[Transcribed from the Libertarian Tradition podcast episode “C.M. Kornbluth (1923–1958)”]

Austrolibertarianism begins with Murray Rothbard. His mentor Ludwig von Mises systematized Austrian economics and put it on a modern, rigorous foundation. Rothbard built on, and extended, this Misesian-praxeological Austrian framework, and he integrated it with his own radical anarchocapitalism to produce the superstructure of modern Austrolibertarian thought.

In late June the Mises Academy will launch my new online class, Keynes, Krugman, and the Crisis.

In his brilliant article on “The Intellectuals and Socialism,” Friedrich Hayek suggests a strong causal connection between copyright laws and socialism. In discussing the development of the intellectual class, whom he characterizes as “secondhanders in ideas” and inherently inclined to promote socialism, Hayek writes:

One of the most important points that would have to be examined in such a discussion would be how far the growth of this [intellectual] class has been artificially stimulated by the law of copyright.

Who to side with? What a dilemma! On the one hand, we have Claudio Ballard and his company Data Treasury, which uses patent monopoly privileges granted by an agency of the central state to shake down banks for “violating” “its” check image capture and storage technology.

Milk in its natural state — raw milk — is consumed by very few Americans, because it is illegal in many states and thoroughly discouraged by federal health organizations, regulators, and the Big Dairy lobby. Its dangers are minimal, and those are due to its prohibition.

I recently came across “Putting Economics in Its Place,” an article penned by Robert L. Heilbroner, an avowedly Schumpeter-influenced socialist.1 Heilbroner’s main purpose is to argue that the explanatory scope of economics has been greatly exaggerated. He contends that economics does not provide a universal, underlying science of society.