6th International Vernon Smith Prize

Arkadiusz Sieron, Alexander W. Salter, Fürst Hans-Adam II. und Julian F. Müller (v. l.).

The 6th International Vernon Smith Prize took place in Autumn 2013. This years essay competition had the topic: “Public Debt? Cheat the Citizen!”. A public debt is the debt owed by a central government. As governments can only finance their expenditures by printing money or levying taxes, a public debt amounts to the deferral of either of these primary methods of finance. If the debt is payed for by printing money, the end result is inflation. However, running a debt which is financed by taxation always implies that a government is not creating new economic activity but only determining the proportion of economic activity which occurs in the public or private sector.

ECAEF invited papers on this topic. The Winners of the 6th International Vernon Smith Prize were: 1st Prize (EUR 4,000) Alexander W. Salter (United States, George Mason University). 2nd Prize (EUR 3,000) Julian F. Mueller (Germany, Technische Universitaet Muenchen). 3rd Prize (EUR 2,000) Arkadiusz Sieron, (Poland, University of Wroclaw). The ceremony took place on Monday, February 3, 2014 in Vaduz, Liechtenstein

15th Vernon Smith Prize (2022): …if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

14th Vernon Smith Prize (2021): The Pretense of Knowledge as a Method of Governance

13th Vernon Smith Prize (2020): Is the Public Interest really in the public’s interest?

12th Vernon Smith Prize (2019): When the People fear their Government, there is Tyranny. When the Government fears the People, there is Liberty

11th Vernon Smith Prize (2018): Obscured by Fake News: The Politics, Morals, and Limits of Genetic Engineering

10th Vernon Smith Prize (2017): Does Tolerance become a crime when applied to evil?

9th Vernon Smith Prize (2016): Direct Democracy versus Representative Democracy. Cost and Benefits for the Citizenry!

8th Vernon Smith Prize (2015): Edward J. Snowden – Hero or Villian?

7th Vernon Smith Prize (2014): Trusting politicians with our money is like leaving a cat in charge of a cream jug.

6th Vernon Smith Prize (2013): Public Debt? Cheat the Citizen!

5th Vernon Smith Prize (2012): “A Government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” – George Bernhard Shaw

4th Vernon Smith Prize (2011): The Rule of Law in Decline – “It seems clear that a nominally unlimited (sovereign) representative assembly must be progressively driven into a steady and unlimited extension of the powers of government.” – Friedrich A. von Hayek

3rd Vernon Smith Prize (2010): Concurrent Currencies: A Choice in Money to Solve the Crisis?

2nd Vernon Smith Prize (2009): “This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism. It is what capitalism consists in and what every capitalist concern has got to live in.” – Joseph A. Schumpeter

1st Vernon Smith Prize (2008): Nation, State, and Liberty – At the occasion of the 2nd. edition of Ludwig von Mises’ German original “Nation, Staat und Wirtschaft” ECAEF invited papers on this topic.

6th International Vernon Smith Prize

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