David Prychitko Joins The Austrian Economists

I am elated to announce the my longtime friend and co-author David Prychitko will be joining the Austrian Economists.

I have inserted this portrait of a young John Maynard Keynes because I don't have a photo of the Dave Prychitko I first met as we sat in microeconomics in the fall of 1984.  But this portrait ironically comes very close, except Dave had a full beard.  Dave actually sat near the front, while I still following my undergraduate habit of sitting in the back.  Dave sat legs crossed like in this portrait of Keynes.  I was intrigued by this individual from the first sight.

The intellectual curiosity that Dave exhibited was a first for me.  I  had met smart people before, but nobody that was as probing and as rigorous.  This is still true.  We quickly became friends, studying together, joking around, book hunting throughout the DC area, and eventually working on joint-projects.   Our interests almost perfectly overlapped as we both were specializing in comparative economic systems, and both were Rothbardians in our economics and our anarchism though committed to refining the argument.  Dave taught me about the UCLA tradition of price theory and even provided me with my copy of University Economics.  We talked about everything from philosophy, politics and economics to music to literature to contemporary culture to sports.  I looked forward to everyday of work at GMU and the idea of having another conversation with Dave.

Our careers did not lead to us teaching togher as I had always hoped we would.  We tried once to devise a plan for a center at the University of Kansas, but it never went anywhere.  So we purused our own career paths.  Dave turned down the opportunity to pursue the NYU job, which opened the possibility for me and I took it.  Dave would later turn down the opportunity to return to GMU, which again later led to the opportunity for me to return to GMU in 1998.

Dave is the author of 3 books, Marxism and Workers' Self-Management (1991), Markets, Planning and Democracy (2002) and The Economic Way of Thinking, 12th ed (2009).  An outstanding teacher of economics (just ask Scott Beaulier) and a very skiled debater, Dave is one of the best minds in the contemporary Austrian school of economics.

We are thrilled that he has agreed to join our ranks, and I want to wish him the warmest of welcomes.

Comments

[Ludwig van den Hauwe]

I new Keynes among the Austrians. Hmmm...

[Jonathan Bathgate]

Has this extremely arrogant personage ever written anything original?

[Goran]

What warm welcomes!

[Steve Horwitz]

I can add little to Pete's introduction of Dave. I managed to muscle my way into their little love-fest for the last three years of their time at Mason and Dave is everything Pete says he is. He even put up with sharing an office with me (and Jerry Ellig) despite my pissing him off with my all-in-fun joke about NMU.

It was the laissez-faire flag that saved the day, which - as Pete can attest - still resides in my office today.

Welcome aboard Dave. We don't have a no smoking rule, but try to limit yourself to one cigar a day, ok?

[Richard]

Welcome. A great edition. If Austrianism were more like David P. it would not be the caricature Rothbardian hackery that it by & large is today (alas)

Who the f***k is J. Bathgate BTW? Jackass.

[Ian Dunois]

Wondered when he would join, but are you planning on closing the Economic Way of Thinking blog now?

[Jonathan Bathgate]

Richard:

This is no answer to my question. Jackass yourself.

[Rafael Guthmann]

Now with 6 PHDs this blog is probably the greatest concentration of intelectual capital in the economic blogosphere.

[Steve Horwitz]

Mr. Bathgate is one of Mr. Van den Hauwe's sock puppets, sharing as they do the same IP address. Don't you love it when trolls threaten to leave and then keep coming back?

[Ludwig van den Hauwe]

This is indeed correct. I thought everyone knew already that I am using several names, which can be very useful on the internet. If I had wanted to hide this, I would of course have changed my IP address, which can be done in a second. I am a freely acting individual, so I can assume all the names I want, and I can change my mind as often as I want. I am not "threatening" to leave; I am leaving - not coming back - but I remain available for a while to repond to questions if any, and to provide clarifications if needed. It is only a matter of handling "the current affairs" with some politeness...

[Ludwig van den Hauwe]

Politeness is very important to me BTW.

Ludwig van den Hauwe