Burton Blumert

From Mises Wiki, the global repository of classical-liberal thought
(Redirected from Burt Blumert)
Jump to: navigation, search
This article uses content from the Wikipedia article on Burton Blumert under the terms of the CC-by-SA 3.0 license.
Burtblumert.jpg

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.[1] 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.[2]

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.[3] After retiring, Blumert remained an active discussant of commodities topics in the media.[4]

Political and social commentary

Blumert, with Lew Rockwell, economist and philosopher David Gordon, and Murray Rothbard.

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.[3] In 1988, Blumert was chair of Ron Paul's first presidential campaign.[5] Blumert was a close friend and supporter of the late Murray Rothbard,[6] 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.[2]

In his often humorous contributions to LRC, he positioned himself as anti-Rudy Giuliani,[7] pro-Barry Bonds,[8] and skeptical of the medical establishment.[9] 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.[2]

Notes

  1. Blumert, Burt. "Under Pressure, Blumert Produces Military Records by Burton S. Blumert." LewRockwell.com. 3 May 2004. [1]
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Rockwell, Llewellyn H., Jr. "Foreword to Bagels, Barry Bonds, and Rotten Politicians." LewRockwell.com. 2008.[2]
  3. 3.0 3.1 Baedeker, Rob. "The gold standard: A precious metal that's not just an investment but a worldview too." SFGate.com 25 February 2008. [3]
  4. McCullagh, Declan. "Gold sales shine in dark economic times." cnet. 20 October 2008. [4]
  5. Blumert, Burton. "Ron Paul Is a Big Problem." LewRockwell.com. 6 August 2007. [5]
  6. Gordon, David. "Biography of Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995)." mises.org. [6]
  7. Blumert, Burton. "I Hate Rudy Giuliani." LewRockwell.com. 5 November 2001. [7]
  8. Blumert, Burton. "All Baseball Players Are Mortal – Even Barry Bonds." LewRockwell.com. 29 April 2004. [8]
  9. Blumert, Burton. "Keep That Knife Away From My Chest." LewRockwell.com. 20 February 2002. [9]

Links