Nobel Award Winner Calls the Economic Rhetoric of the Second Vermont Republic Advisory Board Member Thomas J. DiLorenzo "Bizarre"

In a scathing column on Thursday, Paul Krugman, New York Times Op-Ed columnist and winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics (2008), as well as recipient of the prestigious American Economic Association, John Bates Clark Medal (1991), and professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, ripped Second Vermont Republic advisory board member, Thomas J. DiLorenzo, a new one while touching upon DiLorenzo's obsession with Lincoln historical revisionism and other myths of the Old South:

"Mr. (Ron) Paul’s (R-TX) subcommittee called three witnesses, one of whom was an odd choice: Thomas DiLorenzo, a professor at Loyola University and a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute."

"What was odd about that choice? Well, Mr. DiLorenzo hasn’t actually written much about monetary policy, although he has described Fed policy — not just recently, but since the 1960s — as “legalized counterfeiting operations.” His main claim to fame, instead, is as a critic of Lincoln — he’s the author of “Lincoln Unmasked: What You’re Not Supposed to Know About Dishonest Abe” — and as a modern-day secessionist."

"No, really: calls for secession run through many of Mr. DiLorenzo’s writings — for example, in his declaration that “healthcare freedom” won’t be restored until “some states begin seceding from the new American fascialistic state.” Raise the rebel flag!"

"O.K., it’s going to be a while before the G.O.P. as a whole embraces neo-secessionism, and Mr. Paul, although highly visible, is, in fact, a somewhat marginal figure even within his own party. But Mr. (Paul) Ryan (R-WI), who led the other hearing — the one at which Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, testified — is a rising Republican star. So it’s worth noting that Mr. Ryan’s hard-money rhetoric was nearly as bizarre as Mr. DiLorenzo’s." (The entire NY Times column may be read here)

Dilorenzo, you may recall, is the Lincoln historical revisionist lauded by "Vermont Commons" publisher, Rob Williams and VTCommons' white supremacist contributor, Robert S. Griffin (See here).

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Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) Invites Second Vermont Republic Advisory Board Member to Congress

Rep. Ron Paul invited Thomas DiLorenzo, a well known Lincoln historical revisionist whackjob, to the first meeting of the House Financial Services Committee's Domestic Monetary Policy and Trade subcommittee and the shit hit the congressional fan:

"At one point, when Paul opened up the hearing to questions from committee members, Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) directly took on DiLorenzo for his membership in the League of the South, an organization that has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a "neo-Confederate" hate group advocating for Southern secession."

"Clay then rattled off a list of some of DiLorenzo's articles, including "More Lies about the Civil War," "In Defense of Sedition," and "The First Dictator-President," which examines "how Lincoln's myth has corrupted America."

"'After reviewing your work and the so-called methods you employ, I still cannot understand you being invited to testify today on the unemployment crisis, but I do know that I have no questions for you,' Clay concluded."

The Washington Post

DiLorenzo is a longtime member of the Second Vermont Republic Advisory Board.

Little surprise then that his work has also been lauded by "Vermont Commons" publisher Rob Williams and VTCommons white supremacist contributor, Robert S. Griffin (See here).

Even less of a surprise is Rep. Paul's own bigoted history documented in The New Republic's piece, Angry White Man, here.

Update 2.11.11, 1:00 PM: DiLorenzo apparently had a hissy fit over what Rep. Clay (D-MO) had to say and, not unlike what I've experienced with Vermont's own seceshers, struck back with what some might call a flat out lie.

He said in his statement that Clay had “lied about my non-existent working relationship with the League of the South” and implied that he'd had no association with the League of the South for the past 13 years. Turns out he was an invited scholar neo-Confederate flack at an August 2009 conference sponsored by the League of the South Summer Institute.

Hopefully, SVR Advisory Board DiLorenzo will drop me a note to clear this, ah, discrepancy up.

(h/t: Southern Poverty Law Center)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *For the archive of the Free Vermont Framework listserv, click here.