On February 17, 2014 Robert Higgs presented the above speech as part of the ongoing Economic Liberty Lecture Series, a joint project of The Future of Freedom Foundation and the George Mason University Economics Society.

Robert Higgs is Senior Fellow in Political Economy for The Independent Institute and Editor at Large of the Institute’s quarterly journal The Independent Review. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, and he has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, and the University of Economics, Prague. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University, and a fellow for the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation.