Preface

When Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockwell decided to found The Rothbard–Rockwell Report in 1990, they first had to decide what form the newsletter would take. Would subscribers, knowing that Murray was an economist, expect economic forecasts and tips? As an Austrian economist, Murray knew that economic forecasting is a mug’s game, and he was not even a lucky investor himself. For instance:

When the Soviets defeated the Czarist government in 1918, they repudiated the Czarist bonds, which fell to pennies on the dollar. However, Czarist bonds remained on the Over-the-Counter exchange (now the Nasdaq), and fluctuated with the political climate. When events between the Soviets and the West were more cordial, the bonds rose in value, on the slim possibility that they someday might be redeemed as a gesture of goodwill. When the Cold War became more frosty, the value of the bonds dipped. Sometime in the 1960s, Murray bought Czarist bonds. Within days of his purchase, the bonds, which had been on the same exchange for more than 40 years, were delisted. You can imagine what happened to the price, then.

And so the Triple R became the newsletter it is—of trenchant opinions on politics and politicians, on economics and history, on foreign policy and government, and on religion and culture. With two such superb and prolific writers as Lew and Murray, and with Burt Blumert, as Publisher, keeping his eye on finances and advertising, the Triple R could not fail.

Writing for the Triple R was an important and pleasurable part of Murray’s life for the last four years. Although he also enjoyed the scholarly work that he did, writing for the Triple R was the most fun he could think of. For he had firm opinions on almost every topic and wrote with ease.

Lew writes of the joy of coming to the office and finding Murray’s output of the night on his fax machine. The same went for Murray, who was going to bed about the time that Lew reached the office, and could expect many goodies to be faxed to him by the time he awoke.

Occasionally, Lew, who did the really hard work of putting the newsletter together, would call and say he needed one more short article to finish an issue, and Murray would happily sit down at his typewriter and skewer another politician.

—JoAnn Rothbard^†