About Leonard

Leonard Liggio (born July 5, 1933) is a classical liberal author, research professor of law at George Mason University, and executive vice president of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in Fairfax, Virginia, USA. Read Leonard’s autobiography (written in three parts) here. Present positions He is also visiting professor of Law at the Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala City, at the Academia Istropolitana in Bratislava (Slovakia), at the Institute for Political and Economic Studies (Georgetown University) and at the University of Aix-en-Provence, France (close to his friend Jacques Garello). Leonard P. Liggio is Executive Director of the John Templeton Foundation Freedom Project…

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Curriculum Vite

Research Professor  George Mason University Law School, Arlington, VA 22201 Visiting Law Professor   Francisco Marroquin University, Guatemala City;  University of Aix-en-Provence, France;  Academia Istropolitana, Bratislava, Slovakia.  Georgetown University Institute for Political and Economic Studies Director, Center for Cultural Diversity, City University of New York, 1974-77; Director, Programs in: History and Social Theory, Institute for Humane Studies, 1974-77; Vice-President, Cato Institute, San Francisco, California, 1977-78; Executive Vice-President, Institute for Humane Studies, 1979-80; President, Institute for Humane Studies, 1980-89; Distinguished Senior Scholar, 1989-; Chairman, 1980-94; Vice-Chairman, 1994-98, Humane Studies Foundation; Executive Director, The John Templeton Foundation Freedom Project; and the International Freedom Project,…

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Book Review: Jesus Huerta de Soto, Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles

Book Review: Jesus Huerta de Soto, Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles

Jesus Huerta de Soto, Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles Reviewed by Leonard P. Liggio In the midst of the current monetary crisis, I find it useful to review Jesus Huerta de Soto’s Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles (2nd Edition, Auburn, AL, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2009). Jesus Huerta de Soto is professor of political economy at the King Juan Carlos University in Madrid, and has presented several papers to Mont Pelerin Society meetings. At 885 pages, the book is encyclopedic, and as Jean-Claude Trichet said: “It is indeed a remarkably stimulating and thought provoking summa.” In 1979 a regional meeting of…

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Bertrand Russell and Dr. Barnes

Bertrand Russell and Dr. Barnes

by Leonard P. Liggio After July 4, 2011 the famous art-rich Barnes Museum in Marion, PA was moved to central Philadelphia’s museum-row on Benjamin Franklin Parkway. This followed numerous court decisions as to the control of the art work which might be worth billions of dollars but lacking funds to maintain the building . Dr. Albert C. Barnes, M. D. (1872-1951) invented a nose-drops called Argyrol (a black substance to which I was subjected as a child) which made Dr. Barnes fabulously wealthy. After World War One he began to collect Impressionist paintings among others. In 1940 Dr. Barnes offered…

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Archduke Otto von Habsburg (November 20, 1912-July 4, 2011) RIP

Archduke Otto von Habsburg (November 20, 1912-July 4, 2011) RIP

by Leonard P. Liggio I have been fortunate to know several persons who connected me to Central Europe. For example, a  professor at the graduate school of Fordham University was Oskar Halecki with whom I took the  annual lecture course and four annual seminars (two on the Versailles conference). Halecki’s grandmother as a teenager danced at the Congress of Vienna; his father was a Lieutenant-Field Marshall in the Austro-Hungarian army. He lived and studied in Vienna until he attended the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. In 1919 he became secretary of delegation to the Versailles Conference of the newly created Poland; before he retired at Fordham…

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