Walter E. Williams (1936-2020)

 'I Just Do My Own Thing': Walter Williams, RIP | Reason - Nick Gillespie:

December 2, 2020 - "I'm saddened to write of the death of libertarian economist Walter E. Williams. He passed away Wednesday morning at the age of 84, less than a day after teaching a class at George Mason University, where he worked for 40 years and helped transform his department into a highly respected center of free market scholars. A popular syndicated columnist whose work appeared in over a hundred newspapers on a weekly basis, he was a long-time contributor to Reason and served as an emeritus trustee of Reason Foundation....

"Born in Philadelphia in 1936, Williams grew up as a neighbor to Bill Cosby in the city's racially segregated housing projects and was drafted into the peacetime Army during the Cold War. A self-described 'crazy-ass man who insisted on talking about liberty in America' long before he was a public intellectual, the racist violence and abuse he suffered at the hands of police, military officers, and other authorities informed much of his work. In his powerful, evocative 2010 memoir, Up From the Projects, he recounts the time when, as a cab driver in the City of Brotherly Love, he was ordered out of his cab by a white officer, beaten up, and then charged with disorderly conduct."

Read more: https://reason.com/2020/12/02/i-just-do-my-own-thing-walter-williams-rip/

Walter Williams, RIP | Cato@Liberty - David Boaz:

"After early stints as a cab driver, a soldier in Korea, and a probation officer, Walter focused on education and got a Ph.D. in economics from UCLA in 1972. From 1973 to 1980 he taught at Temple University in Philadelphia before moving to George Mason University for the rest of his career.

"In 1982 he published a book of original research and provocative ideas, The State Against Blacks, which Don Boudreaux describes in today’s Wall Street Journal as 'an eloquent, data‐​rich broadside against occupational licensing, taxicab regulations, labor‐​union privileges and other fine‐​sounding government measures that inflict disproportionate harm on blacks by restricting the employment options and by driving up the costs of goods and services'. His work in these areas and his outgoing, engaging, effective style of communications brought him broader public attention. He appeared in Milton Friedman’s PBS series “Free to Choose” in 1980. He became a frequent guest host on the Rush Limbaugh Show.... 

"In 1989 the Cato Institute and Praeger published Walter’s book South Africa’s War against Capitalism. In it he showed, with detailed economic and historical analysis, that ... 'South Africa’s apartheid is not the corollary of free‐​market or capitalist forces. Apartheid is the result of anticapitalistic or socialistic efforts to subvert the operation of market (capitalistic) forces.'"

Read more: https://www.cato.org/blog/walter-williams-rip

In Memoriam: Walter E. Williams, 1936-2020 | Forbes - Art Carden: 

December 3, 2020 - "Williams’s work and commentary was informed by a deep understanding of how free people in free markets find ways to help one another. Howard Baetjer explains the 'Invisible Hand Principle' in his short book Economics and Free Markets. He quotes Williams, who said 'In a free market, you get more for yourself by serving your fellow man. You don’t have to care about him! Just serve him.'

"We get, as Adam Smith explained, what we want by helping other people get what they want. Importantly, this requires us to respect their right to say 'no.' Free markets rest on a profound respect for others’ dignity. A free market is possible and productive when we recognize that other people are not merely means to our ends, created to serve us or created to live as we want them to. If we want to secure their cooperation, we have to give them what they want rather than what we think is best for them. Few people understood this better than Walter Williams."

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2020/12/03/in-memoriam-walter-e-williams-1936-2020/?sh=5fbe44b18fe4

Reason, Cato named in climate-change probe

Reason Foundation Included in Climate-Change Dragnet Subpoena to ExxonMobil - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Ron Bailey:

May 4, 2016 - "In March, six Democratic state attorneys-general and the independent attorney general from the U.S. Virgin Islands joined forces with climate activist and former Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore to annnounce a legal campaign to intimidate climate change skeptics....

"The heart of this anti-free-speech effort has been a series of subpoenas to ExxonMobil demanding that the oil giant supply various attorneys general with all communications it has had since January 1, 1977 with groups that address scientific and policy issues with respect to climate change. On Tuesday, one of those subpoenas to ExxonMobil, a March 15 fishing expedition by former EPA lawyer and current Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker, was made public, revealing the wide extent of this intimidation campaign. How wide? One of the organizations mentioned in Walker's subpoena is the Reason Foundation....

"Reason is far from alone. The subpoena lists nearly 100 think tanks, advocacy groups, lobbyists, and university centers with which Walker believes ExxonMobil may have had communications concerning 'research, advocacy, strategy, reports, studies, reviews, or public opinions regarding Climate Change.' These include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the George Mason University Law and Economics Center, the American Enterprise Institute, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, the Cato Institute, the National Black Chamber of Commerce, the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, the Heritage Foundation, and on and on.

"The attorneys-general are seeking to discover some sort of an ExxonMobil-financed conspiracy aimed at undermining public confidence in the scientific consensus that man-made climate change is real and a big problem. Some who are worried about the deleterious effects of climate change have grown weary of trying to persuade their fellow citizens that the scientific evidence is on their side, and so now want to outlaw expressions of disagreement with that consensus.

"For example, a prominent group of climate activists sent a letter in September 2015 to the Department of Justice suggesting that Attorney General Loretta Lynch open a 'RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) investigation of corporations and other organizations that have knowingly deceived the American people about the risks of climate change, as a means to forestall America's response to climate change.' At a congressional hearing in March, Lynch testified that her office has considered taking legal action against groups promoting climate change skepticism."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2016/05/04/reason-foundation-included-in-climate-ch
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Libertarian legal ideas going mainsteam

The Rehabilitationists: The Libertarian Movement to Undo the New Deal | The New Republic - Brian Beutler:

August 30, 2015 - "In November 2013, a who’s who of America’s conservative legal establishment descended on the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., for an annual meeting of the Federalist Society, the most influential conservative legal organization in the country. Current presidential candidates Scott Walker and Ted Cruz each made appearances.... Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was a featured speaker.... One of the biggest stars of the conference, however, was neither a Senate-confirmed official nor an elected politician, but a libertarian law professor at Georgetown named Randy Barnett....

"'The younger people, the people in law school, they seem to be gravitating toward people like Randy,' said attendee Josh Blackman, an associate law professor at the South Texas College of Law and a close friend of Barnett’s. 'When he gets off the stage he’s mobbed. ... There’s a crowd of people five or six feet deep surrounding him'....

"Barnett and his compatriots represent the vanguard of a lasting shift toward greater libertarian influence over our law schools and, increasingly, throughout our legal system. They’re building networks for students and young lawyers and laying the foundation for a more free-market cast of federal judges in the next presidential administration. Their goal is to fundamentally reshape the courts in ways that will have profound effects on society....

"Barnett believes the Constitution exists to secure inalienable property and contract rights for individuals. This may sound like a bland and inconsequential opinion, but if widely adopted by our courts and political systems it would prohibit or call into question basic governmental protections—minimum wages, food-safety regulations, child-labor laws—that most of us take for granted. For nearly a century now, a legal counterculture has insisted that the whole New Deal project was a big, unconstitutional error, and Barnett is a big part of that movement today....

"All libertarians want to fight federal regulations in Congress and the executive branch. But Barnett and his allies think courts should be empowered to throw regulations out even if political majorities support them. These ... professors have established beachheads at law schools across the country. In 2002, UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh founded a blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, as a hub for libertarian ideas, including Lochner revisionism. Today, it has become the most prominent academic legal blog in the country and now publishes under the auspices of The Washington Post. It boasts nearly two dozen contributing professors and mainlines detailed and informed libertarian legal arguments to thousands of the nation’s top lawyers, law students, clerks, judges, and opinion-makers every day.

"The contributors to The Volokh Conspiracy teach at the University of Minnesota, Northwestern, Emory, Duke, and elsewhere. Several hold positions at George Mason University’s law school, which is famous for its conservative faculty and, in 36 short years, has rocketed to prominence as one of the 50 best law schools in the country....

"In 1991, two former members of the Reagan administration, Chip Mellor and Clint Bolick, founded the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public-interest law firm now based in Arlington, Virginia, with $350,000 a year in seed money from the oil and gas magnate Charles Koch. They’ve challenged state licensing laws on behalf of hair braiders, florists, and other tradespeople across the country, but have also undertaken loftier crusades, including a doomed effort to overturn the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires that contractors pay their employees competitive wages on government-funded projects....

"With five offices around the country, a legal clinic training students at the University of Chicago Law School, and a staff of nearly 100, the Institute for Justice has become a proving ground for aspiring, ideologically committed lawyers. Every year, the group sends lawyers to law schools around the country to give presentations on public-interest law and recruit students into its ranks."

Read more: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122645/rehabilitationists-libertarian-movement-undo-new-deal
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Remembering Leonard P. Liggio (1933–2014)

RIP: Leonard P. Liggio (1933–2014) « Antiwar.com Blog - Sheldon Richman:

October 18, 2014 - "I lost one of my favorite teachers this week, as did so many other libertarians, not to mention the freedom movement as a whole. Leonard P. Liggio, 81, died after a period of declining health....

"Since the early 1950s, before he had reached the age of 20, Leonard was a scholar and activist for individual liberty, the free-market order, and the voluntary network of social cooperation we call civil society. He was in Youth for Taft in 1952, when the noninterventionist Sen. Robert Taft unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination....

"In his long career, Leonard was associated with the Volker Fund (a pioneering classical-liberal organization), the Institute for Humane Studies, Liberty Fund, the Cato Institute, and finally, the Atlas Network. He was also on the faculty of several universities, including George Mason Law School, after doing graduate work in law and history at various institutions.

"Leonard studied with Ludwig von Mises and a long list of eminent historians. He knew the founders of the modern libertarian movement: F.A. Harper, Leonard Read, Pierre Goodrich, Ayn Rand, and more. He was an early member of the Mont Pelerin Society, founded by F.A. Hayek, and eventually president of the organization. As a young man he became close friends with Murray Rothbard, Ralph Raico, George Reisman, Ronald Hamowy, Robert Hessen, and others who comprised their Circle Bastiat. He literally was present at the creation of the movement and helped to make it what it would become."

Read more: http://antiwar.com/blog/2014/10/18/rip-leonard-p-liggio-1933-2014/
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Google a major donor to George Mason's free-market law center

Google, once disdainful of lobbying, now a master of Washington influence - The Washington Post - Tom Hamburger & Matea Gold:

April 12, 2014 - "In May 2012, the law school at George Mason University hosted a forum billed as a 'vibrant discussion' about Internet search competition ... in large part the work of Google, which maneuvered behind the scenes with GMU’s Law & Economics Center to put on the event. At the time, the company was under FTC investigation over concerns about the dominance of its famed search engine.... On the day of the conference, leading technology and legal experts forcefully rejected the need for the government to take action against Google, making their arguments before some of the very regulators who would help determine its fate.

"The company helped put on two similar conferences at GMU around the time of the 18-month investigation, part of a broad strategy to shape the external debate around the probe, which found that Google’s search practices did not merit legal action....

"The center is among the academic programs at universities such as Harvard and Stanford that have benefited from Google’s largesse. For the past several years, the free-market-oriented law center has received an annual donation from the company, a grant that totaled $350,000 last year, according to the school."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-google-is-transforming-power-and-politicsgoogle-once-disdainful-of-lobbying-now-a-master-of-washington-influence/2014/04/12/51648b92-b4d3-11e3-8cb6-284052554d74_story.html
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DC Libertarians file to be on 2014 ballot

Libertarians poised to take over D.C. - West Palm Beach Libertarian | Examiner.com - Karl Dickey:

November 22, 2013 - "Yesterday, three Libertarian residents of the District of Columbia filed with the D.C. Board of Elections qualification papers to secure their place on the April, 2014 primary ballot....

"Bruce Majors [who] has filed to be the Mayor of the District of Columbia ran for Congress in 2012 earning 16,500 votes which qualified the Libertarian Party for permanent ballot access. Often times, Libertarian Party candidates will need to spend financial and human resources in order to secure themselves a place on the ballot - something not needed by Republican or Democratic candidates. Majors has been a resident of the District of Columbia since 1980 and [is] a popular Realtor for the area.

"Sara Jane Panfil has filed to be a D.C. delegate to Congress and is a graduate of Columbia University. Frederick Steiner is running for the City Council At-Large position and has an MBA from George Mason University. Others are expected to join the trio in their effort to bring libertarian values back to D.C.

"The D.C. Libertarian Party seeks to make political process more competitive in the district, which is virtually a one-party jurisdiction with incumbents serving for life."

Read more: http://www.examiner.com/article/libertarians-poised-to-take-over-d-c
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Joseph S. Diedrich interviews Andrew Kirell

Libertarian America: A conversation with Andrew Kirell | Washington Times Communities - Joseph S. Diedrich, The Business of Living:

 "MADISON, Wis., August 3, 2013 ­― Andrew Kirell, senior editor at the news outlet Mediaite, prides himself on 'chronicling the blowhards in political media.' Before joining Mediaite, Kirell worked on John Stossel’s production team at Fox Business and ABC News. Overwhelmed by journalistic magnetism, he decided to forego television production to pursue writing and editorial work.

"Kirell, who is heavily influenced by his experiences at George Mason University studying under free-market economics professors like Walter Williams, Byran Caplan, and Don Boudreaux, enjoys using his position at Mediaite to dish out some 'equal-opportunity mockery of the Northeast Corridor’s worst bloviators.'"

Read more: https://web.archive.org/web/20150122105009/http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/business-living/2013/aug/3/libertarian-america-conversation-andrew-kirell
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Reason interviews Robert Sarvis, Libertarian candidate for VA governor

Robert Sarvis: Libertarian Candidate for Governor of Virginia with Double-Digit Poll Numbers - Reason.com - Brian Doherty:

October 2, 2013 - "Robert Sarvis is the Libertarian Party’s candidate for governor in Virginia this year, and is so far doing surprisingly well in the polls for that party, coming in recently at 10 percent in a Washington Post poll.

"With a law degree from New York University, a master’s in economics from George Mason University, and a Google Grand Prize in the company's Android Development challenge in his past, this married 37-year-old father of two is trying to appeal across the libertarian spectrum of 'leave us alone' with a slogan of 'Virginia: open minded and open for business'....

"Senior Editor Brian Doherty interviewed Sarvis by phone yesterday about the joys and travails of a surprisingly lively third party campaigner."

Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2013/10/02/robert-sarvis-libertarian-candidate-for
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Joseph S. Diedrich interviews Jeffrey Tucker

Libertarian America: A conversation with Jeffrey Tucker | Washington Times Communities - Joseph S. Diedrich:

March 3, 2013 - "Jeffrey Tucker is the Executive Editor of Laissez-Faire Books and the primus inter pares of the Laissez-Faire Club, which seeks to apply 'a conventional commercial model of the digital world, like Pandora or Spotify, to the topical area of classical liberalism.' He has written three books on libertarian ideas: Bourbon for Breakfast, It’s a Jetsons World, and A Beautiful Anarchy....

"Born and raised in Texas, Tucker studied at Howard Payne University and Texas Tech University. He was a graduate student at George Mason University and is an alumnus of the National Journalism Center. Today, he is widely known and recognized for his omnipresent bowties.

"I spoke again with Tucker recently. Here is some of that conversation:"

Read more: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/business-living/2013/mar/3/books-bowties-and-bourbon-conversation-jeffrey-tuc/#ixzz2Miudgj9s
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