{{Short description|Advertising executive, economist (1898–1986)}} '''Lawrence W. Fertig''' (1898–1986) was an American advertising executive and a libertarian journalist and economic commentator.
Fertig wrote a weekly column for the ''New York World-Telegram'' and the ''New York Sun''.<ref name="NYT Obit">"Obituary: Lawrence Fertig". ''New York Times''. 28 October 1986. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE1D7113BF93BA15753C1A960948260]</ref> Fertig also wrote the 1961 Regnery Publishing offering, ''Prosperity Through Freedom''.<ref>{{OCLC|173547|298022968}}</ref>
He was the founder of Lawrence Fertig & Company, a New York City advertising and marketing firm.<ref name="NYT Obit" /> The Hoover Institution maintains an archive of Fertig's papers in Stanford, California.<ref>"Preliminary Inventory to the Lawrence Fertig Papers, 1943–1978". ''Online Archive of California''. [http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf1r29n4vs/]</ref>
His brother was New York City lawyer and New York State Assemblyman M. Maldwin Fertig.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|date=24 July 1972|title=Maldwin Fertig, Legislator, Dies|volume=CXXI|page=30|work=The New York Times|issue=41820|location=New York, N.Y.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/07/24/archives/maldwih-fertig-legislator-dies-had-key-role-in-unification-of.html}}</ref>
==Education== After receiving an undergraduate degree from New York University, Fertig attended Columbia University, where he completed a master's degree in economics.<ref name="NR-Obit">Buckley Jr., William F. "Lawrence Fertig, RIP – obituary". ''National Review''. 21 November 1986. {{cite web|url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_v38/ai_4551527 |title=Lawrence Fertig, RIP | National Review | Find Articles at BNET |accessdate=2007-01-31 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090903053734/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_v38/ai_4551527/ |archivedate=2009-09-03 }}</ref>
==Economic commentary== After attending the 1944 Bretton Woods conference on behalf of the Scripps-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, the ''World Journal Tribune'', in 1967.<ref name="NR-Obit"/>
Fertig was also a member of the American Jewish League Against Communism.<ref name=Krause> {{cite journal | first1 = Allen | last1 = Krause | title = Rabbi Benjamin Schultz and the American Jewish League Against Communism: From McCarthy to Mississippi | journal = Southern Jewish History | publisher = Southern Jewish Historical Society | url = https://www.academia.edu/41725935 | pages = 167 (quote), 208 (fn25 on founding) | date = 2010 | accessdate = 21 March 2020}}</ref>
==Sponsorship of Ludwig von Mises== Fertig, was a member of the NYU board of trustees and was instrumental in supporting his friend Ludwig von Mises when the economist fled Europe to the United States during the rise of the Third Reich.<ref>Rockwell, Jr., Llewellyn H. "Why Austrian Economics Matters". ''Mises.org''. [https://www.mises.org/etexts/why_ae.pdf]</ref> Fertig paid part of Mises' salary himself<ref>North, Gary. "Mises on Money". ''LewRockwell.com''. 21 January 2002 [http://archive.lewrockwell.com/north/north83.html]</ref> when Mises began teaching at Fertig's alma mater. Referring to Mises' visiting professorship at NYU, economist Murray 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 and Hazlitt, exerted considerable influence at the university."<ref>Rothbard, Murray N. ''Ludwig von Mises: Scholar, Creator, Hero''. ''Mises.org''. 1988, 2002. [https://www.mises.org/rothbard/scholarhero.pdf]</ref>
The Mises Institute, founded in 1982 in honor of Ludwig von Mises, credits Fertig as being instrumental in its creation and development.<ref>[https://www.mises.org/content/about.asp "About the Mises Institute". ''Mises.org'']</ref> The institute offers a Lawrence Fertig memorial prize to the author whose work "best advances economic science in the Austrian tradition."<ref>[https://www.mises.org/classroom/awards.asp "Mises Institute Awards". ''Mises.org'']</ref>
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fertig, Lawrence}} Category:1898 births Category:1986 deaths Category:American libertarians Category:Austrian School economists Category:Mises Institute people Category:Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Category:AJLAC members