Biographies

If we were to award a prize for “brilliancy” in the history of economic thought, it would surely go to Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, the

If we were to award a prize for "brilliancy" in the history of economic thought, it would surely go to Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, the baron de l'Aulne (1727–1781). His career in economics was brief but brilliant and in every way remarkable.

Recorded at the Ludwig von Mises Institute’s Supporters Summit; Auburn, Alabama; 9 October 2010.

Mencken saw the implications of where his thinking was leading him and he acknowledged those implications frankly. "I am," he wrote in <em>The Smart Set</em> in 1922, "a libertarian of the most extreme variety."

The leading Baconian in political economy, who was also, fittingly, a pioneer in statistics and in the alleged science of “political arithmet

The leading Baconian in political economy, who was also, fittingly, a pioneer in statistics and in the alleged science of "political arithmetic," was the fascinating opportunist and adventurer Sir William Petty (1623–1687).

Rocker was awful on economics, but his focus was not on that. He wrote about nationalism and culture, and here Rocker is fantastic. "States create no culture; indeed, they are often destroyed by higher forms of culture."

The status and reputation of Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626) is one of the great puzzles in the history of social thought.

Mises was the premier Austrian economist of his generation, whose legacy reveals him to be the greatest economist of the 20th century. Almost singlehandedly, he kept the embers of free-market economics burning during the interwar years.

The status and reputation of Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626) is one of the great puzzles in the history of social thought. What had he actually accomplished to warrant all the accolades? Essentially, he was the metaempiricist, the head coach and cheerleader of fact grubbing, exhorting <i>other</i> people to gather all the facts.