“There was a time when we were much closer to free-market capitalism,” said Thomas DiLorenzo, an economics professor at Loyola College in Maryland. He was addressing a crowd Thursday at NYC Junto, a monthly group founded by investor Victor Niederhoffer that focuses on libertarianism, objectivism, and investing.

Moderator Iris Bell introduced the program, describing two books for sale that evening: “How Capitalism Saved America: The Untold History of Our Country, From the Pilgrims to the Present” (Crown Forum), by Mr. DiLorenzo, and “Ayn Rand – My Fiction-Writing Teacher: A Novelist’s Mentor-Protege Relationship With the Author of ‘Atlas Shrugged'” (Madison Press), by Erika Holzer. “I’ll sign both,” Mr. DiLorenzo interjected, to audience laughter. His book covers several historical topics, arguing, for example, that private property was key in the success of the Pilgrims and that the American Revolution was largely a capitalist revolt.

A member of the senior faculty of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Alabama, Mr. DiLorenzo opened with a defense of capitalism. “Everyone in this room,” he said, “is different in a thousand ways.” Those who oppose capitalism, he said, deny this “basic reality.” Under capitalism, he said, each person specializes and trades with others for mutual benefit.

He distinguished capitalism from mercantilism, which he said “uses government to get ahead and harm competitors.” He said mercantilism gave capitalism a bad name. He mentioned Leland Stanford, a former California governor and senator who used political connections to make it illegal to compete with his railroad. Stanford, he said, was not a capitalist nor a market entrepreneur but rather a “political entrepreneur.”

Mr. DiLorenzo argued a number of provocative points, for example, that the robber barons helped Americans prosper and that the New Deal pro longed the Great Depression. Throughout his talk, the author drew upon ideas of various free-market thinkers such as Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard.

In his talk, Mr. DiLorenzo sought to dispel what he described as “myths.” He called Herbert Hoover a “hyperinterventionist” who supported paying farmers not to grow food and explained that Sam Donaldson is paid thousands of dollars by the government for not raising sheep on his ranch. He also mentioned how columnist Walter Williams wrote an open letter to the Internal Revenue Service, demanding that he, too, be given thousands of dollars because he agreed not to raise sheep.

One audience member asked about the Supreme Court case Wickard v. Filburn, which ruled that a farmer growing wheat on his own farm for his own consumption affected interstate commerce. Mr. Niederhoffer invited audience member Butler Shaffer, who is a Southwestern Law School professor, to come to the front and discuss this. Mr. Shaffer and CUNY graduate student Alexander R. Cohen talked 1180 2174 1293 2185about the decision, which held that growing wheat for home consumption was subject to the commerce clause, since – when viewed in the aggregate – it could have an economic effect on interstate commerce. This didn’t sit well with the libertarian audience in the room.

NYC Junto’s next event on February 2 celebrates what would have been Rand’s 101st birthday. Speaking of birthdays, Mr. Cohen read quotes by Benjamin Franklin in celebration of the 300th anniversary of his birth on January 17. One was, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Mr. Cohen continually referred to the statesman as “Dr. Franklin.” When Mr. Niederhoffer inquired why, Mr. Cohen persisted, “Because that’s what he’s called.” An unconvinced Mr. Niederhoffer rejoined, “He must have donated a lot to a university to get an honorary degree.”

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LEXICOGRAPHY LESSON Columbia University philosophy professor Arthur Danto was a panelist recently at an American Philosophical Association talk entitled “What Does Philosophy Contribute to Public Life?” At one point he joked, “Philosophers of my generation reflexively sought to consult dictionaries in the first step of conceptual inquiry. So I was recently somewhat shocked to learn that the word ‘artworld,’ which I thought was part of the language, is not recognized by the American Heritage Dictionary bundled with my browser. ‘Sorry,’ it said, ‘we have no match for “artworld.” Do you mean “afterworld”?'”

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HIGHBROW HAPPENING A two-day conference is set for January 25-26 at the CUNY Graduate Center on the work of logician and philosopher of language Saul Kripke, author of “Naming and Necessity.” One speaker is Michael Devitt, whose forthcoming book challenges Chomskian linguistics.

gshapiro@nysun.com