This interview with Mises Institute President Jeff Deist is reprinted from the October 2014 issue of the Lara-Murphy Report.
Lara-Murphy Report: How did you become interested in Austrian economics?
Jeff Deist: I definitely discovered libertarianism first, which then led me to Austrian economics. I was a hardcore libertarian fairly early in life, going to see Ron Paul at a 1988 Libertarian Party campaign event when I was in college. A few years later my close friend Joe Becker enrolled at UNLV for the express purpose of studying under Professor Murray Rothbard in the graduate economics department, and I was able to sit in on a few of Murrays classes. I knew nothing about the Austrian School at the time, but it became clear I needed a more comprehensive intellectual foundation antipathy for the state and a belief that free markets worked better was not enough. Reading Rothbard was my start. This is how most young people today first hear about Mises, Rothbard, or Hayek they already have an interest in libertarian political theory.
They hear references to these great names from their friends, from libertarian think tanks or organizations, from a huge variety of libertarian websites, and from social media, and they begin the process of educating themselves.
The Ron Paul 2012 campaign was a great example of this: people instinctively knew they favored property rights, markets, and peace. They knew they opposed cronyism and the banking cartel. But when Ron mentioned Murray or Mises or Austrian economics or the Fed in a speech, people wanted to go out and find the original sources for themselves. Of course those of us from Generation X remember when vast amounts of free Austrian literature were not just a click away, to put it mildly. If you were lucky your local mall bookstore might have Milton Friedmans Free to Choose and maybe Hayeks Road to Serfdom right next to John Kenneth Galbraiths The Affluent Society. Mises and Rothbard certainly werent available at local libraries or university libraries. All that has changed today.
But obviously the Austrian School predates the modern libertarian movement. Thats why for much of the twentieth century many people read Austrian economics before arriving at philosophical or political libertarianism. The direction was reversed. Smart individuals were absorbing giants like Leonard Read, Henry Hazlitt, and Mises, but they saw themselves as liberals in the classical European tradition of the word. Murray Rothbard deserves much of the credit for building a modern libertarian framework using Austrian economics as the foundation, and creating a bridge for true liberals after the term was hijacked.
LMR: You worked for Ron Paul in his congressional office for several years. I suppose unlike most people in that type of a job, you didnt have to lie every day at work! Is there any story you can share to illustrate the culture of DC and how you were the oddballs?
JD: My favorite anecdote involves other members of Congress asking us to have Ron sign books, photos, etc., for their constituents. This no doubt galled them, because Ron was a celebrity of sorts while they were unknown. But trust me, the average member of Congress deserves to be forgotten. They are a venal, mean, petty, and self-important bunch, despite the fact that maybe 1 in 20 of their constituents knows their names.
Working for Dr. Paul was a great experience. We (as a staff) never had to worry about Ron being tempted to sell out or cast a safe vote due to political pressure. Rons office was far and away the most intellectual and philosophical office on Capitol Hill; the other members of Congress were purely political animals focused either on consolidation of power or self-preservation, depending.
By contrast, we were busy quoting Mises, Rothbard, Bastiat, Tom Woods, Lew Rockwell, Lysander Spooner, you name it, in Rons speeches, statements, press releases, and weekly columns. Virtually everyone on staff was at least familiar with Austrian thought, and we used mises.org as a frequent resource.
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Antipathy for the State Is Not Enough