WEBVTT NOTE Mises Around the World 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.600 It's a great pleasure to be at the Mises Institute. 2 00:00:02.600 --> 00:00:05.600 It's a great pleasure to finally present the Mises biography, 3 00:00:05.600 --> 00:00:07.440 which was so long in the working, 4 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:11.600 and I cannot possibly even try to thank all the people 5 00:00:11.600 --> 00:00:14.820 who helped me bringing this work about. 6 00:00:14.820 --> 00:00:16.900 I have two pages of acknowledgments, 7 00:00:16.900 --> 00:00:20.100 which do not full justice to those who do it, 8 00:00:20.100 --> 00:00:21.940 but let me just say this one thing, 9 00:00:21.940 --> 00:00:24.900 that the whole project would not have been even started 10 00:00:24.900 --> 00:00:27.680 without the encouragement, again, of Lew Rockwell. 11 00:00:27.680 --> 00:00:29.120 So, thank you very much. 12 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:42.120 The Mises Institute is celebrating its 25th anniversary, which is magnificent. 13 00:00:42.120 --> 00:00:47.120 I wasn't even alive 25 years ago. 14 00:00:47.120 --> 00:00:52.120 At least, that's what Walter Block tells me all the time. 15 00:00:52.120 --> 00:00:58.120 And he assures me that he's my Jewish mother. 16 00:00:58.120 --> 00:01:05.120 I promise you, at Christmas, I'll have a talk to my father about this. 17 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:21.120 And then we have always these wonderful conferences, and I'm aware that I'm about the last thing to stand in your way between, well, this wonderful talk by John Danson and Lew Rockwell's speech, and then finally the open bar. 18 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:31.360 So, let me just apply one insight that I've gained by listening to Judge Napolitano's speech on yesterday evening, 19 00:01:31.360 --> 00:01:35.700 when he highlighted the importance of the Constitution by saying something like, 20 00:01:35.700 --> 00:01:42.440 it's the Fourth Amendment that stood between the U.S. government here and the taxpayer there. 21 00:01:42.440 --> 00:01:47.280 The Fourth Amendment, so it's a little bit the same thing with the Mises Institute. 22 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:53.280 The only thing that stands between the U.S. government there and the poor taxpayers is the Mises Institute. 23 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:07.280 As far as ideological justification is concerned. So we're giving them a hard time. We're working on this. 24 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:16.280 Now my talk, the title of my talk is Mises Around the World and well, I guess of course what you guys want to know about is the world outside of the U.S. 25 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:23.160 outside of the US, but the world is much larger than the US, which you have known since your 26 00:02:23.160 --> 00:02:35.160 army marched into Iraq and various other places. But for most people outside of the US, it's 27 00:02:35.160 --> 00:02:39.760 the other way around. So the US is part of this wonderful world that you can discover. 28 00:02:39.760 --> 00:02:45.400 And so it was for me when I first came across Austrian economics, I was so fascinated by 29 00:02:45.400 --> 00:02:51.400 I could not prevent myself from basing an entire doctoral dissertation on this work, 30 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:56.400 and I was firmly convinced that you have to go after the truth, and that's, after all, what science is all about. 31 00:02:56.400 --> 00:03:04.400 Of course, at that time, I had no friends in academia who could have laughed at me and said, 32 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:09.400 well, you are pretty naive, you have the least idea what academia is all about. 33 00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:21.400 Well, in any case, so they would have been right, yeah? So I was going after the truth, but I had the good sense of having my ex-girlfriend, now my wife, 34 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:36.400 who was a little bit more concerned than I was about other things but truth, simply things like, well, who will pay the next bill? 35 00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:43.400 And so she writes, well it might be actually a good idea to present this work to somebody who might actually be interested in it. 36 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:51.400 My doctoral committee was not really exactly enthusiastic about it, so they had to give me a little bit anyway. 37 00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:57.400 And so Natalie suggested that I get in touch with some people who might be interested in this. 38 00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:26.400 I got to know that the Mises Institute was organizing a 100th birthday tribute to Henry Hazlitt, who had just died the year before at the age of 99. 39 00:04:26.400 --> 00:04:34.120 in 1999. So that was in the fall of 1994 and I signed up for this and in preparation 40 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:40.800 of the event sent three letters to three distinct Misesian scholars that I had discovered through 41 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:49.900 my readings, Murray Rothbard, Israel Kirzner and Bettina Greaves. Now guess who was the 42 00:04:49.900 --> 00:04:56.320 only one to ever reply to my letters? Of course, Bettina Greaves. Thank you very much. 43 00:04:56.320 --> 00:04:58.320 Thank you very much, Bettina. You're serious. 44 00:05:04.320 --> 00:05:11.320 Yeah, so Bettina then introduced me to everybody who was there, and then at the end of the evening I got to talk to Murray Rothbard, 45 00:05:11.320 --> 00:05:18.320 who unfortunately died a few weeks later, and all people here at the Mises Institute are being very nice to me. 46 00:05:18.320 --> 00:05:23.320 They always have told me that there was no causal relation involved. 47 00:05:23.320 --> 00:05:34.320 So at any case I was so happy to meet Murray Rothbard at least once in my life and I will be able to talk about this to my children and children's children and so on. 48 00:05:34.320 --> 00:05:43.320 I will bug you about this at the 50th anniversary and 75th anniversary and so on when I'll be about 59 years old, according to Walter Block. 49 00:05:43.320 --> 00:06:06.320 Yeah, and then, so I got to meet the rest of the Mises Institute faculty and got to meet those people who I only knew through writings and for every young scholar, that's one of the most significant events in one's life when one finally gets to meet the people in person whom one has only admired through their writings. 50 00:06:06.320 --> 00:06:19.040 Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Walter Block, Tom DiLorenzo, Robert Higgs, Barry Smith, David Gordon, Jeff 51 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:28.800 Herbiner, Joseph Salerno, Mark Thornton, these were all the Gaians of Liberty, now they take 52 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:33.680 the little German fellow from the woods. 53 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:40.340 And then, two years later, Lew Rockwell started, well, he asked me to write this, start working 54 00:06:40.340 --> 00:06:49.240 on a Mises biography, and the main reason why I did this was because Hans Hoppe refused. 55 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:55.920 And honestly, again, if I had known how much work was involved, I would have refused too, 56 00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:56.920 probably. 57 00:06:56.920 --> 00:07:06.920 And then, yeah, so then came a very painful 10 years, right, and then as from 2000 or so in 2001, and then John Danson would ask me every three months, 58 00:07:06.920 --> 00:07:16.920 so how, Guido, how is the Mises biography coming? Oh, very well, sir. It's really painful. You just don't get to the end. 59 00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:22.920 You see the light of the tunnel. At least you believe it's some light. It's not the fog or whatever. Yeah. 60 00:07:22.920 --> 00:07:29.920 and so i'm so i cannot tell you how happy i am that this project is finished 61 00:07:30.880 --> 00:07:37.880 women know how difficult it is to bear children but it's only nine months 62 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:47.200 okay so now we've got to talk so this this was the new world that i 63 00:07:47.200 --> 00:07:49.480 discovered and it is still the world 64 00:07:49.480 --> 00:07:53.600 that all Austrians from outside of the US start discovering 65 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:56.920 because the Mises Institute is the natural place to turn to 66 00:07:56.920 --> 00:07:59.480 once one gets interested in these kinds of ideas. 67 00:07:59.480 --> 00:08:02.480 And I'll come to talk a little bit more about this 68 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:03.320 in a minute. 69 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:08.920 But so let me first say something general 70 00:08:08.920 --> 00:08:10.680 about the impact of the Mises Institute. 71 00:08:10.680 --> 00:08:12.480 And I'll by and large just restate 72 00:08:12.480 --> 00:08:17.480 what Ron Paul said this lunch today 73 00:08:17.480 --> 00:08:26.840 in his wonderful speech, which he stated in his usually humble way, which so endears him to us, 74 00:08:27.880 --> 00:08:34.680 that in fact he's just bringing the troops together, and that's exactly correct. All that 75 00:08:34.680 --> 00:08:39.640 politics can do, I mean it would be completely wrong to infer from, despite all his merits, 76 00:08:39.640 --> 00:08:45.240 that Ron Paul, by just giving a few speeches and making a few ever-beats of brilliant TV 77 00:08:45.240 --> 00:09:15.240 Appearances creates a movement. That would be wrong. The movement is there. What Ron Paul does is to bring the people together, to create a focus, a rallying ground. But the movement is already there. It's latent. It's what's just waiting for the person who brings this all together. And he sees this very clearly. So the question is, so what prepares the ground? What creates the movement in the first place? Well, and then the simple answer is it's things like the Mises Institute. 78 00:09:15.240 --> 00:09:22.240 and it's not only things like the Mises Institute, I would say so, it's the Mises Institute quite essentially. 79 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:31.240 When Ron Paul drives through the country and you have students being enthusiastic about the prospect of abolishing the IRS, 80 00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:34.240 it's not because they've listened to Ron Paul for two minutes. 81 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:41.240 Well, it's because they've been confronted to materials being diffused, distributed by the Mises Institute for years 82 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:51.240 and being confronted to books being published by the Mises Institute and similar editors but especially online by the Mises Institute for many years. 83 00:09:51.240 --> 00:10:03.240 So these latent forces have been prepared by a word that is 25 years in the making. 84 00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:10.240 That's the role of the Mises Institute, preparing the ground for, well, final political change. 85 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:23.240 And even so, I'm very optimistic in the long run, even if Ron Paul should not succeed this time, he should not be the president, I mean there are worse things than not being the US president. Don't get me wrong. 86 00:10:23.240 --> 00:10:38.240 There are worse things. But even if he doesn't succeed this time, well, if we continue our work and if we prepare the ground ever further to permeate public thought, public opinion on these politically relevant questions, 87 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:51.240 In the coming sessions, there will one day be a person who will bring the troops together and just get rid of all that is despicable in politics, even if he's not as brilliant as Ron Paul is. 88 00:10:51.240 --> 00:10:59.240 So that's the role of the Mises Institute in general, and this impact is being felt outside of the U.S. just as well. 89 00:10:59.240 --> 00:11:05.240 Ideas are a wonderful factor of production. It's the one factor of production that doesn't wear. 90 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:10.240 Any other thing, any other machine or work and so on needs to be replaced in time. 91 00:11:10.240 --> 00:11:14.240 It cannot be shared indefinitely, but ideas can. 92 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:20.240 One idea, one recipe used by an American can be used by a million other Americans, 93 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:24.240 but can be used by every single other person outside of the US. 94 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:27.240 Ideas don't wear and they're universal. 95 00:11:27.240 --> 00:11:34.240 And ideas are being shared by the Mises Institute in a magnificent way through three main vehicles. 96 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:44.240 One is the website about which Jeff Tucker talked this afternoon of the wonderful institution of the internet and all the technology that comes with it. 97 00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:48.240 And we have the conferences for professional audiences. 98 00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:54.240 And then we have in particular, and that's the main mission of the Mises Institute, our educational programs. 99 00:11:54.240 --> 00:12:01.280 programs, here in particular the Summer University, but also Summer Fellowships, which give young 100 00:12:01.280 --> 00:12:07.280 talented people the opportunity to work with senior scholars in Austrian economics. And 101 00:12:07.280 --> 00:12:12.920 the results of this have been spectacular. So, I have been associated with the Mises 102 00:12:12.920 --> 00:12:27.120 of this institute since the age of 14 approximately, according to Walter Block, and in these past 103 00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:30.040 ten years the progress has been tremendous. 104 00:12:30.040 --> 00:12:35.480 What I'll go through with you now is just a short list, but I'll just go through the 105 00:12:35.480 --> 00:12:40.720 impact that I have personally experienced coming through, having been instigated through 106 00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:58.720 The true impact of the Mises Institute is much larger, much more tremendous because I'm just a little part of the whole movement of the whole faculty and there are many more people around the world who have been inspired in other ways by the Mises Institute. 107 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:10.720 So we have, as far as the people with whom I have worked, I think one example would be Spain, right, where we have our summer fellow, several times, Gabrielle Casada. Could you please stand up, Gabrielle? 108 00:13:10.720 --> 00:13:28.720 Gabriel Casada Alvarez is a magnificent scholar, a very handsome person, which is very important, not for ideas, but for public relations. 109 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:41.720 It's stupid, but look, I mean, why did Keynesianism gain such a hold in the US? Well, it was among other things because John Kenneth Galbraith did not look like Marty Feldman. 110 00:13:41.720 --> 00:14:10.720 And Gabriel has established, three and a half years ago, an institute called after Juan de Mariana, a medieval scholastic, who was a proto-libertarian, and Gabriel is pursuing an Austro-libertarian agenda relentlessly, and has tremendous success in Spain in TV appearances, news comments, newspaper appearances, and so on. 111 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:40.720 newspaper appearances and so on. It's an incredible achievement. Then we have in Belgium one summer fellow who is not here with us tonight. Her name is Cécile Philippe. She's a young French woman and she has established also an institute which is called economic institute, Gustave Molinari, after a French, sorry a Belgian, Austrian, 112 00:14:40.720 --> 00:15:10.720 Well, proto-Austrian, but in any case libertarian, the first economist ever to consider the private production of security, security production without the state, and Cecile is doing also a tremendous job, she's president of the media, has also a few TV appearances, but is quoted constantly in the press in, well, Francophone countries, which we don't get to notice here because we're not in Quebec, at least not yet, 113 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:13.760 But she is having her input in the French-speaking world. 114 00:15:13.760 --> 00:15:18.720 Then in the Czech Republic, we have people like Joseph Schima, 115 00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:23.920 Jan Havel, and others who are, again, very successful. 116 00:15:23.920 --> 00:15:28.360 They are actually, they are the majority 117 00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:35.240 in an entire department of the largest economics university 118 00:15:35.240 --> 00:15:39.280 in the country, which is the University of Economics 119 00:15:39.280 --> 00:15:45.800 in Prague, and they run this university actually, and so they have wonderful programs from undergraduate 120 00:15:45.800 --> 00:15:50.120 or master's programs, doctoral studies and so on, sending us their students to the U.S. 121 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:55.240 but also doing wonderful work in their own right and having a tremendous impact in Central 122 00:15:55.240 --> 00:16:03.040 Europe. Then in Poland, there is a Polish Mises Institute, okay, Mises Institute, I 123 00:16:03.040 --> 00:16:08.780 cannot pronounce this in Polish, which is run also by a former Mises Institute summer 124 00:16:08.780 --> 00:16:12.780 My fellow, Mateusz Makai and Julius. 125 00:16:18.780 --> 00:16:20.780 So I don't speak in vain. 126 00:16:21.780 --> 00:16:26.780 Their fans are everywhere. You've got to be very careful not to say anything bad about them. 127 00:16:27.780 --> 00:16:35.780 And so they do the same thing of publications and media appearances and translations, a wonderful job. 128 00:16:35.780 --> 00:16:44.780 In Romania there is another Mises Institute, also established by former Mises fellows and summer fellows. 129 00:16:44.780 --> 00:16:48.780 They are having a similar impact in Romania. 130 00:16:48.780 --> 00:16:54.780 We are having in Georgia, which was one of my greatest surprises during my years at the Mises Institute, 131 00:16:54.780 --> 00:17:00.780 we are having a free market institute being established by two of our summer fellows, 132 00:17:00.780 --> 00:17:06.220 fellows which we accepted at the time with some mixed feelings because it was 133 00:17:06.220 --> 00:17:09.820 hard to tell how much English they actually spoke. 134 00:17:09.820 --> 00:17:13.820 Okay, the letters were not really English that we received 135 00:17:13.820 --> 00:17:17.100 and then I had them on the phone it was not much better but in any case I had 136 00:17:17.100 --> 00:17:21.340 some other feeling while these guys were really hot for 137 00:17:21.340 --> 00:17:25.500 free market economics and they wanted to know something completely different from 138 00:17:25.500 --> 00:17:29.340 what they were commonly offered and they arrived here 139 00:17:29.340 --> 00:17:37.540 spent a summer in Auburn and truly improved their English but especially became tremendously 140 00:17:37.540 --> 00:17:42.860 enthusiastic about Austrian economics and then upon their return immediately set up 141 00:17:42.860 --> 00:17:49.660 this think tank which is now a tremendous success, teaching programs, application programs 142 00:17:49.660 --> 00:17:56.020 stretching over three countries in this area, Azerbaijan which is a Muslim country, Armenia 143 00:17:56.020 --> 00:18:02.260 is Christian, George is also Christian, and running seminars with Mises Institute fellows 144 00:18:02.260 --> 00:18:07.940 like Hans Hoppe and others, it's a tremendous success. 145 00:18:07.940 --> 00:18:14.300 And then in France, well, okay, France is of course a very difficult ground. 146 00:18:14.300 --> 00:18:19.340 But well, at least there are a few things, and again, I mean there are others, but this, 147 00:18:19.340 --> 00:18:25.980 but I will just mention those who are involved, so I set up a private research seminar dedicated 148 00:18:25.980 --> 00:18:32.580 to Austrian Economics, and in the seminar we have three or four university professors 149 00:18:32.580 --> 00:18:39.400 and various people who already got their PhD and other doctoral students, most of whom 150 00:18:39.400 --> 00:18:43.440 have been in one way or another associated already with the Mises Institute. So there 151 00:18:43.440 --> 00:18:50.720 too I could rely for my crying out in the wilderness on the work that has been performed 152 00:18:50.720 --> 00:19:00.720 And last but not least, there are even Austrian economists in Austria, of all places. 153 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:08.720 I remember well, nine years ago, I gave a talk at the Austrian Scholar's Conference, 154 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:15.720 and one of the first talks I gave in the US, and I said, well, so, there are Austrian economists everywhere but in Austria, 155 00:19:15.720 --> 00:19:45.720 in Austria. So I got the polite laughter from my colleagues. That's a nice beginning. And at the time, it actually was true. There were no Austrian economists in Austria. But today, we have a handful of young men and women very dedicated to the cause. And they are, again, tremendously successful with what they're doing. It's all internet based. And they're offering courses, conferences, teaching seminars, publications. And it's again, it's really wonderful. 156 00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:53.720 and again, it would not have been possible without the work that is being carried on by the Mises Institute. 157 00:19:53.720 --> 00:19:57.720 So far I've been just talking about individuals. 158 00:19:57.720 --> 00:20:05.720 Sometimes I get the question, okay, so what about, sorry, but I've been just talking about institutions, what about individuals? 159 00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:11.720 One question that has been addressed to me during this conference was, okay, so who is the next Rothbard? 160 00:20:11.720 --> 00:20:18.720 Okay. Well, I mean, the Rothbards don't come along each day, right? That's a more tricky business. 161 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:24.720 And actually, I am firmly convinced that, well, about two things. 162 00:20:24.720 --> 00:20:32.720 First of all, if there's the next Mises or the next Rothbard, he wouldn't need us necessarily to do, well, to help him. 163 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:37.720 He would find his way anyway. And the best thing we can do is just stand out of the way. 164 00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:44.720 The second thing is that actually in many cases it's difficult to tell who will be the next Mises or the next Rothbard. 165 00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:55.720 In the case of Mises, for example, few people were actually convinced that he was tremendous intellectual when he was just 50 or 55 or 60 years old. 166 00:20:55.720 --> 00:21:02.720 Most people thought, well, he was pretty good and pretty brilliant, but there were a few other brilliant people around, so it was nothing particular. 167 00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:09.720 nd the next works by my friends Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Tom DiLorenzo and Joseph Salerno. 168 00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:36.720 Well, my growth, great hopes are there, but I wouldn't exclude any of the other ones. 169 00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:38.720 So, we've got to wait. 170 00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:45.720 And among the younger people, again, we have Mises Institute fellows who have already done great work. 171 00:21:45.720 --> 00:21:53.720 And among Americans, I would just mention three, especially Tom Woods, who is now happily working at the Mises Institute, 172 00:21:57.720 --> 00:22:01.720 who is not an economist, but nobody's perfect after all. 173 00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:24.720 Robert Murphy, who to his great credit didn't get a teaching job at a state university or state college, and Edward Stringham, who got one and has also been associated with the Mises Institute. 174 00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:31.720 Okay, there are more, but here I just mentioned the three who are most outspoken, most enthusiastically Austrian. 175 00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:36.720 Outside of, and that is probably because conditions are particularly bad in the US, right? 176 00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:47.720 Especially as far as economics is concerned, those of you who are academic economists know that, well, there's a kind of religion prevailing in the economics department. 177 00:22:47.720 --> 00:22:53.720 Either you are a neoclassical number cruncher or you are a philosopher. You don't belong. 178 00:22:53.720 --> 00:23:04.720 into the department, which makes it virtually impossible for anybody who doesn't go, doesn't pet the party line to be hired or to get tenure. 179 00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:15.720 Elsewhere, outside of the US, conditions are sometimes a little bit more favorable and as a consequence we have a couple of brilliant young people who might be the next Mises or the next Rothbard, 180 00:23:15.720 --> 00:23:21.720 who have been doing excellent work and I will just mention a few names. So we have in the Czech Republic Josef Schima, 181 00:23:21.720 --> 00:23:36.720 We have in France Nikolai Gurchev, we have Bogdan Glavan in Romania, Diana Kosta in Romania, Mateusz Makaj in Poland, Philip Bargos in Germany, Mario Spiridon in Romania. 182 00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:46.720 All of these, and I could continue the list with another five or ten names, and all of these guys are doing brilliant work, and they've all been summer fellows. 183 00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:52.720 So, all been part, all been products of the Mises Institute's mission of preparing the ground. 184 00:23:52.720 --> 00:24:01.720 So, ladies and gentlemen, I'll conclude here, just say, well, that your support is absolutely crucial to continue this work. 185 00:24:01.720 --> 00:24:10.720 And whatever you do, because ideas are a special, very special effect of production, it doesn't wear. 186 00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:18.720 Whatever your impact is, whatever your support is, your contribution is, it will necessarily carry far beyond the borders of the United States. 187 00:24:19.720 --> 00:24:25.720 Ron Paul may be the hope for America. Mises Institute is the hope for the world. Thank you. 188 00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:42.720 Thank you very much.