Richard Ebeling

Richard M. Ebeling (born 30 January 1950) is Professor of Economics at Northwood University. He was formerly president of The Foundation for Economic Education (2003–2008), was the Ludwig von Mises Professor of Economics at Hillsdale College (1988–2003) in Hillsdale, Michigan, and served as vice president of academic affairs for The Future of Freedom Foundation (1989–2003).

Born in New York City in 1950, he received his B.A. in economics from California State University, Sacramento, and his M.A. in economics from Rutgers University, and his Ph.D in Economics from Middlesex University in London, England. Professor Ebeling has been a lecturer in economics at the National University of Ireland at Cork (1981–1983), and assistant professor of economics at the University of Dallas (1984–1988).

He is the author of Austrian Economics and the Political Economy of Freedom (Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2003) and Political Economy, Public Policy, and Monetary Economics: Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian Tradition (London/New York: Routledge, 2010). And the co-author and co-editor of In Defense of Capitalism, Vols. 1 and 2 (Midland, MI: Northwood University Press, 2010 and 2011).

While serving as vice president for The Future of Freedom Foundation (1990-2003), Professor Ebeling co-edited and contributed to five books published by The Future of Freedom Foundation and he wrote a monthly article and book review for FFF's publication Freedom Daily. His articles have also appeared in The Freeman, Reason, Libertarian Review, Critical Review, Political Studies, Advances in Austrian Economics, The Austrian Economics Newsletter, International Journal of World Peace, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Advances in Austrian Economics, and numerous other publications. His articles have been published in Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, England, France, Guatemala, Hungary, Lithuania, Mexico, Panama, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

In 1990-1991, Dr. Ebeling frequently traveled to the former Soviet Union consulting with the government of Lithuania and with members of the Russian Parliament and the city of Moscow on free market reform and privatization of the socialist economy. In January 1991 he witnessed first-hand the Soviet military crackdown in Vilnius, Lithuania, during which 13 people were killed. While in Moscow in August 1991 he joined the defenders of freedom and democracy at the barricades surrounding the Russian Parliament during the failed Soviet hard line Communist coup-attempt.

In October 1996, he traveled to Moscow, once again, with his wife, Anna Ebeling, this time uncovering the "lost papers" of the famous Austrian economist and leading classical liberal, Ludwig von Mises in a formerly secret Soviet archive. Looted by the Nazis from his Vienna apartment in 1938, Mises' papers were captured by the Soviet Army at the end of the Second World War. Dr. Ebeling was able to obtain photocopies of virtually the entire collection of documents numbering about 10,000 items, which had been kept in that formerly secret KGB archive in Moscow for 50 years.

Dr. Ebeling has supervised the translation and edited a large number of these papers for a three-volume Selected Writings of Ludwig von Mises published by Liberty Fund of Indianapolis. The last of the three volumes will be published in April 2012. Volumes I and II contain a large selection of articles, lectures, and previously unpublished policy papers by Ludwig von Mises covering the period before, during, and after the First World War (1906-1938), when, for most of that time, Mises made his living as a senior economic policy analyst for the Vienna Chamber of Commerce. Volume III contains previously unpublished lectures and monographs written between 1940 and 1945 on the theme of "The Political Economy of International Reform and Reconstruction," dealing with the problems of economic recovery after the Second World War.

Dr. Ebeling is also the editor of Money, Method and the Market Process: Essays by Ludwig von Mises (Auburn, Al: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1990).

Dr Ebeling received the “Franz Cuhel Award for Excellence in Free Market Education,” presented by the Liberalni Institute at the annual Prague Conference on Political Economy (Prague, April 2007) and the “Liberty in Theory: Lifetime Award” for contributions advancing the case for classical liberalism, presented by Libertarian Alliance/Libertarian International (London, November 2005). He has also twice been a Hayek Fellow at the Institute for Humane Studies (1975, 1977).

He lectures extensively on privatization, monetary reform, free trade, and other topics in the United States, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia. He has been a guest lecturer at Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala, the Prague School of Economics in the Czech Republic, at INTI (International University) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the American National University (ANC) in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Links

 * Richard M. Ebeling Literature Archive at the Mises Institute
 * Richard M. Ebeling - Essays at the Future of Freedom Foundation
 * Richard M. Ebeling - Essays at In Defense of Capitalism & Human Progress