Witch-Hunting for Robber Barons: The Standard Oil Story

On Jan. 20, 2006, the Show-Me Institute sponsored this presentation by Lawrence Reed, then the president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, presently the president of the Foundation for Economic Education. Reed explains the many flaws with the prevailing theory that Standard Oil was a monopoly or that the company’s founder and president, John Rockefeller, was exploitative — or, indeed, anything other than a shrewd and successful businessman serving his customers well. Ethelmae Humphreys, at the time a member of the Show-Me Institute’s board of directors, introduced the speech.