Austrian Scholars Conference 2005

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 days, expanded from previous years, 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.

Papers and panels cover a wide range of fields that impact on the Austrian paradigm, including: 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; business regulation; environmental political economy; and history and theory of war.

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.

Named Lectures

Mises Memorial Lecture

• Thomas J. DiLorenzo (Loyola College)
• “The Revolution of 1913”
• How it happened that the United States got stuck with the income tax, a central bank, and the 17th amendment all in one year--a year that set the stage of Leviathan’s unrelenting advance.

Rothbard Memorial Lecture

• Mark Thornton (The Mises Institute)
• The Cantillon Legacy: Extending Rothbardian Revisionism”
• On the 250th anniversary of the publication of the Essai, we can see that he was a more profound thinker than most anyone knew.

Hazlitt Memorial Lecture

• Alberto Mingardi (Bruno Leoni Institute)
• “The Market in Defense of Markets: The Impact of the New Technology”
• Intellectual activists today have at their disposal today a far more promising set of tools than any generation in the history of libertarian ideas.

Hayek Memorial Lecture

• Edward Feser (Pasadena City College)
• “Social Justice Reconsidered: Austrian Economics and Catholic Social Teaching”
• Feser examines the principle moral institutions of capitalism, as understood by Hayek, as they impact on rights, justice, natural law, and faith.

Lou Church Memorial Lecture

• Robert Nelson (University of Maryland)
• “Support for Free Trade: The Impact of Religious Ideology”
• The commitment to free trade has a religious element: an attempt to save the whole world, not just one people or nation. Free trade depends on the need for worldwide community sanctions against violating free trade principles, and some normative commitment to an ideal in order to overcome the free-rider problem.

Special Guest

• Martin Van Creveld (Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
• “Why War Games Don’t Work”
• In the lead up to the Iraq war, civilian and military planners assured us that they had prepared for every contingency, thanks to computerized war gaming that sets up trial runs. But these games are no better than any central plan that fails to account for human choice and free will. The renowed scholar and author of The Transformation of War speaks.

THURSDAY, March 17

8:30am Express-85 Shuttle from AU Hotel and Heart of Auburn to Mises Institute

8:30am  Coffee and Juice

9:00-11:30am Authors Forum

• Our Benefactor, Capitalism, with Thomas DiLorenzo
• What the Greens and the Nationalists have in Common, with Robert Higgs
• War and Morality, with Laurence M. Vance
• The New American History, with Thomas Woods

11:30-1:00 Lunch on your own (restaurants nearby or purchase from vender outside at Mises)

1:00-2:45pm Special Guest Lecture: Martin van Creveld (Hebrew University, Jerusalem), “Why War Games Do Not Work” 

3:00-4:30: SESSIONS 

A. The Global Monetary Order

• Session Chairman: Rich Grimm
• “Debt and Dominance: An Austrian Review of Recent US Monetary Policy in a Global Context,” Antony P. Mueller (Universidade Caxias do Sul, Brazil)
• “The Development and Near Dissolution of the EU’s Monetary Rules,” Grant Nulle (Mises Institute)

B. Public Sector Economics

• Session chairman: Mark Brandly
• “Common Property in Anarcho-Capitalism,” Randall Holcombe (Florida State University)
• “Externalities: The Complete Absence of a Policy Solution,” Andy Barnett (Auburn University)  
• “Economics of the Public Sector: A Critical Evaluation of Public Choice, Market Failure, and Austrian Schools,” Sebastian Storfner (University of Central England, UK)

C. Macroeconomics

• Session Chairman: Jeff Herbener
• “Israel Kirzner’s Place in the History of the Circular-Flow Diagram,” Barry Simpson (University of South Alabama)
• “On Gallaway and Vedder on Stabilization Policy,” William Barnett and Walter Block (Loyola University, New Orleans)
• “The Development of the Neutral-Money Concept: The Roles of Hayek, Wieser, Mises, and Menger,” Joseph Salerno (Pace University)

5:00-6:00 The Mises Memorial Lecture: Thomas DiLorenzo (Loyola College),”The Revolution of 1913”

6:00-7:00:  Reception

7:00 p.m.  Express-85 Shuttle from Mises to AU Hotel/Heart of Auburn

Dinner on your own.

FRIDAY, March 18

8:00am  Shuttle from AU Hotel/Heart of Auburn

8:00am  Coffee and Juice

8:30-10:00am SESSIONS

A. The Firm

• Session Chairman: Rich Grimm
• “Business  Networks  and the Arbitrage of Property Rights: New Perspectives on the Theory of the Firm,” Michael Ehret (Freie Universitate Berlin)
• “The Ethics of Advertising,” Tibor Machan (Chapman University)
• “Guliani’s Wall Street Prosecutions of the 1980s,” William Anderson (Frostburg University) and Candice Jackson (Judicial Watch)
• “Entrepreneurship and the Theory of the Firm,” J. Stuart Wood (Loyola University, New Orleans)  

B. The Austrian Economists

• Session Chairman: Shawn Ritenour
• “Law and Nature in Murray Rothbard’s Thought: Some Considerations on Rothbard’s Memos on Leo Strauss and F.A. Hayek,” Roberta Modugno (University of Roma 3)
• “The Austrian School in the Business Cycle Studies of the National Bureau,” Greg Kaza (Arkansas Policy Foundation)
• “Corporate Social Responsibility: A Rothbardian Critique of the Friedmanite Critique,” Roderick Long (Auburn University)
• Commentator, David Gordon (Mises Institute)

10:15-11:45am SESSIONS 

A. Law and Economics

• Session Chairman: Mark Brandly
• “Coasian Contracts in the Coeur d’Alene Mining District,” Robert Higgs (Independent Review)
• “Race Proportions in America’s Prisons: The Role of Privatization,” Daniel D’Amico (George Mason University)
• “Medical Information and Bureaucracy: The Character and Centralization of Medical Knowledge,” Timothy Terrell (Wofford College)
• Commentator, Ben Kilpatrick (University of New Orleans)

B. Method

• Session Chairman: Mark Thornton
• “Ideal type Theory: Its Development and Application,” Gene Callahan (London School of Economics)
• “Fractal Geometry and the Austrian School,” Robert Mulligan (Western Carolina University)
• “On Method and Ethics in Rawlsian Investment Rules for Attaining ’ Intergenerational Equity,’” John Bratland (U.S. Department of the Interior)

11:45am - 1:00pm  Lunch on your own

1:00-2:30pm SESSIONS

A. Canadian Austrians Invade the US

• Session Chairman: Walter Block
• “Democracy, Authority, and Coercion,” Grahame Booker (University of Waterloo)
• “The Epicurean Roots of Some Classical Liberal and Misesian Concepts,” Martin Masse (Quebecois Libre)
• “An Austrian Approach to the 3rd Duty of the Sovereign in the Wealth of Nations,” Valentin Petkantchin, Montreal Economic Institute

B. Rhetoric and Liberty

• Session Chairman: Tom Woods
• “Samuelson and Rothbard: Two Texts, Two Legacies,” Shawn Ritenour (Grove City College)
• “Lord Acton and the Scholarship of Liberty,” Robert Mulligan (Western Carolina University)
• “Francis Wayland—Preacher-Economist,” Laurence M. Vance (Pensacola Bible Institute)  
• “Leonard Lessius: The Oracle of the Low Countries,” Joseph A. Weglarz (Walsh College)  
• Commentator, Paul Gottfried (Elizabethtown College)

3:00-4:30pm SESSIONS  

A. Advice for Austrian Students

• Session Chairman: Peter G. Klein
• Peter Leeson (George Mason University)
• Walter Block (Loyola University, New Orleans)
• Peter G. Klein (University of Missouri)
• Art Carden (Washington University, St. Louis)
• Joseph T. Salerno (Pace University)

B. The Ordeal of Lincoln

• Session Chairman: Tom DiLorenzo
• “The Meaning of Abraham Lincoln: Revisting the Bradford-Jaffa Debate,” Thomas Woods (Suffolk Community College)
• “For the Protection of Rights: The Political Philosophy of Frederick Douglass,” Myles Kantor (PurePlay Press)
• Lincoln and the Modern State: The Fatal Encounter,” Marco Bassani (University of Milan)

C. On Nozick

• Session Chairman: Guido Huelsmann
• “Present Payments, Past Wrongs: Correcting Impressions from Nozick on Restitution,” Jan Narveson(University of Waterloo)
• “Early and Late Nozick on the Lockean Proviso,” Michael Cust (University of Waterloo)
• “Rothbard, Nozick, and the Decentralization of Violence,” Marcus Verhaegh (Mises Institute)
• Commentator, David Gordon (Mises Institute)

5:00pm Lawrence Fertig Prize in Austrian Economics

5:10pm-6:00pm Murray N. Rothbard Memorial Lecture: Mark Thornton (Mises Institute), “The Cantillon Legacy: Extending Rothbardian Revisionism”

6:00pm Reception 
7:00pm  Mises: The Musical!!!

7:30pm  Express-85 Shuttle from Mises to AU Hotel/Heart of Auburn

SATURDAY, March 19

8:00am  Express-85 Shuttle from AU Hotel/Heart of Auburn

8:00am  Coffee and Juice

8:30-9:15am:Lou Church Memorial Lecture in Religion and Economics: Robert Nelson (University of Maryland), “Support for Free Trade: The Impact of Religious Ideology”

9:30-11:00am SESSIONS 

A. Financial Panel

• Session Chairman: Jeff Scott
• Jeff Scott (Wells Fargo)
• Antony Mueller (Universidade Caxias do Sul, Brazil)
• Morgan Reynolds

B. Education

• Session Chairman: William L. Anderson
• “The Economics of Homeschooling: Ownership, Knowledge, and Calculation,” Chris Westley (Jacksonville State University) and Mark Brandly (Ferris University)
• “Bureaucracy and Education,” Jerry Kirkpatrick (California State Polytechnic University)
• “Statism vs. Natural Elites: The Educational Views of Robert Lewis Dabney,” Barry Simpson (University of South Alabama)

C. Empire and Brutality

• Session Chairman: Hunt Tooley
• “The Origins of the Concentration Camp,” Hunt Tooley (Austin College)
• “Kenya: The Futility of Counter-Insurgency,” Joseph Stromberg (Ludwig von Mises Institute)
• Commentator, Paul Gottfried (Elizabethtown College)

11:15-12:15  F.A. Hayek Memorial Lecture: Edward Feser (Pasedena City College), “Social Justice Reconsidered: Austrian Economics and Catholic Social Teaching”

12:15-1:30: Lunch on your own 

1:30-3:00pm SESSIONS 

A. Money and Banking

• Session Chairman: Joseph Salerno
• “The Basel Rules: The Theory and Practice of Internal Rating,” Jeff Scott (Wells Fargo)  
• “Central Banking: Guardians or Traitors, Navigators or Instigators?” Antony Mueller (Universidade Caxias do Sul, Brazil)
• “Bank Secrecy, Financial Privacy, and Human Rights,” Bretigne Shaffer (New York, NY)

B. The Relevance of the Confederate States of America in the 21st Century.

• Session Chairman: Thomas Woods
• “The Meaning of the Confederacy in the American Political Tradition,” Donald Livingston (Emory University)
• “Confederalism in the Age of Hyper-Globalism,” Marshall DeRosa (Florida Atlantic University)
• “American Empire, World State, and Hobbesian ‘Liberalism,’” Joseph Stromberg  (Mises Institute)

C. Technology and the Austrians: A Roundtable on Electronic Media

• Session Chairman: Peter G. Klein
• Jeffrey Tucker (Mises.org)
• Roderick T. Long (Praxeology.net)
• Karen DeCoster (Karendecoster.com)
• Stephan Kinsella (WalterBlock.com, etc.)

3:15-4:45pm SESSIONS  

A. Austrian Concepts and the Mainstream

• Session Chairman: William L. Anderson
• “Novelty and Nobelity: Kydland and Prescott in Light of Austrian Method,” Andrew Young and J. Robert Subrick (University of Mississippi)
• “The Development and Present State of the Theory of Entrepreneurship and Asset Markets,” J. Stuart Wood (Loyola University, New Orleans)

B.  The Failure of American Conservatism

• Session Chairman: Mark Thornton
• “The Bricker Amendment and the Failure of Conservatism,” Marcus Epstein (William and Mary College)
• The Events of 9/11: A Case of State Terrorism,” Morgan Reynolds (Little Rock, Arkansas)
• “Recent Supreme Court Decisions in Light of Libertarianism,” John Passalaqua (Richard J. Daley College)

C. Film and Liberty

• Session Chairman: Shawn Ritenour
• “Communism and the Ironic Value of Property in the Italian Neo-Realist Cinema,” John Hamilton (Azusa Pacific University)
• “Documenting the Struggle,” Bretigne Shaffer (Cultural-Nomad.com)
• “The Fall and Rise of Bourgeois America in the Western Film,” Ryan McMaken (University of Colorado, Denver)

5:00pm Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture: Alberto Mingardi (Bruno Leoni Institute), “The Market in Defense of Markets: The Impact of the New Technology”

6:00-7:30pm Reception and live band

7:30pm Express-85 Shuttle to AU Hotel/Heart of Auburn

Dinner on your own.