Before Katrina and her aftermath played havoc with my fall semester 2005, I had been, like thousands of other people beside myself over the years, a regular visitor at the Mises Institute. Perhaps my attendance there was more assiduous than most, since I participated regularly in the Austrian Scholars’ Conferences, the Mises University, and several weekend retreat conferences there per year. But, like most others, I was only a visitor. I never got to see the “inner workings” of the place. Now I can REVEAL ALL. Full Article.
[See also the large version of the image]
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That typewriter on which Human Action was typed must be worn very well, indeed.
But WHO typed it? My guess would be Margit von Mises, since she did perform so many secretarial services for her husband and some of his more favored friends. Mises himself was in a number of ways pre-keyboard. The author (Block) is not, I confidently assume, and in the present day, the Great Man himself would undoubtedly have to get with the QWERTY prodgram.
I know it seems trivial, but I wonder if Dr. Block (or any of the other LvMI fixtures) would mind telling me what brand of typewriter it is. I am a fan of the manual typewriter, even though it is quickly disappearing. (I know, I know, free markets, technological progress, increased per capita productivity and all that …).
In any event, thanks for the brief view into the Institute’s daily life.
I had the pleasure to work at the Institute for more than three months. Walter Block is right: there is no better place for an “Austrian”! Thank you Walter, for the article, thank you everybody at the LvMI for this wonderful place!
That looks like a good place; I would like to visit some time (I was given a mini-tour of the Leadership Institute headquarters in Arlington, VA earlier this year), but I don’t know when I’ll be in the area. I’ve been to several states down South, but never Alabama.
I highly recommend viewing Walter’s participation in the short CNBC discussion on Wal-Mart’s entrance into the banking field.
With simple concepts that nearly anyone could grasp, he overwhelmed the opposition and clearly impressed the host; who said she was going to have him back, which she didn’t say to the other two men.
Where can that be seen, Ron?
Here is a link to a picture of the typewriter Dr. Block mentioned in his article: http://mises.org/images4/misestypewriter.jpg
I believe the video on walmart is on the mises.org site. (media arhive.)
hope that helps
mike j.
Peter,
Click on the last word “here” in the third to last paragraph of the article to view the short video.
All I get is a 105 byte file containing:
The video can be found at mises.org (media archives) The file is mises.org:88/block
hope that helps,
mike j.
Thanks, Chad. That appears to be a Royal Quiet De Luxe from the early 1950s (with the distinctive parallelogram metal plates behind the ribbon levers), probably made about 7 years after the company resumed typewriter construction after being transformed into a munitions supplier during WWII.
Of course, since Human Action was first published in 1949, I assume the typewriter was made before then. It would have been virtually new when they began typing (perhaps bought for the express purpose of cranking out the book).
Of course they pinch their funds. We’re talking about top notch tactical entrepreneurs here, not putrid bureaucrats and slobbering bums.
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