Another Nobel for Freedom

The Mont Pelerin Society’s 1986 meeting was held in a most gorgeous Alpine setting at St. Vincent, Italy, just down the road from the Italian side of Mont Blanc. From this high point the society, which was founded in a similar mountain retreat in Switzerland in 1947, proceeded to survey not only the world but its own past.

There was one session devoted to R. M. Hartwell’s preliminary report on the history of the society. Other sessions discussed the legacies of various Mont Pelerians of importance—Bruno Leoni, who held the society together when F. A. Hayek, the founder, stepped aside as active president; Luigi Einaudi, who became president of Italy; and Wilhelm Röpke, who helped persuade another member, West German economics minister Ludwig Erhard, to abolish price controls, and so brought about the famous German miracle. It was a total bath in nostalgia.

The Mont Pelerin Society’s 1986 meeting was held in a most gorgeous Alpine setting at St. Vincent, Italy, just down the road from the Italian side of Mont Blanc. From this high point the society, which was founded in a similar mountain retreat in Switzerland in 1947, proceeded to survey not only the world but its own past.

There was one session devoted to R. M. Hartwell’s preliminary report on the history of the society. Other sessions discussed the legacies of various Mont Pelerians of importance—Bruno Leoni, who held the society together when F. A. Hayek, the founder, stepped aside as active president; Luigi Einaudi, who became president of Italy; and Wilhelm Röpke, who helped persuade another member, West German economics minister Ludwig Erhard, to abolish price controls, and so brought about the famous German miracle. It was a total bath in nostalgia.