Economyth, I am your father…

My previous piece was about a confused behaviorist masquerading as Austrian, Pierre Garello. Today, I would like to let our readers know that our dear economyth actually had a father, one of much greater grandeur: Let me introduce the great Jacques Garello – who I believe deserved to be upgraded to “econosyth”, given his laser-sharp legacy – and as I bet it will become clear at the end.

Jacques Garello passed away one year ago, which was a great loss for the Hayekians, at least in France. Hayekian he was clearly: A few sentences from this summary will be enough to make the point. And “that he is known by many as «The Austrian in France»” is not my statement but comes from a book. Remember that he made most of his academic career more than 10 years after Rothbard’s Man, Economy and State. Book shipping from the USA to France was obviously too slow at the time for him to ever hear about Murray, let alone Hoppe.

Grandeur, part 1. It is key to share how active he was, in the backstage of the political scene. Clearly the sign of a great Austrian, as all will conclude. If we can trust Wikipedia for once, Garello went so far as to be the Election Campaign Director for Alain Madelin, at the time a former Minister of Finances and candidate for becoming the next French President. His party’s name was “Démocratie libérale”: (Classic) Liberal Democracy. Here too, so typically libertarian, right? Sad, Madelin did not reach 4% of the votes.

Grandeur, part 2. Since the 1980s, he had been for more than 30 years the powerful president of the “ALEPS”, a selective club whose name is also significant: “Association pour la liberté économique et le progrès social” – “Association for Economic Freedom and Social Progress”. Yes, I know: Social progress? Sounds a bit progressive, right? And what about simply “Freedom”? Probably as a Hayekian, he was happy with the democratic Constitution of Liberty. I will let aside that he was a member of the Mont Pélerin Society – yes, the one where “they’re all a bunch of communists”.

In such capacity as ALEPS’s president, he reigned all this time on the French «libéral» microcosm, leaving little space for foolish initiatives such as libertarians. Besides, the local milieu is full of juicy stories on how he invested the significant funds given by some major companies in dinners to talk with friends about all their great actions for Liberty.

I realize that the reader may find this poorly supported by evidence. Hopefully, my own experience of dealing with Jacques Garello –with a full room of witnesses – which was hard to forget, should bring enough of that. Thus, in late 2023, I was invited as speaker to a local yet regarded conference. My title was: “Découper la Liberté, c’est la perdre” – “To split Freedom is to lose it”. I have this written in a small series of papers.

In the middle of my speech, J. Garello suddenly stood up and shouted at me. Literally. He was furious that I dared list – see the video – numerous ancient French authors who all were anarchists closer to Rothbard and Hoppe than Bastiat and his beloved Hayek.

Other people calmed him down. I went to the end of my talk. After, during the drinks, he came to me to apologize. But not with a mike, only hidden in the crowd. And he was all confused: He asked me how come Hoppe and his friends never wanted to talk to him…

I know it may sound hard to believe. It was indeed to me at the very moment. It is not anymore when I look around and I see the number of economyths polluting the minds.

Less than 3 years after, in France, we have a real challenge. We need to overcome the Garello legacy. With limited power, I keep hammering them constantly: I try to be the pebble in their shoes. Fortunately, starting with Guido Hülsmann, we have a few strong fellows.