In the lion's den...
by Robert Wenzel
At the invitation of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, I spoke and had lunch in the bank's Liberty Room. Below are my prepared remarks.[...]
Read here.
Audio Version here (YouTube here)
Below is a chronological collection of the updates that followed:
Followup:
My Fed Speech, The Details
Response:
How to Get Kicked Out of the Boston Economic Club
My Fed Speech: The Feedback Continues
Have I Gotten on the 'Terminate with Extreme Prejudice' List
The Austrian School Edge Over the Clueless Keynesians
If Vox Day ever decides to write a biography of me, I think I will cooperate.
Mises Daily: New York Fed: Leave the Building!
From LvMI scholar Richard Ebeling:
The Fed Does Not Live on This Planet!
The Ignorance about Austrian Economics at the NY Fed
Matonis: "I am sure Bob didn’t just go for the food"
I read about this on LRC and EPJ, and I have to say, I have no idea how he even got invited to speak there. But good great awesome for him to not hold back at all.
The keyboard is mightier than the gun.
Non parit potestas ipsius auctoritatem.
Voluntaryism Forum
Yes, I read it couple of days ago. Absolutely brilliant!
EDIT: Thanks for the other related links.
More:
The Fed needs all the arguments it can to prevent QE 3.
It has to contend with pesky liberals who want to raise incomes and employment by easing credit conditions.
It's not that great of a speech in terms of discussing the effects of Fed policy or even something as simple as whether or not we need more credit contraction right now.
Now we've got an Austrian speaking truth to Congress...
Herbener from Grove City College is also set to testify.
http://foundationsofecon.blogspot.ca/2012/05/herbener-to-testify-on-federal-reserve.html
Herbener and Klein begin in part 2. (You'd think with all the money the feds waste, they would at least at some point accidentally spend it on something worth while, like some decent audio equipment...but of course not.)
I just love seeing this guy as Chairman.
Congressman Paul Subcommittee Hearing "The Federal Reserve System: Mend It or End It?" PART 1
I also didn't realize Galbraith and a former vice chair of the Fed was there too. Paul really had his hands full...
Congressman Paul Subcommittee Hearing "The Federal Reserve System: Mend It or End It?" PART 2
Hearing on Fractional Reserve Banking...
"Fractional Reserve Banking and the Federal Reserve: The Economic Consequences of High-Powered Money,"
John Cochran, Joseph Salerno, and Lawrence H. White testifying...
Major update...or in Wenzel's terms:
h/t Stephan Kinsella:
uh oh, Wenzel's "I spoke at the Fed" story is now unraveling...
Reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism:
After Robert Wenzel's embarrassing performance in his debate with Stephan Kinsella, a few people in another thread started to question the validity of his story about delivering that epic speech at the New York Fed. A quick google search turned up the following:
First, was this comment by RGallatin on a Forbes article about Wenzel's Fed Speech:
This was not a “speech” at the in sense that Robert Wenzel was holding forth in front of large room full of Federal Reserve policy makers and analysts. I spoke with Richard Peach at the New York Fed: the “speech” was just Robert Wenzel having lunch in the dining room with two people — Richard Peach and one colleague — during which Wenzel read his speech to the two of them over lunch. This was not Netanyahu at the UN. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/04/30/robert-wenzel-to-federal-reserve-leave-the-building-to-the-four-legged-rats/
A search on Wenzel's blog seems to confirm that it was Richard Peach who had invited him to the fed.
Another post on Wenzel's blog states that he had been invited to the Fed (by an economist who he doesn't name) to give a seminar. However the seminar was canceled with in 15 minutes of its announcement.
"When I arrived at the bank, the economist who originally invited me told me that there was a "schedule conflict" with a seminar and that the group meeting would be smaller than originally planned."http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/04/my-fed-speech-details.html
In his blog, Wenzel never states the number of people who listened to his speech. If you believe RGallatin, the number was two. One can only speculate. However, given his shrill and desperate tone while defending I.P., one hopes that very few people were present when he attempted to represent the Austrian School of Economics at the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Poor bastard just can't catch a break. I guess you lie in the bed you make...
If the people at the FED knew he was lying then what could he possibly thought that he would gain from that kind of exploitation? it seems like it would only work to their advantage to know that the Austrian academics are desperate.
If you're suggesting that Wenzel made Austrians look desperate to Fed officials because they knew the truth about his "speech" being in a lunchroom of two people (which by the way, the speech was almost 20 minutes long...how the hell awkward must that have been?), I seriously doubt that's the case.
I'd be surprised if virtually anyone at the Fed even heard of Wenzel, even during his whole horn-tooting parade.
I'm just blown away by how unabashedly bombastic he was about the whole thing. I mean just look the sheer number of links in this thread. I'm honestly amazed at how someone could be so incredibly sonorous and self-promoting, while knowing full-well what he did was nothing more than simply force a couple of guys to listen to him read for twenty minutes while eating lunch.
I mean, that had to be his entire intention. How the hell else do you justify reading a 20 minute lecture out loud to two people during a meal? I honestly don't doubt he talked them into letting him do it just so he could honestly say he "delivered a speech in the bank's Liberty Room."
What a total assclown.
Well, I thought I read that he was scheduled for a speech that got cancelled 15 minutes after it was announced. So, if that was true, I figured somone at the FED must have gotten his name somewhere to put on the list of speakers (then someone noticed and cancelled it immediately haha).
The self-promotiong thing was obvious, but I guess I was giving him the benefit of the doubt on bilking potential 'followers'. yet more evidence that libertarians cannot be trusted; all too human.
"yet more evidence that libertarians cannot be trusted"
I thought that was a good thing. The master plan to elect the 3 stooges and win thorugh planned accident. Bumbling to victory through the political process that until a couple days ago was necessary to be taken seriosuly as a movement or some nonsense.
That's gonna last until next year, you're gonna be back in here regurgitating Gordon Wood...
HabbaBabba:That's gonna last until next year, you're gonna be back in here regurgitating Gordon Wood...
yomank.
yet more evidence that libertarians cannot be trusted; all too human.
Ron paul confirmed that libertarians can't be trusted when he went after his supporters using intellectual property law; but I knew this even before he did this shameless act.
John James:uh oh, Wenzel's "I spoke at the Fed" story is now unraveling...
Wow. Just... wow. Looks like my earlier wonder at how he got invited to give a speech at the Fed was prescient. Thanks for posting about this, John.
I mean, that had to be his entire intention. How the hell else do you justify reading a 20 minute lecture out loud to two people during a meal?
Marko:If it were me I would justify it as some long overdue torture of fed officials and supporters. But I wouldn't misrepresent what had taken place to fellow libertarians.
I meant how do you justify such a thing to the poor saps who have to sit there and try to eat while you stand there like a weirdo and make a speech for 20 minutes.
My guess is he essentially told them what was up, that he needed to be able to say he gave this epic speech at the Federal Reserve, "so just humor me and let me read this thing so I can post on my blog that I "delivered a speech in the bank's Liberty Room" and not be called a liar."