David Gordon is a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He was educated at UCLA, where he earned his PhD in intellectual history. He is the author of Resurrecting Marx: The Analytical Marxists on Exploitation, Free, and Justice, The Philosophical Origins of Austrian Economics, An Introduction to Economic Reasoning, and Critics of Marx. He is also editor of Secession, State, and Liberty and co-editor of H.B. Acton's Morals of Markets and Other Essays.
Dr. Gordon is the editor of The Mises Review, and a contributor to such journals as Analysis, The International Philosophic Quarterly, The Journal of Libertarian Studies, and The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.
Nearly every day brings new reports of the collapse of a large financial institution or the impending bankruptcy of a major company. Plans for bailouts and government intervention are in the air. Even those who profess devotion to free enterprise have wavered. Are we not faced with an emergency that calls for immediate action to "save" capitalism? Faced with this situation, we need to be more resolute than ever in defense of the free market, with no government restrictions whatever. If we do not defeat these measures, we face grave danger. The record of National Socialist Germany during the 1930s shows how quickly government intervention leads to full-scale socialism. Ludwig von Mises warned of this many years ago.
When President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler German Chancellor on January 30, 1933, people did not know what to expect as regards the economic policy of the new regime. There were disturbing signs that the National Socialists had radical reforms in mind. The "unalterable" 25 point 1920 program of the Party proposed, among other things, "that all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from work, be abolished"; "the nationalization of all trusts"; "profit-sharing in large industries"; and "an agrarian reform in accordance with our national requirements, and the enactment of a law to expropriate the owners without compensation of any land needed for the common purpose. The abolition of ground rents, and the prohibition of all speculation in land."
The "Kochtopus" is a derogatory name coined by the late Samuel Edward Konkin, III, an anarcho-libertarian, for the group of libertarian organizations funded by billionaire Charles Koch. (Konkin, a gifted wordsmith, also is responsible for the term "minarchism" for the libertarian view that accepts a minimal state.) Murray Rothbard often used this term when referring to organizations within the Koch ambit, with the Cato Institute foremost among them. To say the least, Rothbard’s enthusiasm for Cato was not unbounded; and employees of the Kochtopus often treat Rothbard with hostility and contempt. Further, the Kochtopus has displayed unremitting hostility toward the organization with which Rothbard was associated from 1982 until his death in 1995, the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
Few scholars approach Murray Rothbard’s immense learning in economics, history, politics, and philosophy. From all the books he read, Rothbard singled out a few that had most influenced him. His list, together with brief comments, is contained in a letter, dated January 24, 1994, with the heading "Books That Formed Me." The list tells us much about this remarkable mind.
As all readers of Rothbard know, he wrote in a sparkling, punchy style, ever alert to take the battle to the enemy. Here his model was H. L. Mencken, who he calls "my favorite single writer as a writer." He mentions in particular the collection A Mencken Chrestomathy, which he terms "a hilarious blockbuster." Mencken combined "social wit and libertarian social analysis," and this is just what Rothbard aimed at in his own work. Mencken wrote with clarity and force, in contrast with the woolly circumlocutions of most mainstream "social scientists." One of the worst offenders in this regard was Thorstein Veblen; and Rothbard found Mencken’s mordant demolition of Veblen, both as thinker and stylist, to be "one of the funniest and most perceptive essays on social science ever written."
The Economics and Ethics of Private Property: Studies in Political Economy and Philosophy. Second Edition. By Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2006. Xii + 433 pgs.
Hans Hoppe is a thinker of striking originality, and this excellent collection of his essays is filled with arguments: it is, as my great teacher Walter Starkie used to say, "packed with matter." I shall confine myself to a few of his points, but it would be an easy task to write several other reviews, each emphasizing completely different arguments.
Among libertarians, Hoppe is best known for his "argumentation ethics", his endeavor to show that acceptance of the principle of self-ownership is a demand of reason. Some people have objected not only to the details of Hoppe's argument but also to his entire project. The purpose of ethics, the objectors allege, is to guide action. If so, then a system of ethics must show why you have an interest in following its dictates. To motivate someone to do something, you must show that doing it is a means to his goals.
The Irrepressible Rothbard: The Rothbard-Rockwell Report Essays of Murray N. Rothbard Edited by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. Center for Libertarian Studies, 2000 xx + 431 pgs.
This indispensable selection of articles that Murray Rothbard wrote for the Rothbard-Rockwell Report contains the most insightful comment on foreign policy I have ever read. In a few paragraphs, Rothbard destroys the prevailing doctrine of twentieth-century American foreign policy.
According to the Accepted Picture, totalitarian powers twice threatened America during the past sixty years. Germany, under the maniacal leadership of Hitler, aimed at world conquest. When the United States and her allies succeeded in halting the Nazis, a new menace demanded attention.
