Biographies

[This speech was delivered at the offices of the Mises Institute, September 14, 1999, the date on which

Ira Levin died just over three years ago, on November 12, 2007, at the age of 78, the largely unsung author of one of the top half-dozen libertarian novels ever published in our language. <i>This Perfect Day</i> has been out of print in recent years, so largely unsung is it.

Charles, the third Viscount Townshend (1700–1764), has been shamefully neglected by virtually all historians of economic thought. He is virtually unknown and is often confused with his son of the same name.

"In working with leftists against the draft and the Vietnam War," writes Rothbard in this passionate article, "I never had the absurd notion of converting them to capitalism, either sneakily (as Efron would have it) or otherwise.... We are living in the real world, where <em>facts</em> are important."

When he was in his 20s, having newly discovered libertarian ideas, having read Rand, Rothbard, Mises, Hayek, and others, having met Rothbard and conversed with him at length, Nozick was fired up with excitement.

R.C. wouldn't tolerate news stories that referred to the "public schools," for example. His reporters were required to refer to them as "government schools." R.C. himself preferred the phrase "gun-run schools" and used it liberally on the editorial page.

Like today's central bankers, John Law proposed to "supply the nation" with a sufficiency of money. The increased money was supposed to vivify trade and increase employment and production — the "employment" motif providing a nice proto-Keynesian touch.

Part of the experience of reading Newsweek in the early 1960’s was a weekly column called "Business Tides."  It offered wide-ranging and insightful commentary on just about anything that had anything to do with the economy or with economics.

Weighing in on the side of John Locke, not only on interest rates but also in a general and comprehensive vision of economic laissez-faire that eve

Weighing in on the side of John Locke, not only on interest rates but also in a general and comprehensive vision of economic laissez-faire that even surpassed Locke, were two brothers, Dudley and Roger North.