Essays in Austrian Economics
William (Bill) Barnett II is Professor of Economics and Chase Bank Distinguished Professor of International Business in the Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business, Loyola University New Orleans, where he has been a member of the economics department since 1974. He is also an Adjunct Scholar at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He earned a B.B.A. in economics from Loyola University New Orleans in 1967, a Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University in 1974, and a J.D. in Civil Law from Loyola University New Orleans in 1982. His teaching and research interests are in Austrian School economics, particularly the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle, and domestic and international macroeconomics and macro finance. He has published over 60 articles in scholarly refereed journals such as: the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics; the Review of Austrian Economics; Advances in Austrian Economics; the Independent Review; and, Public Choice; and he appears frequently on television and radio. He has been happily married to Helen Tedesco Barnett since 1969; they have three children and six grandchildren. Walter Block is Harold E. Wirth Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics, College of Business, Loyola University New Orleans, and senior fellow at the Mises Institute. He earned his PhD in economics at Columbia University in 1972. He has taught at Rutgers, SUNY Stony Brook, Baruch CUNY, Holy Cross and the University of Central Arkansas. He is the author of over 400 refereed articles in professional journals, two dozen books, and thousands of op eds. He lectures widely on college campuses, delivers seminars around the world and appears regularly on television and radio shows. He has been a friend of Ron Paul’s since the 1970s. Block is a leading Austrian School economist and an international leader of the freedom movement. His earliest work Defending the Undefendable (first edition Fleet 1976, latest edition Mises 2008, translated in 12 languages) is now, more than 30 years later, still regarded as a classic of libertarianism. This collection of essays argues for societal villains as economic scapegoats based on the principles of nonaggression, forcing its reader to think and to rethink his initial knee-jerk emotional responses, and to gain a new and sounder appreciation of economic theory and of the virtues and operations of the free market economy. Block’s writing was inspired by Henry Hazlitt. His latest book is: Yes to Ron Paul and Liberty.