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Most Objectivist thinkers are ‘little known’ outside of Objectivist circles so I will post a list of the ones I know.Objectivist Intellectual’s Biographies (85) last updated 10/14/18 (not complete)Amesh AdaljaMD, 2002, American University of the CaribbeanDr. Adalja, a board-certified physician in infectious disease, critical care medicine, emergency medicine and internal medicine, specializes in the intersection of national security with catastrophic health events. He publishes and lectures on bio-terrorism, pandemic preparedness and emerging infectious diseases. He has been a guest on national radio and television programs.John AllisonMBA, Management, 1974, Duke UniversityMr. Allison is president and CEO of the Cato Institute. He was previously chairman and CEO of BB&T Corporation, the 10th-largest financial services holding company headquartered in the United States. During Allison’s tenure as CEO from 1989 to 2008, BB&T grew from $4.5 billion to $152 billion in assets.Carl BarneyCarl Barney is a businessman who, among other business activities, owns and manages several private business colleges.Rituparna BasuBS, Biology, 2010, Pennsylvania State UniversityMs. Basu is a health care policy analyst at ARI. Her work has appeared in publications such as Forbes and The Daily Caller, and she has been interviewed on radio and TV programs, internationally. Ms. Basu has briefed congressional staffers and speaks regularly at university campuses, including Georgetown, Emory and Temple.Ben BayerPhD, Philosophy, 2007, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignDr. Bayer teaches philosophy at Loyola University New Orleans. His research focuses primarily on questions about the foundations of knowledge and the freedom of the will.Robert BegleyRobert Begley is a writer for The Objective Standard. He is the founder and president of the NY Heroes Society, an organization dedicated to promoting heroism in the culture. Robert is also a judge in Anthem, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged essay contests. He was the host and producer for the Manhattan Cable TV program, The Voice of Reason. Robert is currently writing a book about the history of New York heroes.Michael S. BerlinerPhD, Philosophy, 1970, Boston UniversityDr. Berliner is the founding executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute and served as co-chairman of ARI’s board of directors. He is editor of "Letters of Ayn Rand", "Understanding Objectivism" and a recent biography of operetta composer Emmerich Kálmán. Dr. Berliner taught philosophy and philosophy of education for many years at California State University, Northridge.ANDREW BERNSTEINPhD, Philosophy, 1986, City University of New YorkAndrew Bernstein holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Graduate School of the City University of New York. He has taught at Hunter College, the New School for Social Research, Pace University and Marymount College, where he was chosen Outstanding Faculty Member for 1995. He currently teaches at the State University of New York at Purchase, where he was selected Outstanding Faculty Member for 2004.Dr. Bernstein has lectured at universities across the United States, including at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, the United States Military Academy at West Point and many others; and at philosophical conferences both in America and abroad. He is the author of The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire, to be published in the spring of 2005 by University Press of America. His first novel, Heart of a Pagan, was released in 2002. He is currently writing Objectivism in One Lesson, an introduction to the philosophy of Ayn Rand. His website is Andrew Bernstein | Philosopher and TeacherDr. Bernstein is the author of "The Capitalist Manifesto" (2005), "Objectivism in One Lesson" (2008), "Capitalism Unbound" (2010), "Capitalist Solutions" (2011), and of numerous essays. He is currently writing “Heroes and Hero Worship” for the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism. Dr. Bernstein lectures widely on Ayn Rand’s novels and Objectivism.DAVID BERRYD.M.A., Composition, 2002, University of South CarolinaDavid Berry is an associate professor of music. He teaches courses across a wide range of historical and theoretical musical subjects including film music. He is a recorded and published (BMI) composer with performances of his music in America and Europe in both fine art and popular music genres.CRAIG BIDDLEB.A., Fine Arts, 1988, Virginia Commonwealth UniversityCraig Biddle is the author of Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts That Support It and is currently writing another book, Good Thinking for Good Living: The Science of Being Selfish. In addition to writing, he lectures on the Objectivist ethics and teaches workshops on thinking in principles. Editor and Publisher of “The Objective Standard”Specialties: Ethics, ObjectivismHARRY BINSWANGERPh.D., Philosophy, 1973, Columbia UniversityDr. Binswanger is the author of The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts, the editor of The Ayn Rand Lexicon and co-editor of the second edition of Ayn Rand’s Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. Dr. Binswanger is a professor of philosophy at the Ayn Rand Institute’s Objectivist Academic Center and is a member of ARI’s board of directors. He is currently working on a book on the nature of consciousness.Dr. Binswanger is the author of "How We Know" and "The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts", the editor of "The Ayn Rand Lexicon" and co-editor of the second edition of Ayn Rand’s "Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology". He is an instructor of philosophy at the Ayn Rand Institute’s Objectivist Academic Center and a member of ARI’s board of directors.TORE BOECKMANNWriterMr. Boeckmann has written and lectured extensively on Ayn Rand’s fiction and philosophy of esthetics. He edited for publication Rand’s The Art of Fiction. His own fiction has been published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. He is currently writing a book on Romantic literature.Thomas A. BowdenSpecialties: Legal issues, physician-assisted suicide, abortion rights, mandatory community service.Mr. Bowden, an attorney in private practice in Baltimore, Maryland, taught at the University Of Baltimore School Of Law from 1988 to 1994. Author of a booklet against multiculturalism, “The Enemies of Christopher Columbus,” he has also published op-eds in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Philadelphia Inquirer, Portland Oregonian, Los Angeles Daily News, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Charlotte Observer. He is a former member of the board of directors of The Association for Objective Law, a non-profit group whose purpose is to advance Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, as the basis of a proper legal system. In that connection, Mr. Bowden has filed amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal for the Second and Third Circuits, challenging mandatory community service for high school students on legal and moral grounds.YARON BROOKPh.D., Finance, 1994, University of Texas at AustinDr. Brook is president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. A former finance professor, he has published in academic as well as popular publications, and is frequently interviewed in the media. He has appeared on CNN, Fox News Channel and PBS among others. On college campuses across America and in the boardrooms of large corporations, he has lectured on Objectivism, business ethics and foreign policy.Dr. Brook is executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. He is the coauthor of the national best-seller “Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government” and a contributing author to both “Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea” and “Winning the Unwinnable War: America’s Self-Crippled Response to Islamic Totalitarianism.”ANDY CLARKSONMBA University of MarylandMr. Clarkson is a decades-long Objectivist He has focused on researching the history of ideas and published The Impact of Aristotle Upon Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Cultures : A Compilation of Notes and Quotes From A Variety of Sources Plus Commentary, published in December 2016.PAT CORVINIPh.D., Electrical Engineering, 1995, University of California at Santa BarbaraDr. Corvini recently left a twenty-year career in semiconductor optoelectronics to work full time in the history of science and mathematics. She lectured on Archimedes at the 2003 Objectivist Summer Conference.SUSAN CRAWFORDB.S.N, Nursing, 1982, Marymount College, VirginiaSusan Crawford is a registered nurse. She has given two parenting courses and wrote the pamphlet “The Reading Habit/Money Management.” Susan is married to Jack Crawford and the mother of two sons, Jason and DavidERIC DANIELSPh.D., American History, 2001, University of WisconsinDr. Daniels is a visiting assistant professor of history at Duke University’s Program on Values and Ethics in the Marketplace. He has lectured at summer conferences and to numerous Objectivist community groups. He is an alumnus of ARI’s Objectivist Graduate Center (precursor to the Objectivist Academic Center). A contributor to the Oxford Companion to United States History, he is currently working on a book about American politics andDr. Daniels works at LePort Schools, teaching science and history, and as a curriculum developer. Previously, he was a professor at Clemson, Duke and Georgetown Universities. Dr. Daniels has published book chapters and articles on antitrust, individualism and economic freedom.John DennisPhD, Psychology, 2010, University of Texas at AustinDr. Dennis teaches at Catholic University in Milan, University of Perugia and University of Alberta. His research on motivation is funded by the EU and Templeton Foundation. He is a licensed psychologist trained in CBT. In 2013 Dr. Dennis started Melioravit, a scientific communication company that helps researchers get funded, published and cited.Robert van DortmondMSc in Applied Physics, Delft University of Technology; Executive Program, Stanford Graduate SchoolMr. van Dortmond teaches entrepreneurship at the University of Amsterdam/The Amsterdam Centre for Entrepreneurship. He is an active mentor, shareholder and board member of various startups. He speaks on Ayn Rand’s ideas and is an advisory board member of ARI Europe of which he was one of the initiators.Dianne DuranteSpecialties: Esthetics, painting, sculpture, homeschooling.Dr. Durante is a freelance writer on art and current events. She has lectured on painting and sculpture at Objectivist conferences; several of these lectures are available on tape from the Ayn Rand Bookstore. She has also just finished a book on New York sculpture, Forgotten Delights: The Producers. Dr. Durante and her husband homeschool their daughter in Brooklyn, NY.Alex EpsteinSpecialties: Current Affairs, racism, and moral defense of businessmen.Alex Epstein is an Objectivist speaker and writer living in Richmond, VA. His Op-Eds have been published in dozens of newspapers around the country, including The Houston Chronicle, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Washington Times. He is also a regular contributor to The Intellectual Activist, a monthly magazine analyzing political and cultural issues from an Objectivist perspective. Mr. Epstein holds a BA in philosophy from Duke University, where he was editor and publisher of The Duke Review for two years.STUART MARK FELDMANM.A., Art, 1975, Rowan University, New JerseyStuart Feldman works in bronze, stone and wood, creating sculptures of the human figure expressing man’s most noble and inspiring qualities. A former instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, he is cofounder of the Schuylkill Academy of Fine Art, in Philadelphia. His sculptures are held in private collections, and he has created a number of commissioned pieces.ROBERT GARMONGPh.D., Philosophy, 2002; University of Texas at AustinDr. Garmong is a graduate of the Objectivist Graduate Center, and has lectured on philosophy at many Objectivist conferences. He is the author of “J.S. Mill’s Re-Conceptualization of Liberty,” currently under submission to publishers. Dr. Garmong teaches philosophy at Texas A&M University and at Texas State University.MARILYN (GEORGE) GRAYB.S., Child Development, 1961, Iowa State UniversityMarilyn George is a retired Montessori teacher, school owner and administrator. She holds teaching certificates from both the American Montessori Society and the International Association of Progressive Montessorians and was a Montessori teacher for twenty-five years. She owned, administered and taught for ten years in her own school, which had an international reputation for excellence. She taught Montessori courses at Seattle University for more than ten years and has consulted for schools nationwide. Marilyn has been ballroom dancing since she met Ted Gray at a conference in 1989, at her first lesson, and today they compete at the Silver level.Debi GhateLLB, Law, University of Calgary, 1995Ms. Ghate is vice president of Education and Research at the Ayn Rand Institute, where she heads up a variety of educational and policy-related programs. She is also director of the Anthem Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship, an organization that supports academic scholarship based on Ayn Rand’s work.Onkar GhatePhD, Philosophy, 1996, University of CalgaryDr. Ghate is senior fellow and chief content officer at the Ayn Rand Institute. He specializes in Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism, and is ARI’s senior instructor and editor. He publishes and lectures on Rand’s philosophy and fiction, including application of Objectivism in the culture, and has been a guest on national radio and television programs.GENA GORLINPhD, Clinical Psychology, 2012, University of VirginiaMs. Gorlin has two years of experience conducting individual psychotherapy with anxious and depressed young adults. Her research has been published in highly regarded academic journals. She is also a graduate of the Objectivist Academic Center and a former board member of The Undercurrent, a national campus publication.Allan Gotthelf (deceased)Specialties: Love, self-esteem, happiness, Objectivism, AristotleAllan Gotthelf is emeritus professor of philosophy at The College of New Jersey. He is an internationally recognized authority on the philosophy of Aristotle, with many scholarly publications. He has lectured on Objectivism and Aristotle — including their views on love and sex, self-esteem, and individual happiness — throughout North America and in Europe and Japan. He has been a visiting professor at Swarthmore College, Georgetown University, Oxford University, Tokyo Metropolitan University, and most recently, the University of Texas at Austin. In 1987, Dr. Gotthelf was one of the founders of the Ayn Rand Society; a professional organization affiliated with the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division, and has headed it since 1990. He enters his second year as Visiting Professor of Historyand Philosophy of Science (HPS) at the University of Pittsburgh. Prof. Gotthelf holds the Pitt Fellowship for the Study of Objectivism, funded by the Anthem Foundation and he will be working throughout the year on various projects in connection with his Fellowship. He is the author of On Ayn Rand (Wadsworth Publishing, 2000), the best-selling book in the Wadsworth Philosophers Series.4-19-2007 from his website:Visiting Professor, under the university's new Fellowship for the Study of Objectivism (Member: Classics, Philosophy and Ancient Science Program). A specialist on Aristotle's biology and philosophy, and on the philosophy of Ayn Rand, Gotthelf is emeritus professor of philosophy at The College of New Jersey, and has taught on a visiting basis at Swarthmore, Oxford, Georgetown, Tokyo Metropolitan, and the University of Texas at Austin. He is a life member of Clare Hall Cambridge, and was a visiting member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Gotthelf is author of On Ayn Rand (Wadsworth Philosophers Series, 2000); co-editor of Philosophical Issues in Aristotle's Biology (Cambridge 1987); editor of Aristotle on Nature and Living Things (Pittsburgh 1985); and has prepared for publication D.M. Balme's posthumous editions of Aristotle's Historia Animalium (Cambridge 2002, Cambridge MA 1991). His collected Aristotle papers will by published next year by Oxford University Press, under the title: Teleology, Scientific Method, and Substance: Essays on Aristotle's Biological Enterprise. He is currently working on several Aristotle projects and an extended study of Rand's theory of concepts, essences, and objectivity.TED GRAYB.S., Mechanical Engineering, 1965, Northeastern University;M.S., Mechanical Engineering, 1971, Brooklyn Polytechnic InstituteTed Gray, an engineer, has been dancing since his teens. They both consider dancing primarily a social and romantic activity. Occasionally, they enter amateur dance competitions. As a couple they have given many formal and informal group lessons—at home, at conferences and on a cruise ship. Ted is a mechanical engineer with forty years experience in design and analysis of structures, and prevention of vibration. He is an amateur student of history, enjoying especially the biographies of great Americans and the history of technology. He has been a student of Objectivism for thirty-eight years.Hannes HackerSpecialties: history and politics of the space program, science and technology.Mr. Hacker graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a BS degree in aerospace engineering in May 1988. He earned a MS degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Austin December 1990. He has eleven years of space-flight operations experience including work on the space shuttle, international space station and commercial communications satellites.DAVID HARRIMANB.S., Physics, 1979, University of California at Berkeley;M.S., Physics, 1982, University of Maryland;M.A., Philosophy, 1995, Claremont Graduate University, CaliforniaDavid Harriman is the editor of Journals of Ayn Rand and a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute. He has lectured extensively on the history and philosophy of physics. He is currently developing the physical science curriculum at VanDamme Academy and working on two books: one demonstrating the influence of philosophy on modern physics (The Anti-Copernican Revolution) and the other presenting Leonard Peikoff’s theory of induction (Induction in Physics and Philosophy).David HolcbergSpecialties: Environmentalism, science, capitalism. David Holcberg holds a degree in civil engineering and is a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute.JONATHAN HOENIGCommunications and Philosophy, 1999, Northwestern UniversityMr. Hoenig manages Capitalistpig Hedge Fund, LLC. A former floor trader, his first book, Greed Is Good, was published by HarperCollins. Mr. Hoenig has written for publications including The Wall Street Journal, Wired andMarketWatch: Stock Market News - Financial News. He was named one of Crain’s Forty Under Forty and appears regularly on Fox News Channel.Gary HullSpecialties: Philosophy, multiculturalism, business ethics, education.Dr. Hull is director of the Program on Values and Ethics in the Marketplace at Duke University. His op-eds have been published in numerous newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Orange County Register, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Chicago Tribune. He has made numerous television and radio appearances to discuss Ayn Rand’s philosophy, multiculturalism, affirmative action, the Elian Gonzalez affair, sex, ethics, politics. He has lectured on Ayn Rand’s philosophy at conferences around the world and, as a member of the Ayn Rand Institute’s Speakers Bureau, has spoken at universities across the country, including Harvard, Michigan at Ann Arbor, Wisconsin at Madison, Texas at Austin. Dr. Hull is the author of A Study Guide to Leonard Peikoff’s book Objectivism: the Philosophy of Ayn Rand, and is co-editor of The Ayn Rand Reader (Penguin/Plume, 1999), a collection of fiction and non-fiction writings by Ayn Rand.MARTIN F JOHANSENMS, Computer Science, 2009, University of OsloMr. Johansen is a PhD research fellow at SINTEF, the largest independent research institute in Scandinavia. He is currently completing his PhD studies at the University of Oslo as part of an international research project on software testing.Elan JournoBA, Philosophy, 1997, King's College, LondonMr. Journo, director of policy research at ARI, is completing a book on American policy toward the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. His 2009 book, “Winning the Unwinnable War,” analyzes post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy. His writing has appeared in “Foreign Policy,” “Journal of International Security Affairs” and “Middle East Quarterly.”ELLEN KENNERPh.D., Clinical Psychology, 1992, University of Rhode IslandDr. Kenner, a clinical psychologist, has taught university courses in introductory psychology, abnormal psychology and theories of personality. She gives talks on romance, self-improvement, psychological self-defense, parenting and communication skills. She is in her eighth year as host of the nationally syndicated radio talk show The Rational Basis of Happiness®.Ryan KrausePhD, Strategic Management and Organization Theory, 2013, Indiana UniversityDr. Krause is an assistant professor at Texas Christian University’s Neeley School of Business. He researches corporate governance and has published in “Academy of Management Journal,” “Strategic Management Journal” and “Journal of Management.” His research has been covered by the “Wall Street Journal,” “USA Today,” “Businessweek” and Fox Business Network.Andrew LaymanAndrew Layman is a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft where he works on Internet and database technologies. Prior to joining Microsoft in 1992, he was a Vice President of Symantec Corporation and original author of the Time Line project management program.Peter LePort, M.D.Specialties: Medicine, free market reform of healthcare, medical savings accountsDr. LePort, a full-time surgeon, lectures nationwide on free market reform in healthcare, particularly on the benefits of medical savings accounts. He is a member of the board of directors of Americans for Free Choice in Medicine. He co-wrote a healthcare reform proposal that discusses voluntary, tax-free medical savings accounts and high-deductible personal health insurance and which includes a method to privatize Medicare. He earned his medical degree from Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, and is a former assistant professor of surgery at that institution. He is a member of the Faculty of the American College of Surgeons and of the Orange County Surgical Society.Andrew LewisPostgraduate Diploma of Philosophy, 1994, University of Melbourne, AustraliaMr. Lewis has studied philosophy at the Objectivist Academic Center, the University of Melbourne and the University of Southern California. He worked with Leonard Peikoff on his radio show, has lectured at Objectivist conferences, and is principal at VanDamme Academy, where he teaches a three-year history curriculum covering ancient, European and American history.JOHN LEWIS (deceased)Ph.D., Classics, 2001, University of CambridgeDr. Lewis is assistant professor of history at Ashland University, where he holds an Anthem Fellowship for Objectivist Scholarship. He is Assistant Professor of History in the Department of History and Political Science. He has published in several professional journals, and has been a visiting scholar at Rice University and Bowling Green State UniversityEDWIN A. LOCKEPh.D., Industrial Organizational Psychology, 1964, Cornell University.Dr. Locke is Dean’s Professor of Leadership and Motivation (Emeritus) at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is internationally known for his research and writings on work motivation, leadership and related topics, including the application of Objectivism to psychology and management. He is a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute and has published numerous op-eds.Keith LockitchPhD, Physics, 1999, University of Wisconsin at MilwaukeeDr. Lockitch is an ARI fellow and director of advanced training. In addition to speaking and writing for ARI on issues related to energy, climate and environmentalism, he teaches writing for the OAC and has developed courses on Ayn Rand’s ideas and novels for a variety of audiences.ROBERT MAYHEWPh.D., Philosophy, 1991, Georgetown UniversityDr. Mayhew is associate professor of philosophy at Seton Hall University. He is the author of Aristotle’s Criticism of Plato’s Republic and The Female in Aristotle’s Biology and the editor of Ayn Rand’s Marginalia, Ayn Rand’s The Art of Nonfiction, Essays on Ayn Rand’s “We the Living” and (forthcoming) Ayn Rand’s Q & A. He has completed a book on Ayn Rand’s HUAC testimony and is preparing for publication a collection of essays on Ayn Rand’s Anthem.Arline MannArline Mann is an attorney. She is vice president and associate general counsel of Goldman, Sachs & Co.John P. McCaskey, Ph.D. in history, is the founder and chairman of the Anthem Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship. He spent twenty years in the computer business, most recently as founder of Epiphany, Inc., before returning to academia in 2001. He studies and teaches history and philosophy of science at Stanford University.Scott McConnellSpecialties: Volunteerism, Communism in America, Ayn Rand's life. Mr. McConnell is a former literature teacher and high school English teacher. He has a BA in behavioral sciences and worked in Hollywood as a script reader. He has given several lectures on Ayn Rand's life.Shoshana MilgramPhD, Comparative Literature, 1978, Stanford UniversityDr. Milgram, associate professor of English at Virginia Tech, specializes in narrative fiction and film. She has lectured on Ayn Rand at Objectivist and academic conferences and has published on Ayn Rand, Hugo and Dostoevsky. Dr. Milgram is editing the draft of her book-length study of Ayn Rand’s life (to 1957).Ken Moelis. Mr. Moelis is founder and chief executive officer of Moelis & Company, a global investment bank that provides financial advisory, capital raising and asset management services to a broad client base including corporations, institutions and governments. Mr. Moelis has over thirty years of investment banking experience. Prior to founding Moelis & Company, he worked at UBS from 2001 to 2007, where he was most recently president of UBS Investment Bank and, previously, Joint Global Head of Investment Banking. Mr. Moelis serves on the University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees, the Wharton Board of Overseers, the Board of the Tourette Syndrome Association, and the Board of Governors of Cedars Sinai Hospital.Jean MoroneyCertificate, 1996, Objectivist Graduate Center, Ayn Rand Institute;MS, Psychology, 1994, Carnegie Mellon University;MS, Electrical Engineering, 1986, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMs. Moroney is president of Thinking Directions, a business that develops and teaches methods in applied psycho-epistemology. She has given her flagship course, Thinking Tactics, to corporate and public audiences across North America. She is writing a book titled “Smarter: How to Achieve Your Goals When Nothing Goes as Planned.”Adam Mossoff is Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law. He is also Co-Director of Academic Programs and a Senior Scholar at the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property at George Mason, which he co-founded in 2012. He teaches and writes in the areas of patent law, trade secrets, trademark law, property law, and internet law. He has published extensively on the theory and history of how patents and other intellectual property rights are fundamental property rights. His article on the very first patent war, the Sewing Machine War of the 1850s, has been widely cited in today's public policy debates concerning patent litigation, patent licensing, and patent pools. He has testified before the Senate, and he has spoken at numerous congressional staff briefings, professional association conferences, and academic conferences, as well as at the PTO, the FTC, the DOJ, and the Smithsonian Institution. He is Co-Chairman of the Intellectual Property Committee of the IEEE-USA, and he is a member of the Amicus Committee of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Public Policy Committee of the Licensing Executives Society, and the Academic Advisory Board of the Copyright Alliance. ADAM MOSSOFF is an expert in patent law and property theory. He has published numerous law review articles and book reviews on topics in legal philosophy, patent law, and property law, including in law reviews at the University of Arizona and UC-Hastings, and in the interdisciplinary law journal, the University of Chicago Law School Roundtable. He was a visiting lecturer and John M. Olin Fellow in Law at Northwestern University School of Law, where he taught a seminar on property theory. Immediately prior to coming to MSU College of Law, he clerked for the Hon. Jacques L. Wiener, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Professor Mossoff graduated from the University of Chicago Law School with honors in 2001. He has a M.A. in philosophy from Columbia University, where he specialized in legal and political philosophy, and a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Michigan, where he graduated magna cum laude and with high honors in philosophy. Hi is now an Associate Professor of Law at George Mason University School of LawSpecialties: Philosophy of Law, Constitutional Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Patent RightsJ. PATRICK MULLINS is a doctoral candidate in the history department of the University of Kentucky. He is in the last stages of writing his doctoral dissertation with the help of a generous grant from the Ayn Rand Institute.Travis NorsenSpecialties: Physics, science, history and philosophy of science, science education.Mr. Norsen is a physics and philosophy double-major at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA. He is currently attending his final year of a PhD program in physics at the University of Washington in Seattle. Mr. Norsen is also a former adjunct instructor of physics at DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, WA.JOHN E. OPFER, who still tops the list of Amazon Reviewers on the CyberNet Scoreboard, is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Ohio State University where he specializes in cognitive and developmental psychology. Nowadays he's too busy reviewing his research findings to review books. His work at OSU's Concepts and Learning Lab explores how young children form and change their concepts, such as concepts of living things and number. His website is at <Department of Psychology - John Opfer> where you will find links to several of his fascinating papers.Michael PaxtonMFA, 1984, New York UniversityMr. Paxton directed the world premiere of Ayn Rand’s Ideal (1989) and adapted and directed a dramatic presentation of Anthem (1991). His documentary, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, won an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Satellite Award for Best Feature Documentary. He teaches production design and film history at the Art Institute in Hollywood.Lee PiersonPhD, 1982, Psychology, Cornell UniversityDr. Pierson, director of the Thinking Skills Institute at Fairleigh Dickinson University, teaches students and business professionals how to keep any thought process moving toward its goal by activating the right knowledge as needed. He has a long-standing interest in and recently participated in life-extension research.AMY PEIKOFFJ.D., 1998, University of California, Los Angeles School of Law;Ph.D., Philosophy, 2003, University of Southern CaliforniaDr. Amy Peikoff is an Anthem fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, where she is teaching undergraduate courses in ethics and epistemology. Her writings on legal and philosophical issues have appeared in academic journals and leading newspapers. She has taught for the Objectivist Academic Center and lectured for Objectivist organizations and at conferences. Visiting Fellow at Chapman University’s Law School.Leonard PeikoffPh .D., Philosophy, 1964 New York UniversityFrom 1957 until 1973, Peikoff taught philosophy at Hunter College, Long Island University, New York University, the University of Denver and the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.After that, he worked full-time on The Ominous Parallels (published 1982) and gave lectures across the country. He gave courses on Ayn Rand's philosophy regularly in New York City, which were taped and played to groups in some 100 cities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. In addition, he spoke frequently before investment and financial conferences on the philosophic basis of capitalism.Dr. Peikoff, who is a naturalized American citizen, was born in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1933. His father was a surgeon and his mother, before marriage, was a band leader in Western Canada. He has been a contributor to Barron's and an associate editor, with Ayn Rand, of The Objectivist (1968-71) and The Ayn Rand Letter (1971-76).He is author of Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (Dutton, 1991), the definitive statement of Objectivism.Steve PlafkerJ.D., 1973 USCPh.D., Math, 1966 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOISBS, MATH, MIT, 1961Dr. Plafker is a retired Los Angeles County deputy district attorney. His teaching experience includes teaching law to law students and to undergraduates. Before becoming a lawyer, he taught mathematics at Tulane University. He is a founder and member of the Board of Directors of The Association For Objective Law (TAFOL).Richard RalstonSpecialties: Ayn Rand’s life, Objectivism (General), Projects of the Ayn Rand Institute, Volunteerism, Foreign Policy, Journalism and MediaAfter serving seven years in the U.S. Army, Mr. Ralston completed an M.A. in International Relations at the University of Southern California in 1977. He then began a career in newspaper publishing and direct marketing. He has been the circulation director and publisher of The Christian Science Monitor, a radio producer, a national television news business manager, and a book publisher. As an independent direct marketing consultant, his clients included IBM, British Airways, CNN, and the Los Angeles Times. His book Communism: Its Rise and Fall in the 20th Century was published in 1991. Mr. Ralston is now Managing Director for the Ayn Rand Institute.JOHN RIDPATHPh.D., Economics, 1974, University of VirginiaDr. Ridpath (York University, retired) writes and speaks in defense of capitalism, and on the impact throughout Western history—including the American Founding era—of the ideas of the major philosophers. A recipient of numerous teaching awards, and nominee for Canadian Professor of the Year, he continues to lecture throughout Europe and North America.Jonathan Paul Rosman, MDSpecialties: Medicine, psychiatry.Dr. Rosman is a board certified psychiatrist, with additional qualifications in the subspecialties of addiction psychiatry and forensic psychiatry. Prior to entering full-time private practice in California in 1989 he was an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. For several years, Dr. Rosman has been a psychiatric consultant to the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California, and is the psychiatric consultant to the Sleep Disorders Center at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California. He is also medical director for the Eating Disorder Center of California, a private, intensive outpatient clinic in Brentwood, California, devoted to the treatment of patients with anorexia and bulimia.Dr. Rosman is a published writer and lecturer on various aspects of psychiatry. Dr. Rosman's theoretical orientation is broad-based, drawing on and integrating aspects of cognitive-behavioral, short-term psychodynamic and biologic theories with Objectivist epistemological principles. He practices as both a psychotherapist and a psychopharmacologist.GREG SALMIERIB.A., Philosophy, 2001, The College of New JerseyPhD, Philosophy, 2008, University of PittsburghDr. Salmieri is a philosophy fellow at the Anthem Foundation and co-secretary of the Ayn Rand Society (a professional group affiliated with the American Philosophical Association). He teaches at Rutgers University. He has published and lectured on Aristotle and Ayn Rand and is co-editor of forthcoming books on both thinkers.Richard M. SalsmanSpecialties: Banking, free market economics, economic forecasting, capitalism, investmentsRichard M. Salsman is president and chief market strategist of InterMarket Forecasting, which provides quantitative research and forecasts of stocks, bonds, and currencies to guide the asset allocation decisions of institutional investment managers, mutual funds, and pension plans. He is the author of numerous books and articles on economics, banking, and forecasting from a free-market perspective, including Breaking the Banks: Central Banking Problems and Free Banking Solutions (American Institute for Economic Research, 1990) and Gold and Liberty (American Institute for Economic Research, 1995). Mr. Salsman’s work has appeared in The Intellectual Activist, the New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Barron’s. From 1993 to 1999, he was a senior vice president and senior economist at H. C. Wainwright & Co. Economics. Prior to that he was a banker at Citibank and the Bank of New York. Mr. Salsman is an adjunct fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research and the founder of The Association of Objectivist Businessmen.Lee Sandstead received his B.A. Philosophy/B.S. Mass Communication from Middle Tennessee State University in December 1996, when he was awarded the prestigious award for “Outstanding Magazine Journalism Graduate.” He has studied art history at the University of Memphis’ graduate program, and most recently, the art history doctoral program at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York City. He is a popular writer/photographer/lecturer of art-historical subjects. He has delivered almost 50 keynote lecture-addresses to such prestigious institutions as: Yale, Duke, University of Michigan, Penn State, NYU and the Academy of Realist Art in Toronto. Articles of his have been published in numerous journals, and his photography has been seen in publications such as: The New York Times, Fortune, and Ms. Magazine. He currently teaches art history at Montclair State University and is author of the forthcoming book on American master-sculptor Evelyn Beatrice Longman (1874-1954DINA SCHEIN FEDERMAN (deceased) is completing her article on "Integrity in The Fountainhead_" for ROBERT MAYHEW's upcoming collection of essays. She will also be delivering two lectures at the European Objectivist conference in London this month. Her writing projects include severalarticles on Virtue Ethics, a movement in academic ethics.DANIEL SCHWARTZBA, Liberal Arts, 2006, St. John’s CollegeMr. Schwartz is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at UC San Diego, where he is working on a dissertation titled “Baconian Foundationalism and the Problem of Certainty.” He specializes in early modern philosophy and the history of the philosophy of science.PETER SCHWARTZM.A., Journalism, 1972, Syracuse UniversityPeter Schwartz is the founding editor and publisher of The Intellectual Activist. He is the editor and contributing author of Ayn Rand’s Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution, and is chairman of the board of directors of the Ayn Rand Institute.Thomas ShoebothamMM, Orchestral Conducting, 1996, University of New MexicoMM, Cello Performance, 1992, Eastman School of MusicMr. Shoebotham is music director of the Palo Alto Philharmonic. Previous conducting engagements have included Berkeley Opera, Opera San José, Peninsula Symphony Orchestra and many other groups. He has lectured on music, taught in school music programs and performed numerous recitals as a cellist and pianist over the last twenty years.Stephen SiekPhD, Musicology, 1991, University of CincinnatiDr. Siek, professor emeritus at Wittenberg University, has recently publishedEngland’s Piano Sage: The Life and Teachings of Tobias Matthay. For many years he has lectured and written about the early work of Frank Lloyd Wright, including a scholarly study of Wright’s 1909 home for Burton Westcott in Springfield, Ohio.BRIAN P. SIMPSONPhD, Economics, 2000, George Mason UniversityDr. Simpson is a professor at National University in San Diego. He is author of the book Markets Don’t Fail! and he has a number of papers published in academic journals. He is currently working on another book titled “Money, Banking, and the Business Cycle,” which he hopes to publish soon.Steve SimpsonJD, 1994, New York Law SchoolMr. Simpson is director of legal studies at the Ayn Rand Institute. A former constitutional lawyer for the Institute for Justice, he writes and speaks on a wide variety of legal and constitutional issues, including free speech and campaign finance law, cronyism and government corruption, and the rule of law.Aaron SmithPhD, Philosophy, 2010, Johns Hopkins UniversityDr. Smith is an instructor at the Ayn Rand Institute where he teaches in the Objectivist Academic Center and the Summer Internship program. He lectures for ARI and develops educational content for the Institute’s e-learning programs.Tara SmithPhD, Philosophy, 1989, Johns Hopkins UniversityDr. Smith, professor of philosophy at the University of Texas, holds the BB&T Chair for the Study of Objectivism and the Anthem Foundation Fellowship. She has published books on values, virtues, and individual rights. Her latest, “Judicial Review in an Objective Legal System,” is forthcoming in fall 2015 (Cambridge University Press).MARY ANN SURESM.A., Art History, 1966, Hunter College, New YorkMary Ann Sures taught art history at Washington Square College of N.Y.U. and at Hunter College. She applied Objectivist esthetics to painting and sculpture in a ten-lecture course, “Esthetics of the Visual Arts,” which was written in consultation with Ayn Rand. Her philosophical approach to art history is presented in “Metaphysics in Marble” (The Objectivist, February/March, 1969). She is co-author with her (late) husband Charles of Facets of Ayn Rand (published by the Ayn Rand Institute), memoirs of their longtime friendship with Ayn Rand and her husband Frank O’Connor.C. BRADLEY THOMPSONPh.D., History, 1993, Brown UniversityC. Bradley Thompson is the BB&T Research Professor at Clemson University and the Executive Director of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism. He has also been a visiting fellow at Princeton and Harvard universities and at the University of London.Professor Thompson is the author of Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea and the prize-winning book John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty. He has also edited The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams, Antislavery Political Writings, 1833-1860: A Reader, co-edited Freedom and School Choice in American Education, and was an associate editor of the four-volume Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. His current book project is on the ideological origins of American constitutionalism.Dr. Thompson is also an occasional writer for The Times Literary Supplement of London. He has lectured around the country on education reform and the American Revolution, and his op-ed essays have appeared in scores of newspapers around the country and abroad. Dr. Thompson's lectures on the political thought of John Adams have twice appeared on C-SPAN television.LISA VANDAMMEB.A., Philosophy, 1994, University of Texas at AustinLisa VanDamme is the owner and director of VanDamme Academy, a private elementary and junior high school in Laguna Hills, California. She specializes in the application of Objectivism to educational theory. Her previous lectures on homeschooling, hierarchy and the teaching of values will be included in a forthcoming education anthology featuring Leonard Peikoff’s “Philosophy of Education.”Don WatkinsBA, Business Administration, 2005, Strayer UniversityMr. Watkins is a fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. He is the author of “RooseveltCare: How Social Security Is Sabotaging the Land of Self-Reliance” and coauthor, along with Yaron Brook, of the national best-seller “Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government.”KEITH WEINERPh.D., Economics, 2012, New Austrian School of Economics (non-accredited)Dr. Weiner is the founder and CEO of Monetary Metals, a company on a mission to pay interest on gold, and the president of the Gold Standard Institute USA.He makes the economic arguments, as well as the moral, for a free market in money and credit. There has never been an unadulterated gold standard in history, as all governments (including the U.S.) have regulated and interfered with banking, even when other enterprises were unshackled. Today our monetary system is failing, and Keith describes the mechanics in detail, why making the passionate case for gold as the money of free markets.He is also the founder of DiamondWare, a software company sold to Nortel in 2008.Glenn WoiceshynSpecialties: Education, ethics, environmentalism, science, politics.Mr. Woiceshyn is currently developing curriculum and teaching materials for grades 4 to 6 based on his understanding of Objectivism and his experience in "homeschooling" his son and other children. As a freelance writer, Mr. Woiceshyn's op-eds have appeared in numerous newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald.JAANA WOICESHYNM.B.A., 1983, Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration; Ph.D., Organization and Strategy, 1988, University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School)Dr. Woiceshyn is an associate professor at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary. She has taught business ethics and strategic management to undergraduate, MBA and executive MBA students and to various business audiences since 1987.BARRY WOODPh.D., History of Art and Architecture, 2002, Harvard UniversityDr. Wood is curator of the Islamic Gallery Project at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. He has lectured and published on subjects ranging from Persian poetry to Web design.Darryl WrightSpecialties: Ethics, political philosophy, ObjectivismDarryl Wright is associate professor of philosophy at Harvey Mudd College, a member of the Claremont Colleges consortium. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan in 1991, and his A.B. in philosophy from Princeton University in 1985. Dr. Wright has published scholarly articles and/or lectured on the history of ethics, early twentieth-century philosophy, value theory, coercion, and other topics in philosophy.

A Disreputable Breach of Trust: Hamilton and the National DebtThe American nation has been in debt continually since its inception. In a letter to financier and member of Congress Robert Morris in 1781, Alexander Hamilton wrote, “A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.” [i] Few politicians would make such a bold statement today. Even some of Hamilton’s contemporaries found the idea of enshrining debt as a blessing somewhat disconcerting, making of it a persistent point of partisan contention. Yet the question remains at what level (if any) would Hamilton and his contemporaries have considered the accumulating national debt to have grown to be “excessive” thereby turning a blessing into a national curse. [ii]Many among the founders of the nation thought public debt an asset rather than a deficiency—that the obligations it placed on the wider community might prove cohesive for a new republic. Having borrowed and successfully serviced the debt, the republic would establish its credit-worthiness among the nations of the world and more easily maintain its fiscal liquidity.[iii] An ardent nationalist, who emphasized the need for a strong central government, Hamilton also proposed the establishment of a national bank, a central mint and uniform coinage, and the federal assumption of the accumulated debts of the several separate states.Hamilton was no spendthrift. He proposed that the United States secure any debts with its vast acres of undistributed western lands. The sale of these lands could be used in the near future to finance any interest on loans and to make an impression upon the principle of the debt thereby quickly exhausting it. Significantly, Hamilton’s financial conclusions in the 1780s had been drawn “respecting the non-increase of the debt” beyond its present limit and had proceeded “upon the presumption that every part of the public debt … was to have been honestly paid.” These goals have never been realized.[iv]National politics in the new republic generally revolved around the personalities of Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, both influential leaders who refused to yield on the most divergent of their strongly held and mutually exclusive beliefs concerning the functions and limits of government. Hamilton’s “was a commercial mind-set that threatened the agrarian values that his opponents enshrined.”[v] Jefferson, by contrast, recounted to an associate a frustrated desire for a single additional amendment to the Constitution—one that “removed from the central government the power to borrow money.”[vi]During the early years of the republic and especially during the attempt to ratify a new Constitution, theoretical attacks on Hamilton’s fiscal ideas often came in the form of essays written by Jefferson’s pseudo-anonymous surrogates. These highly partisan essays were widely reprinted and commented on throughout America at the time, and their theoretical arguments sound eerily familiar to similar discussions concerning the debt and taxation today.[vii]The benefit of carrying a public debt was not a new idea, yet in 1783 the debt already stood at more than $43 million (Spanish dollars).[viii] Of this, the state debts amounted to about $30 million with an annual interest payment of $1 million. [ix] Nonetheless, even Hamilton’s critics generally conceded that the portion of the debt owed to foreign allied governments such as Spain, France, and Holland could be carried to America’s advantage. “Loans from nations are not like loans from private men,” wrote anti-federalist William Grayson. “Nations lend money, and grant assistance, to one another, from views of [their own] national interest.”[x]Hamilton believed that revenue depended on trade, hence his singular reliance on tariffs to fund the central government. He also understood that wealth and the availability of ready money were related but not equivalent.[xi] In 1788, Grayson agreed in principle with Hamilton that America was a rich nation temporarily inconvenienced by a severe lack of money. The immense stockpile of real wealth in America resided in its natural resources and in its laborers, mechanics, and artisans (free and slave). Hamilton and his contemporaries recognized the necessity of transforming these riches into negotiable funds in a deliberate and methodical manner.[xii]There arose almost immediately, however, a great controversy concerning the federal assumption of the state debts (particularly of Jefferson’s Virginia and the other large states). If these debts became federal ones, citizens in states that had paid their debts would essentially end up paying twice. Those that had not paid would receive an unearned benefit as their remaining debt was spread across the population.Grayson concluded that federal revenue sources were insufficient to run what he considered the legitimate functions of a central government and to service an expanded debt as well. “The domestic debt is diminished by the considerable sales of western lands,” wrote Grayson, “[but] I must confess that public credit has suffered, and that our public creditors have been ill-used … owing to a fault [in Congress] in not selling the western lands at an earlier period.”[xiii] Another anti-federalist, Arthur Lee agreed. “The sum then, which [Congress] must annually raise in specie [gold and silver], after the first year, cannot be less than 4,800,000 [dollars]. At present there is not one half of this sum in specie raised in all the states.”[xiv]As part of his program, Hamilton had recognized a great need for a national mint to underpin the economy with a stable national coinage. A chronic lack of coinage had been an issue since colonial times.[xv] The paper currency of the revolution in Continental dollars was wildly depreciated and no longer considered lawful money.[xvi] Outside the issuing states, paper bills of credit, known as fiat money, were worth no more than Monopoly® money outside the confines of the board game. Hamilton estimated only about 5 dollars in genuine coin (mostly silver and copper) in circulation on average per free white person in America.[xvii]However, adequate quantities of money did not necessarily translate into a sufficient stock of disaggregated coinage capable of sustaining normal business transactions while also funding the tasks required of state and central governments. Individuals hoarded many specie coins as valued assets and a hedge against inflation. Moreover, the coins were often “denominated” in terms that did not allow them to “circulate as freely and easily as they might have.” It was easier to pay a year’s rent with a single specie coin than to find the few coppers needed to purchase a slab of bacon once a week. This lack of coin was a terrible drag on economic activity and potential growth.[xviii]It can be gleaned from these brief excursions into the financial morass of early America that all sides expected to exhaust the national debt within a few years, or during their lifetimes, rather than carry it at interest for payment by future generations. This objective proved impractical due to a confluence of debilitating factors, among them weaknesses in coinage, confederation, credit, and credibility. Partly for these reasons a new Constitution had been fashioned in 1787. Thereafter, the Treasury Department was created (1789) to help the country borrow additional money and better manage its deficits and other fiscal responsibilities. Hamilton was its first administrator.Hamilton initially felt that getting into a reasonable amount of short-term debt would provide a sound financial underpinning to the republic while the details of its governance were worked out, but with a dominating central government came additional unforeseen obligations. In Federalist 30 (1791), Hamilton reversed his earlier dedication to quickly eliminating the debt and admitted its probable future expansion, “Future necessities admit not of calculation or limitation; and … the power of making provision for them as they arise [taxation] ought to be equally unconfined.”[xix]Hamilton estimated the federal debt to be $77 million in 1791, a 56 percent increase in just eight years. He decided to impose an excise tax beyond the tariff to fill the shortfall in revenue. This first tax-in-order-to-spend solution did not resolve the deficit. As the real cost of central government became evident, the government itself had a price tag absorbing “at least one sixth … as well as the cost of collection” of all revenues.[xx] However, neither Hamilton nor Jefferson probably ever foresaw a national debt as large as that of the present day (2012) at $15+ trillion (USD) where each man, woman, and child in the United States shares in the shortfall to the amount of $50,000 from birth. The interest on the present debt alone is almost $500 billion annually.[xxi]In 1791, the executive and legislative branches created the first Bank of the United States to manage the nation’s finances. Hamilton proposed funding the Bank through the sale of $10 million in stock with the first $2 million in shares coming from government as an unfunded stimulus and the remainder being made available to private subscribers. A skeptical Arthur Lee rejoined sarcastically, “If you have any other plan for this, than by raising money upon the people to pay the interest of the national debt, your ingenuity will deserve our thanks … Let us see how much will be necessary for that end.”[xxii] The Bank remained a point of partisan political bickering for decades, and the struggles—political and practical—to find alternative solutions to deal with the mounting debt continued without success.In an attempt to end the use of fiat money, the Constitution had provided that states accept none but specie coins as legal tender for the payment of public debts. This prohibition gave, according to New York jurist Robert Yates, “the most perfect security against those attacks upon property [real assets] which I am sorry to say some of the states have but too wantonly made.”[xxiii] Nonetheless, there remained a need for the nation to produce a sufficient quantity of specie coins to support such a plan.Hamilton himself favored a specie coinage and considered depreciated paper money to be dishonest. Federalist James Madison also believed that nothing but evil could spring from so-called “imaginary money,” and John Adams, also a Federalist, declared that every paper dollar issued beyond the exact quantity of gold or silver in the nation’s vaults represented “a cheat upon somebody.” [xxiv] Lee, ever the pragmatist, questioned how Hamilton and his supporters planned to arrive at a sufficient quantity of bullion to mint enough hard coin to replace the ubiquitous paper money system. Lee also pointed out that if the government raised these sums from the people by requiring payments in gold or silver, it would suck the life from the economy. “It will certainly support the public credit, but it will overwhelm the people … It will grind the poor to dust.”[xxv]In 1795 Hamilton was publicly embarrassed by an extramarital affair and left government office. He was killed in a notorious duel with former vice president Aaron Burr in 1804. His immediate successors at the Treasury had neither his vision nor his ability.[xxvi] Without Hamilton’s supporting voice, the Bank’s charter was allowed to expire in 1811 and many of his ideas were cast aside largely through the continued partisan opposition of the Jeffersonian party.Jefferson ran for president in 1801 promising to pay off the national debt. Ironically, when the opportunity availed itself in 1803, he added $15 million to the debt with the purchase of the Louisiana Territory. With added land came additional intrinsic wealth, but also new financial obligations to defend and to govern it. Forts and additional troops for the army would soon follow. On the whole, however, historians consider the purchase insightful and a shrewd use of the federal power to deficit spend.Jefferson’s attempts as president to tame the finances of the national economy through the imposition of populist style agrarianism at the expense of banking and commerce were a disaster, however. A deep depression in 1807-1808 followed as nearly all economic activity came to a halt.[xxvii] Many American merchants were forced out of business for lack of financing as those with capital tried to weather the financial disaster by withholding their investments until the president should be voted from office. New England was particularly hard pressed by the foreign trade embargo and threatened secession; while Jefferson, a southern planter, was correctly portrayed as the villain in the failed policy initiative.[xxviii]Under President Madison in 1816, the Bank was revived as the Second Bank of the United States as a means of controlling inflation after the War of 1812 (a conflict that added another $105 million to the debt). The national debt remained at extraordinary levels, however, until the late 1830s at a time when the United States became the undisputed ocean cargo carrier of global trade goods. Dozens of trading vessels made runs to China annually, and many hundreds cleared for the Indies, the South Pacific, the Baltic states, the coast of Africa, and the Mediterranean. Consequently, tariff and excise revenues soared. Land sales skyrocketed as the Native American tribes were decimated and forced west. Almost immediately the principle of the national debt fell precipitously to a mere $34,000—the closest it has ever come to being exhausted and a Pyrrhic victory for Hamilton’s original ideas.[xxix]Meanwhile, President Andrew Jackson made the Bank a particular target of his frontier populism, opening a virtual war on its existence in 1829, removing all federal funds from its vaults in 1833, and effectively killing it by 1836. These policies destroyed the liquidity of American commerce and were followed by a deep depression known generally as the Panic of 1837, the deepest economic downturn of the century. More than 600 banks failed in the on-and-off economic contractions between 1837 and 1843. It was a period of pronounced deflation and of massive default on personal and commercial debt.The Mexican War of the late 1840s added both debt and vast areas of the continent to the United States, particularly the desert southwest, Texas, and California with its gold fields. But the Civil War of the 1860s drove the debt beyond $3 billion, and it has essentially grown ever since, largely fueled by an on-and-off reliance on post-Civil-War-era paper money known as greenbacks.President Abraham Lincoln supported the carefully engraved paper bills with a total face value of $450 million were as a wartime funding measure based only on the good faith and credit of the Federal government. Along with greenbacks, the Lincoln administration also initiated the first federal income tax. The Civil War was the first American conflict funded through involuntary personal taxation rather than only through the voluntary purchase of war bonds. Inevitably, a difference between specie value and greenback value appeared on most commodities, and trading in currency and commodities thereafter became complex and volatile. The Gold Exchange on Wall Street was established at this time. After a long fight through the courts over the conversion of greenbacks back to gold, specie payments resumed in 1879, with the price of gold fixed at $20 (paper) per ounce.[xxx]Gold has been the security of old age, the obsession of the greedy, and the refuge of the frightened. In 1876, however, American economist Alexander Del Mar undertook an in-depth study of the history of gold, currency, and coinage for the Treasury. He concluded that law rather than the free market in gold made a commodity legal tender, created money, and gave currencies their value. He also uncovered a dismal record of hypocrisy, conspiracy, and scheming among politicians and financiers to use the power of government to control money and credit in order to impact and shape the course of human events and society.[xxxi]The historic record is filled with prominent examples. Before the Coinage Act of 1873, the United States had backed its currency with both gold and silver. Thereafter only gold was made acceptable, depressing the value of silver and contributing to a 5+ year depression—the longest continuous contraction in American history. Those who owed money were most damaged as their small stocks of silver coin depreciated. In The Cross of Gold speech (1896), agrarian populist William Jennings Bryan railed against the government for maintaining the gold standard to the detriment of cash-strapped midwestern farmers. “It is the issue of 1776 over again,” he roared during one of America’s most famous political speeches.[xxxii] In 1913, under the progressive programs of President Woodrow Wilson, the Federal Reserve System was created and a Federal Reserve Bank was chartered to better control the nation’s money (essentially to take its place as a third national bank). Thereafter, in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a bank holiday and issued an executive order to confiscate all gold in private hands (other than simple jewelry) in order to relieve the inflationary effects of the (third longest) Great Depression and stabilize the currency as he tried and failed to deficit spend the nation out of recession.[xxxiii] World War II intervened to save the American economy, and the U.S. dollar emerged as the world default currency. In 1972, President Richard Nixon ended the exchange of paper “silver certificates” for specie to help pay for the war in Vietnam and stop the flow of precious metals to Europe.[xxxiv] Inflation in the late 1970s skyrocketed as the paper money depreciated. The United States has been a paper economy ever since and the term inflation-adjusted became common in discussing national finances.Two hundred years earlier, Hamilton and his contemporaries had thought the paper currency system a necessary evil, yet they granted that it had the benefit of enabling the government to cancel its debts upon easier terms as the Treasury paid its fixed obligations in depreciated currency—a stratagem known as monetization. The term monetization is a modern one for the centuries-old practice of adapting assets with little or no intrisic value (in this case paper notes) to generate government revenue in the form of money rather than to tap the nation’s intrinsic wealth. Writing about the mounting debts of his own day, an anonymous anti-paper pamphleteer from the 18th century proclaimed a disappointment commonly heard today: “We had found an easy way of paying for the [debt by] shuffling the Saddle off our own backs on to our Children [with paper money].” Modern money managers have fixated on this method to diminish the immediate effects of deficit spending. Once again, Hamilton would have thought the whole process eminently dishonest.[xxxv]The last time the federal government cut absolute spending (rather than cutting the increase in baseline spending) was 1954. Moreover, since the 1970s, federal spending has grown ten times faster than the increase in median family income in inflation-adjusted dollars—much of the spending in deficit although federal revenues have been between 30 and 35 percent of GDP for more than three decades. In 1913 at the dawn of the so-called Progressive Era, the federal government collected a mere 3 percent of GDP for its programs. [xxxvi] Today nearly half of the households in America pay no income tax whatsoever. The total national debt from the time of Hamilton has doubled in just the first decade of the 21st century at the hands of both major political parties, and politicians now proudly project annual trillion-dollar-plus budget deficits for each of the next ten years and have the arrogance to hold them forth as symbols of parsimony and fairness, or of hope and change!It is clear to any honest observer that America has developed a spending addiction in the last 100 years, and the shortfall in revenue has simply been added to the debt. This situation is a largely unforeseen by-product of a century of several foreign military involvements (including Cold War defense spending) and domestic public works and social reforms (interstate highways, Amtrak, Social Security, Medicare, Headstart, and other federal programs), all with well-meaning goals in mind.Hamilton and his contemporaries never envisioned such intrusion of central government into the daily lives of Americans nor the extent of the present federal entitlement regime, which has created a malignant dependency on deficit government spending and increased debt. Jefferson had warned 200 years ago, “We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude …Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.”[xxxvii]The Federal Reserve is presently (2012) monetizing the mounting debt of the United States through the production and sale of hundreds of billions of dollars of bonds and electronic money transfers—a monetization procedure now called quantitative easing (QE). Much of this staggering paper debt is being purchased outside the country—particularly by financial policy makers in Asia. Consequently, the Standard and Poor’s financial rating service has downgraded the credit-worthiness of the United States for the first time (2011) in the agency’s 150 years. Yet improved credit-worthiness was among the initial goals of the founders in carrying a debt in the first place.Moreover, the total unfunded federal liability for future entitlements is presently approaching $100 trillion! In February 2012, Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner noted that he had no foreseeable solution to raising the sums needed to fund these entitlements, and Rep. Paul Ryan—an anti-deficit hawk—responded with disgust, “Our government is making promises to Americans that it has no way of accounting for … [Are we] just going to keep lying to people?”[xxxviii]The national debt today in relative terms—corrected for inflation—is approximately fourteen times as large as that which Hamilton and his contemporaries faced more than 200 years ago. Both Hamilton and Jefferson would certainly have considered this level of debt not only “excessive,” but also dangerous and debilitating. More than 200 years ago, Arthur Lee had warned Hamilton—and future generations of American politicians—of the curse inherent in an economic philosophy ruled by budget deficits, currency manipulations, under-funded entitlements, and an excessive national debt:How you will get this sum is inconceivable and yet get it you must, or lose all credit. With magnificent promises you have bought golden opinions of all sorts of people, and with gold you must answer them … The government … by promising too much … will involve itself in a disreputable breach of trust.”[xxxix]Selected ReadingBaker, Jennifer J. Securing the Commonwealth: Debt, Speculation, and Writing in the Making of Early America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton. New York: Penguin Press, 2004.Graham, John Remington. Blood Money, The Civil War and the Federal Reserve. Gretna, LA: Pelican, 2006.Ketcham, Ralph Louis. The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates. New York: Signet Classics, 2003.Madison, James, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. The Federalist Papers. New York: SoHo Books, 2011.Meacham, John. American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. New York: Penguin Press, 2004.Ritter, Grechen. Goldbugs and Greenbacks: The Antimonopoly Tradition and the Politics of Finance in America, 1865-1896. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.Unger, Irwin. The Greenback Era: A Social and Political History of American Finance, 1865-1879. ACLS Humanities E-Book (2008). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964.[i] Alexander Hamilton, The Works of Alexander Hamilton, ed. Henry Cabot Lodge (Federal Edition) (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904). In 12 vols. Vol. 3. Chapter: Hamilton to Robert Morris. Accessed January 2012. URL: Online Library of Liberty[ii] Simple definition of terms:Debt - unpaid balance on legitimate obligations, carried at interest.Deficit – a shortfall between revenues and payments.Liquidity – the ability to quickly produce cash from real assets.Entitlement – a future benefit owed due to a legislative promise.Liability – the sum of all legitimate obligations present and future.[iii] Jennifer J. Baker, Securing the Commonwealth: Debt, Speculation, and Writing in the Making of Early America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), 67.[iv] Alexander Hamilton, op cit.[v] Jennifer J. Baker, 240.[vi] Thomas Jefferson. Letter to John Taylor, Monticello, VA, May 28, 1816. Teaching American History. Accessed February 2012. URL: http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=308[vii] Some of the best of the Anti-Federalist papers have been organized into 85 sections, corresponding to the 85 Federalist Papers. Many of the concerns of the Anti-Federalists were ultimately addressed by the adoption of the Bill of Rights. See Clinton, George; Robert Yates; Samuel Bryan (2008-06-23). Anti-Federalist Papers (p. 18). Misbach Enterprises. Kindle Edition.[viii] This was $450 million Continental dollars, equivalent to a much-depreciated $1.2 trillion (USD) in terms of modern GDP. See Samuel H. Williamson, “Seven Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to present,” Measuring Worth, 2011. Accessed February 2012. URL: www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/[ix] American financial accounts at the time usually reflected that of the Spanish silver dollar (peso), direct antecedent of the U.S. silver dollar. The exquisite Spanish Milled Dollar came closest at the time to being a global default currency, and it remained legal tender in the United States until 1857.[x] Clinton, George, et al, p. 18.[xi] John Flynn, “The Biography of John Law,” Men of Wealth (1941). Accessed February 2012. URL: http://www.devvy.com/pdf/biography_john_law.pdf[xii] Ironically, the vast mineral wealth of iron, coal, and petroleum were generally unrecognized at the time, and the future sources of American gold and silver resided in lands in the far west that were not yet part of the United States. It has been estimated that the entire national debt (as of 2012) could be exhausted by the sale to private companies of mineral leases on national lands.[xiii] John Flynn, op cit.[xiv] See Samuel H. Williamson, op cit.[xv] Payments in specie coin had been required in several acts of parliament including the Currency Act of 1764, the Townsend Acts of 1767 and 1769, and the Tea Act of 1773.[xvi] Merchants, shippers, lenders, and tax officials constantly referred to vast tables of equivalents to calculate the lawful exchange value of commercial and public accounts into English sterling or Spanish dollars.[xvii] This was equivalent to approximately $17.5 million dollars at the time.[xviii] John J. McCusker and Russell R. Menard, The Economy of British America, 1607-1789 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991), 339.[xix] Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, The Federalist Papers. A Project Gutenberg Ebook. Release Date: November 6, 2009 [EBook #1404]. Accessed January 2012. URL: Project Gutenberg[xx] Clinton, George, et al, p. 56.[xxi] This is 3 percent of USGDP in 2012.[xxii] Clinton, George, et al, p. 54.[xxiii] Clinton, George, et al, p. 351.[xxiv] Jennifer J. Baker, 121.[xxv] Clinton, George, et al, p. 57.[xxvi] As the longest serving Secretary of the Treasury (1801-1814), Albert Gallatin was an exception.[xxvii] Foreign trade fell from $108 million in 1807 to only $22 million in 1808, and smuggling increased dramatically as Americans attempted to evade Jefferson’s trade embargo.[xxviii] Ironically, this circumstance helped to fuel the growth of the American textile industry during the next decade as local mills and sources replaced those in Britain.[xxix] In 1792, the percentage of Debt to GDP was 35 percent; by 1834, this number had been brought down to less than 1 percent (0.39). Today the percentage is 102. percent.[xxx] The present official government price of gold is just over $42 per ounce. The commodity price is $1700+.[xxxi] John Remington Graham, Blood Money, The Civil War and the Federal Reserve (Gretna, LA: Pelican, 2006), 53.[xxxii] Official Proceedings of the Democratic National Convention Held in Chicago, Illinois, July 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, 1896, (Logansport, Indiana, 1896), 226–234.[xxxiii] See Executive Order 6102, Section 2 of the Act of March 9, 1933, entitled “An Act to provide relief in the existing national emergency in banking, and for other purposes.” The American Presidency Project. Accessed May 2011. URL: Executive Order 6102-Requiring Gold Coin, Gold Bullion and Gold Certificates to Be Delivered to the Government[xxxiv] Particularly to France.[xxxv] Jennifer J. Baker, 403.[xxxvi] Heritage Foundation, Reports. Accessed February 2012. URL: http://www.heritage.org/budgetchartbook/growth-federal-spending[xxxvii] Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Samuel Kercheval, Monticello, VA, July 12, 1816. “Famous Quotes of Thomas Jefferson.” Accessed February 2012. URL: Thomas Jefferson Quote/Quotation[xxxviii] “Geithner To Ryan On Debt: We Don't ‘Have A Definitive Solution To Our Long-Term Problem,’” http://RealClearPolicics.com. Accessed February 2012. URL: Geithner To Ryan On Debt: We Don't "Have A Definitive Solution To Our Long-Term Problem"[xxxix] Clinton, George, et al, p. 55.