Bloomberg Businessweek USA 09.30.2019

The Anti-Krugman Libertarians at Sea

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WoodsandMurphygottoknoweachother

whentheywerebothlecturersattheMisesInstitutefor

AustrianEconomics,a libertarianthinktankinAuburn,Ala.

It championstheworkofLudwigvonMisesandtheschool

ofAustrianeconomics:thebeliefthatmarketforcescan

andshoulddeterminethepriceofeverything,evenmoney

itself.Theinstituteis alsothefruitofa ratherfamousliber-

tarianschism:Rothbardco-foundedit in1982,afterleaving

theCatoInstitute,whichhe’dalsoco-founded,andaccusing

theKochbrothers,CharlesandDavid,ofwateringdownlib-

ertarianism.(Rothbard,whodiedin1995,arguedfor“right-

wingpopulism”insupportofneo-NaziDavidDuke,andhis

workhasbeenembracedbysomemembersofthealt-right.)

SomeMisesfollowers,includingseveralwhoareon

thecruise,identifyas“AnCaps,”oranarcho-capitalists,

meaningthey’dhappilygetridofthestateandletsociety

self-regulatethroughthefreemarket.Woodsisamong

them,a 47-year-oldAnCaphistorianwholivesinFlorida

andhaswritten 12 booksandalsohostsanotherpodcast,

TheTomWoodsShow. It’slessecon-focusedthanContra

Krugman, withWoodsandhisideologicallycompatible

guestsoftencritiquingpoliticalcorrectness,whichthey

call“allowableopinion.”Inclinedtowardneoconservatism

in college, he changed his mind and began to question

interventionistforeignpolicyafterthefirstGulfWar.He

wasanearlymemberoftheLeagueoftheSouth,whichhe

sayswasformedtostudySouthernhistoryandJeffersonian

democracy. It’s since been designated a hate group by the

Southern Poverty Law Center, and Woods calls its latest turn

“off the rails” and abhorrent.

In conversation, he’s direct, at times confrontational. He

says he expects this story to be negative. “If you trash us,

that helps us. Anybody who is driven away from our cruise

byanarticlelikethiswasnevergoingtospendthousands

ofdollarswithusanyway.”

Murphyis farmorelaid-back,witharumpled-professor

mien that disguises a darkly comic sensibility. He’s 43, an

economist specializing in climate change at the Institute

for Energy Research, a nonprofit in Washington that pro-

motes free markets and has received funding from conser-

vative donors. Murphy discovered Austrian economics in

high school and chose Hillsdale College in Michigan, which

is famous in conservative circles for rejecting federal fund-

ing.Thedrawforthebuddingeconomist,though,wasthe

school’slibrary,whichheldMises’archive.

Some 20 years and a lot of scholarship later, he found

himself being pitched by his Mises Institute colleague on a

joint podcast. Woods was struck by how much of Murphy’s

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