William H. Peterson
William Herbert Peterson was an American economist who wrote on the insights of Ludwig von Mises through teaching, writing, and speaking on the relationship between free enterprise and human liberty.
Education
Peterson earned a B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from New York University and an M.S. degree from Columbia University. During World War II, he also studied at the Harvard Business School under Navy sponsorship and attended a summer leave seminar at Oxford University.During his academic career, Peterson served as assistant to the dean, associate professor, and professor of economics in the Graduate School of Business Administration at New York University, where he was a colleague and friend of Ludwig von Mises, John David Campbell, professor of American business in the American Graduate School of International Management in Arizona, Scott L. Probasco. Jr., professor of free enterprise and director, Center for Economic Education, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; Distinguished Burrows T. and Mabel L. Lundy Emeritus Professor of Business Philosophy at Campbell University in North Carolina, and a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation, where he served as adjunct scholar.
Career
His experience in business and government included service as Economist and Assistant to the Chairman of the Finance Committee of the United States Steel Corporation, Senior Economic Advisor to the United States Department of Commerce, and economics speechwriter on the campaign staff of Richard Nixon. Peterson has served as a consultant for General Electric, General Motors, Republic of the Ivory Coast, Republic of South Vietnam, Time Magazine, Union Carbide, Manufacturers-Hanover Trust, and Southern Company, and other companies.In January 1979, Peterson was appointed to be a member of the Federal Drafting Committee of the National Tax Limitation Committee. Led by Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman, this committee composed a draft of a constitutional amendment to limit the growth of the Federal budget.
In 1982, Peterson was sponsored by the U.S. Information Agency to lecture on supply-side economics in Romania, East Germany, Ireland and Canada. For this effort, he won a letter of commendation from President Ronald Reagan.
In 1961, the McKinsey Foundation awarded first prize to Peterson for the best article of the year, "The Case for a North American Common Market," published in Indiana University's Business Horizons. In 1981, the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge gave Dr. Peterson the Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education. In 1989, the Association of Private Enterprise Education named Dr. Peterson as Distinguished Scholar. In 1990, the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge awarded him the George Washington Medal of Honor. In 1991 he was awarded an honorary degree by Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala. In 1993, Campbell University conferred on him the Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching.
In 2005, Peterson was awarded the Gary G. Schlarbaum Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Cause of Human Liberty, awarded by the Ludwig von Mises Institute where he was an adjunct scholar.
Writings and speeches
Peterson published articles in the Harvard Business Review, The Freeman, The Free Market, Washington Times, Monthly Labor Review, The Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, Dun's Review, Business Week, Journal of Business, Journal of Economic Literature,'' Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Die 24t, Farmand, Australian, Sunday Times, and others. He wrote daily articles on Mises.org, and is the author of two tributes to Ludwig von Mises: "Thoughts and Memories" and "Mises: A Turning Point".For fourteen years, he wrote a regular column for the Wall Street Journal entitled "Reading for Business." Apart from authoring monographs and books including The Great Farm Problem, he contributed entries to McGraw-Hill's Encyclopedia of Economics. He has appeared as a guest commentator on the national PBS-TV show, Nightly Business Report. He was a member of the "Brain Trust" contributing a column to the Investor's Business Daily.
Peterson generally wrote about economics, education, and politics. He praised capitalism quite often and stressed its necessity for a thriving society, such as in his The Washington Times article "Capitalism Appraised". Peterson also voiced his concern for present-day education standards in writings such as his article in The Free Market'' titled, where he states that "America's worry over a general moral erosion in politics and society has coincided with ever-more draconian federal control over education." Many of his writings overlapped in his topics of interest, mixing education with government and relating government to economics and capitalism.
Peterson lectured at the University of the Americas, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Arizona, University of Connecticut, University of Virginia, Florida State University, Chattanooga State, Northwood Institute, Emory and Henry College, Peace College, Lenoir-Rhyne College, Wellesley College, University of New Hampshire, and others, including various professional and trade associations. Many of his speeches discussed topics regarding the Austrian school of economics, following the ideas of Mises.
List of works
Business
Is Business "Administration?," 1981Getting Results with Information, May 28, 1992: ''THe Washington Times''Economics
Who Also Pays Business Taxes?, Heritage Foundation and the Mises InstituteThe Bookshelf: How to Curb Competition WHile Trying to Spur It, March 1, 1936: The Wall Street Journal, September 14, 1959: British Society for Individual Freedom: Freedom FirstPeterson's 'Law': An economist's foray into the nature of money and the declining value thereof, November 1959: Challenge: The Magazine of Economic Affairs, vol. 8, no. 2Automation and Unemployment – An Oft-Exploded Myth Revives, March 5, 1962: Barron'sThe Other Revolution of '76, Fall 1973: Modern AgeWho is the Real Employer? – The True Source of Jobs, 1976: Chamber of Commerce of the United StatesIn Defense of Millionaires, February 1981: The FreemanDefending the Rich, October 16, 1986: The Chattanooga Times, 1988: Mises InstituteTake a Hard Look At Transfers, Spring 1990: The Campbell Entrepreneur, vol. 13, no. 1The Business Outlook: Short War – Short Recession, February 13, 1991: Anchor Financial Group Meeting – Raleigh, NCAmerica's Second Democracy, April 4, 1991: Campbell University Honors BanquetBulging Budget Transfers, June 29, 1992: The Washington Times, May 1998: The Free Market, vol. 16, no. 5Free Markets: The Status Quo vs. America's Other Democracy, January 23, 1999: CaptiveAire meeting – Tulsa, OKFree Trade and Capitalism: America's Other Democracy, April 1, 1999: Vital Speeches of the Day, vol. 65, no. 12, August 2, 1999: Investor's Business DailyThe Golden Rule and the Free Market, c. 2000Economic Freedom Spreads Globally As Adam Smith's lessons Take Hold, April 10, 2000: Investor's Business DailyCapitalism Appraised: A new look at mankind's greatest achievement, July 3, 2001: The Washington TimesWHP Remarks, Capital Research Center, April 9, 2002: The Free Market, vol. 20, no. 9, September 2002: The Free Market, vol. 20, no. 9When Government Is the Problem, January 26, 2003: The Washington Times, July 29, 2003The Meaning of Market Democracy, December 2003: The Free Market, vol. 21, no. 12A Self-Defeating System: The problem with welfare, December 9, 2003: The Washington TimesSeven Principles of Sound Public Policy, March 2004: Economic Club of Detroit, April 1, 2004Free to Prosper: Ranking countries' liberty and growth, August 31, 2004: The Washington Times, November 2005: The Free Market, vol. 26, no. 11, August 28, 2006: Shaftesbury Conference , November 20, 2006, March 29, 2007, August 28, 2007, April 3, 2008, August 5, 2008, June 24, 2009: The Washington Times, December 8, 2011: On Freedom and Free Enterprise: Essays in Honor of Ludwig von Mises Capitalism: Our Greatest Charity and DemocracyForward with Uneconomics?Peterson's Law: Featuring America's Other Democracy and the Forgotten ManPeterson's Law: Or Why Things Go WrongPostal Status Quo or Ayn Rand Millenium?- ''Who Really Pays Business Taxes?''
Education
, April 1997: The Free Market, vol. 15, no. 4Public Education's Cardinal Sin, April 22, 2003: Campbell UniversityLeave No Child Behind: Capitalism reform in education, January 27, 2004: ''The Washington Times''Entrepreneurship
, November 1985: ''The Freeman''Morals
, February 26, 2004, April 14, 2009Politics
, August 11, 1956: Time & TideShould We Trade With the Communists?, April 1956: Harvard Business Review, vol. 37, no. 2The Taproots of Political Corruption, December 1990: The FreemanA Dictionary of Conservative and Libertarian Thought, May 1992: The FreemanImperial Rights Regimen, July 16, 1992: The Washington TimesStoning Nixon, May 1996Rational Ignorance or Citizenship Education, November 6, 1997: Dallas Fed LunchRemarks to Marriott Ballston Residents, June 14, 2001The Forgotten Man: How Americans Fare in Their Two Democracies, June 22, 2002: A Strategy for High Schoolers—Young America's Foundation, Arlington, VAFreedom and Prosperity: Together, they are the coming thing, December 17, 2002: The Washington TimesHuffington turned by the tide: Author takes selective swipes at America's greedy, February 26, 2003: The Washington TimesStrange bedfellows: The liaison between politics and science, November 4, 2003: The Washington TimesConstitutional Rights?: Preserving the Founders' Intent, April 20, 2004: The Washington Times, November 5, 2004, November 10, 2004Back to basics: America's democratic origins, December 27, 2004: The Washington Times, August 24, 2006Legacy Lost: GOP's big government, February 27, 2007: The Washington Times- ''More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well ''