I wanted to make sure to express a heartfelt and humble thank you to the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics for winning its 2012 prize for Best Article in Austrian Economics for my co-authored article (with Ed Stringham) “Hayekian Anarchism.” And, of course, special thanks to Ed for collaborating with me on the project. The award is administered by the Foundation for Economic Education and the announcement is here. Congratulations go out to my friend and GMU colleague Peter Boettke who wont the award for Best Book in Austrian Economics for his book Living Economics. Also, thanks to Ed for attending the Southern Economic Association meeting this weekend to accept the award on our behalf (so far they have not contacted me about establishing a live satellite feed so that I can appear as well).
I also wanted to take a moment to express a particular word of gratitude to my undergraduate honors thesis advisor at Dartmouth Vincent Starzinger as many of the ideas that finally saw the light of day in this article stretch all the way back to that time. I recall his remarkable response when I asked him to be my advisor for the the thesis. He said, “I know very little about Hayek, but this will give me a great opportunity to learn more about him. So I’d be happy to do it.” To this day I recall that response as the very model of what a professor should be–humble, curious, and ready to learn from his students as well as to teach them. And, indeed, I’ve stolen that same line (and I hope the same attitude) on many occasions since then. It is also a testament to the ways in which we are influenced by our teachers and mentors in ways that go beyond the narrow focus of the academic work we do. The man was a true model of what a professor should be. I know that my fondness for The ‘Zinger is not idiosyncratic, so please leave your favorite “Zinger” stories in the Comments.