Edited with an Introduction by

Walter Block
The Fraser Institute

and

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
The Ludwig von Mises Institute

The Ludwig von Mises Institute
Auburn University
Auburn, Alabama 36849

Copyright © 1988 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Published by The Ludwig von Mises Institute,
Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849.

Printed in the United States of America.

Introduction

Murray N. Rothbard is a scholar of unique, indeed monumental achievements: the founder of the first fully-integrated science of liberty.

Consider, first, his accomplishments in economics. His Ph.D. dissertation from Columbia University—The Panic of 1819—showed how the Bank of the United States, the Federal Reserve’s ancestor, caused the first American depression. It remains the only in-depth historical account of that particular monetary debacle.

Part 1

Economics

1

Rothbardian Monopoly
Theory and Antitrust Policy

Dominick T. Armentano

This essay will discuss some of Murray N. Rothbard’s contributions to monopoly theory in light of the current reforms in the administration of the antitrust laws of the United States.

2

Prisoner’s Dilemma, Transaction Costs, and Rothbard

Roger A. Arnold

3

Fractional Reserve Banking: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

Walter Block

4

Gold and the Constitution: Retrospect and Prospect

Gregory B. Christainsen

Anarchists such as Murray Rothbard have long maintained that no constitution can ultimately be effective in limiting the powers of government. The political pressures to engage in this or that prohibited activity are always present, and when a prohibited activity can be rationalized in terms of plausible views which are opposed to those of the constitution’s founders, the founders’ intentions may have little force.

5

Professor Rothbard and the Theory of Interest

Roger W. Garrison

6

From the Economics of Laissez Faire to The Ethics of Libertarianism

Hans-Hermann Hoppe