Burton Blumert

Burton S. Blumert (born February 11, 1929 in New York City, died March 30, 2009) was the president of the Center for Libertarian Studies in Burlingame, California, chairman of the Mises Institute, and the publisher of LewRockwell.com. Before his retirement in 2008, he bought and sold precious metals as the proprietor of Camino Coin Company.

Background
Educated at New York University, Blumert enlisted in the United States Air Force during the Korean War era. After a series of draft deferments, he chose to enlist in the Air Force—which offered a shorter enlistment term than did the Army—in order to avoid being drafted during the Truman administration.

From 1959 until 2008, Blumert operated the Camino Coin Company, dealing in bullion and coins. Upon retirement he gave the company to a long-time employee. After retiring, Blumert remained an active discussant of commodities topics in the media.

Political and social commentary
In a 2008 interview he credited his experience in the coin industry as spurring him to adopt a libertarian political philosophy and to support fellow gold advocate Ron Paul. In 1988, Blumert was chair of Ron Paul's first presidential campaign. Blumert was a close friend and supporter of the late Murray Rothbard, with whom he founded the Center for Libertarian Studies in 1975. As president of the Center for Libertarian Studies, Blumert published the Journal of Libertarian Studies, the Austrian Economics Newsletter, and the Rothbard-Rockwell Report. Blumert served as chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and was publisher of LewRockwell.com.

In his often humorous contributions to LRC, he positioned himself as anti-Rudy Giuliani, pro-Barry Bonds, and skeptical of the medical establishment. A selection of Blumert's essays were collected into the 2008 book, Bagels, Barry Bonds, and Rotten Politicians (available online), for which Lew Rockwell provided a foreword.

Links

 * Burton Blumert archive at LewRockwell.com
 * Burton Blumert obituary at Taki's Magazine
 * Burton Blumert obituary at LewRockwell.com