The Ludwig von Mises Institute welcomes its new Executive Director, and inaugural Carl Menger Research Fellow, Peter G. Klein!
Lew Rockwell announced the appointment at the Manhattan Mises Circle.
Click here for audio, or read the transcript:
Peter is an associate professor of Economics at the University of Missouri. He also taught at the University of Georgia, teaches in Copenhagen, is the author or the editor of five books. But I want to mention one new thing about Peter, if I may make an announcement. He’s going to be joining the Institute as our Executive Director. I’m looking forward to having him come to Auburn.
I’ll just tell a couple of stories. I’ll always remember this one. It was in 1988; Peter was leaving Chapel Hill and going to get his PhD at Berkeley. He wrote to the Institute for some help. I read his letter, and Judy Thommesen, who is our publications editor, reminded me the other day of just how agog I was when I saw this letter. I immediately called Murray Rothbard, and I said, “Murray, I’ve just gotten the most extraordinary letter from a student that I’ve ever seen. May I fax it to you? And if you’d read it, and if you agree with me, would you talk to Peter?” So Murray was very excited and did indeed talk to Peter. Peter was very close to Murray, and to the late Burt Blumert, who was our chairman at that time. I can tell many other stories about Peter; I’ll just mention one other.
As a post-doc he spent a year internship on Bill Clinton’s council of Economic Advisors. So about four or five months after he finished his year in Washington, I get a visit from a local FBI agent. He’s wanting to check out Peter’s bona-fides and see if he’s a security risk, because he’s going to have this internship. I said, “But, he’s already had his internship. It’s already over.” And the guy said “You know the government.” And so I said, “Yes, I do know the government.”
