Punching Above Our Weight

Mises Daily: Friday, March 28, 2014 by Jeff Deist

 Last week the Mises Institute hosted another outstanding Austrian Economics Research Conference at our campus in Auburn. Attendees enjoyed three days of cross-disciplinary presentations by more than 50 academics, PhD candidates, and economics/finance professionals, all working in the most provocative traditions of Austrian and libertarian thought. We also celebrated the 40th anniversary of the South Royalton conference, the first academic conference devoted to Austrian economics in the US and a watershed event in the modern Austrian movement.

AERC concluded Saturday evening under spectacular southern spring skies, with a reception on our patio……. Judge Napolitano, in a fascinating talk entitled “The Pope, the Constitution, and Economics 101,” revisited the sadly foregone Lochner era. Natural rights theory, economic liberty, and private contract rights once informed American jurisprudence, Napolitano explained, and we are all poorer for their absence in today’s common law. Some areas of human conduct simply should be immune from government interference, no matter the purported state interest.....To Read More.....