Twenty two students have had their papers accepted for presentation at this year’s ASSC, February 24-25. If you’d like to join them, submit your proposal in the next few days. Undergraduate and graduate students working within the Austrian tradition in any academic discipline are welcome to apply. The conference will pay for hotel rooms and meals at the conference and provide stipends to cover some travel expenses. Cash prizes of $1,000, $750, and $500 will be awarded to the top three papers.

Grove City College will host the eighth annual ASSC, February 24-25, 2012. Open to undergraduates and graduate students in any academic discipline, the ASSC will bring together students from colleges and universities across the country and around the world to present their own research papers written in the tradition of the great Austrian School intellectuals such as Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Murray Rothbard, and Hans Sennholz. Accepted papers will be presented in a regular conference format to an audience of students and faculty.

Keynote lectures will be delivered by Drs. Guido Hülsmann and Philipp Bagus.

Cash prizes of $1,000, $750, and $500 will be awarded for the top three papers, respectively, as judged by a select panel of Grove City College faculty. Students should submit their proposals to present a paper to the director of the conference (jmherbener@gcc.edu) by January 1. To be eligible for the cash prizes, finished papers should be submitted to the director by January 15.

The seventh annual Austrian Student Scholars Conference will be held at Grove City College, February 18-19, 2011. The conference brings together students from across the country and Europe to present their original research papers written in the Austrian tradition. Stipends are available to cover expenses and cash prizes are paid to the top three papers. Keynote speakers are Joe Salerno and Bob Murphy. Students should submit their proposals to the director by January 1.

The sixth annual Austrian Student Scholars Conference will be held at Grove City College, October 30-31. Students from universities across America and Europe will present their own research within the Austrian tradition. Cash prizes for the three best papers will be awarded again this year. Featured speakers are Walter Block and Ben Powell. Students should submit their papers for presentation at the conference to the director by October 1. More information is here.

Twenty five students from from ten universities in the U.S., Canada, Spain, and Denmark presented papers during the fifth annual Austrian Student Scholars Conference at Grove City College last weekend. First Prize of $1,000 in the contest for best papers went to John Singleton of Colorado University, Denver for his paper, “Rivalrous Competition and the Development of Efficient Legal Institutions.” David Howden of Rey Juan Carlos University won Second Prize of $750 for his paper, “Time Preference and Money: A Dynamic Reappraisal” and Dmitriy Kha of Suffolk University won Third Prize of $500 for his paper, “Hyperinflation Chaos and Its Impact on Economic Calculation: Evidence from the Zimbabwean Experience.” The papers and the outstanding keynote lectures by Ed Stringham and Bob Higgs will be posted soon on the conference webpage.

The fifth annual Austrian Student Scholars Conference will be held at Grove City College, October 31-November 1. Students from across the country will present their own research within the Austrian tradition. Cash prizes for the three best papers will be awarded again this year. Featured speakers are Bob Higgs and Ed Stringham. Students should submit their papers for presentation at the conference to the director (jmherbener@gcc.edu) by October 1. More information is here .

State interference in education usurps the child’s rights and displaces the custodial role of the parents in exercising those rights. That the state would seize the custodial rights from the parents demonstrates that it has its own interests in mind. The state must resort to force because neither the child nor the parents want the natural arrangement to be overturned. Because the state rests on compulsion its activity extinguishes the very basis for the development of the personalities of children, which is freedom.

Moreover, state officials lack the knowledge of and concern for the child possessed by his parents. The state has no interest in developing the personalities of children or in catering to their interests and aptitudes. The state does not desire them to participate in the social order by their free associations. The state funds and regulates formal education to further its own interests and attain its own ends. FULL ARTICLE

At commencement on June 8, 1957 Grove City College awarded an honorary doctorate degree to Ludwig von Mises. The 50th anniversary of this event afforded us an opportunity to consider his legacy at a conference on campus last weekend. Hans Sennholz, the man largely responsible for arranging the award, kicked off the conference on Friday with his reminiscence of Mises. And the incomparable Lew Rockwell gave a stirring assessment of Mises’s legacy Saturday evening. Sandwiched in between were seven papers delivered by the top Misesian scholars working today in the fields of economics, history, and philosophy.

The quality of scholarship and the level of interest the conference generated is more evidence that the legacy of Mises is indeed alive and well.

The entire conference will be available for viewing on the web soon.

Deepak Lal says that empires are natural because they solve a Hobbesian problem of anarchy among independent states. A domestic Leviathan prevents the descent into a “war of all against all” by providing security essential for peace and prosperity in its own territory. But if we look at the history of trade, we observe that the Lal thesis is not supported. What is necessary for international society to develop in this case is that people have the capacity to resist the temptation to commit aggression or to suppress those who succumb to such temptation in order to gain the higher productivity of the division of labor. The suppression of criminals does not have to be monopolized in the state; the attempt to do so most often ends up creating a monopoly of criminals in the form of a Leviathan. FULL ARTICLE

For more information, see the conference site:

The Mises Institute is still accepting submissions for papers and sessions to be presented at the Austrian Scholars Conference, March 16-18, 2006, Auburn, Alabama. Here is an announcement that you can download or email to others.

Submissions can cover a wide range of fields that impact on the Austrian theoretical paradigm (in the tradition of Mises, Hayek, Rothbard, and the full range of Austrian thought): monetary theory; international trade; money and banking; methodology; history of thought; economic history; business cycles; geography; interventionism; literature; political philosophy; philosophy of science; society, culture, and religion; literature; comparative systems; economic development; business regulation; environmental political economy; and history and theory of war.

The Austrian Scholars Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, and for scholars interested or working in this intellectual tradition, it is the event of the year.

Over the course of three full days, the Austrian Scholars Conference offers eighty plus presentations on economics, history, philosophy, and the humanities, in addition to named lectures by the leaders in the field. It combines all the opportunities of a professional meeting, with the added attraction of hearing and presenting new and innovative research, engaging in vigorous debate, and interacting with like-minded scholars who share research interests.

The entire event takes place at the Mises Institute campus in Auburn, Alabama. The campus features spacious seminar rooms, a vast library with the best collection of Austrian School books in North America, and gorgeous gardens. All sessions and breaks take place at the Institute, where socializing and exchanging ideas becomes part of the conference experience. For more about the Institute, Auburn, directions, hotels, and transportation, see the conference site at Mises.org.

“The Austrian Scholars Conference is a great opportunity for exchanging ideas and advancing the School.”–Randall G. Holcombe, Florida State University

“I am truly impressed with what this conference achieves, and I am delighted to have the chance to meet up with so many friends.” — Ronald Hamowy, University of Alberta

Contact the Director: Jeffrey Herbener, Professor of Economics, Grove City College; jmherbener@gcc.edu

What is the link between fascism and socialism? They are stages on a continuum of economic control, one that begins in intervention in the free market, moves toward regimentation and greater rigidity, marches toward socialism as failures increase, and ends in dictatorship. What distinguished the fascist variety of interventionism was its reliance on the idea of stability to justify extending state power. The fascist model remains in full use today. FULL ARTICLE | Audio File | Video File

Grove City College will host the second Austrian Student Scholars Conference, November 4-5, 2005. The ASSC is open to undergraduates and first- and second-year graduate students in any academic discipline who are working the Austrian tradition. Keynote speakers this year are Drs. Peter Klein and Ralph Raico. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top three papers. Hotel accommodations and travel stipends are available to all students. For more information, See here. To submit a paper, contact Jeff Herbener.

The Austrian Scholars Conference, March 17-19, 2005, is shaping up to be a spectacular event.

• Thomas Woods will discuss his new book on American history that draws heavily on the Austrian literature.
  
• Martin van Creveld, the famed military historian, will apply Austrian themes to the issue of war gaming in which computer models are used to anticipate outcomes (it never works).
  
• Thomas DiLorenzo will discuss 1913, the year modern statism was born.
  
• Mark Thornton has new thoughts on the role of Cantillon in the history of thought.
  
• Robert Nelson of the University of Maryland will talk about the place of religion in the arguments for and against free trade.
  
• Edward Feser looks at Catholic social teaching in light of Hayek on social justice.
  
• Alberto Mingardi will speak on the place of new technology in the world movement for Austrian economics.

• Film and Liberty
  
• The Global Monetary Order
  
• The Practicality of Freedom
  
• Macroeconomics
  
• The Firm
  
• The Failure of American Conservatism
  
• The Austrian Economists
  
• Law and Economics
  
• Method
  
• The History of Political Philosophy
  
• Money and Banking

The Austrian Student Scholars Conference, November 5-6 at Grove City College, was a great success. We had 30 paper presenters. About 80 people attended the two sessions in each of the Saturday time slots. For the keynote lectures, the crowd overflowed Sticht Lecture Hall, which seats 200 or so, into the adjacent classrooms.

The students seemed very appreciative and aware of the significance of the event. They seemed to be networking and interested in each others’ work. And they were excited about the prospect of another conference next year. We successfully web-streamed the keynote lectures and made MP3 audio files and video tapes of them. We plan to host the conference again next year. Thank you to all who helped to make this possible.

Today begins the Austrian Student Scholars Conference, and we are pleased to say that a live feed will be available for the first talk by Guido Hülsmann, from 7:00-8:00pm, today, EST, and also on Saturday, Joe Salerno will speak, from 7:00-8:00pm, EST. The feed can be found here: http://media.gcc.edu/assc.

Grove City College will host the Austrian Student Scholars Conference , November 5-6, 2004. Open to undergraduates and first-year graduate students in any academic discipline, the ASSC will bring together students from colleges and universities across the country to present their own research papers written in the tradition of the great Austrian School intellectuals such as Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Murray Rothbard, and Hans Sennholz. Accepted papers will be presented in a regular conference format to an audience of students and faculty. Keynote lectures will be delivered by Drs. Guido Hülsmann and Joseph Salerno.

Cash prizes of $1,000, $750, and $500 will be awarded for the top three papers, respectively, as judged by a select panel of Grove City College faculty. Hotel accommodations will be provided to all students who travel to the ASSC to present their papers. Limited stipends are available for travel expenses. Students should submit their proposals to present a paper to the director of the conference (jmherbener@gcc.edu) by September 15. To be eligible for the cash prizes, finished papers should be submitted to the director by October 1.

The ASSC, November 5-6, 2004, Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania. Open to current undergraduates, the ASSC will bring together students from colleges and universities across the country to present their own research papers written in the tradition of the great Austrian School intellectuals.

Cash prizes of $1,000, $750, and $500 will be awarded for the top three papers, respectively, as judged by a select panel of Grove City College faculty. Hotel accommodations will be provided to all students who travel to the ASSC to present their papers. Limited stipends are available for travel expenses. Students should submit their proposals to the director of the conference by September 15.

February 27, 2004

Isn’t it shameful enough for Alan Greenspan that his recklessly expansionary monetary policy to keep financial markets afloat has, by pushing interest rates to historically low levels, inexorably led to the much lamented over-indebtedness in the economy? Now the long suffering American taxpayer, saver-investor, and homeowner must endure his hectoring (“Fed Chief Questions Loan Choices,” Feb. 24) for taking advantage of the situation to lock in Fed-suppressed mortgage rates against the increasingly likely prospect that they will rise in the future. In the interest rate environment Mr. Greenspan himself has created, the only sensible strategy for homeowners is to let banks and other mortgage holders, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, bear the considerable financial risk of rising rates. The “very serious” risks these behemoths pose to financial markets that Mr. Greenspan warns against (“Mortgage Giants Pose High Risk, Greenspan Warns,” Feb. 25) is in no small part a result of his own loose monetary policy. While Congress is taking his advice to reign in Fannie and Freddie, it should bridle the Fed as well.

Jeffrey M. Herbener
Professor of Economics
Grove City College
Grove City, Pennsylvania

The schedule of the Austrian Scholars Conference 10, March 18-20, 2004, Auburn, Alabama, is nearly complete, with more papers and sessions than ever before. If you have never attended before, this would be an excellent year to begin what will surely become an annual trip. Email me with any changes that needed to be made. You can register here, or write Pat with any questions.
Here is the Schedule as it presently stands:

THURSDAY March 18
9:00-11:30 Book Signing and Discussion

Tom DiLorenzo: How Capitalism Save America
Lew Rockwell: Speaking of Liberty
Mark Thornton: Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War
Hans Hoppe: The Myth of National Defense
Hunt Tooley: The Western Front: Battleground and Home Front in the First World War
Richard Ebeling: Austrian Economics and the Political Economy of Freedom
Randall Holcome: From Liberty to Democracy: The Transformation of American Democracy
11:30-1:00 Lunch on your own
1:00-2:45pm Forum: “Free Trade: The Current Debate” with Paul Craig Roberts and commentators.

3:00-4:30: SESSIONS

A. Capital Markets, Real Estate, and Housing

Moderator: Jeff Scott(Wells Fargo)
Kevin Duffy(Bearing Asset Management)
Robert Blumen
Antony Mueller (Universitiy of Erlangen-Nuremberg and University of Caxias do Sul, Brazil)
Jeff Scott (Wells Fargo)
Morgan O. Reynolds (Little Rock, Arkansas)
B. Law and Economics

“The Logic of (Social) Action: Austrian Praxeology as Law-and-Economics Proper” Josef Sima (Prague School of Economics)
“Property, Causality, and Liability” Hans-Hermann Hoppe(University of Nevada, Las Vegas)
“Private and Public Prisons: The Impossibility of State Justice” Daniel J. D’Amico (Loyola University New Orleans)

5:00-6:00 The Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture: SEAN CORRIGAN (Capital Insight): “Theory Meets Praxis: The Austrian Business Cycle Theory in Today’s Economy”

6:00-7:00: Reception

FRIDAY March 19

8:30-10:00am SESSIONS

A. Philosophy and Society

“Realism and Abstraction in Economics: Aristotle and Mises versus Friedman” Roderick T. Long (Auburn University)
“Mises’s Hidden Enemy: Othmar Spann’s Universalism” Hiroyuki Okon (Kokugakuin University, Tokyo) and Shigeki Tomo (Kyoto-Sangyo University)
“Methodology in the Age of Empire” Steven Yates (Mises Institute)
Commentator: David Gordon (Mises Review)
B. Business Cycle Theory

“The Cluster of Entrepreneurial Errors: Cyclical Malinvestment at the Firm Level” Rich Grimm (Grove City College)
“Accounting for the Business Cycle: Nominal Price Rigidities, Factor Heterogeneity, and Austrian Capital Theory” Robert Mulligan (Western Carolina University)
“Rationality and Austrian Business Cycle Theory” Brian Simpson (National University)
C. Science and Markets (Chair: William Anderson)

“The Entrepreneurial Character of Science” Allan Walstad (University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown)
“Science (and Market) as an Adaptive Process” Thomas McQuade (New York University)
Commentator
10:15-11:45am SESSIONS

A. Capital Markets

“The Evolution of Business Markets: Perspectives of New Austrian Capital Theory” Michael Ehret (Free University of Berlin)
“”Capital in Disequilibrium: An Austrian Approach to Recession and Recovery” John P. Cochran and Noah Yetter (Metropolitan State College, Denver)
“A Defense of the Traditional Austrian Theory of Interest” Paul Cwik (Mises Institute)
B. The Political Economy of Education

“Robert Lewis Dabney and the Case for ‘Trickle-Down’ Education” Barry Simpson (University of South Alabama)
“Home Schooling as Radical Privatization” Mark Brandly (Ferris State University)
“Extramural Education, An Interim Plan: From State Schooling to Free-Market Alternatives” Linda Schrock Taylor (The Learning Clinic)
C. Deflation in Theory and Policy. Chair: Jörg Guido Hülsmann

“Optimal Monetary Policy” Jörg Guido Hülsmann (Mises Institute)
“Apoplithorismosphobia” Mark Thornton (Mises Institute)
“TBA” William Barnett (Loyola University New Orleans)

11:45-1:00 Lunch on your own

1:00-2:30pm SESSIONS

A. Pricing, Management, Entrepreneurship

“Third Law or Third Rail? Another Look at the Alchian and Allen Theorem” William Anderson (Frostburg State University)
“Property Rights, Incentives, and Government Regulation: Explaining the Rise of Omnipotent Management” by Alexandre Padilla (Metropolitan State College, Denver) and Jason Hilsman (Metropolitan State College, Denver)
“Putting Entrepreneurship Back in the Theory of the Firm” Nicolai Foss (Coppenhagen Business School) and Peter G. Klein (University of Missouri)
“Kirznerian and Lachmannian Entrepreneurship: Coordinating the Product and Financial-Asset Markets” J. Stuart Wood (Loyola University, New Orleans)
B. Austrian School History

“Richard Cantillon: The Discover of Opportunity Cost” Mark Thornton (Mises Institute)
“1922: The Watershed Year For Mises and Hayek Theory of Society” Shigeki Tomo (Kyoto-Sangyo University)
“Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk’s Place in the Development of Austrian Economics” Joseph Salerno (Pace University)
“Keynes, Hazlitt, and Managed Currency” Jude Blanchette (Baltimore, Maryland)
C. Political Philosophy and Libertarianism

“Against the Red Moloch: Vladimir Jabotinsky’s Liberalism” Myles Kantor (Boynton Beach, Fl.)
“Liberty and Morality” Tibor Machan (Chapman University)
“The Classical Liberal Doctrine of States Rights” Thomas DiLorenzo (Loyola College, Maryland)
Commentator: David Gordon (Mises Review)
3:00-4:30pm SESSIONS

A. Business Economics

“The Effect of Antitrust Laws on the Growth of the Newspaper Industry” William Anderson (Frostburg State University) and Amit Shah (Frostburg State University)
“Profit Management, Easement Costs, and Price Discrepancies” Joseph Calandro, Jr. (University of Connecticut)
“The Tao of UAWism: A Brief History of Political Coercion, Corruption, and Collectivist Nonsense” Karen De Coster (Mackinac Institute)
“Matchstick Man: The Business Empire of Ivar Kreuger” Jeff Scott and Sven Thommesen (Auburn University)
B. Economies of Development and Transition

“Vietnam in Transition: Lange or Mises?” Manh Cuong Nguyen
“Economic Theory of Sustainability: Its Foudnational Errors and a Restatement of Valid Principles” John Brätland(US Department of the Interior)
“Isabel Paterson and the Development of Free Nations” Richard O. Hammer (Free Nation Foundation)
“Iraq as a Battlefield of Ideas: A Response to Naomi Klein” John Passalaqua(University of Illinois at Chicago)
C. What Have We Learned from Empirical Measures of Economic Freedom?

James Gwartney (Florida State University)
Robert A. Lawson (Capital University)
Walter Block (Loyola University)

5:00-6:00pm Kurzweg Family Prize and Alford Prize for Libertarian Scholarship
Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture: RICHARD EBELING (Foundation for Economic Education): “Austrian Economics and the Political Economy of Freedom”
6:00pm Reception
7:00:pm Piano concert and Mises-Kreis Lieder: Songs from the interwar Mises Circle, in spectacular and new English translations, presented for the first time this evening and sung by Mises Institute staff and attendees of the ASC10.

SATURDAY March 20
8:30-9:15am: Lou Church Memorial Lecture in Religion and Economics: THOMAS WOODS (Suffolk Community College): “The Trouble with Catholic Social Teaching”

9:30-11:00am SESSIONS

A. Austrian Evaluations of Coasian Economics

Chair: Walter Block (Loyola University New Orleans)

“Coase and the Theory of the Firm” Peter G. Klein (University of Missouri)
“Coase and Social Costs” Roy Cordato (John Locke Foundation)
“Coase on the Lighthouse” Walter Block (Loyola University New Orleans)
“Coase, Crime, and Law” Larent Carnis
B. Studies on Religion

“Mises on Religion” Laurence Vance (Pensacola Bible Institute)
“Calvinism Meets Austrian Economics: The Work of Frederick Nymeyer” Timothy Terrell (Wofford College)
“Money and Banking in Catholic Social Doctrine” Jorg Guido Hulsmann (Mises Institute)
Commentator: David Gordon (Mises Review)
C. Liberty, Finance, and Banking

Libertarian Contract Theory and Fractional Reserve Banking” Jan Havel (University of Economics, Prague)
“Credit Card Companies as Private Producers of Justice” JH Huebert (University of Chicago)
“The Fed on the Austrians: From its Founding to the Present” Greg Kaza (Arkansas Policy Foundation)
“Were the Socialists Really Wrong about Capital Goods” Doug MacKenzie (Ramapo College)

11:15-12:15am F.A. Hayek Memorial Lecture: TOBY BAXENDALE (London): “Law v. Legislation: A Hayekian Entrepreneur in London”
12:15-1:00: Lunch on your own

1:00-2:30pm SESSIONS

A. World War I: The Other War that Never Ends

Chair: Richard Ebeling (FEE)
“World War I: The Recent Literature” Ralph Raico (SUNY College, Buffalo)
“The Political Ideas Behind World War I” Joseph Stromberg (Mises Institute)
“The War for Democracy that Never Ends” Paul Gottfried (Elizabethtown College)
“TBA” Hunt Tooley (Austin College)
B. Economic History

“The Clearinghouse Role of the Suffolk Bank” Karen Palasek (North Carolina Educational Alliance)
“Free Banking in Sweden, 1830-1903: Experience and Debate” Erik Lakonaa (Stockholm School of Economics)
“The Sherman Act: Fabrication of a Predator” Erich Mattei (Loyola University of New Orleans)
Commentator: Kirsten Daniel (Loyola University New Orleans)

3:00-4:30pm SESSIONS

A. Knowledge, Property, and Society

“The Use of Knowledge about Society: The Wittman/Stigler Claims about Democratic Efficiency” Doug MacKenzie (Ramapo College)
“Government Theft: The Taking of Private Property to Benefit the Favored Few” Roy Whitehead (University of Central Arkansas)
“The Growth of Knowledge in Society” Randall Holcombe (Florida State University)
B. The Size and Scope of Government. Chair: Mark Brandly (Ferris State University)

“Subsidiarity versus Federalism: The Incorporation of International Standards Into the American Rule of Law” Marshall DeRosa (Florida Atlantic University)
“Harm Reduction and Sin Taxes: Why Gary Becker is Wrong” Mark Thornton (Mises Institute)
“Taxes, comparative advantages and the division of labor” Richard Johnsson (Ratio Institute)
“Colorado and the ‘Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights’: Political and Economic Effects of Tax Limitation Measures in State Constitutions” Derek M. Johnson and Ryan W. McMaken (University of Colorado, Denver)

6:00pm Reception at Dixon Conference Center of Auburn University Hotel
7:00pm Dinner: Alford Prize Awarded
Murray N. Rothbard Memorial Lecture: JOSEPH STROMBERG (Mises Institute): “Rothbard’s Systematic Defense of Liberty”