This talk was only good, in my opinion. I got the impression that Professor Kors is more of a confused classical liberal, perhaps with a bit of a neoconish bent when it comes to foreign intervention. The professor seemed to have a muddled view of “middle of the road” policies, clearly not taking von Mises’ conclusions to heart. He also seemed to use “capitalism” and “democracy” interchangeably, which is dangerous. At the end of the Q&A he emphasized that property rights (and how the State regards them) is highly important, yet he didn’t seem to connect this with how modern American and European governments, if you’ll forgive me, piss on these rights on a daily basis whether by taxation, imminent domain or endless bureaucratic regulation etc.

I also took issue with how he approached American opposition to Soviet Communism with a very sentimental and rose-tinted view. I don’t think he mentioned FDR or even the fact that the USSR was an ally, armed and supported, in WWII once! He certainly did not mention the incredibly cozy and almost slavish relationship the Western allies had with Joe Stalin near the end of the war, which was pretty much the genesis of the “Iron Curtain” and countless other atrocities. Fortunately, Yuri Maltsev can shed light on these (intentionally?) overlooked facts: http://mises.org/media/1091/Despotism-Loves-Company-The-Story-of-Roosevelt-and-Stalin

I believe the fact that he mentioned and emphasized so many excellent books and authors kind of redeems these faults, hopefully the curious will take his recommendations to heart and learn for themselves. I think some of Yuri Maltzev’s speeches are great companion material to this lecture:

http://mises.org/media/2781/The-Fall-of-Communism-and-the-Rise-of-21st-Century-Socialism
http://mises.org/media/2897/The-Rise-and-Fall-of-Soviet-Communism