Paul Craig Roberts’ article today highlights something that I noticed about 15 years ago, which is why I haven’t attended a Mont Pelerin Society meeting in years: Thanks largely to Ed Feulner of the Heritage Foundation (the longtime MPS treasurer), the Society founded by Mises, Hayek, Friedman, Bruno Leoni, and other famous 20th century classical liberals has been turned into just another neocon propaganda vehicle.

At one of the regional meetings in Big Sky, Montana, around 1990 one of the older members of the audience (a founding member) protested vehemently shortly after my paper presentation on capitalism and pollution when the discussion in the room turned away from the substance of my talk to political strategy. Discussing politics was never the purpose of MPS, he said, as he silenced that line of discussion.

Then just a couple of years later, as soon as most of the old-timers were gone, Feulner managed to have the MPS meeting in D.C., with Congressman Dick “Barney Fag” Armey greeting everyone at the door of one of the congressional office buildings, where he then gave a speech. I suppose this was inevitable with all that neocon foundation money flowing into the D.C think tanks. Quite a few of us “protested” by standing around and talking in the back of the room during the speech. It’s all been down hill from there, as Roberts’ article shows.