011-12-21}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[GoldMoney]]
*[[Wikipedia:Anonymous internet banking|Anonymous internet banking]]
*[[Wikipedia:Crypto-anarchy|Crypto-anarchy]]
*[[Wikipedia:eCache|eCache]]
*[[Wikipedia:HashCash|HashCash]]
*[[Wikipedia:Pecunix|Pecunix]]
*[[Wikipedia:Ripple monetary system|Ripple monetary system]]
*[[Wikipedia:Yodelbank|Yodelbank]]

==References==
{{Reflist|1}}

==Links==
*[http://www.bitcoin.org/ Official website]
*[https://www.bitcoin.org/wiki/doku.php Bitcoin wiki]{{dead link}}
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/ Bitcoin at sourceforge]
*[http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/11/1747245/Bitcoin-Releases-Version-03 news.slashdot.org]
*[http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bitcoin-open-source-p2p-ecash p2pfoundation.net]
*''[http://modeledbehavior.com/2010/06/30/bitcoin-and-the-wild-west/ Bitcoin and the Wild West]'', Modeled Behaviour blog.
*[http://dailypaul.com/node/139776 dailypaul.com]
*[http://www.reddit.com/domain/bitcoin.org/ reddit.com]
*[http://habrahabr.ru/blogs/crypto/99100/ Russian blog]
*[http://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/5113340 linux.org.ru]

[[Category:Currency]]

Friedrich Hayek

2010-11-18T04:50:27Z

Poptech: Typo

{{Stub}}

<blockquote>"A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers." 
F.A.Hayek, ''Law, Legislation, and Liberty''</blockquote>

Friedrich August von Hayek is one of the most eminent of the modern Austrian economists. Student of [[Wikipedia:Friedrich von Wieser|Friedrich von Wieser]], protégé and colleague of [[Ludwig von Mises]], and foremost representative of an outstanding generation of Austrian school theorists, Hayek was very successful in spreading Austrian ideas throughout the English-speaking world. "When the definitive history of economic analysis during the 1930s comes to be written," said [[Wikipedia:John Hicks|John Hicks]] in 1967, "a leading character in the drama (it was quite a drama) will be Professor Hayek. . . . It is hardly remembered that there was a time when the new theories of Hayek were the principal rival of the new theories of Keynes".<ref name="Hicks_Hayek">[[Wikipedia:John Hicks|Hicks, Sir John]]. 1967. ''Critical Essays in Monetary Theory.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press. p.203. Referenced via article source 2009-05-28.</ref> Unfortunately, Hayek's [[Austrian Business Cycle Theory|theory of the business cycle]] was eventually swept aside by the [[Wikipedia:Keynesian revolution|Keynesian revolution]]. His work was again recognized when Hayek received, along with the Swede [[Wikipedia:Gunnar Myrdal|Gunnar Myrdal]], the 1974 [[Wikipedia:Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science]]. Hayek was a prolific writer over nearly seven decades; his [http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Complete/Series/CWFAH.html Collected Works], currently being published by the [[Wikipedia:University of Chicago Press|University of Chicago Press]] and [[Wikipedia:Routledge|Routledge]], are projected at nineteen volumes.

==Life and Work==
Hayek's life spanned the twentieth century, and he made his home in some of the great intellectual communities of the period. Born Friedrich August von Hayek in 1899 to a distinguished family of Viennese intellectuals, Hayek attended the [[Wikipedia:University of Vienna|University of Vienna]], earning doctorates in 1921 and 1923. Hayek came to the University at age 19 just after [[Wikipedia:World War I|World War I]], when it was one of the three best places in the world to study economics (the others being [[Wikipedia:Stockholm School of Economics|Stockholm]] and [[Wikipedia:University of Cambridge|Cambridge]], England). Though he was enrolled as a law student, his primary interests were economics and psychology, the latter due to the influence of [[Wikipedia:Ernst Mach|Mach's]] theory of perception on Wieser and Wieser's colleague [[Wikipedia:Othmar Spann|Othmar Spann]], and the former stemming from the reformist ideal of [[Wikipedia:Fabian Society|Fabian socialism]] so typical of Hayek's generation.

Like many students of economics then and since, Hayek chose the subject not for its own sake, but because he wanted to improve social conditions--the poverty of postwar Vienna serving as a daily reminder of such a need. [[Socialism]] seemed to provide a solution. Then in 1922 Mises published his ''Die Gemeinwirtschaft'', later translated as [[Wikipedia:Socialism (book)|Socialism]]. "To none of us young men who read the book when it appeared," Hayek recalled, "the world was ever the same again". Socialism, an elaboration of Mises's pioneering article from two years before, argued that [[economic calculation]] requires a market for the means of production; without such a market there is no way to establish the values of those means and, consequently, no way to find their proper uses in production. Mises's devastating attack on central planning converted Hayek to laissez-faire, along with contemporaries like [[Wikipedia:Wilhelm Röpke|Wilhelm Röpke]]<ref name="Röpke">Shawn Ritenour. [http://mises.org/about/3241 "Wilhelm Röpke (1899-1966): Humane Economist"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-24.</ref>, [[Wikipedia:Lionel Robbins|Lionel Robbins]], and [[Wikipedia:Bertil Ohlin|Bertil Ohlin]].

It was around this time that Hayek began attending Mises's famed Privatseminar. Regular participants, who received no academic credit or other official recognition for their time, included Hayek, [[Wikipedia:Gottfried von Haberler|Gottfried von Haberler]]<ref name="Haberler">[http://mises.org/journals/aen/aen20_1_1.asp "Between Mises and Keynes An Interview with Gottfried von Haberler (1900-1995)"], ''The Austrian Economics Newsletter'' Spring 2000 Volume 20, Number 1, referenced 2009-04-27.</ref>, [[Wikipedia:Fritz Machlup|Fritz Machlup]]<ref name="Machlup">Mark Thornton. [http://mises.org/about/3237 "Biography of Fritz Machlup (1902-1983)"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-24.</ref>, [[Wikipedia:Oskar Morgenstern|Oskar Morgenstern]], [[Wikipedia:Paul Rosenstein-Rodan|Paul Rosenstein-Rodan]], Richard von Strigl<ref name="Strigl">Jörg Guido Hülsmann. [http://mises.org/about/3243 "Richard von Strigl (1891-1942)"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-04-27.</ref>, Karl Schlesinger, [[Wikipedia:Felix Kaufmann|Felix Kaufmann]], [[Wikipedia:Alfred Schütz|Alfred Schütz]]<ref name="Schutz">Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard. [http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae6_2_2.pdf "The Viennese Connection: Alfred Schutz and the Austrian School"](pdf), ''The Quarterly Journal Of Austrian Economics'' Vol.6, no.2, referenced 2009-04-27.</ref>, [[Wikipedia:Eric Voegelin|Eric Voegelin]], Karl Menger, Jr., and others not so famous. For several years the Privatseminar was the center of the economics community in Vienna, attracting such visitors as Robbins from London and Howard S. Ellis from Berkeley. Later, Hayek became the first of this group to leave Vienna; most of the others, along with Mises himself, were also gone by the start of World War II.

Mises had done earlier work on monetary and banking theory, successfully applying the Austrian [[marginal utility]] principle to the value of [[money]] and then sketching a theory of industrial fluctuations based on the doctrines of the [[British Currency School|British Currency School]] and the ideas of the Swedish economist [[Wikipedia:Knut Wicksell|Knut Wicksell]]. Hayek used this as a starting point for his own research on fluctuations, explaining the origin of the business cycle in terms of bank credit expansion and its transmission in terms of [[capital]] [[malinvestment]]s. His work in this area eventually earned him an invitation to lecture at the [[Wikipedia:London School of Economics|London School of Economics and Political Science]] and then to occupy its [[Wikipedia:Thomas Tooke|Tooke]] Chair in Economics and Statistics, which he accepted in 1931. There he found himself among a vibrant and exciting group: Robbins, [[Wikipedia:John Hicks|J. R. Hicks]], [[Wikipedia:Arnold Plant|Arnold Plant]], [[Wikipedia:Dennis Robertson|Dennis Robertson]], T. E. Gregory, [[Wikipedia:Abba P. Lerner|Abba Lerner]], [[Wikipedia:Kenneth E. Boulding|Kenneth Boulding]], and [[Wikipedia:G. L. S. Shackle|George Shackle]], to name only the most prominent. Hayek brought his (to them) unfamiliar views, and gradually, the "Austrian" theory of the business cycle became known and accepted. At the L.S.E. Hayek lectured on Mises's [[ABCT|business-cycle theory]], which he was refining and which, until [[Wikipedia:John Maynard Keynes|Keynes's]] [[Wikipedia:The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money|General Theory]] ([http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/keynes/general-theory/ text]) came out in 1936, was rapidly gaining adherents in Britain and the U.S. and was becoming the preferred explanation of the [[Great Depression|Depression]].

Hayek and Keynes had sparred in the early 1930s in the pages of the [[Wikipedia:Economic Journal|Economic Journal]], over Keynes's ''Treatise on Money''. As one of Keynes's leading professional adversaries, Hayek was well situated to provide a full refutation of the General Theory. But he never did. Part of the explanation for this no doubt lies with Keynes's personal charm and legendary rhetorical skill, along with Hayek's general reluctance to engage in direct confrontation with his colleagues. Hayek also considered Keynes an ally in the fight against wartime [[inflation]] and did not want to detract from that issue. Furthermore, as Hayek later explained, Keynes was constantly changing his theoretical framework, and Hayek saw no point in working out a detailed critique of the General Theory, if Keynes might change his mind again. Hayek thought a better course would be to produce a fuller elaboration of [[Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk|Böhm-Bawerk]]'s capital theory, and he began to devote his energies to this project. Unfortunately, ''The Pure Theory of Capital'' ([http://mises.org/books/puretheory.pdf pdf]) was not completed until 1941, and by then the Keynesian macro model had become firmly established.

The fortunes of the Austrian school have suffered a dramatic reversal with the next few years. First, the Austrian theory of capital, an integral part of the business-cycle theory, came under attack from the Italian-born Cambridge economist [[Wikipedia:Piero Sraffa|Piero Sraffa]] and the American [[Wikipedia:Frank Knight|Frank Knight]], while the cycle theory itself was forgotten amid the enthusiasm for the ''General Theory''. Second, beginning with Hayek's move to London and continuing until the early 1940s, the Austrian economists left Vienna, for personal and then for political reasons, so that a school ceased to exist there as such. Mises left Vienna in 1934 for Geneva and then New York, where he continued to work in isolation; Hayek remained at the L.S.E. until 1950, when he joined the [[Wikipedia:Committee on Social Thought|Committee on Social Thought]] at the [[Wikipedia:University of Chicago|University of Chicago]]. Other Austrians of Hayek's generation became prominent in the U.S.--[[Wikipedia:Gottfried von Haberler|Gottfried von Haberler]]<ref name="Haberler">[http://mises.org/journals/aen/aen20_1_1.asp "Between Mises and Keynes An Interview with Gottfried von Haberler (1900-1995)"], ''The Austrian Economics Newsletter'' Spring 2000 Volume 20, Number 1, referenced 2009-04-27.</ref> at Harvard, Fritz Machlup and Oskar Morgenstern at Princeton, Paul Rosenstein-Rodan at MIT--but their work no longer seemed to show distinct traces of the tradition founded by [[Wikipedia:Carl Menger|Carl Menger]].

At Chicago Hayek again found himself among a dazzling group: the economics department, led by Knight, [[Milton Friedman]], and later [[Wikipedia:George Stigler|George Stigler]], was one of the best anywhere, and [[Wikipedia:Aaron Director|Aaron Director]] at the law school soon set up the first law and economics program. But economic theory, in particular its style of reasoning, was rapidly changing; [[Wikipedia:Paul Samuelson|Paul Samuelson]]'s [[Wikipedia:Foundations of Economic Analysis|Foundations]] had appeared in 1947, establishing physics as the science for economics to imitate, and Friedman's 1953 [[Wikipedia:Essays in Positive Economics|essay]] on "positive economics" set a new standard for economic method. In addition, Hayek had ceased to work on economic theory, concentrating instead on psychology, philosophy, and politics, and Austrian economics entered a prolonged eclipse. Important work in the Austrian tradition was done during this period by [[Murray N. Rothbard|Rothbard]], [[Wikipedia:Israel Kirzner|Kirzner]], and [[Wikipedia:Ludwig Lachmann|Lachmann]]<ref name="Lewin_Lachmann">Peter Lewin. [http://mises.org/about/3236 "Ludwig Lachmann (1906-1990): Life and Work"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-29.</ref>, but at least publicly, the Austrian tradition lay mostly dormant.

When the 1974 Nobel Prize in economics went to Hayek, interest in the Austrian school was suddenly and unexpectedly revived. While this was not the first event of the so-called "Austrian revival," the memorable [[Wikipedia:Royalton, Vermont|South Royalton]] conference having taken place earlier the same year, the rediscovery of Hayek by the economics profession was nonetheless a decisive event in the renaissance of Austrian economics. Hayek's writings were taught to new generations, and Hayek himself appeared at the early [[Wikipedia:Institute for Humane Studies|Institute for Humane Studies]] conferences in the mid-1970s. He continued to write, producing [[Wikipedia:The Fatal Conceit|The Fatal Conceit]] in 1988, at the age of 89. Hayek died in 1992 in [[Wikipedia:Freiburg im Breisgau|Freiburg]], Germany, where he had lived since leaving [[Wikipedia:Chicago|Chicago]] in 1961.

There are several institutions founded in Hayek's name, including the [http://www.hayek-institut.at/ Hayek Institute] in Austria, the [http://www.hayek.de/ Friedrich A. von Hayek-Gesellschaft] in Germany and [http://www.hayek.sk/ F.A.Hayek Foundation] in Slovakia.

==Curriculum Vitae==

=====Academic Degrees=====
*Dr. jur. (Doctorate of Law), University of Vienna, Austria (1921)
*Dr. rer. pol (Doctorate of Political Science), University of Vienna, Austria (1923)
*D.Sc. Economics, University of London, UK (1944)

=====Academic Appointments=====
*Research Assistant, Department of Economics, New York University (1923-1924)
*Lecturer in Economics, University of Vienna, Austria (1929-1931),
*Visting Professor of Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, UK (1931-1932)
*Tooke Professor of Economic Science and Statistics, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, UK (1932-1950)
*Visiting Professor of Finance, University of Arkansas (1950)
*Professor of Social and Moral Science, University of Chicago (1950-1962)
*Lecturer on Political Economy, Harvard University (1952-1953)
*Professor in Economics, Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany (1962-1968)
*Visiting Flint Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Los Angeles (1968-1969)
*Visiting Professor of Economics, University of Salzburg, Austria (1969-1974)
*Honorary Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University (1977-1992)

=====Other Positions=====
*Sergeant-Cadet, Artillery Regiment, Austro-Hungarian Army, WWI (1917-1918)
*Legal Consultant, Austrian Government (1921-1926)
*Director, Austrian Institute for Trade Cycle Research (1927-1931)
*Fellow, British Academy (1944)
*President, Mont Pelerin Society (1947-1962)
*Corresponding Member, Austrian Academy of Sciences (1970)

=====Awards=====
*Honorary Senator, University of Vienna, Austria (1971)
*Honorary Fellow, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK (1972)
*'''Nobel Prize for Economic Science''' (1974)

=====Honorary Degrees=====
*Dr. jur. h.c. (Honorary Doctorate of Law), Rikkyo University, Japan (1964)
*Dr. jur. h.c. (Honorary Doctorate of Law), University of Salzburg, Austria (1974)

==References==
Please consult the [http://mises.org/about/3234 original text] by [[Wikipedia:Peter G. Klein|Peter G. Klein]] for more references; reprinted with generous permission from the [[Mises Institute]].
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/LtrLbrty/gryHRC3.html Bibliography] from Library of Economics and Liberty
* [http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1234&Itemid=259 Bibliography] from the Online Library of Liberty
* [http://homepage.newschool.edu/het//profiles/hayek.htm Biography and resources] on Hayek
* [http://mises.org/literature.aspx?action=author&ID=126 Online works] at the Mises Institute
* Wikipedia page on [[Wikipedia:Friedrich Hayek|Friedrich Hayek]]
* [http://mises.org/daily/3940 Hayek on Individualism] by Garet Garrett, 1949
* [http://mises.org/daily/4082 Hayek and the Nobel Prize], Libertarian Forum, 1974
* [http://mises.org/journals/rae/pdf/rae9_1_3.pdf Hayek, Business Cycles and Fractional Reserve Banking: Continuing the De-Homogenization Process] (pdf), by Walter Block and Kenneth M. Garschina, 1996
* [http://www.iea.org.uk/files/upld-publication43pdf Economics in One Lesson] (pdf) by Friedrich Hayek, the Reader's Digest abridged version; and the [http://books.google.com/books?id=fLovVMN6swkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=road+to+serfdom&source=bl&ots=oLRS0MZAhT&sig=Jj_nhaZxz2lsx8lMmgwxGENRjhE&hl=en&ei=Pvr6S8T3LKWUOOalhJUM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false Google Books] version
* [http://mises.org/daily/4524 Hayek's Road to Serfdom: Despotism Then and Now] by Thomas J. DiLorenzo, June 2010
[[Category:Biographies]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayek, Friedrich}}

Murray N. Rothbard

2010-11-12T03:28:21Z

Poptech:

<blockquote>''"On the free market, everyone earns according to his productive value in satisfying consumer desires. Under statist distribution, everyone earns in proportion to the amount he can plunder from the producers."''

Murray N. Rothbard, Power and Market</blockquote>

'''Murray N. Rothbard''', a scholar of extraordinary range, made major contributions to [[economics]], history, political philosophy, and legal theory. He developed and extended the Austrian economics of [[Ludwig von Mises]], in whose seminar he was a main participant for many years. He established himself as the principal Austrian theorist in the latter half of the twentieth century and applied Austrian analysis to historical topics such as the [[Great Depression]] of 1929 and the history of American banking.

Rothbard was no ivory-tower scholar, interested only in academic controversies. Quite the contrary, he combined Austrian economics with a fervent commitment to individual liberty. He developed a unique synthesis that combined themes from nineteenth-century American individualists such as [[Wikipedia:Lysander Spooner|Lysander Spooner]]<ref name="Rothbard_Spooner">Murray N. Rothbard. [http://mises.org/rothbardintros/spooner.asp "Introduction by Murray N. Rothbard"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-27.</ref> and [[Wikipedia:Benjamin Tucker|Benjamin Tucker]] with Austrian economics. A new political philosophy was the result, and Rothbard devoted his remarkable intellectual energy, over a period of some forty-five years, to developing and promoting his style of libertarianism. In doing so, he became a major American public intellectual.

==Life and career==
Murray Rothbard was born March 2, 1926, the son of David and Rae Rothbard. He was a brilliant student even as a young child; and his academic record at Columbia University, where he majored in mathematics and economics, was stellar. In the Columbia economics department, Rothbard did not receive any instruction in Austrian economics, and Mises was no more than a name to him. In a course on price theory given by [[Wikipedia:George Stigler|George Stigler]], however, he encountered arguments against such then popular measures as price and rent control. These arguments greatly appealed to him; and he wrote to the publisher of a pamphlet that Stigler and [[Milton Friedman]] had written on rent control.

===Economist===
The publisher in question was the [[Wikipedia:Foundation for Economic Education|Foundation for Economic Education]]; and visits to this group’s headquarters led Rothbard to a meeting with Ludwig von Mises. Rothbard was at once attracted to Mises’s laissez-faire economics, and when Mises’s masterwork [[Human Action]] appeared in 1949, it made a great impression on him. He was henceforward a praxeologist: here in Mises’s treatise was the consistent and rigorous defense of a free economy for which he had long been in search. He soon became an active member of Mises’s seminar at [[Wikipedia:New York University|New York University]]. Meanwhile, he continued his graduate studies at Columbia, working toward his Ph.D. His mentor was the eminent economic historian Joseph Dorfman, and Rothbard received the degree in 1956, with a thesis on The Panic of 1819 that remains a standard work ([http://mises.org/books/panic1819.pdf ''The Panic of 1819: Reactions and Policies''], pdf, is based on it).

As he deepened his understanding of laissez-faire economics, he confronted a dilemma. The arguments for market provision of goods and services applied across the board. If so, should not even protection and defense be offered on the market rather than supplied by a coercive monopoly? Rothbard realized that he would either have to abandon laissez-faire or embrace individualist anarchy. The choice, arrived at in the winter of 1949, was not difficult.

Rothbard soon attracted the attention of the [[Wikipedia:William Volker Fund|William Volker Fund]], the main group that supported classical liberal scholars in the 1950s and early 1960s. He began a project to write a textbook to explain Human Action in a fashion suitable for college students; a sample chapter he wrote on money and credit won Mises’s approval. As Rothbard continued his work, he transformed the project. The result, [[Man, Economy, and State]] (1962), was a central work of Austrian economics.

Rothbard was entirely in accord with Mises’s endeavor to deduce the whole of economics from the axiom of action, combined with a few subsidiary postulates. In much more detail than Mises had done, he carried out the deduction; and in the process, he contributed major theoretical innovations to [[praxeology]]. He showed that the socialist [[Economic calculation|calculation]] argument applies, not only to a governmentally controlled economy, but to a single private firm owning the entire economy as well. It too could not calculate. He also integrated [[Wikipedia:Frank Fetter|Frank Fetter]]’s<ref name="Herbener_Fetter">Jeffrey Herbener. [http://mises.org/about/3231 "Frank A. Fetter (1863-1949): A Forgotten Giant"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-27.</ref> theory of rent with Austrian capital theory; and argued that a [[monopoly]] price could not exist on the free market. Further, he offered a brilliant criticism of Keynesian economics, and he anticipated much of the "rational expectations" revolution for which [[Wikipedia:Robert Lucas, Jr.|Robert Lucas]] later won a Nobel Prize.

As Rothbard originally planned [[Man, Economy, and State]], it was to include a final part that presented a comprehensive classification and analysis of types of government intervention. The section also subjected to withering criticism the standard canons of justice in taxation; a brief but brilliant passage refuted in advance the anti-market arguments based on "luck" that were to prove so influential in the later work of [[Wikipedia:John Rawls|John Rawls]] and his many successors. Unfortunately, the part appeared in the original edition only in a severely truncated form. Its full publication came only in 1972, under the title ''Power and Market''. The complete version of [[Man, Economy, and State]], as Rothbard originally intended it to appear, is now available from the [[Mises Institute]].

This masterly work was far from exhausting Rothbard’s contributions to economic theory. In a major paper, "Toward a Reconstruction of Utility and Welfare Economics" (1956, [http://mises.org/rothbard/toward.pdf pdf]), he showed that if one takes seriously the fact that utility is ordinal and not cardinal, then the anti-market views of most modern welfare economists must be abandoned. Strict application of demonstrated preference allows one to say that the participants to a voluntary exchange expect ex ante to benefit. Further than this, the economist, so long as he remains value-free, cannot go. His main papers on economic theory are available in the posthumously published two-volume collection ''The Logic of Action'' (1997).

Rothbard devoted close attention to monetary theory. Here he emphasized the virtues of the classical [[gold standard]] and supported 100% reserve banking. This system, he held, would prevent the credit expansion that, according to the Austrian theory of the business cycle developed by Mises and [[Friedrich Hayek]], led to inevitable depression. He summarized his views for the general public in the often-reprinted pamphlet [[Wikipedia:What Has Government Done to Our Money?|What Has Government Done to Our Money?]] (1964; [http://mises.org/money.asp text], [http://www.mises.org/books/whathasgovernmentdone.pdf pdf]) and also wrote a textbook, [[Wikipedia:The Mystery of Banking|The Mystery of Banking]] (1983; [http://mises.org/mysteryofbanking/mysteryofbanking.pdf pdf]).

Rothbard showed the illumination that Austrian theory could bring to economic history in [[Wikipedia:America's Great Depression|America’s Great Depression]] (1963; [http://mises.org/books/agd.epub text], [http://mises.org/rothbard/agd.pdf pdf]). Far from being a proof of the failures of unregulated capitalism, the 1929 Depression illustrates rather the dangers of government interference with the economy. The economic collapse came as a necessary correction to the artificial boom induced by the [[Federal Reserve System]]’s monetary expansion during the 1920s. The attempts by the government to "cure" the downturn served only to make matters worse.

In making this argument, Rothbard became a pioneer in "Hoover revisionism". Contrary to the myths promoted by [[Wikipedia:Herbert Hoover|Hoover]] himself and his acolytes, Hoover was not an opponent of big government. Quite the contrary, the economic policies of the "Engineer in Politics" prefigured the [[Wikipedia:New Deal|New Deal]]. Rothbard’s view of Hoover is now widely accepted.

For Rothbard, banking policy was a key to American economic history. Like [[Wikipedia:Jules Michelet|Michelet]], he believed that history is a resurrection of the flesh; and his discussions are no dry-as-dust presentations of statistics. He was always concerned to identify the particular actors and interests behind historical decisions. The struggle between the competing [[Wikipedia:J. P. Morgan|Morgan]] and [[Wikipedia:Rockefeller family|Rockefeller]] banking circles figures again and again in his articles in this field, collected in his [[Wikipedia:A History of Money and Banking in the United States (book)|A History of Money and Banking in the United States]] (1999; [http://mises.org/books/historyofmoney.pdf pdf]).

===Other pursuits===
Rothbard ranged far beyond economics in his historical work. In a four-volume series, [[Wikipedia:Conceived in Liberty|Conceived in Liberty]] (1975-1979; volumes [http://www.mises.org/books/conceived1.pdf I.], [http://www.mises.org/books/conceived2.pdf II.], [http://www.mises.org/books/conceived3.pdf III.], [http://www.mises.org/books/conceived4.pdf IV.] in pdf), he presented a detailed account of American colonial history that stressed the libertarian antecedents of the [[Wikipedia:American Revolution|American Revolution]]. As usual, he challenged mainstream opinion. He had little use for [[Wikipedia:New England#New England and political thought|New England Puritanism]], and the virtues and military leadership of [[Wikipedia:George Washington|George Washington]] did not impress him. For Rothbard, the [[Wikipedia:Articles of Confederation|Articles of Confederation]] were not an overly weak arrangement that needed to be replaced by the more centrally focused [[Wikipedia:United States Constitution|Constitution]]. Quite the contrary, the Articles themselves allowed too much central control.

Although Rothbard usually found himself in close agreement with Mises, in one area he maintained that Mises was mistaken. Mises contended that ethical judgments were subjective: ultimate ends are not subject to rational assessment. Rothbard dissented, maintaining that an objective ethics could be founded on the requirements of human nature. His approach, based on his study of [[Wikipedia:Aristotelianism|Aristotelian]] and [[Wikipedia:Thomism|Thomist philosophy]], is presented in his major work [[Wikipedia:The Ethics of Liberty|The Ethics of Liberty]] (1982; [http://mises.org/rothbard/ethics/ethics.asp text]), his major study of political philosophy.

In his system of political ethics, [[Wikipedia:Self-ownership|self-ownership]] is the basic principle. Given a robust conception of self-ownership, a compulsory government monopoly of protective services is illegitimate; and Rothbard endeavors to refute the arguments to the contrary of supporters of a minimal state, [[Wikipedia:Robert Nozick|Robert Nozick]] chief among them. He contributes important clarifications to problems of libertarian legal theory, such as the nature of contracts and the appropriate standard of punishment. He explains why Mises’s instrumental argument for the market does not fully succeed, though he finds much of value in it; and he criticizes in careful detail Hayek’s view of the rule of law.

===Political views===
Rothbard modified the famous dictum of [[Wikipedia:Karl Marx|Marx]]: he wished both to understand and change the world. He endeavored to apply the ideas he had developed in his theoretical work to current politics and to bring libertarian views to the attention of the general public. One issue for him stood foremost. Like [[Wikipedia:Randolph Bourne|Randolph Bourne]], he maintained that "war is the health of the state"; he accordingly opposed an aggressive foreign policy.

His support for nonintervention in foreign policy led him to champion the [[Wikipedia:Old Right (United States)|Old Right]]. [[Wikipedia:John T. Flynn|John T. Flynn]]<ref name="Raimondo_Flynn">Justin Raimondo. [http://mises.org/story/2890 "Who is John T. Flynn?"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-27.</ref>, [[Wikipedia:Garet Garrett|Garet Garrett]]<ref name="Tucker_Garett">Jeffrey A. Tucker. [http://mises.org/story/2751 "Who Is Garet Garrett?"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-27.</ref> and other pre-World War II "isolationists" shared Rothbard’s belief in the close connection between state power and bellicose foreign policy.

The situation was quite otherwise with postwar conservatism. Although Rothbard was an early contributor to [[Wikipedia:William F. Buckley, Jr.|William Buckley]]’s [[Wikipedia:National Review|National Review]], he rejected the aggressive pursuit of the [[Wikipedia:Cold War]] advocated by Buckley and such members of his editorial staff as [[Wikipedia:James Burnham|James Burnham]] and [[Wikipedia:Frank S. Meyer|Frank S. Meyer]]. He broke with these self-styled conservatives and thereafter became one of their strongest opponents. For similar reasons, he condemned their [[Wikipedia:Neoconservatism|neoconservative]] successors. He followed a pragmatic policy of temporary alliances with whatever groups were, at a given time, opposed to militarism and foreign adventures. He set forward the basis for his political stance in a key essay, "Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty" ([http://mises.org/story/910 text]). This appeared in an important scholarly journal, [[Wikipedia:Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought|Left and Right]] ([http://mises.org/journals/left-right.asp main page]), which he established. This contained major essays on revisionist history and foreign policy, but unfortunately lasted only from 1965-1968.

In an effort to widen the influence of libertarian thought in the academic world, Rothbard founded the [[Wikipedia:Journal of Libertarian Studies|Journal of Libertarian Studies]] ([http://mises.org/periodical.aspx?Id=3 main page]) in 1977. The journal began auspiciously with a symposium on Robert Nozick’s [[Wikipedia:Anarchy, State, and Utopia|Anarchy, State, and Utopia]]. Down to the present, it has remained the most important journal hospitable to libertarian ideas.

Rothbard established in 1987 another journal, the Review of Austrian Economics ([http://mises.org/periodical.aspx?Id=5 main page]), to provide a scholarly venue for economists and others interested in Austrian theory. It too is the key journal in its area of specialty. It has continued to the present, after 1997 under the new name [[Wikipedia:Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics|Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics]] ([http://mises.org/periodical.aspx?Id=4 main page]).

In his comments on current events, Rothbard displayed an amazing ability to digest vast quantities of information on whatever subject interested him. Whether, e.g., the question was competing factions in [[Wikipedia:Afghanistan|Afghanistan]] or the sources of investment in oil in the [[Wikipedia:Middle East|Middle East]], he would always have the relevant data at his command. A sample of his columns, taken from the Rockwell Rothbard Report, is available in The Irrepressible Rothbard (2000; [http://mises.org/misesreview_detail.aspx?control=174 review]). Another journal that he founded, [[Wikipedia:The Libertarian Forum|The Libertarian Forum]] ([http://mises.org/journals/libertarianforum.asp main page]), provides his topical comments for the period 1969-1984. He presented a comprehensive popular account of libertarianism in [[Wikipedia:For A New Liberty|For A New Liberty]] (1973; [http://mises.org/rothbard/newlibertywhole.asp text], [http://mises.org/books/newliberty.pdf pdf]).

One last academic triumph remained for Rothbard, though sadly it appeared only after his death. In two massive volumes, [[Wikipedia:An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought|Economic Thought Before Adam Smith and Classical Economics]] (1995; volume [http://mises.org/books/histofthought1.pdf I.] and [http://mises.org/books/histofthought2.pdf II.] pdf), he presented a minutely detailed and erudite account of the history of economic theory. [[Adam Smith]]<ref name="Rothbard_Smith">Murray N. Rothbard. [http://mises.org/story/2012 "The Adam Smith Myth"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-27.</ref>, contrary to general belief, was not the founder of modern economics. His defense of a labor theory of value, modified and continued by his Ricardian successors, shunted economics onto the wrong path. The heroes of Rothbard’s study were the [[Wikipedia:School of Salamanca|Spanish scholastics]], who long before Smith had developed a subjective theory of value, and such later figures as [[Richard Cantillon|Cantillon]], [[Anne Robert Jacques Turgot|Turgot]], and [[Jean-Baptiste Say|Say]]. He dissects the heretical religious thought that prefigured Marxism and gives a mordant portrayal of the personality and thought of [[Wikipedia:John Stuart Mill|John Stuart Mill]].

Rothbard was closely associated with the [[Mises Institute|Ludwig von Mises Institute]] from its founding in 1982 by [[Wikipedia:Lew Rockwell|Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr]]. This organization became the main vehicle for the promotion of his ideas, and he served as its Academic Vice-President.

He taught at [[Wikipedia:Polytechnic Institute of New York University|Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute]] from the mid 1960s to the mid 1980s; from 1986 to his death on January 7, 1995, he was S.J. Hall Distinguished Professor of Economics at the [[Wikipedia:University of Nevada, Las Vegas|University of Nevada, Las Vegas]].

The "indispensable framework" for the life and work of this creative genius and polymath was his beloved wife, JoAnn Rothbard. His combination of scholarly achievement and engaged advocacy on behalf of freedom is unmatched.

[http://mises.org/about/3249 Original text] written by David Gordon, used with generous permission of the [[Mises Institute]].

==Curriculum Vitae==

=====Academic Degrees=====
*B.A. Mathematics, Columbia University (1945)
*M.A. Economics, Columbia University (1946)
*Ph.D. Economics, Columbia University (1956)

=====Academic Appointments=====
*Instructor, City College of New York (1948-1949)
*Professor of Economics, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (1963-1985)
*Vice President for Academic Affairs, Ludwig von Mises Institute (1982-1995)
*S.J. Hall Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (1986-1995)

=====Other Positions=====
*Senior Analyst, William Volker Fund (1951-1962)
*Editor, Left and Right (1965-1968)
*Founder, Center for Libertarian Studies (1976)
*Resident Scholar, The Cato Institute (1977)
*Founder, Journal of Libertarian Studies (1977)
*Editor, Journal of Libertarian Studies (1977-1995)
*Consultant, U.S. Commission on Gold (1981-1982)
*Founder, The Review of Austrian Economics (1987)
*Editor, The Review of Austrian Economics (1987-1995)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://mises.org/content/mnrbib.asp The complete Rohbard bibliography]
* [http://mises.org/literature.aspx?action=author&Id=299 Books and Essays by Rothbard]
* [http://mises.org/content/mnrasidof.asp A Scholar in Defense of Freedom], a bibliographic essay
* Tributes and Essays to Rothbard by [http://mises.org/content/blockonmnr.asp Walter Block], [http://mises.org/etexts/hhhonmnr.asp Hans Hoppe], [http://mises.org/web/2013 Lew Rockwell] and [http://mises.org/article.aspx?Id=1708 Jeffrey A. Tucker]
* Media: Rothbard's [http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=showname&ID=299 Audio Economics Course] and [http://mises.org/rothspeak/murray.asp Short Clips]
[[Category:Biographies]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rothbard, Murray N.}}

Friedrich Hayek

2010-11-12T03:22:58Z

Poptech: Curriculum Vitae Added

{{Stub}}

<blockquote>"A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers." 
F.A.Hayek, ''Law, Legislation, and Liberty''</blockquote>

Friedrich August von Hayek is one of the most eminent of the modern Austrian economists. Student of [[Wikipedia:Friedrich von Wieser|Friedrich von Wieser]], protégé and colleague of [[Ludwig von Mises]], and foremost representative of an outstanding generation of Austrian school theorists, Hayek was very successful in spreading Austrian ideas throughout the English-speaking world. "When the definitive history of economic analysis during the 1930s comes to be written," said [[Wikipedia:John Hicks|John Hicks]] in 1967, "a leading character in the drama (it was quite a drama) will be Professor Hayek. . . . It is hardly remembered that there was a time when the new theories of Hayek were the principal rival of the new theories of Keynes".<ref name="Hicks_Hayek">[[Wikipedia:John Hicks|Hicks, Sir John]]. 1967. ''Critical Essays in Monetary Theory.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press. p.203. Referenced via article source 2009-05-28.</ref> Unfortunately, Hayek's [[Austrian Business Cycle Theory|theory of the business cycle]] was eventually swept aside by the [[Wikipedia:Keynesian revolution|Keynesian revolution]]. His work was again recognized when Hayek received, along with the Swede [[Wikipedia:Gunnar Myrdal|Gunnar Myrdal]], the 1974 [[Wikipedia:Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science]]. Hayek was a prolific writer over nearly seven decades; his [http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Complete/Series/CWFAH.html Collected Works], currently being published by the [[Wikipedia:University of Chicago Press|University of Chicago Press]] and [[Wikipedia:Routledge|Routledge]], are projected at nineteen volumes.

==Life and Work==
Hayek's life spanned the twentieth century, and he made his home in some of the great intellectual communities of the period. Born Friedrich August von Hayek in 1899 to a distinguished family of Viennese intellectuals, Hayek attended the [[Wikipedia:University of Vienna|University of Vienna]], earning doctorates in 1921 and 1923. Hayek came to the University at age 19 just after [[Wikipedia:World War I|World War I]], when it was one of the three best places in the world to study economics (the others being [[Wikipedia:Stockholm School of Economics|Stockholm]] and [[Wikipedia:University of Cambridge|Cambridge]], England). Though he was enrolled as a law student, his primary interests were economics and psychology, the latter due to the influence of [[Wikipedia:Ernst Mach|Mach's]] theory of perception on Wieser and Wieser's colleague [[Wikipedia:Othmar Spann|Othmar Spann]], and the former stemming from the reformist ideal of [[Wikipedia:Fabian Society|Fabian socialism]] so typical of Hayek's generation.

Like many students of economics then and since, Hayek chose the subject not for its own sake, but because he wanted to improve social conditions--the poverty of postwar Vienna serving as a daily reminder of such a need. [[Socialism]] seemed to provide a solution. Then in 1922 Mises published his ''Die Gemeinwirtschaft'', later translated as [[Wikipedia:Socialism (book)|Socialism]]. "To none of us young men who read the book when it appeared," Hayek recalled, "the world was ever the same again". Socialism, an elaboration of Mises's pioneering article from two years before, argued that [[economic calculation]] requires a market for the means of production; without such a market there is no way to establish the values of those means and, consequently, no way to find their proper uses in production. Mises's devastating attack on central planning converted Hayek to laissez-faire, along with contemporaries like [[Wikipedia:Wilhelm Röpke|Wilhelm Röpke]]<ref name="Röpke">Shawn Ritenour. [http://mises.org/about/3241 "Wilhelm Röpke (1899-1966): Humane Economist"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-24.</ref>, [[Wikipedia:Lionel Robbins|Lionel Robbins]], and [[Wikipedia:Bertil Ohlin|Bertil Ohlin]].

It was around this time that Hayek began attending Mises's famed Privatseminar. Regular participants, who received no academic credit or other official recognition for their time, included Hayek, [[Wikipedia:Gottfried von Haberler|Gottfried von Haberler]]<ref name="Haberler">[http://mises.org/journals/aen/aen20_1_1.asp "Between Mises and Keynes An Interview with Gottfried von Haberler (1900-1995)"], ''The Austrian Economics Newsletter'' Spring 2000 Volume 20, Number 1, referenced 2009-04-27.</ref>, [[Wikipedia:Fritz Machlup|Fritz Machlup]]<ref name="Machlup">Mark Thornton. [http://mises.org/about/3237 "Biography of Fritz Machlup (1902-1983)"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-24.</ref>, [[Wikipedia:Oskar Morgenstern|Oskar Morgenstern]], [[Wikipedia:Paul Rosenstein-Rodan|Paul Rosenstein-Rodan]], Richard von Strigl<ref name="Strigl">Jörg Guido Hülsmann. [http://mises.org/about/3243 "Richard von Strigl (1891-1942)"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-04-27.</ref>, Karl Schlesinger, [[Wikipedia:Felix Kaufmann|Felix Kaufmann]], [[Wikipedia:Alfred Schütz|Alfred Schütz]]<ref name="Schutz">Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard. [http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae6_2_2.pdf "The Viennese Connection: Alfred Schutz and the Austrian School"](pdf), ''The Quarterly Journal Of Austrian Economics'' Vol.6, no.2, referenced 2009-04-27.</ref>, [[Wikipedia:Eric Voegelin|Eric Voegelin]], Karl Menger, Jr., and others not so famous. For several years the Privatseminar was the center of the economics community in Vienna, attracting such visitors as Robbins from London and Howard S. Ellis from Berkeley. Later, Hayek became the first of this group to leave Vienna; most of the others, along with Mises himself, were also gone by the start of World War II.

Mises had done earlier work on monetary and banking theory, successfully applying the Austrian [[marginal utility]] principle to the value of [[money]] and then sketching a theory of industrial fluctuations based on the doctrines of the [[British Currency School|British Currency School]] and the ideas of the Swedish economist [[Wikipedia:Knut Wicksell|Knut Wicksell]]. Hayek used this as a starting point for his own research on fluctuations, explaining the origin of the business cycle in terms of bank credit expansion and its transmission in terms of [[capital]] [[malinvestment]]s. His work in this area eventually earned him an invitation to lecture at the [[Wikipedia:London School of Economics|London School of Economics and Political Science]] and then to occupy its [[Wikipedia:Thomas Tooke|Tooke]] Chair in Economics and Statistics, which he accepted in 1931. There he found himself among a vibrant and exciting group: Robbins, [[Wikipedia:John Hicks|J. R. Hicks]], [[Wikipedia:Arnold Plant|Arnold Plant]], [[Wikipedia:Dennis Robertson|Dennis Robertson]], T. E. Gregory, [[Wikipedia:Abba P. Lerner|Abba Lerner]], [[Wikipedia:Kenneth E. Boulding|Kenneth Boulding]], and [[Wikipedia:G. L. S. Shackle|George Shackle]], to name only the most prominent. Hayek brought his (to them) unfamiliar views, and gradually, the "Austrian" theory of the business cycle became known and accepted. At the L.S.E. Hayek lectured on Mises's [[ABCT|business-cycle theory]], which he was refining and which, until [[Wikipedia:John Maynard Keynes|Keynes's]] [[Wikipedia:The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money|General Theory]] ([http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/keynes/general-theory/ text]) came out in 1936, was rapidly gaining adherents in Britain and the U.S. and was becoming the preferred explanation of the [[Great Depression|Depression]].

Hayek and Keynes had sparred in the early 1930s in the pages of the [[Wikipedia:Economic Journal|Economic Journal]], over Keynes's ''Treatise on Money''. As one of Keynes's leading professional adversaries, Hayek was well situated to provide a full refutation of the General Theory. But he never did. Part of the explanation for this no doubt lies with Keynes's personal charm and legendary rhetorical skill, along with Hayek's general reluctance to engage in direct confrontation with his colleagues. Hayek also considered Keynes an ally in the fight against wartime [[inflation]] and did not want to detract from that issue. Furthermore, as Hayek later explained, Keynes was constantly changing his theoretical framework, and Hayek saw no point in working out a detailed critique of the General Theory, if Keynes might change his mind again. Hayek thought a better course would be to produce a fuller elaboration of [[Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk|Böhm-Bawerk]]'s capital theory, and he began to devote his energies to this project. Unfortunately, ''The Pure Theory of Capital'' ([http://mises.org/books/puretheory.pdf pdf]) was not completed until 1941, and by then the Keynesian macro model had become firmly established.

The fortunes of the Austrian school have suffered a dramatic reversal with the next few years. First, the Austrian theory of capital, an integral part of the business-cycle theory, came under attack from the Italian-born Cambridge economist [[Wikipedia:Piero Sraffa|Piero Sraffa]] and the American [[Wikipedia:Frank Knight|Frank Knight]], while the cycle theory itself was forgotten amid the enthusiasm for the ''General Theory''. Second, beginning with Hayek's move to London and continuing until the early 1940s, the Austrian economists left Vienna, for personal and then for political reasons, so that a school ceased to exist there as such. Mises left Vienna in 1934 for Geneva and then New York, where he continued to work in isolation; Hayek remained at the L.S.E. until 1950, when he joined the [[Wikipedia:Committee on Social Thought|Committee on Social Thought]] at the [[Wikipedia:University of Chicago|University of Chicago]]. Other Austrians of Hayek's generation became prominent in the U.S.--[[Wikipedia:Gottfried von Haberler|Gottfried von Haberler]]<ref name="Haberler">[http://mises.org/journals/aen/aen20_1_1.asp "Between Mises and Keynes An Interview with Gottfried von Haberler (1900-1995)"], ''The Austrian Economics Newsletter'' Spring 2000 Volume 20, Number 1, referenced 2009-04-27.</ref> at Harvard, Fritz Machlup and Oskar Morgenstern at Princeton, Paul Rosenstein-Rodan at MIT--but their work no longer seemed to show distinct traces of the tradition founded by [[Wikipedia:Carl Menger|Carl Menger]].

At Chicago Hayek again found himself among a dazzling group: the economics department, led by Knight, [[Milton Friedman]], and later [[Wikipedia:George Stigler|George Stigler]], was one of the best anywhere, and [[Wikipedia:Aaron Director|Aaron Director]] at the law school soon set up the first law and economics program. But economic theory, in particular its style of reasoning, was rapidly changing; [[Wikipedia:Paul Samuelson|Paul Samuelson]]'s [[Wikipedia:Foundations of Economic Analysis|Foundations]] had appeared in 1947, establishing physics as the science for economics to imitate, and Friedman's 1953 [[Wikipedia:Essays in Positive Economics|essay]] on "positive economics" set a new standard for economic method. In addition, Hayek had ceased to work on economic theory, concentrating instead on psychology, philosophy, and politics, and Austrian economics entered a prolonged eclipse. Important work in the Austrian tradition was done during this period by [[Murray N. Rothbard|Rothbard]], [[Wikipedia:Israel Kirzner|Kirzner]], and [[Wikipedia:Ludwig Lachmann|Lachmann]]<ref name="Lewin_Lachmann">Peter Lewin. [http://mises.org/about/3236 "Ludwig Lachmann (1906-1990): Life and Work"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-29.</ref>, but at least publicly, the Austrian tradition lay mostly dormant.

When the 1974 Nobel Prize in economics went to Hayek, interest in the Austrian school was suddenly and unexpectedly revived. While this was not the first event of the so-called "Austrian revival," the memorable [[Wikipedia:Royalton, Vermont|South Royalton]] conference having taken place earlier the same year, the rediscovery of Hayek by the economics profession was nonetheless a decisive event in the renaissance of Austrian economics. Hayek's writings were taught to new generations, and Hayek himself appeared at the early [[Wikipedia:Institute for Humane Studies|Institute for Humane Studies]] conferences in the mid-1970s. He continued to write, producing [[Wikipedia:The Fatal Conceit|The Fatal Conceit]] in 1988, at the age of 89. Hayek died in 1992 in [[Wikipedia:Freiburg im Breisgau|Freiburg]], Germany, where he had lived since leaving [[Wikipedia:Chicago|Chicago]] in 1961.

There are several institutions founded in Hayek's name, including the [http://www.hayek-institut.at/ Hayek Institute] in Austria, the [http://www.hayek.de/ Friedrich A. von Hayek-Gesellschaft] in Germany and [http://www.hayek.sk/ F.A.Hayek Foundation] in Slovakia.

==Curriculum Vitae==

=====Academic Degrees=====
*Dr. jur. (Doctorate of Law), University of Vienna, Austria (1921)
*Dr. rer. pol (Doctorate of Political Science), University of Vienna, Austria (1923)
*D.Sc. Economics, University of London (1944)

=====Academic Appointments=====
*Research Assistant, Department of Economics, New York University (1923-1924)
*Lecturer in Economics, University of Vienna (1929-1931),
*Guest professor, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London (1931-1932)
*Tooke Professor of Economic Science and Statistics, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London (1932-1950)
*Visiting Professor of Finance, University of Arkansas (1950)
*Professor of Social and Moral Science, University of Chicago (1950-1962)
*Lecturer on Political Economy, Harvard University (1952-1953)
*Professor in Economics, Albert-Ludwigs University (1962-1968)
*Visiting Flint Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Los Angeles (1968-1969)
*Guest Professor, University of Salzburg (1969-1974)
*Honorary Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University (1977-1992)

=====Other Positions=====
*Sergeant-Cadet, Artillery Regiment, Austro-Hungarian Army, WWI (1917-1981)
*Legal Consultant, Austrian Government (1921-1926)
*Director, Austrian Institute for Trade Cycle Research (1927-1931)
*Fellow, British Academy (1944)
*President, Mont Pelerin Society (1947-1962)
*Corresponding Member, Austrian Academy of Sciences (1970)

=====Awards=====
*Honorary Senator, University of Vienna (1971)
*Honorary Fellow, London School of Economics (1972)
*'''Nobel Prize for Economic Science''' (1974)

=====Honorary Degrees=====
*Dr. jur. h.c. (Honorary Doctorate of Law), Rikkyo University, Japan (1964)
*Dr. jur. h.c. (Honorary Doctorate of Law), University of Salzburg, Austria (1974)

==References==
Please consult the [http://mises.org/about/3234 original text] by [[Wikipedia:Peter G. Klein|Peter G. Klein]] for more references; reprinted with generous permission from the [[Mises Institute]].
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/LtrLbrty/gryHRC3.html Bibliography] from Library of Economics and Liberty
* [http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1234&Itemid=259 Bibliography] from the Online Library of Liberty
* [http://homepage.newschool.edu/het//profiles/hayek.htm Biography and resources] on Hayek
* [http://mises.org/literature.aspx?action=author&ID=126 Online works] at the Mises Institute
* Wikipedia page on [[Wikipedia:Friedrich Hayek|Friedrich Hayek]]
* [http://mises.org/daily/3940 Hayek on Individualism] by Garet Garrett, 1949
* [http://mises.org/daily/4082 Hayek and the Nobel Prize], Libertarian Forum, 1974
* [http://mises.org/journals/rae/pdf/rae9_1_3.pdf Hayek, Business Cycles and Fractional Reserve Banking: Continuing the De-Homogenization Process] (pdf), by Walter Block and Kenneth M. Garschina, 1996
* [http://www.iea.org.uk/files/upld-publication43pdf Economics in One Lesson] (pdf) by Friedrich Hayek, the Reader's Digest abridged version; and the [http://books.google.com/books?id=fLovVMN6swkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=road+to+serfdom&source=bl&ots=oLRS0MZAhT&sig=Jj_nhaZxz2lsx8lMmgwxGENRjhE&hl=en&ei=Pvr6S8T3LKWUOOalhJUM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false Google Books] version
* [http://mises.org/daily/4524 Hayek's Road to Serfdom: Despotism Then and Now] by Thomas J. DiLorenzo, June 2010
[[Category:Biographies]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayek, Friedrich}}

Ludwig von Mises

2010-11-12T02:53:04Z

Poptech: Curriculum Vitae Added

<blockquote>"Economics deals with society's fundamental problems; it concerns everyone and belongs to all. It is the main and proper study of every citizen." 
Ludwig von Mises, [[Human Action]]</blockquote>

One of the most notable economists and social philosophers of the twentieth century, Ludwig von Mises, in the course of a long and highly productive life, developed an integrated, deductive science of [[economics]] based on the fundamental axiom that individual human beings [[Action|act]] purposively to achieve desired goals. Even though his economic analysis itself was "value-free" — in the sense of being irrelevant to values held by economists — Mises concluded that the only viable economic policy for the human race was a policy of unrestricted laissez-faire, of free markets and the unhampered exercise of the right of private property, with government strictly limited to the defense of person and property within its territorial area.

For Mises was able to demonstrate (a) that the expansion of free markets, the division of labor, and private capital investment is the only possible path to the prosperity and flourishing of the human race; (b) that socialism would be disastrous for a modern economy because the absence of private ownership of land and capital goods prevents any sort of rational pricing, or estimate of costs, and (c) that government [[intervention]], in addition to hampering and crippling the market, would prove counter-productive and cumulative, leading inevitably to socialism unless the entire tissue of interventions was repealed.

Holding these views, and hewing to truth indomitably in the face of a century increasingly devoted to statism and collectivism, Mises became famous for his "[[Wiktionary:intransigence|intransigence]]" in insisting on a non-inflationary [[gold standard]] and on laissez-faire.

Effectively barred from any paid university post in Austria and later in the United States, Mises pursued his course gallantly. As the chief economic adviser to the Austrian government in the 1920s, Mises was single-handedly able to slow down Austrian inflation; and he developed his own "private seminar" which attracted the outstanding young economists, social scientists, and philosophers throughout Europe. As the founder of the "neo-Austrian School" of economics, Mises’s [[Austrian Business Cycle Theory|business cycle theory]], which blamed [[inflation]] and depressions on inflationary bank credit encouraged by Central Banks, was adopted by most younger economists in England in the early 1930s as the best explanation of the [[Great Depression]].

Having fled the Nazis to the United States, Mises did some of his most important work here. In over two decades of teaching, he inspired an emerging Austrian School in the United States. The year after Mises died in 1973, his most distinguished follower, [[Friedrich Hayek|F.A. Hayek]], was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for his work in elaborating Mises’s business cycle theory during the later 1920s and 1930s.

==Early life==
Mises was born on Sept 29, 1881, in the city of Lemberg (now [[Wikipedia:Lviv|Lvov]]) in [[Wikipedia:Galicia (Central Europe)|Galicia]], where his father, a Viennese construction engineer working for the Austrian railroads, was then stationed. Both Mises’s father and mother came from prominent Viennese families; his mother’s uncle, Dr Joachim Landau, served as deputy from the Liberal Party in the Austrian Parliament.

Entering the University of Vienna at the turn of the century as a leftist interventionist, the young Mises discovered ''[[Wikipedia:Principles of Economics|Principles of Economics]]'' ([http://www.mises.org/etexts/menger/principles.asp text], [http://mises.org/etexts/menger/Mengerprinciples.pdf pdf]) by [[Carl Menger]], the founding work of the [[Austrian Economics|Austrian School of economics]], and was quickly converted to the Austrian emphasis on individual action rather than unrealistic mechanistic equations as the unit of economics analysis, and to the importance of a free-market economy.

Mises became a prominent post-doctoral student in the famous University of Vienna seminar of the great Austrian economist [[Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk]] (among whose many accomplishments was the devastating refutation of the Marxian labor theory of value).

The [[Mises Institute]]'s coat of arms (see [http://mises.org/images/misescrest-large.jpg full view]) is that of the Mises family, awarded in 1881 when Ludwig von Mises's great-grandfather Mayer Rachmiel Mises was ennobled by the [[Wikipedia:Franz Joseph I of Austria|Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria]]. In the upper right-hand quadrant is the staff of [[Wikipedia:Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]], god of commerce and communication (the Mises family was successful in both; they were merchants and bankers). In the lower left-hand quadrant is a representation of the Ten Commandments. Mayer Rachmiel, as well as his father, presided over various Jewish cultural organizations in Lemberg, the city where Ludwig was born. The red banner displays the Rose of Sharon, which in the litany is one of the names given to the Blessed Mother, as well as the Stars of the Royal House of David, a symbol of the Jewish people. Ludwig's lifelong motto was from Virgil: ''tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito'' ("do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it").

==Professional life==
During this period, in his first great work, [[Wikipedia:The Theory of Money and Credit|The Theory of Money and Credit]](1912) ([http://www.mises.org/books/Theory_Money_Credit/Contents.aspx text], [http://www.mises.org/books/tmc.pdf pdf]) Mises performed what had been deemed an impossible task: to integrate the theory of money into the general theory of marginal utility and price (what would now be called integrating "macroeconomics" into "microeconomics"). Since Bohm-Bawerk and his other Austrian colleagues did not accept Mises’s integration and remained without a monetary theory, he was therefore obliged to strike out on his own and found a "neo-Austrian" school.

In his monetary theory, Mises revived the long forgotten [[British Currency School]] principle, prominent until the 1850s, that society does not at all benefit from any increase in the money supply, that increased money and bank credit only causes [[inflation]] and [[business cycle]]s, and that therefore government policy should maintain the equivalent of a 100 percent [[gold standard]].

Mises added to this insight the elements of his business cycle theory: that credit expansion by the [[bank]]s, in addition to causing inflation, makes depressions inevitable by causing "malinvestment", i.e. by inducing businessmen to overinvest in "higher orders" of [[capital]] goods (machine tools, construction, etc.) and to underinvest in consumer [[good]]s.

The problem is that inflationary bank credit, when loaned to business, masquerades as pseudo-savings, and makes businessmen believe that there are more savings available to invest in capital goods production than consumers are genuinely willing to save. Hence, an inflationary boom requires a recession which becomes a painful but necessary process by which the market liquidates unsound investments and reestablishes the investment and production structure that best satisfies consumer preferences and demands.

Mises, and his follower [[Friedrich Hayek|Hayek]], developed this [[Austrian Business Cycle Theory|cycle theory]] during the 192Os, on the basis of which Mises was able to warn an unheeding world that the widely trumpeted "[[Wikipedia:Roaring Twenties|New Era]]" of permanent prosperity of the 192Os was a sham, and that its inevitable result would be bank panic and depression. When Hayek was invited to teach at the [[Wikipedia:London School of Economics|London School of Economics]] in 1931 by an influential former student at Mises’s private seminar, [[Wikipedia:Lionel Robbins|Lionel Robbins]], Hayek was able to convert most of the younger English economists to this perspective. On a collision course with [[Wikipedia:John Maynard Keynes|John Maynard Keynes]] and his disciples at [[Wikipedia:University of Cambridge|Cambridge]], Hayek demolished Keynes’s Treatise on Money (1930), but lost the battle and most of his followers to the tidal wave of the [[Wikipedia:Keynesian Revolution|Keynesian Revolution]] that swept the economic world after the publication of Keynes’s [[Wikipedia:The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money|General Theory]] in 1936.

The policy prescriptions for business cycles of Mises-Hayek and of Keynes were diametrically opposed. During a boom period, Mises counseled the immediate end of all bank credit and monetary expansion; and, during a recession, he advised strict laissez-faire, allowing the readjustment forces of the recession to work themselves out as rapidly as possible.

Not only that: for Mises the worst form of intervention would be to prop up [[price]]s or wage rates, causing unemployment, to increase the money supply, or to boost government spending in order to stimulate consumption. For Mises, the recession was a problem of under-saving, and over-consumption, and it was therefore important to encourage savings and thrift rather than the opposite, to cut government spending rather than increase it. It is clear that, from 1936 on Mises was totally in opposition to the worldwide fashion in macroeconomic policy.

[[Socialism]]-communism had triumphed in Russia and in much of Europe during and after World War I, and Mises was moved to publish his famous article, "[[Economic Calculation]] in the Socialist Commonwealth" (1920, [http://mises.org/econcalc.asp text]), in which he demonstrated that it would be impossible for a socialist planning board to plan a modern economic system; furthermore, no attempt at artificial "markets" would work, since a genuine pricing and costing system requires an exchange of property titles, and therefore private property in the means of production.

Mises developed the article into his book [[Wikipedia:Socialism (book)|Socialism]] (1922, [http://mises.org/books/socialism/contents.aspx text]), a comprehensive philosophical and sociological, as well as economic critique which still stands as the most thorough and devastating demolition of socialism ever written. Mises’s Socialism converted many prominent economists and social philosophers out of socialism, including Hayek, the German [[Wikipedia:Wilhelm Röpke|Wilhelm Röpke]]<ref name="Röpke">Shawn Ritenour. [http://mises.org/about/3241 "Wilhelm Röpke (1899-1966): Humane Economist"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-24.</ref>, and the Englishman [[Wikipedia:Lionel Robbins|Lionel Robbins]].

In the United States, the publication of the English translation of Socialism in 1936 attracted the admiration of the prominent economic journalist [[Henry Hazlitt]], who reviewed it in the New York Times, and converted one of America’s most prominent and learned Communist fellow-travelers of the period, [[Wikipedia:J.B. Matthews|J.B. Matthews]], to a Misesian position and to opposition to all forms of socialism.

Socialists throughout Europe and the United States worried about the problem of [[economic calculation]] under socialism for about fifteen years, finally pronouncing the problem solved with the promulgation of the "market socialism" model of the Polish economist [[Wikipedia:Oskar R. Lange|Oskar Lange]] in 1936. Lange returned to Poland after World War II to help plan Polish Communism. The collapse of socialist planning, in Poland and the other Communist countries in 1989, left Establishment economists across the ideological spectrum, all of whom bought the Lange "solution", mightily embarrassed.

Some prominent socialists, such as [[Wikipedia:Robert Heilbroner|Robert Heilbroner]], have had the grace to admit publicly that "Mises was right" all along (the phrase "Mises was Right" was the title of a panel at the annual 1990 meeting of the Southern Economic Association at New Orleans).<ref>[http://www.reason.com/news/show/32874.html "The Man Who Told the Truth"], ''[[Wikipedia:Reason (magazine)|Reason]]'', 1990. Retrieved on April 4 2009.</ref>

If socialism was an economic catastrophe, government intervention could not work, and would tend to lead inevitably to socialism. Mises elaborated these insights in his Critique of Interventionism (1929, [http://mises.org/etexts/mises/critique/contents.asp text]), and set forth his political philosophy of laissez-faire liberalism in his [[Wikipedia:Liberalism (book)|Liberalism]] (1927; [http://mises.org/liberal.asp text], [http://mises.org/books/liberalism.pdf pdf]).

In adition to setting himself against all the political trends of the twentieth century, Mises combated with equal fervor and eloquence what he considered the disastrous dominant philosophical and methodological trends, in economics and other disciplines. These included positivism, relativism, historicism, polylogism” the idea that each race and gender has its own "logic" and therefore cannot communicate with other groups), and all forms of irrationalism and denial of objective truth. Mises also developed what he considered to be the proper methodology of economic theory--logical deduction from evident axioms, which he labeled "praxeology", and he leveled trenchant critiques of the growing tendency in economics and other disciplines to replace praxeology and historical understanding by unrealistic mathematical models and statistical manipulations.

==In the United States==
Emigrating to the United States in 1940, Mises’s first two books in English were important and influential. His [[Wikipedia:Omnipotent Government|Omnipotent Government]] (1944; [http://www.mises.org/etexts/mises/og.asp text]) was the first book to challenge the then-standard Marxian view that fascism and Nazism were imposed upon their nations by big business and the "capitalist class". His [[Wikipedia:Bureaucracy (book)|Bureaucracy]] (1944; [http://www.mises.org/etexts/mises/bureaucracy.asp text]) was a still unsurpassed analysis of why government operation must necessarily be “bureaucratic” and suffer from all the ills of bureaucracy.

Mises’s most monumental achievement was his [[Human Action]] (1949), the first comprehensive treatise on economic theory written since the first World War. Here Mises took up the challenge of his own methodology and research program and elaborated an integrated and massive structure of economic theory on his own deductive, “praxeological” principles. Published in an era when economists and governments generally were totally dedicated to statism and Keynesian inflation, Human Action was unread by the economics profession. Finally, in 1957 Mises published his last major work, ''Theory and History'' ([http://mises.org/th.asp text], [http://mises.org/Books/theoryhistory.pdf pdf]), which, in addition to refutations of Marxism and historicism, set forth the basic differences and functions of theory and of history in economics as well as all the various disciplines of human action.

In the United States as in his native Austria, Mises could not find a paid post in academia. [[Wikipedia:New York University|New York University]], where he taught from until 1945 until his retirement at the age of 88 in 1969, would only designate him as Visiting Professor, and his salary had to be paid by the conservative-libertarian [[Wikipedia:William Volker Fund|William Volker Fund]] until 1962, and after that by a consortium of free-market foundations and businessmen. Despite the unfavorable climate, Mises inspired a growing group of students and admirers, cheerfully encouraged their scholarship, and himself continued his remarkable productivity.

Mises was also sustained by and worked together with free-market and libertarian admirers. From its origin in 1946 until his death, Mises was a part-time staff member of the [[Wikipedia:Foundation for Economic Education|Foundation for Economic Education]] at Irvington-on-Hudson, New York; and he was in the 1950s an economic advisor to the [[Wikipedia:National Association of Manufacturers|National Association of Manufacturers]] (NAM) working with their laissez-faire wing which finally lost out to the tide of "enlightened" statism.

As a free trader and a classical liberal in the tradition of [[Wikipedia:Richard Cobden|Cobden]], [[Wikipedia:John Bright|Bright]], and [[Wikipedia:Herbert Spencer|Spencer]], Mises was a libertarian who championed reason and individual liberty in personal as well as economic matters. As a rationalist and an opponent of statism in all its forms, Mises would never call himself a “conservative,” but rather a liberal in the nineteenth-century sense.

Indeed, Mises was politically a laissez-faire radical, who denounced tariffs, immigration restrictions, or governmental attempts to enforce morality. On the other hand, Mises was a staunch cultural and sociological conservative, who attacked egalitarianism, strongly denounced political feminism as a facet of socialism. In contrast to many conservative critics of capitalism, Mises held that personal morality and the nuclear family were both essential to, and fostered by, a system of free-market capitalism.

Mises’s influence was remarkable, considering the unpopularity of his epistemological and political views. His students of the 1920s, even those who later became Keynesians, were permanently stamped by a visible Misesian influence. These students included, in addition to Hayek and Robbins, [[Wikipedia:Fritz Machlup|Fritz Machlup]]<ref name="Machlup">Mark Thornton. [http://mises.org/about/3237 "Biography of Fritz Machlup (1902-1983)"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-24.</ref> [[Wikipedia:Gottfried von Haberler|Gottfried von Haberler]]<ref name="Haberler">[http://mises.org/journals/aen/aen20_1_1.asp "Between Mises and Keynes An Interview with Gottfried von Haberler (1900-1995)"], ''The Austrian Economics Newsletter'' Spring 2000 Volume 20, Number 1, referenced 2009-04-27.</ref>, [[Wikipedia:Oskar Morgenstern|Oskar Morgenstern]], [[Wikipedia:Alfred Schutz|Alfred Schutz]]<ref name="Schutz">Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard. [http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae6_2_2.pdf "The Viennese Connection: Alfred Schutz and the Austrian School"](pdf), ''The Quarterly Journal Of Austrian Economics'' Vol.6, no.2, referenced 2009-05-24.</ref>, [[Wikipedia:Hugh Gaitskell|Hugh Gaitskell]], Howard S. Ellis, John Van Sickle, and [[Wikipedia:Erich Voegelin|Erich Voegelin]].

In France, [[Wikipedia:Charles de Gaulle|General DeGaulle’s]] major economic and monetary adviser, who helped swing France away from socialism, was [[Wikipedia:Jacques Rueff|Jacques Rueff]], an old-friend and admirer of Mises. And part of post-World War II Italy’s shift away from socialism was due to its President [[Wikipedia:Luigi Einaudi|Luigi Einaudi]], a distinguished economist and long-time friend and free-market colleague of Mises. In the United States, Mises was scarcely as influential. Under less promising academic conditions, his students and admirers included Henry Hazlitt, [[Wikipedia:Lawrence Fertig|Lawrence Fertig]], Percy Greaves, Jr., Bettina Bien Graeves, [[Wikipedia:Hans F. Sennholz|Hans F. Sennholz]], William H. Peterson<ref name="Peterson">[http://mises.org/fellow.aspx?Id=24 "William H. Peterson"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-25.</ref>, Louis M. Spadaro, [[Wikipedia:Israel Kirzner|Israel M. Kirzner]], [[Wikipedia:Ralph Raico|Ralph Raico]], [[Wikipedia:George Reisman|George Reisman]], and [[Murray N. Rothbard]]. But Mises was able to build a remarkably strong and loyal following among businessmen and other non-academics; his massive and complex Human Action has sold extraordinarily well ever since the year of its original publication.

Since Mises’s death in New York City on October 10, 1973 at the age of 92, Misesian doctrine and influence has experienced a renaissance. The following year saw not only Hayek’s Nobel Prize for Misesian cycle theory, but also the first of many Austrian School conferences in the United States. Books by Mises have been reprinted and collections of his articles translated and published. Courses and programs in Austrian Economics have been taught and established throughout the country.

Taking the lead in this revival of Mises and in the study and expansion of Misesian doctrine has been the [[Mises Institute|Ludwig von Mises Institute]], founded by [[Wikipedia:Lew Rockwell|Llewellyn Rockwell, Jr.]] in 1982 and headquartered in [[Wikipedia:Auburn, Alabama|Auburn, Alabama]]. The Mises Institute publishes scholarly journals and books, and offers courses in elementary, intermediate and advanced Austrian economics, which attract increasing numbers of students and professors. Undoubtedly, the collapse of socialism and the increased attractiveness of the free market have greatly contributed to this upsurge of popularity.

[http://mises.org/about/3248 Original text] written by [[Murray N. Rothbard]], used with generous permission of the [[Mises Institute]].

==Curriculum Vitae==

=====Academic Degrees=====
*Dr. Jur. (Doctorate of Law), University of Vienna, Austria (1906)

=====Academic Appointments=====
*Lecturer of Economics, Vienna Business Academy, Austria (1906-1912)
*Lecturer of Economics, University of Vienna, Austria (1913-1914)
*Associate Professor of Economics, University of Vienna, Austria (1919-1934)
*Professor of International Economic Relations, Graduate Institute of International Studies, Switzerland (1934-1940)
*Visiting Professor of Economics, National University of Mexico (1942)
*Visiting Professor of Economics, Graduate School of Business Administration, New York University (1945-1969)
*Visiting Professor of Economics, Plano University (1965-1971)

=====Other Positions=====
*Economic Councillor, Austrian Chamber of Commerce (1909-1934)
*Captain, Artillery Regiment, Austro-Hungarian Army, WWI (1914-1918)
*Director, Austrian Restitution-and-Settlements Office (1918-1920)
*Member, Association for Social Policy (1919-1933)
*Founder, Austrian Institute for Business Cycle Research (1927)
*Advisor, Foundation for Economic Education (1946-1973)
*Member, Economic Principles Commission, National Association of Manufacturers (1946)
*Co-Founder, Mont Pelerin Society (1947)
*Advisor, National Association of Manufacturers (1954-1955)

=====Awards=====
*Distinguished Service Award, Fellowship of Former Overseas Rotarians (1957)
*Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (1962)
*Distinguished Fellow Award, American Economics Association (1969)

=====Honorary Degrees=====
*Hon. LL.D., Grove City College (1957)
*Hon. LL.D., New York University (1963)
*Dr. rer. pol. h.c. (Honorary Doctorate of Political Science), University of Freiburg, Germany (1964)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://mises.org/literature.aspx?action=author&Id=280 Books and Essays by Mises] (complete texts)
* [http://mises.org/misesbib.asp The complete Mises bibliography]
* [http://mises.org/quotes.aspx The Mises Quotation Machine]
* [http://mises.org/books/lastknight.pdf Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism] (pdf) by Jörg Guido Hülsmann
* [http://mises.org/misestributes/misesjgh.asp Who was Mises?] by Jörg Guido Hülsmann
* [http://mises.org/misestributes/misestributes.asp Tributes to Mises] by Economists, Journalists, and Others
* [http://mises.org/lostpapers.asp The Story of the Lost Papers]
* [[Wikipedia:Ludwig von Mises|Ludwig von Mises]] on Wikipedia
* [http://mises.org/daily/4715 The Enduring Power of Bureaucracy] by Marcia Sielaff, September 2010
[[Category:Biographies]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mises, Ludwig von}}

Murray N. Rothbard

2010-11-12T02:39:51Z

Poptech: Curriculum Vitae Added

<blockquote>''"On the free market, everyone earns according to his productive value in satisfying consumer desires. Under statist distribution, everyone earns in proportion to the amount he can plunder from the producers."''

Murray N. Rothbard, Power and Market</blockquote>

'''Murray N. Rothbard''', a scholar of extraordinary range, made major contributions to [[economics]], history, political philosophy, and legal theory. He developed and extended the Austrian economics of [[Ludwig von Mises]], in whose seminar he was a main participant for many years. He established himself as the principal Austrian theorist in the latter half of the twentieth century and applied Austrian analysis to historical topics such as the [[Great Depression]] of 1929 and the history of American banking.

Rothbard was no ivory-tower scholar, interested only in academic controversies. Quite the contrary, he combined Austrian economics with a fervent commitment to individual liberty. He developed a unique synthesis that combined themes from nineteenth-century American individualists such as [[Wikipedia:Lysander Spooner|Lysander Spooner]]<ref name="Rothbard_Spooner">Murray N. Rothbard. [http://mises.org/rothbardintros/spooner.asp "Introduction by Murray N. Rothbard"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-27.</ref> and [[Wikipedia:Benjamin Tucker|Benjamin Tucker]] with Austrian economics. A new political philosophy was the result, and Rothbard devoted his remarkable intellectual energy, over a period of some forty-five years, to developing and promoting his style of libertarianism. In doing so, he became a major American public intellectual.

==Life and career==
Murray Rothbard was born March 2, 1926, the son of David and Rae Rothbard. He was a brilliant student even as a young child; and his academic record at Columbia University, where he majored in mathematics and economics, was stellar. In the Columbia economics department, Rothbard did not receive any instruction in Austrian economics, and Mises was no more than a name to him. In a course on price theory given by [[Wikipedia:George Stigler|George Stigler]], however, he encountered arguments against such then popular measures as price and rent control. These arguments greatly appealed to him; and he wrote to the publisher of a pamphlet that Stigler and [[Milton Friedman]] had written on rent control.

===Economist===
The publisher in question was the [[Wikipedia:Foundation for Economic Education|Foundation for Economic Education]]; and visits to this group’s headquarters led Rothbard to a meeting with Ludwig von Mises. Rothbard was at once attracted to Mises’s laissez-faire economics, and when Mises’s masterwork [[Human Action]] appeared in 1949, it made a great impression on him. He was henceforward a praxeologist: here in Mises’s treatise was the consistent and rigorous defense of a free economy for which he had long been in search. He soon became an active member of Mises’s seminar at [[Wikipedia:New York University|New York University]]. Meanwhile, he continued his graduate studies at Columbia, working toward his Ph.D. His mentor was the eminent economic historian Joseph Dorfman, and Rothbard received the degree in 1956, with a thesis on The Panic of 1819 that remains a standard work ([http://mises.org/books/panic1819.pdf ''The Panic of 1819: Reactions and Policies''], pdf, is based on it).

As he deepened his understanding of laissez-faire economics, he confronted a dilemma. The arguments for market provision of goods and services applied across the board. If so, should not even protection and defense be offered on the market rather than supplied by a coercive monopoly? Rothbard realized that he would either have to abandon laissez-faire or embrace individualist anarchy. The choice, arrived at in the winter of 1949, was not difficult.

Rothbard soon attracted the attention of the [[Wikipedia:William Volker Fund|William Volker Fund]], the main group that supported classical liberal scholars in the 1950s and early 1960s. He began a project to write a textbook to explain Human Action in a fashion suitable for college students; a sample chapter he wrote on money and credit won Mises’s approval. As Rothbard continued his work, he transformed the project. The result, [[Man, Economy, and State]] (1962), was a central work of Austrian economics.

Rothbard was entirely in accord with Mises’s endeavor to deduce the whole of economics from the axiom of action, combined with a few subsidiary postulates. In much more detail than Mises had done, he carried out the deduction; and in the process, he contributed major theoretical innovations to [[praxeology]]. He showed that the socialist [[Economic calculation|calculation]] argument applies, not only to a governmentally controlled economy, but to a single private firm owning the entire economy as well. It too could not calculate. He also integrated [[Wikipedia:Frank Fetter|Frank Fetter]]’s<ref name="Herbener_Fetter">Jeffrey Herbener. [http://mises.org/about/3231 "Frank A. Fetter (1863-1949): A Forgotten Giant"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-27.</ref> theory of rent with Austrian capital theory; and argued that a [[monopoly]] price could not exist on the free market. Further, he offered a brilliant criticism of Keynesian economics, and he anticipated much of the "rational expectations" revolution for which [[Wikipedia:Robert Lucas, Jr.|Robert Lucas]] later won a Nobel Prize.

As Rothbard originally planned [[Man, Economy, and State]], it was to include a final part that presented a comprehensive classification and analysis of types of government intervention. The section also subjected to withering criticism the standard canons of justice in taxation; a brief but brilliant passage refuted in advance the anti-market arguments based on "luck" that were to prove so influential in the later work of [[Wikipedia:John Rawls|John Rawls]] and his many successors. Unfortunately, the part appeared in the original edition only in a severely truncated form. Its full publication came only in 1972, under the title ''Power and Market''. The complete version of [[Man, Economy, and State]], as Rothbard originally intended it to appear, is now available from the [[Mises Institute]].

This masterly work was far from exhausting Rothbard’s contributions to economic theory. In a major paper, "Toward a Reconstruction of Utility and Welfare Economics" (1956, [http://mises.org/rothbard/toward.pdf pdf]), he showed that if one takes seriously the fact that utility is ordinal and not cardinal, then the anti-market views of most modern welfare economists must be abandoned. Strict application of demonstrated preference allows one to say that the participants to a voluntary exchange expect ex ante to benefit. Further than this, the economist, so long as he remains value-free, cannot go. His main papers on economic theory are available in the posthumously published two-volume collection ''The Logic of Action'' (1997).

Rothbard devoted close attention to monetary theory. Here he emphasized the virtues of the classical [[gold standard]] and supported 100% reserve banking. This system, he held, would prevent the credit expansion that, according to the Austrian theory of the business cycle developed by Mises and [[Friedrich Hayek]], led to inevitable depression. He summarized his views for the general public in the often-reprinted pamphlet [[Wikipedia:What Has Government Done to Our Money?|What Has Government Done to Our Money?]] (1964; [http://mises.org/money.asp text], [http://www.mises.org/books/whathasgovernmentdone.pdf pdf]) and also wrote a textbook, [[Wikipedia:The Mystery of Banking|The Mystery of Banking]] (1983; [http://mises.org/mysteryofbanking/mysteryofbanking.pdf pdf]).

Rothbard showed the illumination that Austrian theory could bring to economic history in [[Wikipedia:America's Great Depression|America’s Great Depression]] (1963; [http://mises.org/books/agd.epub text], [http://mises.org/rothbard/agd.pdf pdf]). Far from being a proof of the failures of unregulated capitalism, the 1929 Depression illustrates rather the dangers of government interference with the economy. The economic collapse came as a necessary correction to the artificial boom induced by the [[Federal Reserve System]]’s monetary expansion during the 1920s. The attempts by the government to "cure" the downturn served only to make matters worse.

In making this argument, Rothbard became a pioneer in "Hoover revisionism". Contrary to the myths promoted by [[Wikipedia:Herbert Hoover|Hoover]] himself and his acolytes, Hoover was not an opponent of big government. Quite the contrary, the economic policies of the "Engineer in Politics" prefigured the [[Wikipedia:New Deal|New Deal]]. Rothbard’s view of Hoover is now widely accepted.

For Rothbard, banking policy was a key to American economic history. Like [[Wikipedia:Jules Michelet|Michelet]], he believed that history is a resurrection of the flesh; and his discussions are no dry-as-dust presentations of statistics. He was always concerned to identify the particular actors and interests behind historical decisions. The struggle between the competing [[Wikipedia:J. P. Morgan|Morgan]] and [[Wikipedia:Rockefeller family|Rockefeller]] banking circles figures again and again in his articles in this field, collected in his [[Wikipedia:A History of Money and Banking in the United States (book)|A History of Money and Banking in the United States]] (1999; [http://mises.org/books/historyofmoney.pdf pdf]).

===Other pursuits===
Rothbard ranged far beyond economics in his historical work. In a four-volume series, [[Wikipedia:Conceived in Liberty|Conceived in Liberty]] (1975-1979; volumes [http://www.mises.org/books/conceived1.pdf I.], [http://www.mises.org/books/conceived2.pdf II.], [http://www.mises.org/books/conceived3.pdf III.], [http://www.mises.org/books/conceived4.pdf IV.] in pdf), he presented a detailed account of American colonial history that stressed the libertarian antecedents of the [[Wikipedia:American Revolution|American Revolution]]. As usual, he challenged mainstream opinion. He had little use for [[Wikipedia:New England#New England and political thought|New England Puritanism]], and the virtues and military leadership of [[Wikipedia:George Washington|George Washington]] did not impress him. For Rothbard, the [[Wikipedia:Articles of Confederation|Articles of Confederation]] were not an overly weak arrangement that needed to be replaced by the more centrally focused [[Wikipedia:United States Constitution|Constitution]]. Quite the contrary, the Articles themselves allowed too much central control.

Although Rothbard usually found himself in close agreement with Mises, in one area he maintained that Mises was mistaken. Mises contended that ethical judgments were subjective: ultimate ends are not subject to rational assessment. Rothbard dissented, maintaining that an objective ethics could be founded on the requirements of human nature. His approach, based on his study of [[Wikipedia:Aristotelianism|Aristotelian]] and [[Wikipedia:Thomism|Thomist philosophy]], is presented in his major work [[Wikipedia:The Ethics of Liberty|The Ethics of Liberty]] (1982; [http://mises.org/rothbard/ethics/ethics.asp text]), his major study of political philosophy.

In his system of political ethics, [[Wikipedia:Self-ownership|self-ownership]] is the basic principle. Given a robust conception of self-ownership, a compulsory government monopoly of protective services is illegitimate; and Rothbard endeavors to refute the arguments to the contrary of supporters of a minimal state, [[Wikipedia:Robert Nozick|Robert Nozick]] chief among them. He contributes important clarifications to problems of libertarian legal theory, such as the nature of contracts and the appropriate standard of punishment. He explains why Mises’s instrumental argument for the market does not fully succeed, though he finds much of value in it; and he criticizes in careful detail Hayek’s view of the rule of law.

===Political views===
Rothbard modified the famous dictum of [[Wikipedia:Karl Marx|Marx]]: he wished both to understand and change the world. He endeavored to apply the ideas he had developed in his theoretical work to current politics and to bring libertarian views to the attention of the general public. One issue for him stood foremost. Like [[Wikipedia:Randolph Bourne|Randolph Bourne]], he maintained that "war is the health of the state"; he accordingly opposed an aggressive foreign policy.

His support for nonintervention in foreign policy led him to champion the [[Wikipedia:Old Right (United States)|Old Right]]. [[Wikipedia:John T. Flynn|John T. Flynn]]<ref name="Raimondo_Flynn">Justin Raimondo. [http://mises.org/story/2890 "Who is John T. Flynn?"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-27.</ref>, [[Wikipedia:Garet Garrett|Garet Garrett]]<ref name="Tucker_Garett">Jeffrey A. Tucker. [http://mises.org/story/2751 "Who Is Garet Garrett?"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-27.</ref> and other pre-World War II "isolationists" shared Rothbard’s belief in the close connection between state power and bellicose foreign policy.

The situation was quite otherwise with postwar conservatism. Although Rothbard was an early contributor to [[Wikipedia:William F. Buckley, Jr.|William Buckley]]’s [[Wikipedia:National Review|National Review]], he rejected the aggressive pursuit of the [[Wikipedia:Cold War]] advocated by Buckley and such members of his editorial staff as [[Wikipedia:James Burnham|James Burnham]] and [[Wikipedia:Frank S. Meyer|Frank S. Meyer]]. He broke with these self-styled conservatives and thereafter became one of their strongest opponents. For similar reasons, he condemned their [[Wikipedia:Neoconservatism|neoconservative]] successors. He followed a pragmatic policy of temporary alliances with whatever groups were, at a given time, opposed to militarism and foreign adventures. He set forward the basis for his political stance in a key essay, "Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty" ([http://mises.org/story/910 text]). This appeared in an important scholarly journal, [[Wikipedia:Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought|Left and Right]] ([http://mises.org/journals/left-right.asp main page]), which he established. This contained major essays on revisionist history and foreign policy, but unfortunately lasted only from 1965-1968.

In an effort to widen the influence of libertarian thought in the academic world, Rothbard founded the [[Wikipedia:Journal of Libertarian Studies|Journal of Libertarian Studies]] ([http://mises.org/periodical.aspx?Id=3 main page]) in 1977. The journal began auspiciously with a symposium on Robert Nozick’s [[Wikipedia:Anarchy, State, and Utopia|Anarchy, State, and Utopia]]. Down to the present, it has remained the most important journal hospitable to libertarian ideas.

Rothbard established in 1987 another journal, the Review of Austrian Economics ([http://mises.org/periodical.aspx?Id=5 main page]), to provide a scholarly venue for economists and others interested in Austrian theory. It too is the key journal in its area of specialty. It has continued to the present, after 1997 under the new name [[Wikipedia:Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics|Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics]] ([http://mises.org/periodical.aspx?Id=4 main page]).

In his comments on current events, Rothbard displayed an amazing ability to digest vast quantities of information on whatever subject interested him. Whether, e.g., the question was competing factions in [[Wikipedia:Afghanistan|Afghanistan]] or the sources of investment in oil in the [[Wikipedia:Middle East|Middle East]], he would always have the relevant data at his command. A sample of his columns, taken from the Rockwell Rothbard Report, is available in The Irrepressible Rothbard (2000; [http://mises.org/misesreview_detail.aspx?control=174 review]). Another journal that he founded, [[Wikipedia:The Libertarian Forum|The Libertarian Forum]] ([http://mises.org/journals/libertarianforum.asp main page]), provides his topical comments for the period 1969-1984. He presented a comprehensive popular account of libertarianism in [[Wikipedia:For A New Liberty|For A New Liberty]] (1973; [http://mises.org/rothbard/newlibertywhole.asp text], [http://mises.org/books/newliberty.pdf pdf]).

One last academic triumph remained for Rothbard, though sadly it appeared only after his death. In two massive volumes, [[Wikipedia:An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought|Economic Thought Before Adam Smith and Classical Economics]] (1995; volume [http://mises.org/books/histofthought1.pdf I.] and [http://mises.org/books/histofthought2.pdf II.] pdf), he presented a minutely detailed and erudite account of the history of economic theory. [[Adam Smith]]<ref name="Rothbard_Smith">Murray N. Rothbard. [http://mises.org/story/2012 "The Adam Smith Myth"], ''[[Mises Institute]]'', referenced 2009-05-27.</ref>, contrary to general belief, was not the founder of modern economics. His defense of a labor theory of value, modified and continued by his Ricardian successors, shunted economics onto the wrong path. The heroes of Rothbard’s study were the [[Wikipedia:School of Salamanca|Spanish scholastics]], who long before Smith had developed a subjective theory of value, and such later figures as [[Richard Cantillon|Cantillon]], [[Anne Robert Jacques Turgot|Turgot]], and [[Jean-Baptiste Say|Say]]. He dissects the heretical religious thought that prefigured Marxism and gives a mordant portrayal of the personality and thought of [[Wikipedia:John Stuart Mill|John Stuart Mill]].

Rothbard was closely associated with the [[Mises Institute|Ludwig von Mises Institute]] from its founding in 1982 by [[Wikipedia:Lew Rockwell|Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr]]. This organization became the main vehicle for the promotion of his ideas, and he served as its Academic Vice-President.

He taught at [[Wikipedia:Polytechnic Institute of New York University|Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute]] from the mid 1960s to the mid 1980s; from 1986 to his death on January 7, 1995, he was S.J. Hall Distinguished Professor of Economics at the [[Wikipedia:University of Nevada, Las Vegas|University of Nevada, Las Vegas]].

The "indispensable framework" for the life and work of this creative genius and polymath was his beloved wife, JoAnn Rothbard. His combination of scholarly achievement and engaged advocacy on behalf of freedom is unmatched.

[http://mises.org/about/3249 Original text] written by David Gordon, used with generous permission of the [[Mises Institute]].

==Curriculum Vitae==

=====Academic Degrees=====
*B.A. Mathematics, Columbia University (1945)
*M.A. Economics, Columbia University (1946)
*Ph.D. Economics, Columbia University (1956)

=====Academic Appointments=====
*Instructor, City College of New York (1948-1949)
*Professor of Economics, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (1963-1985)
*S.J. Hall Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (1986-1995)
*Vice President for Academic Affairs, Ludwig von Mises Institute (1982-1995)

=====Other Positions=====
*Senior Analyst, William Volker Fund (1951-1962)
*Editor, Left and Right (1965-1968)
*Founder, Center for Libertarian Studies (1976)
*Resident Scholar, The Cato Institute (1977)
*Founder, Journal of Libertarian Studies (1977)
*Editor, Journal of Libertarian Studies (1977-1995)
*Consultant, U.S. Commission on Gold (1981-1982)
*Founder, The Review of Austrian Economics (1987)
*Editor, The Review of Austrian Economics (1987-1995)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://mises.org/content/mnrbib.asp The complete Rohbard bibliography]
* [http://mises.org/literature.aspx?action=author&Id=299 Books and Essays by Rothbard]
* [http://mises.org/content/mnrasidof.asp A Scholar in Defense of Freedom], a bibliographic essay
* Tributes and Essays to Rothbard by [http://mises.org/content/blockonmnr.asp Walter Block], [http://mises.org/etexts/hhhonmnr.asp Hans Hoppe], [http://mises.org/web/2013 Lew Rockwell] and [http://mises.org/article.aspx?Id=1708 Jeffrey A. Tucker]
* Media: Rothbard's [http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=showname&ID=299 Audio Economics Course] and [http://mises.org/rothspeak/murray.asp Short Clips]
[[Category:Biographies]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rothbard, Murray N.}}