Angus Burgin discusses the origins of the Mont Pelerin Society is this clip. It is an interesting analysis – not sure I buying into all of it. I’m not convinced that the argument for free markets is as well-established as he thinks. But watch the clip.
He mentions that Michael Oakeshott never attended an MPS meeting. That, and the title “Planning against planning”, reminds me of what Oakeshott said about Hayek. Something along the lines of “Professor Hayek has a plan not to plan. But that seems to be one plan too many”. Fantastic.
Some on the Left believe the Mont Pelerin Society is the ringmaster of the neo-liberal conspiracy. Few had heard of the group until the late 1990s.
The local ringmaster of the vast Mont Pelerin conspiracy – the CIS – did not have a full time staff member until about 1979: Greg Lindsey. Their 1st office opened above Uncle Pete’s Toys in St Leonards in 1980.
Now cast your mind back to the 1980s or early 1990s: mentioning Friedman’s name at job interviews would have been extremely career limiting.
Back then, the much less radical Milton Friedman was just graduating from being a wild man in the wings to just a suspicious character.
If you name dropped Hayek in the early 1990s, any sign of name recognition would have indicated that you were been interviewed by educated people.
Jim Rose
11 Mar 13 at 6:41 pm
That’s about right, but please spell my name correctly!! However, our first office was the shed in my backyard in Pennant Hills from 1976 until we moved to St Leonards in 1980. And yes, above Uncle Pete’s. The building was jointly owned by Neville Kennard, my then chairman, and Peter Pigott.
Uncle Pete’s Toys is long gone and we moved down the road in 1990. Still there, though now have two floors in the building.
Greg Lindsay
11 Mar 13 at 6:55 pm
Sorry Greg, but as the inaugural Australian ringmaster of the vast Mont Pelerin conspiracy, when did you first hear of that neoliberal cabal?
The Hayek and Friedman Monday conferences in 1975 are still ruling the Australian policy roost, if some are to be believed.
Milton Friedman is said to have mesmerising several countries with a flying visit.
When working at the next desk to a monetary policy section in the late 1980s, I heard not word of Friedman’s Svengali influence:
• The market determined interest rates, not the reserve bank was the mantra for several years. Joan Robinson would have been proud that her 1975 Monday conference was still holding the reins.
• Monetary policy was targeting the current account. Read Edwards’ bio of Keating and his extracts from very Keynesian treasury briefings to Keating signed by David Morgan that reminded me of Keynesian macro101.
When as a commentator on a Treasury seminar paper in 1986, Peter Boxhall – fresh from the US and 1970s Chicago educated – suggested using monetary policy to reduce the inflation rate quickly to zero, David Morgan and Chris Higgins almost fell off their chairs. They had never heard of such radical ideas.
In their breathless protestations, neither were sufficiently in-tune with their Keynesian educations to remember the role of sticky wages or even the need for the monetary growth reductions to be gradual and, more importantly, credible as per Milton Freidman and as per Tom Sargent’s end of 4 big and two moderate inflations.
I was far too junior to point to this gap in their analytical memories about the role of sticky wages, and I was having far too much fun watching the intellectual cream of Treasury senior management in full flight. (I read Friedman & Sargent much later).
Jim Rose
11 Mar 13 at 7:13 pm
Don’t have time to listen right through tonight but a few comments. The name comes from the village where they met because Frank Knight (a militant anti-cleric) refused to accept Hayek’s two suggestions – the Toqueville Society and the Acton Society because they were Roman Catholics.
The suggestion came up that capitalism and free markets subvert the traditional moral order. I think that is not true, there is synergy between the traditional bourgeoise virtues and the market order. The great solvent of traditional values has been the radical left and the adversary culture that became chic among a lot of intellectuals after the French Revolution.
Oakshott’s comment missed the point. Too clever by half as they say. Hayek was never opposed to people making plans, which we all do all the time. He was opposed to a particular kind of planning by governments. Right now the Opposition needs to be planning to roll back the kind of plans put in place by the ALP and other Big Government initiatives.
Poor Old Rafe
11 Mar 13 at 9:02 pm
I think Hayek suggested the Acton/Tocqueville Society as a name, but Rafe is right. Naming it after two Catholics was too much apparently, so it was named after the place the first meeting was first held. It’s a quiet plav=ce and if your Google it, you’ll find there’s a Buddhist monastery there. The hotel where the first meeting was held is still there.
I went to my first meeting of the MPS in 1978 when I was still teaching at Richmond High School. My principal thought it was impressive that Hayek, Friedman, Stigler et al would be there and gave me time off. Not bad for a maths teacher! That had a little compenation on the way as the airline had a competition for the person who could work out when the plane crossed the equator. I was out by 10 seconds, but won the scotch.
Hayek was here in 1976 (not 1975) and his Monday Conference appearance still resonates, at least for me.
Greg Lindsay
11 Mar 13 at 9:24 pm
just found this http://economics.org.au/2011/09/1975-monday-conference-transcript-featuring-milton-friedman/
but have not read it yet.
my only actual memory of it was the friedman was very articulate.
Jim Rose
11 Mar 13 at 10:22 pm
greg, I should add that John Quiggin is of the opinion at http://johnquiggin.com/2013/02/07/11317/comment-page-2/#comments that
canberra seemed to be rather under your Svengali influence back in those heady days of Fraser, Hawke, keating, the wage pause and prices and income accord.
how many staff did you have back then to call the shots from above uncle pete’s toys?
Jim Rose
11 Mar 13 at 10:46 pm
I’d never heard of the MPS when I started CIS, so hard to know how it could have been an offshoot. In the ’80s, most of our work was done by university-based academics and we would have had maybe a half a dozen staff. We are bigger now, but the think tank space is also rather more crowded. Competition in ideas is a good thing.
Greg Lindsay
12 Mar 13 at 1:52 pm
see too http://economics.org.au/2010/08/1976-monday-conference-transcript-featuring-hayek/ much denser that Friedman’s.
Jim Rose
12 Mar 13 at 5:40 pm