I greatly appreciate David’s and Tom’s rejoinder to Pete Boettke’s unwarranted and gratuitous criticism of Murray Rothbard. Not being concerned about the poor, indeed! I think no truer words were uttered on this episode than these of Tom’s: “On the other hand, a cynic might speculate that, like Buchanan, (Boettke) knows what he is doing and is simply trying to ‘fit in with the statist/interventionist mainstream of the economics profession.”
I would now just like to add my own postscript to this little story, my own criticisms of this scholar’s output:
Block, Walter E. 2014. “Walter Block Replies to Peter Boettke re Mathematical Economics.” January 3; http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2014/01/walter-block-replies-to-peter-boettke.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+economicpolicyjournal%2FKpwH+%28EconomicPolicyJournal.com%29
Block, Walter E. 2014. “Is econ 101 killing America? A critique of Atkinson and Lind, and Boettke.” Management Education Science Technology Journal (MEST); Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 10-22. doi:10.12709/mest.02.02.02.02; http://www.mest.meste.org/MEST_2_2014/4_02.pdf
Block, Walter E. 2013. “Walter Block on Wenzel on Salerno on Boettke on Austrianism.” December 25; http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/12/walter-block-on-wenzel-on-salernoon.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+economicpolicyjournal%2FKpwH+%28EconomicPolicyJournal.com%29; http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/12/walter-block-on-wenzel-on-salerno-on.html
Block, Walter E. 2010. “Rejoinder to Boettke on Coasean Economics and Communism.” Romanian Economic and Business Review, Vol. 5, No. 3, Fall, pp. 9-90; http://www.rebe.rau.ro/REBE%205%203.pdf
Somewhat paradoxically, while to be sure Pete and I disagree on several issues, I must acknowledge that I regard him as an otherwise highly competent scholar and libertarian theoretician. Hey, we all make a few mistakes, myself certainly included. I am also grateful to him for mentoring more than a few of my Loyola and Holy Cross undergraduate students who have gone on to study with him, have earned their PhDs at Mason, and now have splendid careers in our Austro libertarian movement.
4:46 pm on July 19, 2016
