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Larry
Moss, RIP
I first met
Larry Moss in 1966. He was a first year economics graduate student
at Columbia University; I was one year ahead of him there, in my
second year.
It soon became
clear that we were on the same wavelength as far as political economy
was concerned; he and I were part of a small band of free enterprisers
at Columbia, surrounded by a bunch of critics of the marketplace,
both amongst the students and faculty. He and I had a lot more in
common; we were both from New York City. He had recently graduated
from Queens College, and I from Brooklyn College, sister schools
in the City University of New York (CUNY) system. We were both Jewish,
and, in order to embrace the free market philosophy, both became
outliers in our families. We both lived in the upper west side near
Columbia, just a block or two from each other.
However, despite
these commonalities, I never really grew close to Larry at this
point. Why not? Because he kept saying that he wanted to introduce
me to this fellow, Murray Rothbard. I would have been willing to
do so, but Larry said that Murray was an anarchist, among his other
descriptions. Well, that did it for me. I was in my Randian stage
at that time, and I knew, I just knew, that all anarchists
were nuts and fruitcakes. My respect for Larry plummeted. He and
I didn’t have too much to do with each other at that point.
However, one
day I met Larry and his then roommate, Jerry Woloz, another friend
of Murray Rothbard’s. The two of them ganged up on me; they made
anarchism sound almost palatable; not quite of course, but enough
so that I finally became willing to meet Murray (who converted me
to this position in about five minutes).
 Then,
began my and Larry’s overlap during the "living room"
period of both our lives. The two of us, and Jerry Woloz, along
with the remnants of Murray’s circle Bastiat, would hang around
in Murray’s living room until all hours of the night, discussing
economics, libertarianism, playing Risk (don’t ask, you had to be
there to appreciate this), and laughing so hard we thought our stomachs
would burst. Murray was fiendishly funny. This lasted, at
least for me, until 1978, when Larry’s and my path diverged from
each other’s.
Larry and I
kept in touch with each other after that, but it became more sporadic,
with me on the west coast of Canada, and he in the New York City
and later in the Boston area, where he taught for many years at
Babson College. We would see each other from time to time at economics
conferences, and renew old times, old friends. When he became editor
of the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, we began
a new chapter in our lives, as I published some half dozen articles
with him over the years. But, I’ll never forget my graduate school
friend. I’ll be eternally grateful that he had the chutzpa to keep
pushing Murray Rothbard on me, despite my initial protests. My life
would likely have been very different, and much poorer, were it
not for Larry’s assertiveness in this regard.
 I’ll
never forget one class I took with Larry; it was Donald Dewey’s
course in Industrial Organization. For some reason it had a very
small class size; there was me, Larry, two Randians, and miracle
of miracles, 3–4 other supporters of laissez faire capitalism.
In his first class, Dewey was attempting to set the stage for opinion
within the economics profession concerning anti-trust law. To do
so, he took a survey of the class members. First, he asked for a
show of hands of those who wanted to strengthen and extend this
law; no takers. With a bit of surprise on his face, he then called
for those who favored the status quo in this regard; again, no one
raised his hand. Very perturbed now, Dewey asked those of us who
favored a reduction in the power of this law to identify ourselves.
He was truly amazed, again, that not a single hand shot up. Exasperated,
he finally offered us the fourth alternative: complete repeal of
this law. Every hand was raised, amidst general mirth, at least
on our parts. Larry and I grinned at each other.
Larry Moss,
rest in peace. We didn’t agree on every jot and tittle of Austro-libertarianism,
but you did the Lord’s work, promoting liberty and Austrian economics.
March
10, 2009
Dr.
Block [send him mail] is a
professor of economics at Loyola University New Orleans, and a senior
fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is the author of Defending
the Undefendable and the newly released Labor
Economics From A Free Market Perspective.
Copyright
© 2009 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in
part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
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