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The Australian Mises Seminar

The Organising Committee of Australian Mises Seminar formally invites you to attend the second annual event to be held at the Establishment Ballroom, Sydney, from the 1st-2nd of December 2012.

Building upon last year’s successful event, we have managed to bring together some of the best free-market economists and libertarian philosophers from around the world for a weekend of fun and lively discussion. The seminar will field a line-up of prominent anti-state, anti-war and pro-market thinkers. This year’s special international guest speaker is the prodigious Dr. Walter Block.

The Mises Seminar is named in honour of Ludwig von Mises, perhaps the most gifted economist and philosopher of the 20th century. Mises was a prolific author who spawned a global movement dedicated to carrying on his tradition. One of his students, F.A. Hayek, went on to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics. Another of his students, Murray N. Rothbard, extended Mises’ ideas and founded what is now the modern libertarian movement. A living proponent of Mises’ ideas is Congressman Ron Paul who ran for the office of President of the United States, sparking an international and intellectual revolution.

The freedom movement in Australia is young and expanding. However, the government’s growth has continued rapidly despite the efforts of our free-market think-tanks. The past 12 months have seen a further erosion of economic and personal liberties at the hands of the government. This tide must be fought, not with bullets or votes — but with ideas, as an intellectual revolution necessarily precedes political and cultural change.

The Presidential campaign of Ron Paul, despite being politically unsuccessful, exemplifies the tremendous impact that the Austrian school economics and libertarianism has had in the marketplace of ideas. For this reason, it is important to reaffirm our principles with an added intellectual rigour. As the only event of its type overtly promoting the ideas of Austro-Libertarianism, the seminar provides a fantastic opportunity for attendees to connect with other like-minded individuals aware of freedom’s virtues.

The spirit of the seminar is best encapsulated by Mises’ lifelong motto taken from Virgil’s Aeneid: “Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito” — ‘Do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it’. We look forward to you joining the rest of the remnant this December at this not to be missed event.

In liberty,
The Organising Committee

For more information regarding the event, programme, speakers, venue, and how to purchase tickets please visit the website at mises.org.au.

500th post! The Mises Seminar in Sydney was a great success. Plans for organizing the second event are already underway. The speeches were recorded and are able to be viewed here (1080p) with more to come. We’re also pleased to announce a new Libertarian Publication:

To mark the historic Mises Seminar in Sydney, Liberty Australia is launching The Journal of Peace, Prosperity and Freedom. It will be dedicated to Austrian economics, revisionist history, legal arguments from an individualist perspective and other topics not adequately addressed by the IPA Review and Policy. The primary focus will be on Australia, although analysis of other countries is welcome too.

It’s been two weeks since the Mises Seminar down in Sydney. OC just sent out an email to all attendees (100+), seeking bio, contact info & feedback. There’s already a meetup planned for the 18th in Sydney, with others to come in numerous capital cities. After collating the contact info, folks from their respective cities will be able to get in touch with other local supporters far more easily. Hell yeaah to the Austrian School & Libertarianism spreading all around Australia, the US & the rest of the world!

Having a sweet time after the Mises Seminar… where I’m introducing Jennifer Marohasy sitting across from me to Ron Paul.

David Hart, Director of Liberty Fund’s Online Library of Liberty Project is on my left, who discovered Ayn Rand and Rothbard at school and went to study under Leonard Liggio. 

Benjamin Marks, Economics.org.au on my right. With Nickolai Hubble from the DailyReckoning.com opposite Ben. Timothy D. Mak who has written for Mises.org is out of frame on the right.

Here’s a short video clip of an earlier discussion at the table; Jennifer is an anarchist & was inquiring about alternate label suggestions. The discussion turns to David Hart, who Rothbard praised to Hoppe back in the day as a rising star but lamented that he ‘dropped off the face of the earth’, part of why is re-countered here (PHD supervisor retired with no notice, so he had to move from Stanford to Cambridge), where if you’re interested he continues a similar discussion.

Such an awesome weekend. I’ll eventually do a write up. I learnt alot of things, made numerous connections, had some great exchanges - many of which I wish could have been recorded. Video of the lectures will be put up soon enough. 100+ attendees on both days. The trip to the restaurant after the end of the event reception was also a bit of a highlight; 30+ merrily continuing to engage in conversations about liberty and whatever else late into the night and early morning. It was a resounding success, and many expressed comments of thanks. A bit of a stink was kicked up from a minority of folks about the anti-frb content for a few talks. Can’t please everyone. I’ve already got a big queue of things, but I’ll add to it in time.