ИПИ Библиотека

Benjamin A Rogge - late Distinguished Professor of Political Economy at Wabash College - was a representative of that most unusual species: economists who speak and write in clear English. He forsakes professional jargon for clarity and logic - and can even be downright funny. The nineteen essays in this volume explore the philosophy of freedom, the nature of economics, the business system, labour markets, money and inflation, the problems of cities, education, and what must be done to ensure the survival of free institutions and capitalism.

“I shall identify my brand of economics as that of economic freedom, and I shall define economic freedom as that set of economic arrangements that would exist in a society in which the government’s only function would be to prevent one man from using force or fraud against another—including within this, of course, the task of national defense. So that there can be no misunderstanding here, let me say that this is pure, uncompromising laissez faire economics. It is not the mixed economy; it is the unmixed economy.”

Benjamin A. Rogge

Benjamin A. Rogge (1920–1980) was an American economist, college administrator, and libertarian writer, speaker and foundation advisor. Rogge co-authored an economics principles textbook with John Van Sickle. One strength of the text is the account that it gives of Joseph Schumpeter's process of creative destruction. Rogge helped organize a series of lectures by Milton Friedman at Wabash that were eventually developed into Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom book. Much later, Rogge participated in a brainstorming session for Friedman's Free to Choose television series. 

Liberty Fund was founded with money from Pierre Goodrich, who sought advice from Rogge during the Fund's early years. Rogge also was a frequent presenter at the seminars of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). FEE's founder, Leonard Read, thought of Rogge as Read's eventual successor, an outcome prevented by Read outliving Rogge. An extended (but somewhat grainy) video clip of a Rogge FEE lecture on "Competition and Monopoly" illustrates the dry wit that made him a popular speaker.

Rogge helped produce, and narrated, a documentary on Adam Smith that was funded by Liberty Fund. A collection of Rogge's speeches, often on topics in economics or education, was published under the title Can Capitalism Survive?

Wabash College, where he taught for many years, established a speaker series in his honor. Rogge's archives are mainly housed at the Hoover Institute on the campus of Stanford University. A posthumous collection of Rogge's speeches