In celebration of our national heritage, we continue our Pride in America series by honoring Austrian School economist Murray Rothbard.
Murray Rothbard famously quipped, “It is no crime to be ignorant of economics … But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.”
Perhaps the best way to avoid such ignorance is to dive into the works of Rothbard himself, a prolific author of more than 20 books covering economics and monetary theory, history, ethics, and philosophy. Works like Man, Economy, and State (1962), For a New Liberty (1973), and The Betrayal of the American Right (1979) provide a fascinating insight into the interplay of economics and American history.
Rothbard recognized that liberty is the foundation of a free and prosperous society. “Liberty, then, is the necessary condition for the flourishing of the individual, his economic prosperity, and his moral and intellectual growth,” he wrote.
Rothbard championed “the great classical liberal tradition that built the United States and bestowed on us the American heritage of individual liberty, a peaceful foreign policy, minimal government, and a free-market economy.”
Rothbard’s works emphasized that natural rights and property ownership are prerequisites for human freedom and that free markets are far superior to central planning and government control. He opposed government regulation, pointing out, “Regulatory interventions in the market are always distortions, creating inefficiencies and favoring entrenched interests over the consumer and the entrepreneur.”
As a defender of free markets, Rothbard opposed both socialism, which “creates chaos and poverty,” and cronyism, which “distorts the market, rewards inefficiency, and undermines the principle of equal treatment under the law.” He criticized tariffs, subsidies, and bailouts for creating “a cozy relationship between the state and select corporations, fostering cronyism at the expense of genuine free enterprise.”
In America’s Great Depression (1963), Rothbard illustrated how federal policies and the Federal Reserve’s monetary manipulation undermined core economic freedoms and prolonged the crisis.
Rothbard also recognized the integral connection between morality and freedom, once observing, “There can be no truly moral choice unless that choice is made in freedom; similarly, there can be no really firmly grounded and consistent defense of freedom unless that defense is rooted in moral principle.”
Rothbard lived a full and impactful life as an author, economist, lecturer, and professor, and his legacy of defending individualism lives on in his extensive library of works, which are available from the Ludwig von Mises Institute, where he served as Academic Vice-President.
