Having got back from the Mises Circle event in Houston just a couple of hours ago, I give you my brief report. I’d guess the crowd was around 150 strong. The atmosphere was great, and the food was yummy.
Lew spoke on 5 paradigms or justifications for government. Very nice. I recommend listening to the MP3 once it’s posted. In the Q&A that followed, one of my favorite perrenial questions was raised: how could a gold standard be as stable as our current monetary system? I won’t deal with Lew’s brief answer or the larger literature on the subject, but just raise a point among the many that Lew did. During the heyday of the international gold standard, each national currency was defined as a weight of gold, and therefore currencies traded at fixed exchange ratios. One of the checks on governments and central banks was their balance of accounts in bullion. But, in our modern era, as is so forcibly brought home to me in my work as a Project Engineer on large projects, currency risk plays a major role. For instance, right now I am involved in a methanol plant to be built in Egypt. The client is based in Canada, my company is based in Norway but will be executed in Houston and Mumbai, the equipment will be bought around the world, and the construction will be done by a German firm in Egypt. So, the project is a mix of Nowegian Kroners, US Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Euros, British Pounds, Egyptian Pounds, and Indian Rupees right off the bat (not counting the equipment suppliers).
During dinner, Ron Paul gave a nice speech on his recent experiences with The Maestro and other congresscritters. Very entertaining.
Lastly, James Fogal gave a brief talk on tax shelters for charitable giving. I’m glad he did, because I wasn’t aware of two of the three strategies he presented!
Throughout, it was a joy. There was a good deal of time between lectures to mingle and meet the other attendees — some familiar faces, some known only through email, many new faces. I was sorry not to see my buddy Stephan (on vacation). I also held out hope that I might see Tim and Judy Dove, or Rob Bradley, or Laura Coker-Garcia, or many of my other Houston libertarian friends: maybe next time?
Comments: If I had my way, there would have been even more time to socialize. There should have been a premium supper with Pat Barnett, James Fogal, and Lew Rockwell. I would have loved a participant list, as is often given out at conferences. I made some good contacts for dinners out with spouses — I’d like to make more!
Thanks for making it happen, Mises Institute. It was a blast! I’m already looking forward to the next one, featuring John Denson (will he come?) and Jeff Tucker.
If Tucker is on the bill, and the invitation says “dress is casual”, what will the men wear?
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Large projects… you weren’t kidding.
Do you have events in many different areas? Would you ever consider something in the Chicago area?
We just started these, and really Houston was the first. All reports were good. But next time, Lew will have some Mises ties available
Excellent report, Gil. It was a terrific event, and I’m glad to have been there. Thanks to Mr. Jeremy Davis, who sat at my table, for sponsoring it.
I’d like to voice my resounding approval of the Mises Circle. I was able to meet both Gil and Brian and many other like-minded folk in a wonderful setting. Many thanks to Jeremy Davis, Pat Barnett, Lew Rockwell, Ron Paul, James Fogal and anyone else I’m missing for such a great event. It is truly heartening to see such a large crowd of enthusiastic people with a singular purpose, that of exposing the welfare-warfare state for what it is, opportunistic, pragmatic and completely corrupt. I become disheartened in conversations with many people at work and in the community when they simply spout off the latest talking points from Hannity and O’Reily in response to a criticism of the war or any of the other destructive policies of the current regime. These are people who really do consider themselves “conservatives.” Congressman Paul made a great point during his remarks when he talked about the fact that some people in his district accuse him of being liberal by voting with Congressional Democrats against President Bush’s spend-a-thon. His response is that he is more conservative than any of the other Republicans. Anyway, it was a great event and I look forward to many more.
I second the Chicago stop!
I wish I had known about this more in advance, is there a mailing list regarding strictly Mises events? I returned from a 3 week thrill ride in Eurasia just a day before this, but would have ventured another airplane ride for the event.
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