The first session on “Money and Contracts” was absolutely stunning. Stephen Fairfax of Mtechnology presented on “Returning Gold to the Consumer Marketplace.” Personally, this was my favorite talk of the conference. Mr. Fairfax talked about the main problems surrounding a return to the gold standard: portability and consumer expectations. Transporting gold coins for small transactions is extremely difficult. A one ounce coin, relative to what it can purchase these days, is worth quite a lot. Moreover, people still want to use cash – they expect to be able to carry money in their pockets that doesn’t weigh ridiculous amounts.

Fairfax’s solution is, quite simply, to apply the modern age’s advances in technology to the production of money. You see, we tend to think of “gold money” as gold coins or gold bars, but coins and bars are not the only way to transport money. We have the capability now to make gold leaf, or even use metal sputtering methods to deposit precise amounts of gold in ordered arrays (also known as thin-film deposition) – even down to 1/100,000 of an ounce! And since people expect to use cash, then we can fulfill that consumer desire by embedding small but precise amounts of gold into polyester “bills” certified by the production company (with a guarantee to get coinage by exchange if you like). Fairfax’s plan to start a gold company to do just this is extremely exciting because it solves so many problems of getting back to a gold standard. Seriously, you must listen to his talk. [Ack! the mp3 seems unavailable right now, check back later] I am so excited that he is moving to the Austin area in less than a year; I would definitely look into working at a company like his after finishing my PhD to work out the technical details of this incredible idea.

The last session of the day was on “Ethics and Economics.” First up was Kevin Clausen, who talked about why Evangelicals are turned off by Austrian economics, why they shouldn’t be, and how to help them understand Austrian econ more clearly. He had some very salient points, and I appreciated what he had to say.

Laurence Vance (well known to LCC readers) spoke about the Moral Case for Drug Freedom, and gave a Christian, ethical argument for consistent liberty, which includes the freedom to take even recreational drugs. In no way was he saying that all drugs are perfectly ok to use (LCC agrees with Vance as well), but the point is simple: it is truly immoral for the government to lock someone up in a cage for using a substance that harms only the user. If harm comes to someone else as a result then it becomes a criminal matter, but otherwise it is a violation of rights for the state to use force against a drug user.

Jeff Barr gave an excellent talk about the Render to Caesar incident in Matthew 22 and whether or not it legitimizes taxation. Incidentally, he uses my previous work as a source!

Last but certainly not least, Paul Cantor presented a special lecture on Economics and Literature. Cantor is an English professor who has applied Austrian ideas on epistemology and history to the study of literature. He makes an excellent case for how the market is a force for building culture, opposing the Marxist theory that capitalism destroys culture.

This Austrian Scholars Conference certainly is one of the most diverse scholarly conferences you can attend. Where else can you see presentations in the same place about economics, political theory, religion, science, engineering, literature, and even rap music? Absolutely amazing…

Here is my short list of favorite presentations from ASC 2010 with links to audio downloads:

• Gerard Casey: Two Roads, One Truth
• Daniel Krawisz: Praxeology of the Knowledge Problem of Socialism
• John Papalo: The Making of the Keynes-Hayek Rap: Economic Theory Meets Popular Culture
• Stephen Fairfax: Returning Gold to the Consumer Marketplace (unavailable right now)
• Laurence Vance: The Moral Case for Drugs
• Jeff Barr: Render Unto Caesar
• Paul Cantor: Economics and Literature

Finally, there’s a great slideshow of pictures from ASC that you can view here. See if you can spot me… (Thanks Chad and Manuel!)

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Austrian Scholars Conference – Day 3

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My good friend Daniel from the University of Texas Libertarian Longhorns presented his paper on “Praxeology of the Knowledge Problem of Socialism.” The gist of the paper is actually pretty simple: Some Austrians call the “knowledge problem” (that Hayek frequently discussed) insignificant, because the problem is also applicable to a free market organization. Daniel says, “No, on the free market there is never a knowledge problem so long as there is always an opportunity for trade somewhere.” Only under a legally sanctioned monopoly – which is just socialism on another scale – or under a purely socialist economy will the knowledge problem become evident.

But the biggest event of the day was the special presentation by John Papola, the creator of the famous Keynes-Hayek rap earlier this year. Seriously, it’s got to be the single best pedagogical tool we have seen in the past few years for teaching Austrian econ. John talked about the process of making the movie and his vision for doing further work at his newly built website EconStories.tv. If you haven’t seen the video, well, you should! Here it is…

I have a picture of John and I together after the talk, but I haven’t taken it off the camera yet. Hopefully I’ll put it up in the next few days.

UPDATE: All of the lectures are being published on Mises.org very quickly, you can download them here.

If you missed it, read the post on Day 1 of the ASC 2010.

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Austrian Scholars Conference 2010 – Day 2

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The authors forum was great. I was impressed by Shawn Ritenour’s Foundations of Economics, which is essentially an econ textbook from a Christian perspective. He shows that the field of economics – from an Austrian point of view – is entirely coherent with Christianity. The book looks great for homeschoolers especially. I’m excited about this book and I hope to get a review copy soon. Jacob Huebert talked about his latest work, Libertarianism Today. It hasn’t been released yet, but the Mises Institute will be selling a less expensive paperback version and you should look out for it. I’ve known Huebert for a while and it was a pleasure seeing him again. Stephan Kinsella, another good friend of mine, talked about the festschrift (a volume of papers written by top specialists in honor of a major thinker) he and Guido Hulsmann put together in honor of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, called Property, Freedom and Society.

The topic of the afternoon session I attended was “Rothbard and the Pre-Austrians.” In other words, there are a number of interesting figures in history that approached ideas that took greater shape as the Austrian economists developed them. Joseph Weglarz gave a very interesting presentation on the great Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas; his greatest accomplishment was a synthesis of faith and reason forming the basis of Scholasticism. Daniel Coleman gave an excellent, concise, and easily understandable talk on Aquinas’s favorite philosopher – Aristotle – and his conception of trade.

Gerard Casey gave the Lou Church Memorial Lecture on Religion and Economics. He talked about the formulation of “religions” out of the dominant philosophies of the day, such as scientism, environmentism (no, that is not a misspelling), and even economism/statism. These “religions” set themselves up in the place of God and subvert man’s ultimate purpose. He concluded with an excellent call to the church to abandon coercion based on our understanding of the Christian worldview.

Following a nice dinner, we concluded the day hanging out with fellow libertarians over drinks, talking philosophy, current events, economics, and general anti-state awesomeness. Can’t beat it…

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Austrian Scholars Conference 2010 – Day 1

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My wife and I will be attending the Austrian Scholars Conference this week at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. I’m really excited that one of my best buddies, Daniel Krawisz of the Libertarian Longhorns, will be presenting this year in a panel with Hans Herman Hoppe, M. Garrett Roth, Bernardita Escobar, and chaired by Thomas DiLorenzo. His talk is called “Praxeology of the Knowledge Problem of Socialism,” and he will be discussing the often-missed details of Hayek’s knowledge problem in the context of, you guessed it, Misesian praxeology (which is the logic of human action). If you want to tune in, you should be able to listen live on Mises.org sometime between 1:00 and 2:30pm CST on Saturday.

I’ll have some articles prepped to post late this week, and I’ll try to do a little summary post each day at some point. If any of you LCC readers are attending, let me know right now in the comments below. I really would love to meet you.

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Austrian Scholars Conference 2010

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Our group from the Libertarian Longhorns (and Robert Butler, executive director of LP-Texas) left Austin around 6am on Saturday, January 23, to make sure we arrived in time to get a decent seat. Robert volunteered his vehicle, and so I didn’t have to drive. We talked up the LP’s plans and upcoming events on the drive to Houston and back.

Upon arrival, we had the privilege to meet some really neat  people. I happened to run across a few LCC readers as well, like Yvonne Kelly (on the far left of the group picture). Tom Woods said hello as he walked in, and I briefly spoke with Lew Rockwell as well while drinking some coffee.

The theme of the day was "the failure of Keynesianism" — appropriate considering our current political situation, wouldn’t you say? Doug French was the first speaker. For some reason I have lost my notes, but his topic was "Bank Failures in a Keynesian World." What was most interesting to me about his talk was the striking parallels of the circumstances preceding "the lost decade" and the circumstances we are now experiencing in the United States. One can only hope that failed policies would be remembered, but alas and alack it’s politics not wisdom that we deal with.

Tom Woods spoke about "Keynesian Predictions vs. American History." Did you know that as World War 2 was coming to a close, policy makers were concerned that the soldiers coming home would overwhelm the economy and that a new depression would ensue. How wrong they were: 1946 was the single greatest year for the American economy ever. I also enjoyed his ransacking of Paul Samuelson and Paul Krugman.

Before lunch we enjoyed hearing the beloved Congressman Ron Paul. His principal point was simply that a true revolution is philosophic in nature. This is most certainly true, and the Austrian School of Economics is at the forefront of this change. Dr. Paul touched on many topics, but as he likes to do he focused on monetary policy and foreign policy. He made specific mention of the importance of auditing the Federal Reserve. He said that once audited, two well-kept secrets will be brought into the open once again: (1) that the Fed frequently bails out friends via the discount window (Fed short term loans), and (2) that the Fed has many international activities unaccounted for. Thus, we find monetary policy is also connected to foreign policy as well. Call me conspiratorial if you must, but the CIA’s funding goes beyond Congress – it’s tied to the Fed as well. Best quote from Ron: "Quite frankly, in a Constitutional Republic, you would not have a CIA."

Lew Rockwell was our final speaker for the day on "Economics and Moral Courage." He noted that although in many ways we are quite free (such as the freedom of the internet), we are also having much freedom taken away from us little by little. Moreover, as more freedom is stolen from us, people are more frequently not able to envision how freedom actually works. They simply do not have experience in understanding cause and effect. In truth, this is due to the "banality of evil," something small that ekes its way into public life. For example, the acceptance of a wrong premise about the role of government in life can be a first step toward more and more government control, leading finally to totalitarianism. What begins with banality, ends in bloodshed.

Overall, I’d say it was a great day…

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Mises Circle Houston Recap

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Tags: Austrian School, economics, free market, free society, freedom, history, keynesianism, Mises Institute, Ron Paul

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Are any other LCC readers attending? If so, make sure and comment below, we should try to meet up during the event and say hello!

I’ll make sure to take a few good notes and report back to all of you as well…

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Anybody else attending the Houston Mises Circle?

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My paper this year has to do with science and economics again. The talk will be called “Science and the Free Market: How the Government Distorts Scientific Research Through Public Funding.” Here’s the abstract:

Scientific advancement is said to be limited in the free market because no incentives exist to encourage fundamental research, and therefore the government should intervene by funding worthy scientific endeavors at national laboratories and universities through taxation of individuals and businesses. This assumption is not only based upon a flawed understanding of economics, but also introduces numerous problems in the production of scientific knowledge. As with all socialistic means of production, publicly-funded scientific research is subject to the Misesian calculation problem, the Hayekian knowledge problem, and perverse incentives, as well as other problems unique to scientific research such as ownership of knowledge and profits, political agendas masquerading as good science, and moral hazards and ambiguities. The conclusion is that publicly-funded research should be eliminated in favor of free market-sponsored research, and in this paper a model is proposed to answer objections to free market sponsorship.

Tune in on March 14th to the Mises Institute’s webpage and you will be able to see me give the talk live. I’ll remind you again as the time draws near.

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Austrian Scholars Conference 2009

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