Podcasts about austrian economics research conference

Can executive power shrink the state instead of growing it? In this thought-provoking lecture, Patrick Newman offers a Jacksonian playbook for dismantling the deep state in our time.The Murray N. Rothbard Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Steve and Cassandra Torello.The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian school, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. For more information, visit https://Mises.org.

Featuring Per Bylund, Lucas Engelhardt, Joshua Mawhorter, Jonathan Newman, Patrick Newman, and Joseph T. Salerno, this panel exposes flawed assumptions of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), including the origins of money, government spending, job guarantees, entrepreneurship, and economic growth. The presenters critique MMT's reliance on state-driven monetary policy, its neglect of entrepreneurship and capital formation, and its unrealistic view of labor and job guarantees. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian school, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. For more information, visit https://Mises.org.

What does a “reactionary libertarian” really believe? In this provocative and unfiltered lecture, Hans-Hermann Hoppe reflects on war, empire, the Frankfurt School, Javier Milei, and why libertarians must reject both the left and the right to defend true freedom.The Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Yousif Almoayyed.The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian school, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. For more information, visit https://Mises.org.

What do COVID lockdowns, currency collapses, and hyperinflation all have in common? According to Steve Hanke, they all reveal how central planners manipulate fear, money, and power to control society.The Friedrich A. Hayek Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Jerry Dowell.The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian school, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. For more information, visit https://Mises.org

Was Keynes a brilliant economist—or the architect of modern socialism? In this explosive lecture, Edward Fuller uncovers the political roots of Keynesian theory and exposes the myth behind its most influential model.The Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Shone Sadler. Includes a welcome by Joseph T. Salerno.The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian school, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. For more information, visit https://Mises.org.

Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference.Original Article: Bureaucracy: Applying Mises's Insights to Our Present Day

Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference.Original Article: A Tale of Two Bureaucracies

Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference.Original Article: Bureaucracy and Grove City College: How One College Resisted the Bureaucratization of Higher Education

Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference.Original Article: Looking Back at the Crossroads: Liberty or Socialism

Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference.Original Article: A Tale of Two Bureaucracies

Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference.Original Article: Looking Back at the Crossroads: Liberty or Socialism

Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference.Original Article: Bureaucracy and Grove City College: How One College Resisted the Bureaucratization of Higher Education

Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference. Narrated by Millian Quinteros.

Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference. Narrated by Millian Quinteros.

Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference. Narrated by Millian Quinteros.

Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference. Narrated by Millian Quinteros.

Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture. Sponsored by Shone and Brae Sadler.Recorded at the Austrian Economics Research Conference, 22 March 2024, in Auburn, Alabama. Includes an introduction by Joseph T. Salerno.Lecture Text: Thank you, Joseph, for your kind introduction and thank you, Shone and Brae Sadler, for your generous sponsorship in making this event possible. It is a pleasure and personal honor to be invited to deliver this Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture titled “Ayn Rand and the Austrian Economists” at the Mises Institute's Austrian Economics Research Conference.Henry Hazlitt is one of my favorite writers on economics and ethics. His thoughtful, incisive, and influential writings are marked by his clarity of style and logical analysis. Both Henry Hazlitt and Ayn Rand could really write. Hazlitt's non-fiction books, Economics in One Lesson and Foundations of Morality, along with his novel, Time Will Run Back, complement Ayn Rand's ideas in her books such as The Virtue of Selfishness, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, and Atlas Shrugged. In their philosophical, political, and economic views, Hazlitt and Rand largely agree, as they make the same points in different ways with respect to the virtue of the free market as the path to prosperity and happiness. Also, they were friends in their personal lives. In addition, Henry Hazlitt and I had a great friend in common in the late, well-respected and greatly-loved Austrian economist, Bill Peterson.I am excited to be here to give this talk on Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, and Murray Rothbard and how their ideas may be complementary to the essential ideas of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Perhaps I will be able to provide some new insights to you. We'll see!Like my recently deceased friend, Sam Bostaph, I have great admiration for the ideas of Carl Menger. I will begin by discussing some of Menger's key ideas and comparing them with those of Ayn Rand. I will then repeat this process with the fundamental ideas of Mises and Rothbard. I will conclude with an overall assessment with respect to the potential compatibility of Austrian economics and Objectivism.Carl Menger (1840-1921) began the modern period of economic thought and provided the foundation for the Austrian School of Economics in his two books, Principles of Economics (1871) and Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences with Special Reference to Economics (1883). In these books Menger destroyed the existing structure of economic science, including its theory and methodology, and put it on totally new foundations.Menger was a realist who said that we could know the world through both common sense and scientific method. Menger was committed to finding exact laws of economics based on the direct analysis of concrete phenomena that can be observed and characterized with precision. He sought to find the necessary characteristics of economic phenomena and their relationships. He also heralded the advantages of verbal language over mathematical language in that the former can express the essences of economic phenomena, which is something that mathematical language cannot do.Menger viewed exchange as the embodiment of the essential desire and search to satisfy individual human needs. It follows that the intersection between human needs and the availability of goods capable of satisfying those needs is at the root of economic activity. Emphasizing human uncertainty, error, and the time-consuming nature of economic processes, Menger was concerned with the information content of economic choices and the process of acquiring information in order to increase the well-being of economic actors.As this talk will demonstrate, Carl Menger's writings are the closest to Randian doctrines that have ever emanated from any economist. It will follow that we should read and reread his great books and share them with our friends and students.Aristotelian philosophy was at the root of Menger's framework. His biologistic language goes well with his Aristotelian foundations in his philosophy of science and economics. Menger illustrated how Aristotelian induction could be used in economics and he based his epistemology on Aristotelian induction. Menger's Aristotelian inclinations can be observed in his desire to uncover the essence of economic phenomena. He viewed the constituent elements of economic phenomena as immanently ordered and emphasized the primacy of exactitude and universality as preferable epistemological characteristics of theory.Menger's desire was to uncover the real nature or essence of economic phenomena. As an immanent realist, he was interested in essences and laws as manifested in the world. His general and abstract economic theory attempted to unify all true fragments of economic knowledge.Holding that causality underpins economic laws, Menger taught that theoretical science provides the tools for studying phenomena that exhibit regularities. He distinguished between exact types and laws that deal with strictly typical phenomena and empirical-realistic types and laws that deal with truth within a particular spatio-temporal domain. Empirical laws are found by observation and exact laws are found by conceptualization. Menger's exact approach involves deductive-universalistic theory that looks for regularities in the coexistence and succession of phenomena that admits no exceptions and that are strictly ordered. His theoretical economics is concerned with exact laws based on the assumptions of self-interest, full-knowledge, and freedom. Menger's exact theoretical approach involves both isolation and abstraction from disturbing factors.Menger developed a number of fundamental Austrian doctrines such as the causal-genetic approach, methodological individualism, and the connection between time and error. He incorporated purposeful action, uncertainty, the occurrence of errors, the information acquisition process, learning, and time into his economic analysis. As an Aristotelian essentialist and immanent realist, he considered a priori essences as existing in reality. His goal was to discover invariant principles or laws governing economic phenomena and to elaborate exact universal laws. To find strictly ordered exact laws he said that we had to omit principles of individuation such as time and space. This entails isolation of the economic aspect of phenomena and abstraction from disturbing factors such as error, ignorance, and external compulsion. Menger thus argued for an exact orientation of theoretical research whose validity is totally independent of any empirical tests.Both Aristotle and Menger viewed essences, universals, or concepts as metaphysical and had no compelling explanations of the method to be employed in order to abstract the essence from the particulars in which it is indivisibly wedded. For Rand, essences are epistemological and contextual, rather than metaphysical. For her, concepts are the products of a cognitive method whose processes are performed by a human being but whose content is determined by reality.Menger's theory of needs and wants is the link between the natural sciences (particularly biology) and the human sciences. He established this link by describing the final cause of human economic enterprise as an aspect of human nature biologically understood. He analyzed economic activity based on a theory of human action. His theory emphasized individual perception, valuation, deliberation, choice, and action.The foundation of Menger's value theory is a theory of human action that involves a theory of knowledge. He believed that men can understand the workings of the economy. Menger's goal was to establish economic theory on a solid foundation by grounding it on a sound value theory. To do this, he consistently incorporated his methodological individualism into his theory of value.Menger understood that values can be subjective (i.e., personally estimated), but that men should rationally seek objective life-affirming values. He explained that real wants correspond with the objective state of affairs. Menger distinguished between real and imaginary wants and goods depending upon whether or not a person correctly understands a good's objective ability to satisfy a want. Individuals can be wrong about their judgment of value. Menger's emphasis on objective values is consistent with philosophical realism and with a correspondence theory of truth.Menger does trace market exchange back to a man's personal valuations of various economic goods and observes that scales of value are variable from person to person and are subject to change over time. There are certainly “subjectivist” features in Menger's economic analysis that are founded on his methodological individualism which implies that people differ and have a variety of goals, purposes, and tastes. Personal evaluation is therefore inherent in a principled and consistent understanding of methodological individualism.As a supreme advocate of individualist methodology, Menger recognized the primacy of active individual agents who generate all of the phenomena of the social sciences. His methodological individualism is a doctrine that reflects the real structure of society and economy and the centrality of the human agent.Menger's theory of value essentially states that life is the ultimate standard of value. According to Menger, human life is a process in which a person, given his needs and the command of the means to satisfy them, is himself the specific point where human economic life both originates and ends. Menger thus introduced life, value, individual preferences that motivate people, and individual choices into economics. He thus essentially agreed on the same standard of life as the much later Ayn Rand. Value is a contextual judgment made by economizing men. Value is related to the existential state of the individual and the ability of the good in question to change that state in a manner desired by the person.Although Menger speaks of economic value while Rand is concerned with moral value, their ideas are much the same. Both view human life as the ultimate value. The difference is that Menger was concerned with economic values that satisfy a man's needs for food, shelter, healthcare, wealth, production, and so forth. From Rand's perspective, every human value (including economic value) is potentially a moral value that may be important to the ethical standard of a man's life qua man. Their shared biocentric concept of value holds that objective values support a man's life and originate in a relationship between a man and his survival requirements.Both Rand and Menger espouse a kind of contextually-relational objectivism in their theories of value. Value is seen as a relational quality dependent on the subject, the object, and the context or situation involved.Not many Objectivists, or others for that matter, know much about Menger's Austrian Aristotelianism and his commonsense and scientific realism. This is unfortunate. His writings have the potential to provide essential building blocks for a realist construction of economics. Ultimately, they may provide the vehicle for the harmonization and integration of Austrian economics with Objectivism.As we know, the preeminent theory within Austrian economics is the Misesian subjectivist school. Mises maintained that it is by means of its subjectivism that praxeological economics develops into objective science. The praxeologist takes individual values as given and assumes that individuals have different motivations and prefer different things. The same economic phenomena mean different things to different people. In fact, buying and selling take place because people value things differently. The importance of goods is derived from the importance of the values they are intended to achieve. When a person values an object, this simply means that he imputes enough importance to it to be willing to start a chain of causation to change or maintain it, thus making it a thing of value. Misesian economics does not study what is in an object, as does the natural scientist, but rather, studies what is in the subject.Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973), the Austrian philosophical economist, is one of our most passionate, consistent, and intransigent defenders of capitalism. Mises defends the free society and private ownership on the grounds that they are desirable from the perspective of human happiness, freedom, peace, and productivity. He constructed a monumental, overarching, systematic, and comprehensive conceptual framework that elucidated the timeless, immutable laws that guide human behavior. Mises integrated his profound theories of methodology, economics, political science, history, and the social sciences in his 1949 magnum opus, Human Action.There is an important dissemblance within Austrian value theory between Menger and Mises. However, it is possible for Menger's more objective-value-oriented theory to coexist and complement Mises's pure subjectivism which is based on the inscrutability of individual values and preferences. Although Menger agrees with Mises that an individual's chosen values are personal and, therefore subjective and unknowable to the economist, he also contended that a person ought to be rationally pursuing his objective life-affirming values. Menger thus can be viewed as a key link-pin figure between Misesian praxeology and Objectivist ethics.According to Mises, economics is a value-free science of means, rather than of ends, that describes but does not prescribe. However, although the world of praxeological economics, as a science, may be value-free the human world is not value-free. Economics is the science of human action and human actions are inextricably connected with values and ethics. It follows that praxeological economics needs to be situated within the context of a normative framework. Praxeological economics does not conflict with a normative perspective on human life. Economics needs to be connected with a discipline that is concerned with ends such as the end of human flourishing. Praxeological economics can stay value-free if it is recognized that it is morally proper for people to take part in market and other voluntary transactions. Such a value-free science must be combined with an appropriate end.Economics, for Mises, is a value-free tool for objective and critical appraisal. Economic science differentiates between the objective, interpersonally valid conclusions of economic praxeology and the personal value judgments of the economist. Critical appraisal can be objective, value-free, and untainted by bias. It is important for economic science to be value-free and not to be distorted by the value judgments or personal preferences of the economist. The credibility of economic science depends upon an impartial and dispassionate concern for truth. Value-freedom is a methodological device designed to separate and isolate an economist's scientific work from the personal preferences of the given economic researcher. His goal is to maintain neutrality and objectivity with respect to the subjective values of others.Misesian economics focuses on the descriptive aspects of human action by offering reasoning about means and ends. The province of praxeological economics is the logical analysis of the success or failure of selected means to attain chosen ends. Means only have value because, and to the degree that, their ends are valued.The reasons why an individual values what he values and the determination of whether or not his choices and actions are morally good or bad are certainly significant concerns but they are not in the realm of the praxeological economist. The content of moral or ultimate ends is not the domain of the economist qua economist. There is another level of values that value in terms of right preferences. This more objectivist sphere of value defines value in terms of what an individual ought to value.Mises grounds economics upon the action axiom which is the fundamental and universal truth that individual men exist and act by making purposive choices among alternatives. Upon this axiom, Mises deduces the entire systematic structure of economic theory. Mises's advocacy of free markets and his opposition to statism stem from his analysis of the nature and consequences of freely acting individuals compared to the nature of government and the consequences brought about by government intervention.For Mises, economic behavior is a special case of human action. He contends that it is through the analysis of the idea of action that the principles of economics can be deduced. Economic theorems are seen as connected to the foundation of real human purposes. Economics is based on true and evident axioms, arrived at by introspection into the essence of human action. From these axioms, Mises derives the logical implications or truths of economics.Through the use of abstract economic theorizing, Mises recognizes the nature and operation of human purposefulness and entrepreneurial resourcefulness and identifies the systematic tendencies which influence the market process. Mises's insight was that economic reasoning has its basis in the understanding of the action axiom. He says that sound deductions from a priori axioms are apodictically true and cannot be empirically tested. Mises developed, through deductive reasoning, the chains of economic theory based on introspective understanding of what it means to be a rational, purposeful, and acting human being. The method of economics is deductive and its starting point is the concept of action.According to Mises, all of the categories, theorems, or laws of economics are implied in the action axiom. These include, but are not limited to: subjective value, causality, ends, means, preference, cost, profit and loss, opportunities, scarcity, marginal utility, marginal costs, opportunity cost, time preference, originary interest, association, and so on.As an adherent of Kantian epistemology, Mises states that the concept of action is a priori to all experience. Thinking is a mental action. For Mises, a priori means independent of any particular time or place. Denying the possibility of arriving at laws via induction, Mises argues that evidence for the a priori is based on reflective universal inner experience.However, Misesian praxeology could operate within a Randian philosophical structure. The concept of action could be formally and inductively derived from perceptual data. Actions would be seen as performed by entities who act in accordance with their nature. Man's distinctive mode of action involves rationality and free will. Men are thus rational beings with free wills who have the ability to form their own purposes and aims. Human action also assumes an uncoerced human will and limited knowledge. All of the above can be seen as consistent with Misesian praxeology. Once we arrive at the concept of human action, Mises's deductive logical derivations can come into play.Knowledge gained from praxeological economics is both value-free (i.e., value-neutral) and value relevant. Value-free knowledge supplied by economic science is value-relevant when it supplies information for rational discussions, deliberations, and determinations of the morally good. Economics is reconnected with philosophy, especially the branches of metaphysics and ethics, when the discussion is shifted to another sphere. It is fair to say that economic science exists because men have concluded that the objective knowledge provided by praxeological economics is valuable for the pursuit of both a person's subjective and ultimate ends.Advocating the idea of “man's survival qua man” or of a good or flourishing life involves value judgments. To make value judgments, one must accept the existence of a comprehensive natural order and the existence of fundamental absolute principles in the universe. This acceptance in no way conflicts with the Misesian concept of subjective economic value. Natural laws ae discovered, are not arbitrary relationships, but instead are relationships that are already true. A man's human nature, including his attributes of individuality, reason, and free will, is the ultimate source of moral reasoning. Value is meaningless outside the context of man.Praxeological economics and the philosophy of human flourishing are complementary and compatible disciplines. Economics teaches us that social cooperation through the private property system and division of labor enables most individuals to prosper and to pursue their flourishing and happiness. In turn, the worldview of human flourishing informs men how to act. In making their life-affirming ethical and value-based judgments, men can refer to and employ the data of economic science.Mises and Rand were passionate critics of collectivism. Whereas Mises criticized the economic and political functioning of collectivism, Rand attacked the morality of collectivism. They agree that collectivism in the form of people, races, or nations does not exist independently from the individuals who comprise them. In addition, they both dismissed positivism's rejection of the human mind as real and as the tool of knowledge about the world, man, and his actions. They also believed that free-market capitalism is the best possible arrangement for society. Their promotion of rationality, free choice, and subjective (i.e., personally estimated) and objective values (in their respective contexts) make their worldviews compatible. Mises's arguments for capitalism in terms of its utility can be interpreted to be in harmony with Rand's criterion of man's life as the standard of value. There is a great deal in Mises's science of human action that is consistent with Objectivist principles. As stated by Walter Block, on the majority of issues Rand and Mises “are as alike as two peas in a pod”.Murray Rothbard (1926-1995) was a grand system builder. In his monumental Man, Economy, and State (1962), Rothbard continued, embodied, and extended Mises's methodological approach of praxeology to economics. His magnum opus was modeled after Mises's Human Action and, for the most part, was a massive restatement, defense, and development of the Misesian praxeological tradition. Rothbard followed up and complemented Man, Economy, and State with his brilliant The Ethics of Liberty (1982) in which he provided the foundation for his metanormative ethical theory. Exhibiting an architectonic character, these two works form an integrated system of philosophical economics.In a 1971 article in Modern Age Rothbard declares that Mises's work provides us with an economic paradigm grounded in the nature of man and in individual choice. He explains that Mises's paradigm furnishes economics in a systematic, integrated form that can serve as a correct alternative to the crisis situation that modern economics has engendered. According to Rothbard, it is time for us to adopt this paradigm in all of its facets.Rothbard defended Mises's methodology, but went on to construct his own edifice of Austrian economic theory. Although he embraced nearly all of Mises's economics, Rothbard could not accept Mises's Kantian extreme aprioristic position in epistemology. Mises held that the axiom of human action was true a priori to human experience and was, in fact, a synthetic a priori category. Mises considered the action axiom to be a law of thought and thus a categorical truth prior to all human experience.Rothbard agreed that the action axiom is universally true and self-evident, but argued that a person becomes aware of that axiom and its subsidiary axioms through experience in the world. A person begins with concrete human experience and then moves toward reflection. Once a person forms the basic axioms and concepts from his experiences and from his reflections upon those experiences, he does not need to resort to external experience to validate an economic hypothesis. Instead, deductive reasoning from sound basics will validate it.In a 1957 article in the Southern Economic Journal, Rothbard states that it is a waste of time to argue or try to determine how the truth of the action axiom is obtained. He explains that the all-important fact is that the axiom is self-evidently true for all people, at all places, at all times, and that it could not even conceivably be violated. Whether it was a law of thought as Mises maintained, or a law of reality as Rothbard himself contended, the axiom would be no less certain because the axiom need only be stated to become at once self-evident.Both Murray Rothbard and Ayn Rand were concerned with the nature of man and the world, natural law, natural rights, and a rational ethics based on man's nature and discovered through reason. They also agreed that the purpose of political philosophy and ethics is the promotion of productive human life on earth. In addition, both adopted, to a great extent, Lockean natural rights perspectives and arguments that legitimize private property. Additionally, they both disagreed with Mises's epistemological foundations, and on similar grounds.Both Rothbard and Rand endeavored to determine the proper rules for a rational society by using reason to examine the nature of human life and the world by employing logical deductions to ascertain what these natures suggest. They agreed with respect to the volitional nature of rational human consciousness, a man's innate right of self-ownership, and the metanormative necessity of noncoercive mutual consent. Both thus subscribed to the nonaggression principle and to the right of self-defense.Rothbard and Rand did not agree, however, on the nature of (or need for) government. They disagreed with respect to the practical applications of their similar philosophies. Rejecting Rand's idea of a constitutionally-limited representative government, Rothbard believed that their shared doctrines entailed a zero-government or anarcho-capitalist framework based on voluntarism, free exchange, and peace.Rothbard and Rand subscribed to different forms of metanormative libertarian politics—Rothbard to anarcho-capitalism and Rand to a minimal state. Unlike Rand, Rothbard ended his ethics at the metanormative level. Rand, on the other hand, advocated a minimal state form of libertarian politics based on the fuller foundation of Objectivism through which she attempted to supply an objective basis for values and virtues in human existence. Of course, Rothbard did discuss the separate importance of a rational personal morality, stated that he agreed essentially with most of Rand's philosophy, and suggested his inclination toward a Randian ethical framework. The writings of Rothbard, much like those of Menger, have done a great deal toward building a bridge between Austrian economics and Objectivism.Although Misesian economists hold that values are subjective, and Objectivists argue that values are objective, these claims are not incompatible because they are not really claims about the same things. They exist at different levels or spheres of analysis. The methodological value-subjectivity of the Austrians complements the Randian sense of value objectivity. The level of objective values dealing with personal flourishing transcends the level of subjective value preferences. The value-freedom (or value-neutrality) and value-subjectivity of the Austrians have a different function or purpose than does Objectivism's emphasis on objective values. On the one hand, the Austrian emphasis is on the value-neutrality of the economist as a scientific observer of a person acting to obtain his “subjective” (i.e., personally-estimated) values. On the other hand, the philosophy of Objectivism is concerned with values for the acting individual moral agent, himself. There is a distinction between methodological subjectivism and philosophical subjectivism. Whereas Austrians are methodological subjectivists in their economics, this does not imply that they are moral relativists as individuals.Austrian economics is thus an excellent way of looking at “social science methodology” with respect to the appraisal of means but not of ends. Misesian praxeology therefore must be augmented. Its value-free economics is not sufficient to establish a total case for liberty. A systematic, reality-based ethical system must be discovered to firmly establish a total case for liberty. Natural law provides the groundwork for such a theory, and both Objectivism and the Aristotelian idea of human flourishing are based on natural law ideas.Austrian economics and Objectivism agree on the significance of the ideas of human actions and values. The Austrians explain that a person acts when he prefers the way he thinks things will be if he acts compared to the way he thinks things will be if he fails to act. Austrian economics is descriptive and deals with the logical analysis of the ability of selected actions (i.e., means) to achieve certain ends. Whether these ends are truly objectively valuable is not the concern of the praxeological economist when he is acting in his capacity as an economist. There is another realm of values that views value in terms of objective values and correct preferences and actions. Objectivism is concerned with this other sphere and thus studies what human beings ought to value and act to attain.When thinkers from the Austrian school speak of subjective knowledge they simply mean that each person has his own specific and finite context of knowledge that directs his action. In this context, “subjective” merely means “subject-dependent”. Subjectivism for the Austrians does not mean the rejection of reality—it only focuses on the view that consumer tastes are personal.Austrian economists contend that values are subjective and Objectivists maintain that values are objective. These claims can be seen as compatible because they are not claims about the same phenomena. These two senses of value are complementary. The Austrian economist, as a neutral examiner, does not force his own value judgments on the personal values and actions of the human beings that he is studying. Operating from a different perspective, Objectivists maintain that there are objective values that stem from a man's relationship to other existents in the world.At a descriptive level, the economist's idea of demonstrated preferences agrees with Rand's account of value as something that a person acts to gain and/or keep. Of course, Rand moves from an initial descriptive notion of value to a normative perspective on value that includes the idea that a legitimate or objective value serves one's life. The second view of value provides a standard to evaluate the use of one's free will.Praxeological economics and Objectivism are complementary and compatible disciplines. Economics teaches us that social cooperation through the private property system and division of labor enables most individuals to prosper and to pursue their flourishing and happiness. In turn, Objectivism informs men how to act. In making their life-affirming ethical and value-based judgments, men can refer to and employ economic science.Objectivism's Aristotelian perspective on the nature of man and the world and on the need to exercise one's virtues can be viewed as synergic with the economic coordination and praxeology of Austrian economics. Placing the economic realm within the general process of human action, which itself is part of human nature, enables theoretical progress in our search for truth and in the construction of a systematic, logical, and consistent conceptual framework. The Objectivist worldview can provide a context to the economic insights of the Austrian economists.In conclusion, there is much common ground between Rand and the Austrians and much to be gained through the intellectual exchange between Objectivism and Austrian economics. Objectivism can be viewed as an ethical and logical augmentation of Austrian economics and Austrian praxeology can be seen as the ideal means for Objectivists when addressing economic issues. Economics would focus on attempting to discover economic principles but would leave ethical issues to philosophy.

Recorded at the Austrian Economics Research Conference, 23 March 2024, in Auburn, Alabama.

Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture. Sponsored by Shone and Brae Sadler. Includes an introduction by Joseph T. Salerno. Recorded at the 2024 Austrian Economics Research Conference at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, March 22-23, 2024.

The Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture. Sponsored by Yousif Almoayyed.Recorded at the Austrian Economics Research Conference, 22 March 2024, in Auburn, Alabama. Includes an introduction by Joseph T. Salerno.

The Murray N. Rothbard Memorial Lecture. Sponsored by Steven and Cassandra Torello. Recorded at the Austrian Economics Research Conference, 22 March 2024, in Auburn, Alabama. Includes an introduction by Joseph T. Salerno and an audience question and answer period.

The Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture. Sponsored by Yousif Almoayyed. Includes an introduction by Joseph T. Salerno. Recorded at the 2024 Austrian Economics Research Conference at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, March 22-23, 2024.

The Murray N. Rothbard Memorial Lecture. Sponsored by Steven and Cassandra Torello. Includes an introduction by Joseph T. Salerno and an audience question and answer period. Recorded at the 2024 Austrian Economics Research Conference at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, March 22-23, 2024.

The Friedrich A. Hayek Memorial Lecture. Sponsored by Donald and Judy Rembert. Includes an introduction by Joseph T. Salerno. Recorded at the 2024 Austrian Economics Research Conference at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, March 22-23, 2024.

The Friedrich A. Hayek Memorial Lecture. Sponsored by Donald and Judy Rember. Recorded at the Austrian Economics Research Conference, 22 March 2024, in Auburn, Alabama. Includes an introduction by Joseph T. Salerno.

The Ralph Raico Memorial Commencement Lecture. Recorded at the 2023 Austrian Economics Research Conference hosted at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, March 16–18, 2023. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute.

The Murray N. Rothbard Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Steven and Cassandra Torello. Recorded at the 2023 Austrian Economics Research Conference hosted at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, March 16–18, 2023. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute.

The Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Harvey and Mei Allison. Recorded at the 2023 Austrian Economics Research Conference hosted at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, March 16–18, 2023. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute.

The F.A. Hayek Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Greg and Joy Morin. Recorded at the 2023 Austrian Economics Research Conference hosted at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, March 16–18, 2023. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute.

The Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Yousif Almoayyed. Recorded at the 2023 Austrian Economics Research Conference hosted at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, March 16–18, 2023. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute.

Frederick Hayek's famous book, "The Road to Serfdom" has been read by millions and is a favorite of those who previously lived under socialist regimes. One of the biggest fans of Hayek's book was Yuri Maltsev who defected to the US after working as an economist in the USSR under Gorbachev. I'm sad to report that Yuri passed away last week. I wanted to pay tribute to his contribution to our understanding of how these brutal regimes work, and more importantly, familiarize ourselves with the characteristics so we can notice them in our own society. The battle between liberty and tyranny is ongoing and Yuri Maltsev helped us immensely with our understanding of this eternal battle. From the panel recorded at the 2014 Austrian Economics Research Conference in Auburn, Alabama, on 20 March 2014. Sponsored by Carolyn Foss. 'The Road to Serfdom' at 70 | Yuri N. Maltsev - YouTube --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/seth-martin0/message

Recorded at the 2022 Austrian Economics Research Conference hosted at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, March 18–19, 2022. The Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Dr. Don Printz. Includes audience question and answer period. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute.

Recorded at the 2022 Austrian Economics Research Conference hosted at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, March 18–19, 2022. The Lou Church Memorial Lecture, sponsored by The Lou Church Foundation. Includes audience question and answer period. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute.

Recorded at the 2022 Austrian Economics Research Conference hosted at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, March 18–19, 2022. The F.A. Hayek Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Greg and Joy Morin. Includes audience question and answer period. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute.

Recorded at the 2022 Austrian Economics Research Conference hosted at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, March 18–19, 2022. The Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Yousif Almoayyed. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute.

Recorded at the 2022 Austrian Economics Research Conference hosted at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, March 18–19, 2022. The Murray N. Rothbard Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Steven and Cassandra Torello. Includes audience question and answer period. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute.

In this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken and Tho Bishop talk about this year's Austrian Economics Research Conference and the value of interdisciplinary approach. Watch AERC at Mises.org/LIVE Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at Mises.org/RadioRothbard.

In this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken and Tho Bishop talk about this year's Austrian Economics Research Conference and the value of interdisciplinary approach. Watch AERC at Mises.org/LIVE Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at Mises.org/RadioRothbard.

In this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken and Tho Bishop talk about this year's Austrian Economics Research Conference and the value of interdisciplinary approach. Watch AERC at Mises.org/LIVE Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at Mises.org/RadioRothbard.

In this episode, David sits down with Solomon and Drunk Rothbard to talk about their weekend at the Mises Institute attending the 2021 Austrian Economics Research Conference. We cover a potpourri of topics that were discussed at the conference.  Follow the guys on Twitter @Solomonnorred and @DrunkRothbard, and check out their Linktrees, https://linktr.ee/snorred and https://linktr.ee/drunkrothbard. Follow the show on Twitter, @LawofLibertyPod, @HoffFunk, and @StrattyD.  Join our Discord - https://discord.gg/VMcjZxw

Keith presented his Theory of Interest and Prices at the Mises' Austrian Economics Research Conference earlier this year. Described as one of the most interesting talks of the entire event, this episode includes his fifteen-minute presentation as well as some follow-up thoughts by Keith himself at the end.

The Lou Church Memorial Lecture, sponsored by the Lou Church Foundation. Recorded at the Mises Institute on March 23, 2019. Includes an introduction by Joseph T. Salerno. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute.

Sponsored by Steve and Cassandra Torello. Featuring David Gordon ("Hoppe and German Philosophy"), Mark Thornton ("Hoppe as Textbook Writer"), Stephan Kinsella ("Hoppe on Property Rights"), Thomas DiLorenzo ("Hoppean Political Economy vs. Public Choice"), Jörg Guido Hülsmann ("Hoppe as Mentor"), Joseph Salerno ("Hoppe and the Art of Economic Controversy"), and a response from Hans-Hermann Hoppe. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute.

The Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Hunter Lewis. Recorded at the Mises Institute on March 22, 2019. Includes an introduction by Joseph T. Salerno. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute. Lecture Text: In 1946, a book named Economics in One Lesson was written by a man who did not think it would have a great impact beyond the economic fallacies of his day. That amazing man was Henry Hazlitt. Now over one million copies have been sold and it remains in print. It is a personal honor to lecture about Hazlitt: He is one of my favorite writers on economics, political economy, and ethics. Economics in One Lesson, which was based in part on Bastiat's essay, “What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen,” debunks the most prominent economic fallacies of the past and the present, summing up economics as long-term versus ephemeral thinking. He wrote more than twenty books and was the principal editorial writer on finance and economics for The New York Times for twelve years and a columnist for Newsweek for twenty years. More importantly, his writing was thoughtful, incisive, and influential, and he played a significant role in supporting, introducing, and explaining the ideas of Mises and also Hayek. He is a stellar example of the impact one person can have on our society. My mentor, Dr. Bill Peterson (a student and colleague of Mises) and his wife Mary were good friends of Hazlitt, so although I never met Henry, I did receive first-hand knowledge of his life and work from the Petersons. I am thankful to Laura Bennett Peterson, Bill and Mary Peterson's daughter, for assisting me with this lecture. Laura grew up knowing Hazlitt and she has been exceptionally helpful with her knowledge and insights about him. Dr. Peterson was very complimentary of Hazlitt's writing and personal courage, especially when he opposed the Bretton Woods agreement. Hazlitt knew Bretton Woods would cause inflation. The New York Times had no interest in criticizing this agreement, and that sent Hazlitt looking for a new job. Hulsmann indicates in Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism that Hazlitt may have been one of Mises' first close American friends. In 1940, Hazlitt received a call from “Mises speaking,” and he described the encounter as if “John Stuart Mill were speaking.” This was the beginning of a long-term friendship between Hazlitt and Mises. By explaining economic theory, Hazlitt enabled many entrepreneurs to think clearly and correctly. Most of the time the world promotes compliance with existing ideas and punishes critical thinking and new ideas. This was Germany's mentality in the early 20th century, Mises was treated miserably because of what he thought; this is common today. Profound thinkers are rarely appreciated and often scorned. Today we are witnessing this in our universities, which were created for thinkers but now suppress original thoughts. This talk focuses on three of Hazlitt's central concerns: His book, The Foundations of Morality, established a high standard of morality. Current events demonstrate a widespread lack of morality in our society.His book, Thinking as a Science, elevates thinking to a new level. Today everyone is “thinking outside of the box.” The problem is, most people are not thinking most of the time.His book, Economics in One Lesson, introduces us to classical-liberal thinking, which is foreign to most Americans He wisely pointed out, along with Mises, that economics “is a description, explanation, or analysis of the determinants, consequences, and implications of human action and human choice.” Hazlitt's economic thinking is thus grounded on human behavior. The recent gyrations of the stock market, based on fears of tariffs or higher interest rates, illustrate how markets react in real time to the effects of current policies. Hazlitt was a giant in financial journalism, as noted in Jim Grant's Hazlitt lecture. But Hazlitt was also a public intellectual with unique insights on morality, thinking, and political economy. We will begin with Hazlitt's understanding of morality as embodying long-term thinking, his foundational theme. This is his most powerful message. Morality For Hazlitt, “morality is essentially, not the subordination of the ‘individual' to ‘society' but the subordination of immediate objectives to long-term ones.” Hazlitt realized that the long-term interests of the individual would serve the long-term interests of society. The long-term interests of the individual depend on social cooperation, as Hazlitt points out: “Social cooperation is the foremost means by which the majority of us attain most of our ends.” (The Foundations of Morality, 13) CAS stresses cooperation as the primary way we can progress as a company. It can be challenging and requires humility. We witness the parade of lobbyists seeking government favors: lobbyists from GM, the U.S. steel industry and Tesla, to name just a few. I might add our universities to this list, since the federal government helps to fund their excessive spending. These companies and institutions are rent seekers and tariff promoters. German and Asian automakers, which also manufacture in America, received no bailouts and don't want tariffs. In fact, BMW exports 75 percent of the SUVs it makes in South Carolina. Hazlitt reminds us to let the market decide, as “dying industries absorb labor and capital that should be released for growing industries.” Hazlitt believed that bailouts and tariffs are short-term solutions to long-term industry problems. Hazlitt's concept of morality can be summed up in two of his own sentences: “The conduct we call moral is the conduct we consider likely to lead to the most satisfactory situation in the long run.” And “immoral action is nearly always short-sighted action.” These important principles are lost on our society today. The challenge for entrepreneurs: We must focus on the long term in spite of tremendous pressure to think only over the short term. Markets are very competitive, and sometimes promote short-term thinking and solutions. But we know, short-term decisions can be very costly in the long run. It is imperative to teacher our students about Hazlitt. Many domestic steel manufacturers raised prices over this past year even higher than the steel tariffs. It did not work, Users take notice and take action. In the long term our domestic steel industry will be harmed by tariffs. This is human action in the marketplace. We are witnessing a parade of successful entrepreneurs, as well as leaders in all walks of life, fall from grace because they lacked morality. These individuals may have brilliant ideas, but they lost sight of the long term and failed to learn Hazlitt's most important lesson on morality: High integrity is required for the sustainability of an enterprise over the long term. Our society promotes and praises loud and unethical leaders such as Elizabeth Holmes, Elon Musk, but companies and investors suffer. Companies suffer because of these unethical individuals in charge: think of VW, Lehman Brothers, Tesla, and now Boeing. Conversely, Warren Buffet is not an Austrian Economist but he is an excellent investor, capital allocator has an exceptional reputation for honesty and became rich in the long run. Companies and Investors flock to him. The market requires moral leaders because the market cannot function without integrity. In addition to morality, Hazlitt makes the need for freedom very clear: This freedom applies to entrepreneurs: In order to have the freedom to succeed, we must have the freedom to fail. For Hazlitt, capitalism allows for freedom, It does not hinder freedom: Modern capitalism is not an inevitable or inescapable system but one that has been chosen by Americans. It is a system of freedom. In America, some 300 million people produce 24 percent of the world's goods. America leads the world in innovation, which is the essence of American exceptionalism. Too Many countries undermine freedom and the results are clear. The EU has slow growth and high unemployment. In Venezuela, freedom is denied to the point of starvation. There is concern that the free market creates inequities and failures. But Hazlitt points out that “a free-market system tends to give to every social group, and to every individual within each group, the value of what it or he has contributed to production.” Hazlitt sums it up perfectly. Socialists refuse to understand free markets. They fail to see that production is based on incentives, not coercion. Some politicians live off the fat of the land but hate producers, freedom and success. It would be entertaining to read what Hazlitt might write about the lunacy of the Green New Deal and massive government debt. Successful businesses must have a strong record of morality and must think long term to survive in a competitive marketplace. The CEO of Boeing would probably affirm this statement, at least right now. Unfortunately, Boeing's marketing group convinced the FAA the 737 Max was the same as the old reliable 737. This wasn't true. Even many pilots were not aware of the complexity of the new MCAS software. The FAA did not understand the new Boeing technology, so why are they regulating. The 737 Max's software relied on a single sensor, which failed. Some important safety features were sold as “options,” not standard equipment. Those options weren't chosen by Lion Air or Ethiopian Air, but you can count on them being standard in the future. Internal concerns from Boeing engineers and pilots' reports to the NASA system were ignored. Why? Boeing was focusing on competing with Airbus, which had the lead; morality and long-term thinking be damned. No one will ever think of Boeing in the same way and there could be criminal as well as civil liability. Lesson learned: One must bear in mind, as Hazlitt taught, the long-term consequences of conduct. Industries must be 100 % responsible 100 % of the time. Thinking H. L. Mencken described Hazlitt as "one of the few economists in human history who could really write." Hazlitt wrote well because he thought well. Hazlitt, affirms in his book, Thinking as A Science, that most people are not thinkers. I love Hazlitt's observation that if there is a problem and a solution is needed, “They want to look it up.”In today's world, they'd want to “Google it.” Too many of our educational institutions are propaganda centers and not cultivators of thinking people. Many institutions suppress thinkers and demand compliance with politically correct, non-thinking popular culture, which undermines an entrepreneurial America. I often tell our students and our interns: How you think will determine your future. Good thinking and cooperation are critical to making progress in life. Hazlitt was a great thinker by analyzing the long-term consequences of economic policies, such as tariffs and monetary and fiscal policy. He knew that our thinking will have major consequences, for good or evil. His book, The Failure of the New Economics, masterfully refutes Lord Keynes's General Theory by showing Keynes's theories as nothing more than bad thinking. Two great thinkers in the 20th century were the Wright brothers. The Wright brothers were successful in flight because they visualized the need for “suitable controls” to balance the plane once it is in the air. Our government sponsored Samuel Langley who failed to realize the need for suitable controls in flight. The Wright Brothers took no government money, they are a perfect future model for Entrepreneurs. Thinking ability is the greatest single advantage of the entrepreneur. “The greatest resource,” as Julian Simon put it, “is the human mind.” Thinkers in business applied the principles of “exit” and disruption. Think of technologist Balaji Srinivasin in genomics and mobile money, and of UBER, Airbnb, and self-driving cars. Harvard business professor Clayton Christensen is among those who have studied old industries that were disrupted by new companies with a better approach. Nucor Steel, an upstart in 1960 with its minimills, is now the largest steel company in the U.S. Our only task as entrepreneurs is to serve the user. CaptiveAire thinks in the long-term, continuously. Even with the steel tariffs in effect since 2018, CaptiveAire has refused to raise prices beyond our normal level. We gain market share because we think long-term, and we generate profits by always putting our users' interests first. We witness short-term ideas and fallacious claims every day. Socialism is being sold hard as a solution to a problem that does not exist in America.There is a Green New Deal to save our planet, which is doing pretty well.Debt and deficits do not matter, as long as interest rates are low. Congress does not even attempt to balance the budget.Free trade is portrayed as the enemy of prosperity but in fact it has made us rich. Hayek in The Road to Serfdom described those who would “buy” such fallacious claims as the gullible. Problems and solutions must be well-thought out and understood before changes are made. Good decisions require real thinking, which is hard and time-consuming.. Yet without good thinking, the consequences may be catastrophic. Long-Term Economics Hazlitt sets a clear path for entrepreneurs who think long term. The entrepreneur must make the hard decisions at the right time, based on the known facts that are often sparse in the creative world. In 1978, when we began making kitchen ventilation hoods, the machines to create more hoods faster did not exist… In 1983, the computerized hydraulic-press brakes we needed were invented by Darley in Holland. This technology revolutionized the sheet metal industry. Hydraulic-press brakes increased productivity four times and the now fully-automated machines produce eight times what they did in 1982. In 1988, international alloy prices were spiking, causing stainless steel prices to increase dramatically. My solution was to find an stainless steel product less vulnerable to volatile alloy price spikes. CaptiveAire adopted two important changes that transformed the industry: We light-weighted Commercial hoods, saving 20% of the metal.We changed the standard from 304 to 430 stainless steel, saving another 20%. In 2008, most of the food service industry adopted our 1988 standards using 430 metal when possible. CaptiveAire was a little-known manufacturer with sales of nine million dollars in 1988. These and other decisions propelled us to a half-billion dollars in sales last year. Changes are risky, but the long-term outcome was that CaptiveAire became the leading producer of commercial kitchen hoods in North America. In 1925, Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and President Calvin Coolidge applied a supposedly “scientific” method in determining the marginal federal income tax rate. They chose 25 percent. The decreased income tax rate helped America to enjoy the Roaring Twenties' economy. After the stock market crashed in 1929, Hoover prolonged the Great Depression by raising the marginal rate to 63 %. Tariffs averaged 40 % with the Smoot-Hawley Act. Hazlitt clearly describes the tax dilemma: When the total tax burden grows beyond a bearable size, the problem of devising taxes that will not discourage and disrupt production becomes insoluble. Hazlitt cautioned that tariffs do not raise the standard of living; they have the opposite effect, which we witness today. Tariffs are self-inflicted wounds and the current trade wars are slowing economic growth here and abroad. Growth is slowing internationally because of tariffs. On free trade, Hazlitt quotes Adam Smith: In every country it always is and must be the interest of the great body of people to buy whatever they want of those who sell the cheapest. Free trade should be intuitive, especially with the example of the 50 American states, which comprise the largest unilateral free-trade zone in history. But despite the value of free trade, large numbers of Americans believe tariffs raise our standard of living and create jobs. The steel tariffs under President George W. Bush were meant to help American steel companies, but ended up hurting even more companies and causing the loss of 200 thousand jobs in industries using steel. This exemplifies how a short-sighted policy hurts entire industries in the long term. Hazlitt's long-term approach is imperative for America. Three things we desperately need to think about in regard to the long term are: Eliminating fiscal deficitsEducating our childrenFocus on integrity to the market place, not special interests. These policies would greatly benefit our economy: The more the deficit Reducing Government spending allows more investment capital, allocated by entrepreneurs not government. The better our students are educated, the more productive our workforce will be. U.S. K-12 public schools are one of the largest monopolies in history. Costs are high, quality is low, discipline and character formation are gone. In America's public schools, you don't get what you pay for. In 2007, I opened a private K-12 chain of private schools named The Thales Academy. Hazlitt's morality, thinking, and long-term outcomes formed our philosophy. The Thales standard is the highest possible academic quality and character formation for each student at the lowest possible cost. The cost for K-5 is $ 5,000.00 per year and has not changed since the founding. Today we have 8 campuses and 3,100 students. My goal is to grow Thales to 25,000 students as an example of what can be done. The Thales model is changing the way parents think of K-12 education. One important lesson I have learned, which is contrary to conventional wisdom, is that it takes a very long time to establish a great company. And the process never ends! Individuals, companies, and our government must think about the long-term effects of their actions. Conclusion: Why Hazlitt Matters for the Entrepreneur Hazlitt states that an entrepreneur is "a capitalist willing to take unusual risks." His theories of morality and long-term economics are found in every story of a successful entrepreneur. When an entrepreneur is able to achieve excellence, society is benefited as a whole. However, the entrepreneur can only achieve excellence when freedom prevails. Calls for the government to provide its citizens with every necessity, whim, and craving lead to chaos. Venezuela is a leading example of this. This is why the moral entrepreneur is critical to the market: He is not concerned with garnering the most rights for himself, but rather gaining the most customers by serving. Hazlitt explains, “the rules of morality are those rules of conduct that tend most to increase human cooperation, happiness and well-being” The entrepreneur's morality directly correlates with society's well-being; the job is never done for entrepreneurs and economists. Hazlitt never went to college: his thoughts were not dependent on what he already knew, but rather on trying to explore things he did not know. Edwin Land affirmed this way of learning and thinking when he said: “Creativity begins at the edge of the known.” This is how successful entrepreneurs operate: They make guesses and take risks off of the edge of what they already know. They apply their thinking skills to make the best possible decisions using the information they have today to positively influence the long-term future. My Message to entrepreneurs: Maintain humility in realizing that you don't and can't know everything. In the words of Dr. Bill Peterson, “None of us get it all right.” No matter how much you know, it will always be a fraction of what is already known. In the 40 plus years that CaptiveAire has existed, we have made many mistakes but our policy is that if we are wrong, we pay the price, not our users. In 2016, we designed a new leading-edge Roof Top Heating and Cooling unit for commercial buildings. This new technology uses a modulating compressor so it's very efficient and can provide 100 % outside fresh air to buildings. We learned from past errors and elected to have a three-year BETA testing of this product. We know we are 100 % responsible for the performance of this product for the next 20 plus years. Hazlitt's long term philosophy does work in the market and it fact this is how the market works. Entrepreneurs aggressively seek new knowledge and rethink everything: they carry the torch of Hazlitt. We live at a time where Entrepreneurs & Producers are the villains and the heroes are the Government and Politicians. I quote Bill Peterson: “Entrepreneurs are every bit the heroes of our society.” I might add, the takers are the real villains. As we witness rallies and hear cheers for the short-term economic policies, we must think of the long-term to achieve the American dream. Hazlitt, Mises and Hayek lived in more challenging times, but our society is on the road to Serfdom unless the Austrian School prevails; as economic illiteracy rules the day. Hazlitt's morality through long-term thinking is hard to sell to the public because Human Nature lives in the present and wants it now. Our country's foundation is being shaken by the lack of and therefore it is imperative that we integrate long-term thinking into our homes, our schools, our places of work. I challenge you to take up the mantle of Hazlitt and be a courageous writer, debater and teacher of morality and long-term thinking. We could use an army of Hazlitts today: men and women of courage and wisdom, who are unafraid to speak and write the truth. I conclude with Hazlitt's words. The times call for courage. The times call for hard work. But if the demands are high, it is because the stakes are even higher. They are nothing less than the future of liberty, which means the future of civilization.

The F. A. Hayek Memorial lecture, sponsored by Greg and Joy Morin. Recorded at the Mises Institute on March 23, 2019. Includes an introduction by Joseph T. Salerno. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute.

The Murray N. Rothbard Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Don Printz. Includes and introduction by Joseph T. Salerno. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute.

The Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Yousif Almoayyed. Includes an introduction by Joseph T. Salerno. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition. The conference is hosted by the Mises Institute at its campus in Auburn, Alabama, and is directed by Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University and academic vice president of the Mises Institute.

At last month's Austrian Economics Research Conference, we were honored to be joined by Kevin Dowd, an Emeritus Professor of Economics at Nottingham University. Dowd presented a blistering critique of modern central bankers and their mania for monetary stimulus. In this excerpt from his talk, he explains how policies like negative interest rates not only reflect bad economic thinking, but also pose a danger to the civil liberties. What will the Fed and European Central Bank do next, if ersatz economic growth cools in a period of rising interest rates? Don't miss this masterful explanation of how central banks destabilize and distort every aspect of the economy.]]>

At last month's Austrian Economics Research Conference, we were honored to be joined by Kevin Dowd, an Emeritus Professor of Economics at Nottingham University. Dowd presented a blistering critique of modern central bankers and their mania for monetary stimulus. In this excerpt from his talk, he explains how policies like negative interest rates not only reflect bad economic thinking, but also pose a danger to the civil liberties. What will the Fed and European Central Bank do next, if ersatz economic growth cools in a period of rising interest rates? Don't miss this masterful explanation of how central banks destabilize and distort every aspect of the economy.

One of the highlights of our Austrian Economics Research Conference is the interaction between scholars and entrepreneurs, and the new ideas that such conversations spark. Here business consultant Hunter Hastings outlines how technological innovation is already making centralized "designed" systems obsolete, and how artificial intelligence opens up a whole new era of spontaneous order.