WEBVTT

NOTE A Tribute to William H. Peterson, 1921-2012

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.320
I want to thank Lew Rockwell and the Mises Institute for doing this tribute to my friend

2
00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:09.640
Bill Peterson, who was truly a great man.

3
00:00:09.640 --> 00:00:14.000
There's a little book down in the library if you want to pick it up, Mises in America,

4
00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:20.560
which Lew helped Bill put together, gives you some of Bill's philosophy, and I think

5
00:00:20.560 --> 00:00:22.480
you'll enjoy it.

6
00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:27.920
Dr. Peterson was probably one of the best friends I've had in my lifetime, and I think

7
00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:32.920
I think anybody that was a friend with Bill for a period of time probably had a similar experience.

8
00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:35.120
He was a friend for life.

9
00:00:35.120 --> 00:00:37.720
He was a man of good humor.

10
00:00:37.720 --> 00:00:42.580
Every time he called me, which was probably three times a week, he began with a couple

11
00:00:42.580 --> 00:00:47.920
of jokes and he would laugh at his own jokes along with me.

12
00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:51.980
It always started things off in the right direction.

13
00:00:51.980 --> 00:00:58.220
And he had a very powerful intellect, but it was always grounded in reality, which I

14
00:00:58.220 --> 00:01:01.820
think is a very Austrian tradition.

15
00:01:01.820 --> 00:01:09.740
I first met Bill in 1989 at Campbell University when I was giving a talk on entrepreneurism

16
00:01:09.740 --> 00:01:12.900
to his students.

17
00:01:12.900 --> 00:01:15.400
And we quickly became friends.

18
00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:23.400
I enjoy the great benefits of his knowledge and expertise in Austrian economics and learn

19
00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:28.680
much from his writings as Tom DiLorenzo just referred to.

20
00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:32.760
One of the things he said about writing is writing is rewriting and he meant that we're

21
00:01:32.760 --> 00:01:39.400
constantly refining that message and Bill was powerfully good at doing that.

22
00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:47.520
In 1949 at New York University, Bill Peterson went to an evening class, not knowing Mises

23
00:01:47.520 --> 00:01:55.100
at all, never having heard of him, and there was Ludwig von Mises. And very quickly Mises

24
00:01:55.100 --> 00:02:02.000
began to ground him in free market economics. Prior to that time, Bill had no grounding

25
00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:07.300
whatsoever in free market economics. So we would say that Mises converted him to a great

26
00:02:07.300 --> 00:02:15.540
Austrian. Later on, they became colleagues, and Mises chose Bill to come to the seminars

27
00:02:15.540 --> 00:02:21.040
over the years, which was a very important part of the development of any of those individuals

28
00:02:21.040 --> 00:02:26.160
that attended the seminars, and now the Mises Institute has all that information available

29
00:02:26.160 --> 00:02:34.160
to share with everybody. Bill considered meeting Mises and having an opportunity to be a colleague

30
00:02:34.160 --> 00:02:39.240
as probably the most important and luckiest thing that happened to him in his lifetime,

31
00:02:39.240 --> 00:02:42.080
and by extension, the Mises Institute.

32
00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:48.480
He was very, very proud of the Mises Institute because it carried on the work of Mises, his

33
00:02:48.480 --> 00:02:52.560
great friend and economist.

34
00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:58.960
He was also very proud as a young man to work in the mailroom at IBM, and he had an opportunity

35
00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:05.160
wants to deliver mail to T.J. Watson Sr., one of the really great entrepreneurs of the

36
00:03:05.160 --> 00:03:07.760
20th century.

37
00:03:07.760 --> 00:03:13.260
And one thing he observed and remembered for the rest of his life was the fact that T.J.

38
00:03:13.260 --> 00:03:18.020
posted these think signs all over IBM at that time.

39
00:03:18.020 --> 00:03:24.080
And if you Google IBM think signs, you'll get a more detailed explanation on it.

40
00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:28.440
But it had a very profound impact on Bill.

41
00:03:28.440 --> 00:03:35.920
He later became the chief economist for US Steel and then speechwriter for then former

42
00:03:35.920 --> 00:03:39.320
Vice President Nixon in the early 60s.

43
00:03:39.320 --> 00:03:45.120
Of course he later lamented his disappointment in Nixon because of numerous violations, wage

44
00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:50.040
and price controls, violations of free market, and then of course Nixon calling himself a

45
00:03:50.040 --> 00:03:56.060
Keynesian, took him right over the top.

46
00:03:56.060 --> 00:04:02.180
In spite of that, Bill maintained his optimism throughout his entire life.

47
00:04:02.180 --> 00:04:07.620
He witnessed all these inept politicians, but he was still optimistic.

48
00:04:07.620 --> 00:04:12.000
When Ben Bernanke was appointed, I called him and I said, Bill, is there any reason

49
00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:14.360
for optimism here?

50
00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:20.380
His reply was succinct and profound, more of the same.

51
00:04:20.380 --> 00:04:21.460
And did he call it right?

52
00:04:21.460 --> 00:04:25.860
We got a lot more of the same from Bernanke.

53
00:04:25.860 --> 00:04:29.980
He was not engaged in any formal religion, but knowing that I was Catholic, he had a

54
00:04:29.980 --> 00:04:33.860
great respect for Catholic philosophy and truth.

55
00:04:33.860 --> 00:04:40.820
He was very well grounded in the truth, which is, I think, what made him such a great man.

56
00:04:40.820 --> 00:04:46.780
Our relationship was based on a mutual friendship, but what an ideal situation to have an Austrian

57
00:04:46.780 --> 00:04:49.220
economist and an entrepreneur.

58
00:04:49.220 --> 00:04:52.460
They worked together hand in glove.

59
00:04:52.460 --> 00:04:57.020
One of the things that I was going to suggest to you, Austrian economists, is to invite

60
00:04:57.020 --> 00:05:02.800
entrepreneurs into your inner circle, to your talks, because those entrepreneurs can help

61
00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:12.220
spread that message, and they also have the resources to help the Austrian School of Economics.

62
00:05:12.220 --> 00:05:18.900
I think Dr. Bill's greatest contribution was his follow-up on Mises' idea of America's

63
00:05:18.900 --> 00:05:25.060
Other Democracy. Now we know what that is. It's the free market. And Bill always pointed

64
00:05:25.060 --> 00:05:32.060
out that it was a plebiscite that went on every second of every single day. And with

65
00:05:32.620 --> 00:05:38.820
the dollars, the consumer decides what entrepreneurs and what products will be successful, unlike

66
00:05:38.820 --> 00:05:44.880
our political democracy where we get to vote every two years or every four years. And of

67
00:05:44.880 --> 00:05:50.080
And of course, as we know, the choices aren't very good.

68
00:05:50.080 --> 00:05:54.240
Some of you may remember seeing Bill at the Mises Conference at Jekyllow, which is on

69
00:05:54.240 --> 00:05:56.440
the Federal Reserve.

70
00:05:56.440 --> 00:06:00.920
If there's one thing that Bill disliked, it was the Federal Reserve system.

71
00:06:00.920 --> 00:06:09.160
He knew a chapter and verse because he realized how much destruction it caused.

72
00:06:09.160 --> 00:06:14.560
Bill, knowing that I had started a number of public charter and private schools, dubbed

73
00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:17.360
of these schools, the Luddy Schools.

74
00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:19.240
And one of the things he did is said,

75
00:06:19.240 --> 00:06:21.440
you need to get these IBM think signs

76
00:06:21.440 --> 00:06:22.760
and get them all over the place

77
00:06:22.760 --> 00:06:27.440
because the purpose of education is to learn how to think

78
00:06:27.440 --> 00:06:30.120
and it's not working too well in our public system.

79
00:06:30.120 --> 00:06:32.960
So he brought that theme back rather robustly

80
00:06:32.960 --> 00:06:35.880
to our schools and it was very helpful.

81
00:06:35.880 --> 00:06:38.660
Touching on a couple of his favorite sayings,

82
00:06:38.660 --> 00:06:41.000
no free lunch.

83
00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:46.400
and I saw him drive this theme home to our employees and they still remember when I say

84
00:06:46.400 --> 00:06:51.960
Bill Peterson they can recite almost chapter and verse what he said because if Bill had

85
00:06:51.960 --> 00:06:56.280
something on his mind and he wanted to teach it to you, you are going to learn it, whether

86
00:06:56.280 --> 00:06:59.240
you are interested in it or not.

87
00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:02.440
He was not going to give up.

88
00:07:02.440 --> 00:07:05.560
Money Rots was another favorite one.

89
00:07:05.560 --> 00:07:11.820
On the more optimistic side, always he came back with, we shall overcome, was a constant

90
00:07:11.820 --> 00:07:14.280
refrain from Bill Peterson.

91
00:07:14.280 --> 00:07:21.200
And of course he loved opportunity cost, almost the essence of Austrian economics.

92
00:07:21.200 --> 00:07:26.360
Another statement he made to me is conventional wisdom is wrong, or it's going to be wrong.

93
00:07:26.360 --> 00:07:30.660
So he realized the dynamic nature of our society.

94
00:07:30.660 --> 00:07:36.380
And of course he loved America's other democracy, and some of you may know that some economists

95
00:07:36.380 --> 00:07:41.660
had said, well I've got all the economic theories on one page outlined. Bill said I can top

96
00:07:41.660 --> 00:07:49.060
that in one word, price. Price action tells us almost everything about economics. Bill

97
00:07:49.060 --> 00:07:57.300
retired in 1993 to the Watergate in the city that he dubbed Sin City, which as we know

98
00:07:57.300 --> 00:08:06.260
and he spent the remainder of his life with his wife Mary and daughter Laura lived downstairs

99
00:08:06.260 --> 00:08:12.380
and she sends her greetings today and there'll be some comments from Lew Rockwell from her.

100
00:08:12.380 --> 00:08:19.600
When he retired his one intention was to write a book about America's other democracy but

101
00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:25.780
somehow that book never got written or never got finished so I would like to challenge

102
00:08:25.780 --> 00:08:34.780
I encourage you, Austrian economists, to consider maybe picking that up because most people in this country today do not understand what makes America great.

103
00:08:34.780 --> 00:08:41.780
You understand it, you can recite it chapter and verse, but the average American has no remote idea.

104
00:08:41.780 --> 00:08:53.780
So in closing, I want to offer my thanks to all of you Austrian economists for the enormous contribution that you're making to our civil society.

105
00:08:53.780 --> 00:09:05.780
And I want to salute Bill Peterson and all of you Austrians for making a huge difference in our society and giving us the long-term hope and the optimism from Bill Peterson.

106
00:09:05.780 --> 00:09:09.780
And I ask God to shower his blessings on each and every one of you. Thank you.