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A Great Institution in Freefall 
by J. H. Huebert

July 9, 2002

I was bewildered the other day when I pulled up FEENews.org, the internet mouthpiece of The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), the nation’s first free-market think tank.  There I saw a boast of their latest accomplishment: the keynote speaker and guest of honor at their annual trustees’ dinner will be none other than former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

“Ruldolph Giuliani?” I asked myself aloud.  As in stadium socialist Rudy? Mandatory id cards Rudy? Anti-business Rudy? Anti-First Amendment Rudy? Anti-Second Amendment Rudy? Price control Rudy? Shameless self-promoter and political hack Rudy? Also known to some as Rudy the Red, or simply Red Rudy?  Yep, I confirmed, that was the one.  

Back in May, I attended FEE’s first national convention in Las Vegas. I got the sense while I was there that their new president, Mark Skousen, wanted to change FEE’s position in the world of free-market organizations, to go from quiet publisher of a simple but outstanding periodical (which, thankfully, has so far maintained its high standards), to an attention-grabbing, slogan-selling machine milling out material for the masses. But even I wouldn’t have expected FEE to stray this far from its original mission. 

Like many libertarians, my introduction to the freedom philosophy came when a wise older person who saw my capacity for rational thought put me on to FEE’s monthly magazine, The Freeman.

There, at age 14, I found a world of ideas that broadened my perspective far beyond what I had learned listening to Rush Limbaugh and speeches from Republican politicians.  I found that all political problems had a common answer—that no one should be prohibited from doing anything that’s peaceful, as FEE’s founder Leonard Read put it. Nothing more, nothing less. 

What also impressed me was that there was a sense The Freeman conveyed, that these were serious ideas for serious people.  FEE took Albert Jay Nock’s “Isaiah’s Job” seriously, and understood that reaching the Remnant, not the mass-man, was the libertarian way. 

My contact with FEE and its then-president Hans Sennholz led me to Grove City College, where I discovered Austrian economics, and gained in depth knowledge of the ideas of Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard.  And I have FEE to thank for that in more ways than one—after all, it was Leonard Read who helped dig up the money for Yale University Press to publish Mises’s Human Action for the first time in English in 1949.

My relationship with FEE became even closer in the summers of 1998 and 1999, when I was selected from a number of stellar applicants around the world to work as an intern there, and live in FEE’s Irvington, New York, mansion headquarters. The history in that building was amazing, because so many great names had been there and left their mark, doing so much important work for the cause of liberty. 

Not only did I have the rare opportunity to learn daily and directly from then-president Donald Boudreaux, a great economics teacher and inspiring advocate for liberty, but also from all who were there and who passed through, including the likes of Edmund Opitz, The Freeman’s editors, and many other libertarian greats. 

In the summer of 2000, when I was living and traveling throughout Guatemala, climbing the pyramids and volcanoes, including scaling the highest peak in all of Central America, and paddling along jungle waterways in an indigenous dugout photographing everything in sight, I observed another fruit of FEE’s many years of good work—Francisco Marroquin University (UFM), in Guatemala City. UFM was founded by Guatemalan businessman Manuel Ayau after he discovered FEE and met Leonard Read on a trip to New York. This, despite the fact that Read did not even have a sign identifying FEE headquarters at the road, never mind noisy conventions with famous speakers.  

Today, UFM is undeniably not only Guatemala’s premier university, but also the world’s greatest libertarian university.  The names of Mises, Hayek, and Leonard Read are on display everywhere there, and no one who passes through UFM for any degree, even if it is in medicine, does so without taking courses on the social philosophies of Mises and Hayek. UFM has become such a powerful influence in Guatemala that the US ambassador complained about how its “extreme” views are preventing the US from imposing its statist will there. All thanks to FEE, and all without publicity stunts.

When I visited, UFM was hosting a seminar for a self-selected group of Guatemala’s elite business leaders, where Donald Boudreaux and FEE Trustee Tom Palmer gave lectures on economics and the history of libertarian thought.  FEE didn’t get any recognition in the US press for doing it; there were no TV cameras.  But it was FEE doing what FEE always did best, in a quiet, simple, dignified way, and it will undoubtedly have an impact on all of Guatemala, down the road, in ways that cannot yet even be imagined. 

After that, the next time I had any contact with FEE, aside from receiving the magazine, was at the big Las Vegas convention in May of this year. From the outset, I could tell I was dealing with a different FEE. 

On the first day, Mr. Skousen emphasized how it is important that any government welfare program include a means to hold people accountable and ensure that they have incentives to get off welfare ASAP.  All well and good, perhaps, compared to the present system, but we have plenty of people saying that already, even in Washington. Why all the parroting of public policy issues, instead of effectively conveying the idea that a thief shouldn’t be allowed to take one cent from you, ever? 

The weekend continued with further phenomena never before observed at a FEE event.  Consider a panel on the war on terrorism where only one panelist, Harry Browne, took the libertarian position, and the others made various arguments for the warfare state, including one who proposed a larger role for the United Nations. And through it all, there was another new one for FEE: audience members cheering and booing when they heard things they did or did not like.  So much for Leonard Read’s policy of avoiding debates for that very reason; so much for education; and so much for the sort of self-improvement Leonard Read advocated in Elements of Libertarian Leadership, which FEE has taken out of print. 

FEE programs used to focus on the ideas of Frederic Bastiat, Leonard Read, and Ludwig von Mises. They now appear to instead focus on Adam Smith, Milton Friedman and, of course, Mark Skousen. The result? A dilution of libertarian ideas and an emphasis on public policy issues rather than eternal moral axioms. 

Many long-time FEE supporters remember when Leonard Read invited Milton Friedman to speak at a Trustees’ dinner, to the dissatisfaction of those who knew that University of Chicago economics professor Friedman was not a libertarian. But at least Dr. Friedman can be considered a man of ideas. He spoke at that dinner on, inter alia, the evils of occupational licensure, about which he indeed has some important things to say. But look at the result Leonard Read did not foresee and never would have wanted: Dr. Friedman vigorously cheering FEE on in its website, congratulating the organization for snagging Mr. Giuliani as a speaker. 

Sadly, it seems purity is taking a backseat to publicity these days.  Thus, there’s FEE's president getting a photo-op with warfare-statist William F. Buckley, Jr., who cheers on the “revitalized” FEE.  Thus, non-libertarian Nixon-admirer Ben Stein is the keynote speaker at the National Convention. (I like Stein in many ways, but he wouldn’t fit in at the FEE I knew.) Thus, there’s self-proclaimed anti-libertarian and warfare-statist Dinesh D’Souza delivering two lectures at FEE’s National Convention. Thus, authoritarian and would-be dictator Rudy Giuliani is the keynote speaker at the Trustees’ Dinner, who, as the new voice of FEE, stated: “We have to separate fundamental freedoms from those things we had the luxury to do in the past.”

One can only wonder what will be next.  An award for Mikhail Gorbachev?  A dinner at the Waldorf in honor of Nelson Mandela?  Those might get FEE on C-Span, too, and I’m sure they could come up with some rationalization for doing such things.

What FEE’s latest leadership probably does not recognize is that even if this new approach does garner some publicity and raise some funds, it will make FEE completely irrelevant. What distinguished FEE through the years were the things that it is now is working so hard to eliminate—the seriousness, the quietness, the lack of compromise. There are already plenty of mainstream quasi-libertarian groups out there doing public policy work and honoring big names like Milton Friedman. At least those groups have specific political missions. What is FEE’s mission now, except to get bigger and more famous for its own sake? 

A great libertarian institution is now in freefall. The apparent end of the FEE I knew is not the end of the world, or even the end of the true libertarian movement.  Leonard Read, Edmund Opitz, Henry Hazlitt, Hans Sennholz, Donald Boudreaux, and many others through the years did their jobs well enough to see to that, and today organizations like the Ludwig von Mises Institute carry on the tradition in their own way. The Remnant will survive, as it always has.

But apparently, unless things turn around there very soon, the Remnant may no longer thrive at FEE, with many young minds being poisoned in the meantime, as the result of some unfortunate compromises made for the sake of a very short time in the limelight.

________________

Only hours after this article appeared, FEE President Mark Skousen published a putative objection, but failed to provide a rebuttal to any specific issue raised by the author. Instead, Mr. Skousen merely opined that the article was a "diatribe" and a personal attack or political vendetta that he resented as a "misguided insult" to FEE.

Mr. Skousen further claimed that the article contains "embarrassing falsehoods and misrepresentations," none of which he bothered to set forth. He did suggest, however, that the author is "half cockeyed with holy-than-thou" (sic) attitude.

Accordingly, no response to Mr. Skousen's "objection" is required because Mr. Skousen has provided no substantive claim of any kind that may be addressed rationally.

Res ipsa loquitur.

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"Only the lowest of cowards hides behind a woman's skirts." -- Anon.

The mailbox here has been swamped with letters about FEE in freefall, and the following are some sample excerpts from a few of those e-mails that came from various people around the world. E-mail has been received from those who are or were FEE trustees, FEE staff, FEE interns, as well as supporters and old friends of Leonard Read, and those in academia (from professors to department heads), and businessmen, and captains of industry, and writers, and talk show hosts, all of whom may not think alike, but who alike think.

"Fawning over a third-rate statist politician who has taken cruel advantage of human suffering and death for his own ends of self-promotion is, as you have noted, unsuitable to the high standards and ideals that were once held true by FEE."

"For Mark to compare Rudolph Giuliani with Ben Stein is just plain silly."

"Thank you for the article.  When I first heard that Skousen was the new FEE president I instantly foresaw all these things you write... about and I am not psychic."

"A Great Institution in Freefall - Well said!!! Keep up the good work!"

"You have eloquently expressed the ideas and feelings of more people than you probably know. Thank you for publicly saying something that needed to be said."

"I must say, you are right on!"

"The old FEE trustees I knew, men of honor, courage, conviction and standards like Bill Mullendore, Joe Pew, Bill Umstadt, Vince Lanfear, Ben Moreell, Jeff Coolidge, Ed Opitz, and others, would have never stood idly by and allowed a tragedy like this to be played out."

"Thanks for your article....   I really don't like to see FEE get into bed with guys like Rudy."

"Like you, I am skeptical that an 'outreach' effort will garner converts to libertarianism. Baiting the hook with interventionists like Giuliani will attract attention, but not libertarian-minded audiences. I think Mark's on the wrong track; and, I hope he realizes it soon."

"I am disturbed to read of the apparent changes in the way that FEE is carrying out its mission.  It was the purity of purpose in the old FEE that originally appealed to me and got me involved with it in Leonard Read's day." 

"I was very sad to read your column about FEE, but thank you for the report."

"Even a cursory examination of Leonard Read's policy makes it abundantly clear that he strictly and consistently opposed the reform school agenda that is now being operated at FEE."

"Keep your finger in the dike, help is on the way!"

"Thank you for your article on FEE. I suspected something was amiss, but until your article, did not have the details. I agreed with you 100%."

"Leonard Read did not solicit contributions. Money came in because he was doing the right thing."

"In freefall, a net is of little help, no matter how broad. What is more useful is a ParaCommander chute with an Invader reserve. Unfortunately, FEE is in freefall at terminal velocity and, tangled in its own Skousen-made retiary, is unable to deploy either the main canopy or the reserve to save itself."

"Your closing paragraph says it all. I submit that FEE has crossed the line and that things will not turn around.  Mark may well get his ever so wanted notoriety and will doubtless turn FEE into a CATO look-alike, with Mark, of course, at the helm. When the Las Vegas 'show' was announced I concluded then that it was all over but the shouting. Pity. Leonard Read would in no way recognize the 'new' FEE."

"It is an embarrassment to see the ideas of Leonard Read being submerged like this, with the duty officer in charge now so desperate as to grasp at any straw, like a drowning man breathing his last, not going down with the ship, but taking the ship down with him."

"I appreciate your thoughtful observations...." 

"Your article has not fallen on deaf ears. I have withdrawn my support from FEE." 

"Leonard Read's and FEE's former sound policy always opposed operating FEE as a reform school."

"FEE is history as far as I'm concerned.  Thanks again for the article.  I did not know they had so many losers at their Nevada fest."

"Would you be interested in having [your FEE in Freefall] posted as an article? It's really good."

"Leonard Read would have been pleased with the courageous, no-compromise-with-evil stand you have taken."

"As in 'The Emperor's New Clothes,' you have pointed out that the Emperor is naked, which in turn has prompted others who were playing along with that farce to now realize that they had not used rational reason but instead had been intimidated and flimflammed by slick talk in a noisy, boisterous, circus-like atmosphere."

"Please don't give up on FEE yet."

"According to Leonard Read and FEE's corporate charter, FEE's 'sole purpose' is 'information and education...,' founded to expose 'pernicious ideas,' which you have done ably and well in your writings."

"Leonard Read and FEE sought only quality, never quantity."

"Read's personal motto was, 'Go only where called.' Self-improvement was the idea, to improve yourself first, not the world, because if you add one improved unit to the world, yourself, you have in fact changed the world for the better, and others will then seek you out, to learn from your good example. Read stressed these and other excellent ideas in his book, Elements of Libertarian Leadership, which, as you have said, FEE has taken out of print."

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Attorney Stephan Kinsella and writer J. Neil Schulman have weighed in with their reactions.

© 2002 J. H. Huebert