≡ Menu

Meeting Rothbard and Hoppe: John Randolph Club, 1994

At the Mises Supporters Summit 2023 this past weekend, a group of us visited the archive room, which was fascinating. Tons of material from Mises, Rothbard, and others. Pat Barnett was there and we were reminiscing. I mentioned the first time I met her and others like Rothbard, Hoppe, Rockwell, and so on, was at the John Randolph Club meeting in late 1994, just a few months before Rothbard died. The meeting was in Crystal City, Virginia, Oct. 21-22, 1994. I have mentioned this in previous writing, e.g. “How I Became a Libertarian,” in LFFS, p. 8; see also “Faculty Spotlight Interview: Stephan Kinsella”; KOL302 | Human Action Podcast with Jeff Deist: Hoppe’s Democracy; The Genesis of Estoppel: My Libertarian Rights Theory; My Failed Libertarian Speaking Hiatus; Memories of Mises Institute and Other Events, 1988–2019.

Pat found a copy of the original program and gave it to me, which I append here: PDF.

I was also able to get Rothbard to sign my copy of Man, Economy, and State, during a long, private conversation with him.

Share
{ 0 comments }
Play

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast: Episode 420.

From the recently-concluded Seventeenth Annual (2023) Meeting of the PFS, Bodrum, Turkey (Sep. 24, 2023). The slide presentation is streamed below (ppt). Video is also below.

Also podcast as Property and Freedom Podcast PFP265; see also the panel discussion later in the day (video below). [continue reading…]

Share
{ 3 comments }

Legal Foundations of a Free Society Published

My book Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023) has just been published. When I was mailing copies to some colleagues today, the UPS lady asked me how long it took me to write it. I said “about 30 years,” though in a sense, it is even longer than that. I’ve been studying libertarian ideas for over 40 years, and I wrote the articles in this book over the last 29 years. But a more accurate answer is: about a year. I’ve been working very hard on this for the last twelve months, and it’s gratifying, and a relief, to have it finally out.

For more details, see here.

One tidbit for the curious. Hoppe includes a sort of “Easter Egg” in his Foreword, when he ends with these words:

Henceforth, then, all essential studies in the philosophy of law and the field of legal theory will have to take full account of the theories and criticisms expounded by Kinsella.

This is a callback to Ludwig von Mises’s comments about his student/protege Murray Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State. Mises’s comment, from his 1962 review in New Individualist Review, reads:  “Henceforth all essential studies in these branches of knowledge will have to take full account of the theories and criticisms expounded by Dr. Rothbard.”

As Mises was Rothbard’s mentor, so Rothbard was Hoppe’s mentor, and Hoppe was my mentor, more or less, hence the clever callback.

Share
{ 1 comment }

Libertarian Answer Man: Voting, for Libertarians

Libertarian Answer Man time again!

I was asked a question about voting for Javier Milei, the soi-disant anarcho-capitalist or libertarian running for President in Argentina. I can certainly say that of the few videos and statements I’ve seen from the guy, he seems amazing, compared to any politician I’ve ever heard of. Since he seems to be familiar with Austrian economics and Rothbardian anarcho-libertarianism, and a scholar to boot.1 I doubt he get much of his radical programme enacted if elected, but even if he could dollarize the economy and stop hyperinflation, that would be a huge plus.2 [continue reading…]

  1. See his chapter “Capitalism, Socialism, and the Neoclassical Trap,” in David Howden & , eds., The Emergence of a Tradition: Essays in Honor of Jesús Huerta de Soto, Vol. II (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), which unfortunately has a prohibitive academic publisher price, but I hear rumors free copies can be found online. []
  2. For more on Milei, see Fernando Chiocca, “O grande triunfo da esquerda: uma direita socialista,” Instituto Rothbard (July 1, 2023); and Javier Milei, “El retiro de Bernanke y el futuro de los emergentes” (Sábado 3 de agosto, 2013). []
Share
{ 2 comments }

The Supreme Court’s recent decisions preventing colleges from using affirmative action—Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard College)—are wrong and unconstitutional. It’s a shame libertarians are in favor of this and sound like conservatives repeating dumb lines like “it should be merit oriented.” As if it was ever about merit: ever heard of legacy admissions or athletic admissions? Sure, mediocre-IQ Obama got into Harvard (racial affirmative action); but similarly mediocre-IQ George Bush got into Yale (legacy). Lower IQ football players get in and get scholarships too. So what?

It’s not about merit, or not only about merit; never was. Look at Harvard’s own website:

John Adams graduates

John Adams, future U.S. president, graduates. Before 1773, the graduates of Harvard were arranged in a hierarchy not of merit but “according to the dignity of birth, or to the rank of [their] parents.” By this rather undemocratic standard, Adams graduated 14th in a class of 24.

They also ignore federalism (the FedGov has no business regulating state universities) and constitutional problems with using the 14th Amendment to strike down state laws/actions they frown upon.1 Libertarians sound like clueless rah rah patriotic type dumb conservatives who romanticize the past and pretend we should “return” to a merit based higher education system. Return? Sounds half-racist. I understand why Blacks sense hypocrisy when whites whine about racial preferences—when legacy admissions have been tantamount to racial preferences for whites for a looooong time.

[continue reading…]

  1. See Libertarian Centralists; Incorporation and the Fourteenth Amendment: The 140 Year Old “Riddle”; other posts about libertarian centralism. []
Share
{ 2 comments }

KOL419 | Soho Forum Debate vs. Corey Deangelis: School Choice

Play

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast: Episode 419.

This is my Soho Forum debate held Aug. 21, 2023, in Manhattan, against Corey DeAngelis, of the American Federation for Children, moderated by Gene Epstein. I defended the resolution “Today’s school-choice movement in the U.S. is worthy of support by libertarians…” (taking the negative). Oxford debate rules applied which meant that whoever changed the most minds won. My side went from about 10 to 23 percentage points, gaining about 13; Corey went from about 45 to 64%, gaining about 19, so he won. I was pleased that we had an informative and civil debate about an important issue. (This is my second Soho debate; the first was KOL364 | Soho Forum Debate vs. Richard Epstein: Patent and Copyright Law Should Be Abolished.) My discussion notes are appended below. See also Reason.com article with video; Reason.com article with podcast. [continue reading…]

Share
{ 0 comments }
Play

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast: Episode 418.

This is a followup to KOL414 | Corporations, Limited Liability, and the Title Transfer Theory of Contract, with Jeff Barr: Part I. See that episode for more information and notes.

In Part III, we need to talk about corporations. For more on that, see Corporate Personhood, Limited Liability, and Double Taxation.

 

Share
{ 0 comments }
Play

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast: Episode 417.

Part 3 of my video commentary on Larken Rose’s recent comments on IP. For more information, see the description and links at KOL415: Commentary on Larken Rose, “IP: The Wrong Question”: Part 1.

Share
{ 0 comments }

© 2012-2024 StephanKinsella.com CC0 To the extent possible under law, Stephan Kinsella has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to material on this Site, unless indicated otherwise. In the event the CC0 license is unenforceable a  Creative Commons License Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License is hereby granted.

-- Copyright notice by Blog Copyright