November 1, 2011 12:06PM 

# My Favorite Bill Niskanen Moment 

By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) 

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Bill Niskanen did most of his thinking and analysis on paper, in his many [books and articles](http://www.amazon.com/William-A.-Niskanen/e/B001HMST3K). He didn’t seek out television appearances, though he certainly [made a few](https://www.cato.org/people/pub_list.php?auth_id=24&pub_list=8) during his years with Cato. But one television appearance stands out in my mind, when he debated Rep. Richard Gephardt on PBS’s *NewsHour* about Gephardt’s bill that would have required economic retaliation against countries that have huge trade surpluses with the United States. Alas, I can’t find the exact date for this pre-Internet appearance — possibly 1988, when Gephardt ran for president and made protectionism a big part of his campaign — and I have only a clip of one of Bill’s answers. But it confirms the “Blunt Libertarian Economist” headline that the *New York Times* used on its [obituary](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/business/william-a-niskanen-a-blunt-libertarian-economist-dies-at-78.html):

Video ID 

[6134891229001](https://studio.brightcove.com/products/videocloud/media/videos/6134891229001) 

##### Related Tags 

[Trade Policy](https://www.cato.org/trade-policy), [Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies](https://www.cato.org/herbert-stiefel-center-trade-policy-studies) 

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