- Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest Paul (born August 20, 1935) is a 10th-term Congressman from Lake Jackson, Texas, a member of the Republican Party, a physician, and a candidate for the 2008 presidential election. He has represented Texas's 14th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1997 and represented Texas's 22nd district in 1976 and from 1979 to 1985. He earned the nickname "Dr.
- Bob Barr
Bob Barr represented the 7th District of Georgia in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003, serving as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, as Vice-Chairman of the Government Reform Committee, and as a member of the Committee on Financial Services. Bob Barr occupies the 21st Century Liberties Chair for Freedom and Privacy at the American Conservative Union, and serves as a Board Member of the National Rifle Association.
- Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was a notable economist and a major influence on the modern libertarian movement. He has been called the "uncontested dean of the Austrian School of economics". The Ludwig von Mises Institute is named after him.
- Virginia Postrel
Virginia I. Postrel (born 14 January 1960) is an American political and cultural writer of broadly libertarian, or classical liberal, views. She is best known for her two non-fiction books, "The Future and Its Enemies" and "The Substance of Style". In the former she explains her philosophy, "dynamism," a forward-looking and change-seeking philosophy which generally favors unregulated organization through "spontaneous order".
- Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman (July 31 1912 - November 16 2006) was an American Nobel Laureate economist and public intellectual. An advocate of laissez-faire capitalism, Friedman made major contributions to the fields of macroeconomics, microeconomics, economic history and statistics. In 1976, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, …
- Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard was a highly influential American economist, historian and natural law theorist belonging to the Austrian School of Economics who helped define modern libertarianism. Rothbard took the Austrian School's emphasis on spontaneous order and condemnation of central planning to an individualist anarchist conclusion, which he termed "anarcho-capitalism." He was son of David and Rae Rothbard.
- Jeffrey Tucker
Jeffrey Albert Tucker is the editorial vice president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a libertarian think tank that espouses the Austrian School of economics. He is the current webmaster for Mises.org. He has also compiled an annotated bibliography of the works of Henry Hazlitt, entitled "Henry Hazlitt: Giant For Liberty", which is now in print. He is a Roman Catholic. Tucker is known both for his scholarly efforts and humorous contributions to LewRockwell.com, …
- Duncan Hunter
Duncan Lee Hunter (born May 31, 1948) is an American politician who has been a Republican member of the House of Representatives since 1981 from California's 52nd congressional district in northern and eastern San Diego. It was previously numbered the 42nd District from 1981 to 1983 and then the 45th District from 1983 to 1993. Hunter was the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee during the 109th Congress.
- Lew Rockwell
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. (born 14 October 1944, Boston), more commonly known as Lew Rockwell, is an American libertarian political commentator. Rockwell is the founder and President of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, Vice President of the Center for Libertarian Studies in Burlingame, California, and publisher of the political weblog LewRockwell.com.
- Megan McArdle
While working at Ground Zero, she started Live from the WTC, a blog focused on economics, business, and cooking. She may or may not have been the first major economics blogger, depending on whether we are allowed to throw outlying variables such as Brad Delong out of the set. From there it was but a few steps down the slippery slope to freelance journalism.
- Dave Kopel
Dave Kopel is an American author, attorney, political science researcher and contributing editor to several publications. He is currently Research Director of the Independence Institute, Associate Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute, contributor to the National Review magazine and Volokh Conspiracy legal blog. Previously he was Adjunct Professor of Law, New York University, on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Union of Taxpayers, …
- Neal Boortz
Neal Boortz (born April 6, 1945), is a U.S. talk radio host. His radio show is based in Atlanta, Georgia and is nationally syndicated by Cox Radio and the Jones Radio Networks. Boortz is also a lawyer and best-selling author. He considers himself to be a libertarian, and supports eliminating the war on drugs, lowering taxes, and shrinking the size of government, while disagreeing with the Libertarian Party platform by firmly supporting incremental tax reform, …
- Radley Balko
Previously, Balko was a policy analyst for the Cato Institute specializing in civil liberties issues, where he published a paper on alcohol policy and a groundbreaking study on paramilitary police raids. He is a columnist for FoxNews.com and has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Time , The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times , Slate , Forbes , ESPN, the National Post , Worth and numerous other publications.
- Tammy Bruce
Tammy Bruce (born August 19, 1962) is a pro-choice lesbian feminist who hosts "The Tammy Bruce Show," a radio talk show broadcast on over 160 stations in the United States. Bruce describes herself as a classical liberal author and political commentator. "The Tammy Bruce Show" broadcasts three hours a day six days a week, including Saturdays. She is also a political contributor to Fox News Channel. She is described on her website as "an openly homosexual, …
- Colby Cosh
Colby Cosh (born May 2, 1971 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian commentator, writer and editor of non-fiction, and blogger. Cosh grew up in Bon Accord, Alberta, north of Edmonton, and graduated from the University of Alberta in 1993, doing further study in European intellectual history under libertarian scholar Ronald Hamowy. Cosh generally writes political, social and sports commentary for his blog, and professionally for the conservative press.
- Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell was born in North Carolina and grew up in Harlem. As with many others in his neighborhood, he left home early and did not finish high school. The next few years were difficult ones, but eventually he joined the Marine Corps and became a photographer in the Korean War. After leaving the service, Sowell entered Harvard University, worked a part-time job as a photographer and studied the science that would become his passion and profession: economics.
- Stephan Kinsella
Norman (N.) Stephan Kinsella (born 1965) is an American intellectual property lawyer and libertarian legal theorist. His electronically-published works are primarily published on his blog and websites associated with the Ludwig von Mises Institute and anarcho-capitalist organizations. Born in Prairieville, Louisiana, he attended Louisiana State University where he earned Master of Science (MS) and Bachelor of Science (BS) degrees in electrical engineering, …
- Dave Barry
David Barry, Jr. (born July 3, 1947) is a bestselling American author and Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist who wrote a nationally syndicated column for the "The Miami Herald" from 1983 to 2005.
- Wendy McElroy
Wendy McElroy (born 1951) is a Canadian individualist anarchist, anarcho-capitalist, and individualist feminist. Among feminists, she distinguishes herself as being sex-positive: defending the availability of pornography and condemning anti-pornography feminism campaigns. She has also voiced criticism of sexual harassment policies, particularly the zero-tolerance policies common to grade schools, …
- Harry Browne
Harry Browne was an American libertarian writer, politician, and free-market investment analyst. He was a U.S. Presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party in 1996 and 2000.
- Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–87) and the Republican Party's nominee for president in the 1964 election. He is the American politician most often credited for sparking the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. Goldwater rejected the legacy of the New Deal and fought inside the Conservative coalition to defeat the New Deal coalition.
- Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is a nine-time Emmy-winning American comedian, satirist, actor, writer, author, and producer. He is perhaps best known as the host of Comedy Central’s "The Daily Show" and for his political satire. Stewart started off as a stand-up comedian but later moved on to television, hosting "Short Attention Span Theater" for Comedy Central. He then went on to host his own show on MTV, called "The Jon Stewart Show".
- Michael Badnarik
Michael J. Badnarik (born August 1, 1954) is an American software engineer, political figure, and radio talk show host. He was the Libertarian Party nominee for President of the United States in the 2004 elections, and placed fourth in the race, slightly behind independent candidate Ralph Nader. He was recently a Libertarian candidate in the 2006 Congressional elections in Texas for the 10th district seat near Austin. He finished in third place with 4.3% of the vote.
- Mark Thornton
Mark Thornton is Senior Fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He serves as the Book Review Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics and as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Libertarian Studies . He has served as the editor of the Austrian Economics Newsletter and as a member of the graduate faculties of Auburn University and Columbus State University. He has also taught economics at Auburn University at Montgomery and Trinity University in Texas.
- Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura (born James George Janos on July 15, 1951), also known as "The Body", "The Star", "The Mind", and "Governor Body", is an American politician, former professional wrestler, Navy UDT veteran, actor, and former radio and television talk show host.
- Tyler Cowen
Tyler Cowen and Benjamin Barber present two different perspectives on the role of market liberalization and cultural diversity and representation. Tyler Cowen advocates working within a liberal market paradigm, using UNESCO as a 'marketing tool' for cultural representation and has a positive trade-enhancing vision towards culture.
- Walter Block
Walter Block (born 1941) is a leading free market economist and anarcho-capitalist associated with the Austrian School.
- Bill Maher
William Maher, Jr., (pronounced:) (born January 20 1956) is an American comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He hosted the late-night television talk show "Politically Incorrect" on Comedy Central and ABC, and is currently the star of "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO. On June 1, 2006, he also began hosting an internet-exclusive talk show on Amazon.com entitled "Amazon Fishbowl". Maher is known for his political satire and sociopolitical commentary.
- John Stossel
John F. Stossel (born 6 March 1947) is a consumer reporter, author and co-anchor for the ABC News show "20/20". His reports, a blend of commentary and reporting, reflect his libertarian political philosophy, his views on economics (largely consistent with those of the Chicago school), and his skepticism of conventional wisdom. In his decades as a reporter, Stossel has garnered 19 Emmy Awards and numerous other honors for his reports, …
- Mary Ruwart
Dr. Ruwart has proposed meaningful reforms within the FDA. For those depending on scientific breakthroughs to stay alive, it is critical for the next Commissioner to have the vision to tear down the FDA�s barriers against medical innovation. Dr. Ruwart has emerged as the most viable candidate to implement these life-saving changes.
- Will Wilkinson
Will Wilkinson (born 1973) is an American libertarian writer and thinker. Currently he is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute where he works on a variety of issues including Social Security reform and, most notably, the policy implications of happiness research. Wilkinson is also the managing editor of the Cato Institute's monthly web magazine, Cato Unbound.
- Tibor R. Machan
Tibor Richard Machan, Ph.D. (born 18 March 1939), professor emeritus in the department of philosophy at Auburn University, holds the R. C. Hoiles Chair of Business Ethics and Free Enterprise at the Argyros School of Business & Economics at Chapman University in Orange, California. He is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the Pacific Research Foundation in San Francisco.
- Claire Wolfe
Claire Wolfe is a survivalist-libertarian author and columnist. Some of her favored topics are gulching or homesteading, firearms, open source technology, and homeschooling. Her books include such titles as "179 Things to Do 'Til the Revolution" and "I Am Not a Number!". She also writes for a number of magazines, notably Backwoods Home Magazine and SWAT. A common subject in these articles is the fictional town of Hardyville, …
- Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Hans-Hermann Hoppe is Professor of Economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Senior Fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and editor of the Journal of Libertarian Studies . His most recent book is Democracy: The God That Failed , and he is editor of The Myth of National Defense . His personal website is www.HansHoppe.com .
- Roderick T. Long
Roderick T. Long (b. February 4, 1964) is a professor of philosophy at Auburn University and a libertarian political commentator. He received a B.A. in philosophy from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from Cornell University. Long currently edits the "Journal of Libertarian Studies" and is a Senior Scholar at the Austrian School Ludwig von Mises Institute, also located at Auburn. He is the founder and president of the Molinari Institute, a small think-tank, …
- Justin Raimondo
Justin Raimondo (born Dennis Raimondo on November 18, 1951) is a libertarian/paleoconservative author and the editorial director of the website Antiwar.com. Raised a Roman Catholic, Raimondo is "not a believer."
- Cathy Young
Cathy Young (Ekaterina Jung) (b. 1963 Soviet Union) is a journalist and writer. She writes columns for "Reason" (monthly) and "The Boston Globe" (weekly), and is the author of many books and articles. Her writing commonly espouses equality feminism.
- L. Neil Smith
L. Neil Smith (full name Lester Neil Smith III, also known by his nickname El Neil or The Sage of the High Plains) is a libertarian science fiction author and political activist. He was born on May 12 1946 in Denver. His works include the novels "Pallas", "The Forge of the Elders", and "The Probability Broach", …
- P. J. O'Rourke
Patrick Jake O'Rourke (born November 14, 1947 in Toledo, Ohio) is an American political satirist, journalist, and writer. He was educated at Miami University and Johns Hopkins University. He confesses that during his student days he was a left-leaning hippie, but that in the 1970s his political views underwent a complete "volte-face". He emerged as a political observer and humorist with definite libertarian, sometimes conservative, …
- Jesse Walker
Jesse Walker (born September 4, 1970) is managing editor of "Reason Magazine". The University of Michigan alumnus has also written the book "Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America" (NYU Press, 2001) and maintains a blog called "The Perpetual Three-Dot Column". His articles have appeared in a number of publications, including "The New York Times", "The Wall Street Journal", "The Washington Post", Salon, …