Lawrence W. Fertig (1898–1986) was an American advertising executive and alibertarian journalist and economic commentator.
Fertig wrote a weekly column for theNew York World-Telegram and theNew York Sun.[1] Fertig also wrote the 1961Regnery Publishing offering,Prosperity Through Freedom.[2]
He was the founder of Lawrence Fertig & Company, aNew York City advertising and marketing firm.[1] TheHoover Institution maintains an archive of Fertig's papers inStanford, California.[3]
His brother was New York City lawyer and New York State AssemblymanM. Maldwin Fertig.[4]
After receiving an undergraduate degree fromNew York University, Fertig attendedColumbia University, where he completed a master's degree in economics.[5]
After attending the 1944Bretton Woods conference on behalf of theScripps-Howard newspapers, Fertig wrote a weekly syndicated column on financial and political matters and continued to do so until the closure of their New York daily, theWorld Journal Tribune, in 1967.[5]
Fertig was also a member of theAmerican Jewish League Against Communism.[6]
Fertig, was a member of the NYU board of trustees and was instrumental in supporting his friendLudwig von Mises when the economist fled Europe to the United States during the rise of theThird Reich.[7] Fertig paid part of Mises' salary himself[8] when Mises began teaching at Fertig's alma mater. Referring to Mises' visiting professorship at NYU, economistMurray Rothbard said: "NYU's support for Mises was grudging, and only came about because advertising executive and NYU alumnus Lawrence Fertig, an economic journalist and close friend of Mises andHazlitt, exerted considerable influence at the university."[9]
TheMises Institute, founded in 1982 in honor of Ludwig von Mises, credits Fertig as being instrumental in its creation and development.[10] The institute offers a Lawrence Fertig memorial prize to the author whose work "best advances economic science in the Austrian tradition."[11]
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