Mises: The Musical

0:00I'll get it. Please, could you repeat your explanation?

1:00Just a couple words about this piano. This is a Boesendorfer, a nine and a half foot imperial grand piano, the largest grand piano in the world. And it's right here in our conservatory named in honor of Joanne B. Rothbard, who was a great lover of music along with her husband Murray. They used to take classes in early music at Columbia University. In between writing treatises on history and economics, they were both great music scholars. So we're very pleased to have this instrument here. Tonight, you're fortunate enough to be at the debut performance of Mises the Musical. This is opening night. And it's closing night too.

1:51Guaranteed to lose money. There are four seats over here. Let me introduce to you Arlene Zenert. She's the pianist and a largely responsible friend who produced this. She was engaged in a very interesting thing over the last few years of reviving the Mises songs that the Mises circle used to sing and translating them into English and making them accessible. The music you'll hear tonight is the real stuff. This is the stuff that was really sung in Vienna by the Mises Circle. So, there's nothing phony about this. It seems like we made all this stuff up, but it's all true.

2:49Let me introduce to you the players. Well, after a while, they don't make their entrance for a while, but Paul Sweezy visited the Mises seminar back in the 1920s before he converted to Marxism. He is a typical neoclassical economist from Harvard. He's played by Hans Trulli, who will make his entrance a little bit later. I told him for some reason he reminds me of a Boston Marxist. I wasn't sure why. And then A.W. Stonyer was a Fabian Socialist and he's played tonight by Marcus Grahegg, who will make his entrance a little bit later.

3:37Felix Kaufman is the author of all these songs. He wrote the words. Is there more space over there? Some more chairs would probably be pulled in to be mined up. But Kaufman was a philosopher, and he used to write these. There's one more chair over there if somebody can get through. So throw somebody in. But Kaufman was a philosopher. He wrote all these words, and he would take notes during the seminar and come up with songs the next week and pass them out to everybody and get everybody singing them. So, Kaufman and I are being played by our own dear David Gordon, here he is, so David, here he is.

4:28Everybody says that Kaufman was a mischievous fellow. Gottfried Habler was a great friend of Mises, who flirted somewhat with Keynesianism, midlife, Friedrich also wrote some very good books on trade theory and business cycle theory, and tonight he's played by Tom D. Lorenzo.

4:58Fritz Machlum was very much responsible for Human Action having been published. He gave a very positive review of it. I was a good friend of Mises's dad, they're ups and downs, but also another great theorist, and he's played by Joseph Salerno.

5:17And then Hans Meyer was a problematic figure. He was a disciple of Max Weber, a social democrat who makes an appearance in Mises's autobiography. He goes along very well with the people who ran Mises out of Austria. He thrived under the Nazis, Hans Meyer, and he is played tonight by our own dear Roderick Long. And of course we all know at this period Hayek was a great disciple of Mises and his successor at the business cycle institute. There is this song tonight you will hear about the Business Cycle Institute, and so we thought the thing in who should play Hayek, who else but Walter Block.

6:11Our last player needs no introduction. The author of the Mises biography, the man who knows Mises probably better than any living person, Erwin Gieter-Holstein. Ludwig von Mises, the Musical Now, come on. You're telling me that the state and society can be deduced from the principle of marginal utility? I claim Streiske is implausible at best. No, no, no. That's a caricature. We are not here debating the merits of anarchism. We are merely saying that through marginal utility, properly understood, we can demonstrate the merits of market economics in ways that eluded our predecessors. It might be the very foundation of liberalism itself.

7:13Well, I suppose anything properly understood can be the foundation of anything else properly understood.

7:26Gentlemen, define me.

7:35Slightly irritated by the fact that my former collaborators speak with this Yankee accent. But as to substance, the trouble with early liberalism and the reason for its intellectual failure, I believe, was its lack of a purely scientific foundation, one rooted not in any are all crepes, but in the rational analysis of the acting man.

8:26If I may be so told, I should disagree with everybody. and Fundamentals. You have all failed to come to terms with the teachings of Marx. They were. He says it's the theory of ideal points. The way to where? Oh, no.

9:03It says it here. I'll tell you where. Nowhere.

9:25I suspect you are up to your usual tricks.

9:33I was just thinking.

9:43Same as you. I'm still thinking. This whole scene could be set to music. If I may, again. Yes, yes, remember. Professor Meier and I have long because of greed. It seems to me that what we need is rational discussion and calm is a deliberation. Only in this way can we truly appreciate the implications of this service's innovative approach to science.

10:33I have a point of doctrine that you should really hear Attempt a refutation, but you will not come here I call myself a liberal, but not from days of yore I say all things differently than those who came before A liberal anyone can be, but in being alone the reasons see. I know this, cause marginal utility sets proper light on economy. I know this, cause marginal utility sets light on economy.

11:29I agree, but not yet. Now, do you agree? I agree that you are convinced of your position, Professor, but there is another thing to look at. I have some ideal types we cannot do without. Or else we're really crippled, cause nothing else works out.

12:15I therefore keep my values, had a distant sense, but he who thinks worth a thousand, in my view has no chance. I state my values in black ink, so that you will know just what I think. I know this, because marginal utility Sheds profit light on economy I know this, because marginal utility Sheds light on economy I've saved my values in black ink So that you all know just what I think I know this, because marginal utility Sheds from the light on the economy.

13:38The root of the difference lies in method. We are Austrian, whereas Meyer holds too tightly to the teachings of the German historical school. You don't need it. A schmolarite. Collegiate for inspection, that is the confection, Sorted, feed off fire and render law, Some will are of this way, proceeding in this way, Provide a mechanism without flaw, And though the thinking's brittle, their work will not be lent, So gratitude we fill and will express, But such a data set theory will not be get, The efforts of this kind invite redress.

14:26Well, at least I'm not being singled out. In fact, I suspect we have an even more formidable enemy in our midst. Don't say it. The Vizieries! Some claim another thing. The science has one real basis, natural value, and it's very cool. Should you not comprehend those speculation linens, This is well-trod territory, isn't it, gentlemen?

15:12Let us all move on to greener pastures and agree, Mises is our true teacher. Let us raise a glass to our host. Hear, hear! But with professor Mises, seven all that he uses, Thoughts of truth from those who love retort, Thinking begins at seven and lasts till nearly eleven, But certainty supply is never shorted, For all ears end suspension, everyone's attention turned to him, With wisdom on parallel, with knowledge apodictic, Better looms realistic, theory alone cannot out-hunger crowd. Very well said.

16:00You know what I think unites all anti-Misesians? In their hearts, they love the state. That's true. Remember that story of the two grenadiers returning to the war in Russia, Here at Napoleon's death, one was so distraught that he killed himself. Good riddance, I say.

16:25In any case, wasn't that story told in a song? Yes, Felix. And then Napoleon haunts his grave, so the story goes, anyway. And I know what you are thinking. We all... We all have leaders we admire. It's just that ours are not statesmen, but intellectuals. Ah, like my own beloved teacher, Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk. Let's imagine a scenario. An Austrian economist hopes that Germany invokes Germany, but in setting a line to the marginal utility scheme is dead. What would any self-respecting Austrian do?

17:21An economist moved to Germany, a learned position to pursue. This should have been a certainty, for, indeed, he'd learned a thing or two. One very good man learned the tragic tale of marginal utility. It was deceased. Its followers lamented the school's corruption. Their debt wouldn't increase. Our economist cried bitterly, oh, for the terrible news. Oh, that life hadn't been granted me. Gone to the dogs is my muse.

18:09My books, what to become of them? Editions are printed, but no demand. I might well learn them straight away, wisdom's met its final stand, dishonor with its death-nail sounding, and my friend's fate betrays me, and we'll protest with pride about thee, I've got Harry Carrey to say to me, I shall not do at least thee, this would be no friend reason. I exchange my life here justifiably, for sacrifice knows its season. From the treasury of mangers' works, I lay a volume on my breast, now pen in hand my dagger dear, within my soul may find its rest.

19:06And so I still rely and wait, let my books remain dirt and dusty, but hearty, now complimentary goods, they cry for a battle loud and lusty. Through boggled advances, over my grave, polemics and lightning affect her, polemics and lightning and thunder are my rise, upwards my enclave. Put not marginal utility asunder.

19:48Ah, ah, Mr. Svesi from Boston and Mr. Stonier from Boston. How good you could come to bid us farewell. Mr. Stoneyard and Mr. Speezy, with these two thou comings easy, that's the feeling here in me, we're so sorry that we're leaving, there is no end to our breathing, what a lovely time we've seen. Ah, what fond memories you two leave, months and months and months and months, talking about, really, the same two things.

20:40Have you talked to him yet? So it takes place on the margin? That's it!

20:51Values are subjective? Exactly! Mr. Squeezy came from Boston, didn't worry what it cost him hard to fight with one desire. Gained some knowledge of re-thinking and prevent his mind from tricking, far beyond his local shrine. Mr. Sweezy had many questions, but was offered one suggestion more than worth its weighting, though. Many of the judgements on the margin value small, and values large cannot be changed as life unfolds.

21:40Oh, dear, I am smart as ever. Sweezy called with great endeavor. of how global men you will see, agitation, I'll be rousing all of heaven to my spousey, marginal utility.

22:17Teach these Harvard sons of Englishmen what they need to learn. Bye-bye, Mr. Sonnier.

22:31Now let's tell the rest of the story. But before he bought his ticket, Sweezy's thoughts began to picket, all decisions made that day. War for numbers, formulations, proceeds of death, operations for God's choices, hell have made. Feeling queasy? Are Mr. Squeezy noted that it can't be breezy? Naming what's of value true? Ah, it's not that complicated. Values can't be calculated. People do just what they do.

23:20Mr. Stonier spoke out at long last, spouting notions in sharp contrast to the theory's purest theme. I was taught to be suspicious. Such free thinking is deprecious. Ah, but darling, what a scream! Sadly lacking an understanding, Swords of knowledge I'll be branding when I come back in the fall. Seeking answers to my queries, Piting insights, exchanges, memory, wisdom plenty for us all. Grateful for our affiliation, raise a glass in celebration of our gifts and revolutions.

24:13Let me with them on their journey, much success in every journey.

24:32So long, so long, so long, so long as we are on the subject of departures, I do have an announcement. I have been offered a position in Geneva, given the political outlook in Austria, it does seem best that I should accept it. Dear Mises, you are the center of our circle. What does one do? What happens to a circle when it's center of money? That's what we know for sure. That's what we think of it as theory.

25:19And the circle grieves slow, when its center starts to saunter, its circumference feels empty, disheartened and low. That a crisis is here to ponder, Brady, I are left to wander. Brady, I are left to wander with nowhere to go. Brady, I am left to wander with nowhere to go.